Freya's Freedom (The Tower and the Eye Book 3) by Kira Morgana Read Free Book Online

running?”
    He started to draw rein, his face angry, but as the charger slowed, an ear-shattering roar from behind him set the horse running again.
    Freya glanced back.
    “Dragon!” she shouted to Vrenstalliren. “Come on.”
    As they drew level with Kraarz, Lin leaned down and scooped him up onto the mare, and then all of them clung to their mounts as they ran for the woods.
    Korettln began to veer north. “The trees are closer there.”
    A fireball shot past Freya and impacted to her right, setting the grass aflame, scaring Ohtár and the mare.
    Korettln let out a strange sound; half neigh, half scream. “That should have hit us. Dragons rarely miss their targets.” He shifted his path to avoid the flames and sped up, still heading north.
    Another fireball hit the ground just ahead of them and the whumph as the flames spread made Freya shriek. Korettln turned left rapidly, his hooves carving chunks of sod from the ground.
    “There’s something odd about this attack,” Lin called over as the white mare drew closer. “Dragons don’t normally miss, especially from this close. It’s like we’re being herded.”
    Vrenstalliren shook his head.
    “How many dragons have you fought, Elysian? We have to get to the trees and the closest ones are to the north.” He turned Ohtár’s head north and clapped his heels to the stallion’s flanks. Ohtár charged, gathered himself and leapt over the flames.
    “Fool.” Kraarz snorted. “This delicate mare would never make that jump.”
    Freya agreed and they continued heading North West.
    The dragon veered north and after a short while, they slipped into the trees, the horses’ hooves crunching on the fallen leaves.
    “I do believe the monster has followed Sir Vrenstalliren,” Kraarz said, dropping down from the back of the white mare and walking alongside.
    “We’re not far from the road here,” Lin said after a few moments of consulting her map.
    “We’ll carry on into Jinra then. I’m sure Vrenstalliren can look after himself,” Freya said. I know I didn’t ask him to be my protector, but I hope he can get away from the dragon. She looked back into the woods as they rode away.
    * * *
    “I swear that pot hole was three feet deep,” Kraarz complained, pulling at his soaked clothing. Red mud streaks turned his already strange face into something out of a Valdierian epic.
    “This isn’t a well-travelled road,” Freya shrugged. “I doubt the locals even try and keep it maintained.”
    “I can see that,” the Urakh grumbled.
    The trees lining the sides of the road gave way onto a large clearing in the Northern Woods. In front of them a palisade rose, smooth sharpened logs stabbing up at the overcast sky.
    “The gate’s closed.” Lin frowned. “This is a village isn’t it?”
    “According to my brother’s note. He said he’d meet me here, at the Cuddly Cub Inn.”
    Lin looked up at the palisade and the gate.
    “Well they’ve been busy, fairly recently I’d say; these fortifications are new.”
    “Ho, the Village!” Kraarz called out. “Three travellers require a hostelry to clean up and rest while we await the rest of our party.”
    A hatch opened to one side of the gate and a guard peered out.
    “You ain’t got no monsters wid ya have…” there was a gasp and the hatch slid shut again.
    Freya sighed and moved up to where the hatch had appeared. Dismounting, she knocked on it.
    The hatch slid aside a little and an eye appeared in the gap.
    “We ain’t lettin’ ya in. Not wid that…thing.”
    Freya slipped her hand into the gap and stopped the guard from closing it again.
    “He’s not a thing. He’s my Doctor and Lin is my Trainer. I vouch for them both.” She heard whispers coming from the other side as the guard looked away. “Please let us in. We need to rest and eat.”
    “Who are you?”
    Freya smiled.
    “I am Freya of Jira, Head Dancer from the Hall of The Black Swan.”
    Another gasp. More whispers, only this time, they ended