Rise of the Fire Tamer (The Wordwick Games #1) by Kailin Gow Read Free Book Online Page A

shifting cloth to match the shifting truth, he was at least as strange as the visitor to his hall.
    “They call you Kat?” Sebold asked.
    “Yeah.” The young woman looked bored, glancing round his hall like she had seen it all before. Sebold doubted it. After all, how many outlanders spent their time in long wood and stone houses with low turf roofs? How many had axes and armor between the places at the table, so that they could be grabbed quickly? Sebold gestured to it.
    “You don’t like my home?”
    Kat shrugged.
    “I was just expecting something… grander.”
    Sebold kept his temper. Just.
    “Like the castle? This is a pragmatic choice. The village has walls, so I have no need of more of them. In any case, remember that the Perfidious have done us much harm. If our prosperity, our wealth, is not up to producing castles, blame them for it.”
    “Well maybe I can do something about that.” The girl sounded confident about it. Sebold supposed that she was allowed to be.
    “You want to join us?”
    “The way I see it, the only way I have of winning this thing is if I don’t work with the others. They might all want to collaborate, but I’m not here for teamwork. I’m here to win. It’s not like any of them care about me.”
    Sebold nodded, hiding his smile. He could see what would be needed to manipulate the girl even now. A little sympathy and compassion, a little forbearance, putting up with her self-centered moments, and she would quickly help the tribe. With the help of an outlander as well as the ogres, the Perfidious tribe would soon capitulate. Sebold would enjoy their surrender. And if it didn’t work out, there were other options. He signaled to one of his servants.
    “Take Kat and help her to settle in. She is to have anything she needs. Anything at all. She’s going to win this war for us.”
     
     
    The track through the Wickedly Woods wound on, and Gem trudged along it. She wasn’t the only one. Rio, Sparks and Jack were all close, as was Goolrick. His men had spread out around them in a line along the track. Of course, none of them were wearing dresses whose hems were getting heavy with mud. Maybe she should have listened to Kat after all. Just the thought that Kat would have been happily saying “I told you so” sent a cold stab of pain through Gem. She looked for something to distract herself from it.
    Jack, walking alongside, seemed lost in thought.
    “What are you thinking about?” Gem asked, hoping that it would take her mind off things. Jack looked up, obviously startled.
    “I-I…”
    “Jack,” Gem smiled at him as she spoke. “It’s ok. You don’t have to be so nervous around me.”
    “C-can’t really help it.” Jack shut his eyes, taking a deep breath. “I was thinking…” he shot a look at Goolrick where the wizard walked on ahead, ‘should we really be trusting the Perfidious tribe? I mean, doesn’t that mean disloyal?”
    “Yes,” Gem agreed, “but since Spurious means false or untrue, it’s not really an improvement, is it? Anyway, they saved us from the ogres.”
    “I suppose so.”
    They walked on in silence for a little while after that. Finally, coming to another clearing, Goolrick called a halt. His men started setting up tents. While they were doing so, Sparks came over to Gem and Jack.
    “I haven’t seen this much mud since the last time we were scrimmaging,” he said.
    “You like football a lot, back home?” Gem asked.
    “A bit. I used to love it. I just wish there weren’t so much pressure sometimes. In theory, I’m supposed to be working hard, because everyone says I could get a scholarship out of it. I suppose it’s just not as much fun when you’ve got to do it. Most of the time, I’d rather work with machines. They make sense. What about you, Gem? You haven’t said much about yourself since you arrived at Henry Word’s castle.”
    “I’m not sure that there’s much to tell,” Gem said, cautiously. “Anyway, I was a bit…