Sennar's Mission by Licia Troisi Read Free Book Online Page B

of three hundred men to the attack. As Nihal was making ready for her return, the base commander warned her to keep up her guard. “We have notice of troops moving along the border. Stay alert.”
    Nihal paid him little heed. Up until then, it had been too dull of a trip for her tastes.

    While returning along the same road she’d come by, Nihal followed Parsel’s directions and turned north. The change of course left her slogging a good ways through the Inner Forest. She’d always loved the woods. The memory of her first encounter with magic was still strong in her, and she’d enjoyed being in nature ever since.
    As evening fell, the weather worsened. Nihal heard the grim rumble of approaching thunder. A flash of lightning ripped the sky. It was then that she saw the outline of a small cottage in the distance. A tumbledown house with a straw roof and smoke-blackened walls, it matched Parsel’s description perfectly. Still, Nihal hadn’t imagined Laio would be living in such poor conditions. The roof had collapsed in several places, and fallen clumps of thatch lay decaying on the ground. The windowpanes, devoid of glass, glowed with a pale, sinister light. Someone must be inside.
    Nihal dismounted her horse and walked cautiously toward the building. She was, after all, near the border, and she wasn’t yet certain that this was Laio’s home.
    Furtively, she approached a wall and unsheathed her sword. There were several gaps between the stones of the wall, and Nihal glanced rapidly inside. She glimpsed a flash of fire and someone seated with his back to her. She could see only the head, blond and curly. Her heart skipped a beat. She made for the door and knocked.
    “Who’s there?” someone shrieked from inside.
    “It’s me, Nihal,” she answered, letting herself in and pulling the door shut behind her.
    A boy was huddled against the wall, worn and sickly, a rusty sword trembling in his hands. Nihal recognized the innocent grey eyes and blond curls at once. His cheeks, though, which she remembered as flushed and full, had grown thin and were smudged with soot. He wore a brown cassock that had seen better days and a pair of faded pants, covered in dust. Laio stared at her for a moment in disbelief, then dropped his sword and ran to her.

    Outside, the storm arrived.
    They remained in the one room with a solid roof, though even there the occasional fat drop of rain dripped through to the floor. The fire crackled sharply. Nihal unpacked some of her provisions and, combining them with Laio’s, they prepared themselves a sizeable feast.
    Nihal filled him in on everything she’d done in the months they’d spent apart. She spoke openly of the reckless behavior that had taken hold of her when she began training with Ido, of how she’d put her life in jeopardy just to prove her independence. With a touch of nostalgia, she went on about the days she’d spent in the company of Eluesi, the farmer, and her son, Jona—those days when she’d deluded herself into thinking she might lead a normal life, far from the battlefields.
    “Good grief!” the boy let out.
    Nihal smiled. “Yes. Life can be funny that way.” She bit into a piece of roasted meat. “What about you? What are you doing here?”
    Laio looked down and an awkward silence filled the room. The only noises were the rumble of thunder and the creaking of wood.
    “What? You swallow your tongue?” Nihal pressed him.
    He remained silent for some time, then took a deep breath and spoke.
    Just after missing the cut for training as a Dragon Knight, during the battle of Therorn, he’d left the Academy. He’d had enough. It was time to march home and tell his father the truth, that he wanted nothing to do with battle, that he’d decided to become a squire. But the closer the came to his father’s presence, the more he felt his courage dwindling.
    “For as far back as I know, the men in my family have been knights. All of them, do you understand? And all of them