The Battle Lord's Lady by Linda Mooney Read Free Book Online Page B

face in her arms. She was exhausted
beyond all endurance, she’d lost her family only two days before,
she was starving, and now she was going to lose whatever friends
and home life she’d ever known. Things looked worse than
miserable.
    Deep in her grief, she never heard the man
leave the shop, nor was she aware that he had signaled to the other
Cleaners to leave her alone as well. Least of all she never saw the
tall, helmeted figure staring at her through the window wondering
why this particular Mutah both fascinated and surprised him.
    When all his life he’d lived the code that no
Mutah was worth an effort or a second look, why did he care that
this one remained with him?
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter Six
    Decision
     
     
    “What’s going on with you, Yulen?” the voice
harshly asked.
    Yulen looked up to see a shallow bowl of meat
and vegetables shoved into his face. He stopped his cleaning and
set his sword down beside him before taking the proffered food.
Karv flopped down on the ground a few feet away and dove into his
own meal.
    “Not bad. But you haven’t answered my
question,” the man reminded him.
    Yulen tried the badger. Amazingly the meat
that should have been tough and too gamey was as good as anything
he could remember. After so many days of dried rations, the meal
was welcome. He continued to eat, blowing on his fingers when it
was too hot to handle, when he saw MaGrath walking toward him. The
expression on the man’s face was hard to read.
    “Have some, Liam,” he half-ordered,
half-invited.
    “Don’t mind if I do. First, though, I want to
let you know about your little Robin Hood. She’s eaten and she’s
asleep. No thanks to Karv, but I think she’ll heal with minimal
scarring. Are you really taking her back with us?”
    “She killed sixteen of us in practically no
light from nearly a hundred yards with just a bow and arrow.
Imagine the damage she could do in broad daylight. I want to know
how she’s able to do it. If there’s some trick she does. Or is it
just skill? Either way, I want her to teach it to us.”
    “What if she refuses?” the physician
asked.
    “Then we flay her,” was Yulen’s flat answer.
“If she doesn’t work with us, I can’t have her against us. She
teaches us to kill, or she becomes target practice.” He stared at
burn marks on the tips of his fingers. Too late, he remembered the
dagger sheathed at his hip. Pulling it out, he first wiped it on
the thigh of his pants then stabbed another piece of meat and began
gnawing on it.
    “And the compound?” This question came from
Karv.
    “Leave a small squad behind to make sure
there’s no uprisings. I don’t want any surprises before we leave.
If we convince the Mutah-”
    “Her name is Atty,” MaGrath interrupted.
    Yulen gave him a disapproving glance. “If we
convince her we’re not going to kill everyone in the compound,
she’ll be a lot easier to handle. If we need to, we can use them as
leverage to keep her in line.”
    “And once she’s safely away from this place
we can go ahead and raze it,” Karv finished.
    MaGrath shook his head. “I don’t like the
plan. I agree with you, she’s a formidable foe. But what if she
gets wind this place has been torched? Then what are you going to
do? And something else I’m wondering if you’ve thought of... sure
she’s a miracle with a bow and arrow, but what about other weapons?
How is she with a sword? Heaven forbid, what about a crossbow?”
    “Liam, I want her examined. Is she Mutah, or
is she a Natural being raised by them?”
    “All right, I will, but what if she is a
Mutah? What if her deformities are inherent and not visible? What
if her ability is because of what she is? Then taking her back with
us will be useless.”
    Yulen didn’t answer. Instead he shoved a
piece of potato in his mouth.
    Karv snorted. “Guess you hadn’t thought that
far ahead.”
    The physician turned