The Lion and the Crow by Eli Easton Read Free Book Online

William. He raised his broadsword above his right shoulder and half crouched. As a younger knight, he might have hurried to attack, trying to gain an advantage by sheer audacity and surprise, but now he knew better. He waited, letting the anger and bloodlust curl in his veins and infuse his body with power. He’d let his attackers make the first mistake.
    Where was Christian?
    The two men directly in front of him raised their swords and rushed forward.
    It happened so fast, it took several breaths for William to realize what was taking place. The largest bandit, directly in front of him, suddenly jerked backwards, like a fish on a hook. An instant later, the man next to him clutched his throat, gurgling. Through the grasping hands, William saw a feathered stick.
    Arrows. Christian had not left him.
    With a grin and a roar, William spun around, swinging his sword. One of the bandits stumbled back to avoid it while another, a man that had not been anywhere near William’s blade, suddenly clutched at his throat and then went to his knees.
     
    William looked at the dying man, just a tad annoyed. But the last two bandits were running now. William took chase with a battle cry, determined to sunder something .
    He heard the arrows coming just before they hit— thwunk, thwunk , seconds apart. The remaining bandits went down, one with an arrow cleanly shot to his heart— dead instantly. The other took one in the shoulder. He clutched at it with a scream of pain and stumbled on. A moment later, a second arrow through the back finished the job.
    William stood in the clearing, his sword pointed at nothing, breathing hard. He looked around at the five corpses. He scratched his head. A lithe figure separated from the shadows of the trees and approached.
    “Let me explain to you the etiquette of battles,” William said tightly as Christian joined him.
    The younger knight’s cheeks were flushed with excitement, the rosy hue dark in the gray light of the moon. Christian blinked at him, his proud smile faltering. “Uh…”
    “It’s considered polite to leave me at least one !” William shouted. He thrust the tip of his sword in the ground, underscoring his point.
    Christian bit his lips. “I… I’m sorry, William. I guess I got caught up.”
    “You got caught up.”
    Christian looked around at the bodies. “Well… five is not very many. I could easily have taken out twice that in as much time.”
    “Are you saying I was too slow?” William said warningly.
    “No! I—” Christian looked at him, aghast, but then saw the grin William was fighting to hide.
    William suddenly guffawed with laughter. He pulled Christian in with a strong hand around the back of his neck, ruffling his hair and knocking their foreheads together. “By Christ’s toes, you are a show off! Trying to impress me, ’ey?”
    Christian leaned into the touch, almost stumbling off his feet. But William pulled away, suddenly aware of their proximity. Christian had the grace to look abashed. “Well… I may have been showing off a little.”
    “Well I may be a little impressed. And in the moonlight too!”
    “It wasn’t that good,” Christian protested modestly. “It took me longer than I hoped to get up in the tree. And then I meant to get both the last two in the heart, seconds apart. That would have been impressive. But I missed and got a shoulder instead.”
    “Toothless cur! You must try harder next time,” William teased.
    He went to the nearest corpse and searched the body. He could almost feel the vermin crawling off the man and onto him, and the stench was overpowering, but he had to look. He found a large, soft pouch and tore it off the man’s belt. Opened, it revealed a nest of some sort. There were still a few embers in the firepit and he took it over to get a better look as Christian cast on a few more pieces of kindling.
    The pouch was full of hair, human hair, a dozen colors at least, matted together.
    The last of William’s humor