The Shadow of a King (Shadowland Book 2) by C.M. Gray Read Free Book Online Page A

the exchange. The elder of the two gave a barely perceptible nod, and Octa returned his attention to Morgana. He stared into her eyes for a moment and then, reaching out, he took the bottle. 'Let us hope he visits before the battle commences, this half dead King of yours is a bad omen… an evil omen. I care not for your motives in this, but we will treat him to your potion and may Loki choose to cast him down.' He smiled, studying his guest. 'You didn't start fluttering and crossing yourself at the mention of one of my Gods, yet you wear the black of the Christian priests and you have that,' he pointed to the simple wooden cross hanging from a cord around her neck. 'You are a strange one; you are not like the Christians who come to preach amongst my people.' He smiled and gestured towards the cross again. 'You are not a real follower of this nailed god are you? You, I sense are something more.'
    Morgana's hand touched the cross and drew in a breath. 'I follow many teachings, Lord Octa. I find truths and messages come to those who will take the time to listen. Truth passes through many lips, through countless ears and are attributed to many Gods. Yes, I listen and pray to the one God of the Christians, I find it prudent in many ways, but I also listen and speak with the old Gods, for, more often than not, it is they who speak to me the loudest.' She drew back her sleeve to show an intricately inked design that covered her forearm, a serpent that wrapped around and around her arm in writhing coils, only to reappear again to bite its own tail.
    Octa studied the serpent, admiring the artistry as Morgana twisted her arm, the snake seeming to move in the flickering firelight. 'I evoked the name of Loki earlier, and it seems that was not just some idle twist of my tongue, for is not your serpent the image of Midgardsormr, which is the seed of Loki? So, you follow the old Gods of my people too?'
    Morgana nodded and covered her arm.
    Octa smiled. 'Sometimes the Gods put things in our path as some kind of test, they play with us and make for us challenges, and then they drink their mead and ale while they wager against each other, laughing at us as we try to determine what they would have us do. You have brought me such a challenge and I feel their eyes upon us at this very moment seeing which way this game shall be played. You know that I cannot disappoint my Gods.'

 Chapter 4 
The Half Dead King
    'The King has been wounded, he bleeds. Bear him from the battlefield lest this day of victory is wrought with the sorrow of his death.'
    Uther heard the words amongst the screams and cries of battle, felt the pain, which was a sudden, bright, stabbing light through the fog of his understanding and could feel his lifeblood as it pumped wetly from his wounded neck in thick, sticky, throbbing beats.
    Unable to move from still being strapped to his horse, and incapable of seeing properly thanks to the limitations of the helm that had, ultimately, saved him from a mortal blow, Uther Pendragon allowed others to guide him from the field. If anything, it was a release from a day where he had felt little more than a garlanded piece of meat, displayed like a stuffed swan on the Samhain feasting table. A day spent as a painted figurehead paraded up and down the battlefield as ranks of screaming warriors shouted and screeched their encouragement, which had almost, but not quite, covered the taunts and insults being hurled from the Saxon ranks just beyond, as they writhed and howled behind their own bristling wall of shields.
    'Half-dead King,' those Saxons had called him, and he had felt it, half-dead and little more than half-alive. With his breath rasping loud in his ears, echoing and bouncing around his helm along with the jolting motion of his horse, he had wobbled and bounced behind the fluttering pennons and screaming figures of Sir Ector and the other senior tribesmen as they drove the men and women under their commands into a frenzy ready for