The Witch's Daughter by R. A. Salvatore Read Free Book Online

she slid easily onto the horse’s back.
    Belexus looked to Brielle for answers, not wanting to start an argument about the wisdom of riding bareback over such distances.
    “She won’t be needing it,” Brielle echoed. “She’s the horse’s assurances that it won’t be letting her fall.”
    Belexus and Andovar exchanged shrugs. Given the company assembled to see them off, how could they begin to argue?
        The four riders broke out of the southern edge of Avalon later that afternoon and crossed the ford to the Illume-lune River before nightfall, setting a camp on the flat top of a huge, wide stone.
    “Yer place,” Andovar remarked to Ardaz while the wizardcooked the meal. “The Justice Stone.” The ranger turned to Rhiannon and Belexus. “Here it was that Ardaz saved the elves, the Night Dancers of Lochsilinilume, in the dawning of their race.”
    “He took them to this place under the guise of execution,” Belexus explained. “But only a trick, he played, and then the Night Dancers were hidden away.”
    “I have heard the tales,” Rhiannon replied. “Ye saved them all, did ye, Uncle Rudy?”
    “Shhhh,” Ardaz sputtered, but too late.
    “Uncle Rudy?” Belexus and Andovar chimed together, putting a deep blush into the wizard’s cheeks.
    “Rudy’s his real name,” Rhiannon went on, enjoying the game. “Rudy Glendower. And me mum’s his sister, Jennifer Glendower.”
    “Names from another time,” Ardaz said dismissively. “Before the dawning of our world.” His eyes glazed over in distant memories. So very distant, a time across the span of twelve centuries.
    “So Ardaz ye be,” Belexus agreed, bowing to the wizard. “The Silver Mage of Lochsilinilume.” He turned back to Rhiannon. “Owing are the elves, and us all, to the likes of yer uncle.”
    “And sacred is this place,” Andovar added, “to all the elves, and to all the goodly folk of Aielle.”
    “Dark days, brrr!” the wizard shuddered, remembering that grim trip to the Justice Stone, but he shook the evil thoughts away and grinned anew. “But no need of such wicked memories,” he proclaimed. “All turned out for the best, I do dare say. It always does, you know, always does.”
    “And the road is clear before us,” Belexus was quick to add.
    They ate a tasty meal—wizard enhanced—and better still for the fine tales they exchanged. Then they stretched outand watched the twinkle of the stars appear against the blackening canopy of the Aiellian sky.
    Rhiannon fell asleep a short time later, pleased by the new friends she had made that day and thinking that adventures far from home might not be such a bad thing after all.
        They made North Ridge, the northernmost of the Calvan farming villages, two leisurely days later. Spring was in full bloom now, and the sun and gentle southern breezes graced the little troupe. They meandered along their course, in no hurry at all to arrive at any particular destination, and determined to enjoy the sights along the road as they went.
    “Problem with humans,” Ardaz was quick to say. “So busy rushing to get from place to place that they forget about the lands in between.”
    “Humans?” Belexus replied. “What are ye then, a talon? And what are we three, by yer reckoning?”
    “Oh, I did not mean …” Ardaz bumbled. “I mean … I am a wizard, after all, and have lived long enough—too long, some would say, but I don’t listen. Where was I? Oh yes, I have lived long enough to throw away some of the faults.”
    “And what’re ye saying of us, then?” Rhiannon balked in feigned anger. She managed to slip a wink at the two rangers.
    “Well, I mean you three …” Again Ardaz found his tongue twisting in his mouth. “You’re rangers, and different from most, I do dare say. You walk in Avalon and have learned the truth of pleasures that others might miss. And you”—he grabbed a handful of Rhiannon’s raven hair and gave a playful tug—“you’ve grown