Witch Queen by Kim Richardson Read Free Book Online Page A

that damn prick,
or of what I had done in the name of the temple.
    Their weapons were modest, like the two
daggers and short sword that I wore. We had no fine blades forged
with the best metal in Anglia for this trip. No, we used weapons
that had been in our families for years and anything else we could
scrounge in the Pit. We brought what was available to us.
    The newest members of our group all shared
the same battered look of hard combat that showed in the faces of
Leo and Will. Even young Garrick’s eyes were haunted with scars
that spoke of battles beyond his age. It was something only being
born in the Pit could give. Despite the sparks of determination
glimmering in their eyes, it couldn’t mask their fear.
    We weren’t enough.
    Six men, one woman, and seven horses. It
would never be enough.
    Unfortunately, most people wanted to wait it
out. They thought they’d be safer in their makeshift homes. But the
necromancers’ reach was long. Sooner or later the black magic would
reach them, and their dilapidated homes wouldn’t protect them.
Nothing would.
    I couldn’t blame them for being frightened.
Everyone was scared. And I was terrified.
    I held my hands in a death grip on the reins
to keep them from trembling. The witches thought I could
convince a witch king to give me an army of witches? Would a king
even give me an audience? I had talked myself out of tight corners
before, but this was madness. And I was out of magic tricks.
    I didn’t have to be from the Augur witch
clan to see the outcome of this journey—it was hopeless.
Either Ada and the other witches had some inexplicable faith in me,
or they were very foolish. I was leaning towards the latter.
    Perhaps I was their last chance. And
if that were the case, we were all damned. I was just a steel
maiden from the Pit. What could I do?
    I tried to suppress the panic that raged
inside me like a wild fire and let out a low, shaky breath. The
men’s attention was on me now. I didn’t look at them. Despite the
terror that stirred in me, I wouldn’t show them fear. Fear was a
weakness. Fear got you killed.
    I was their leader now. The witches had made
it so. No matter how much I hated it—it was the path I had to
take.
    Jon depended on me.
    With the sickness storming across the land,
leaving death and infection in its wake, too many things could go
wrong. It could all be for nothing.
    “If there is a Goddess,” I whispered into
the sky, “may she protect us.”
    I tore my moist eyes away from Rose and the
witches, hit my heels into Torak’s flanks, and we flew.
     

CHAPTER 5

     
     
     
    W E RODE IN SILENCE.
    Will and Leo rode beside me on earth and
tawny-colored horses from Jon’s stables. Our newest members
followed behind. Torak’s familiar smell and companionship helped to
calm my nerves. But even in the strange, overbearing heat, I
couldn’t shake off the icy feeling that wrapped around my
heart.
    I hated myself for leaving Jon. He had never left me .
    When the other men and women had sought to
claim the Heart of Arcania for themselves, when I had been left to
die, he had stayed with me. Jon had only joined that damned race to
keep an eye on me. And he had saved my life. But what had it cost
him?
    I blinked the tears from my eyes and hoped
Leo and Will thought they were caused by the wind. I was still a
little uneasy that they looked to me for leadership, and that they
were willing overcome their own beliefs and fears to follow me to
Witchdom. I didn’t want the responsibility for all these people. I
had never really cared for friends. I had never really trusted
anyone but myself and Rose, until now. Until Jon.
    The thought of joining a rebellion had
sparked a fire in me and satisfied my own natural defiance against
rules and regulations. But above all, I wanted to get back at the
priests. I was ravenous to learn all I could about Jon’s rebellion,
about what he truly stood for, and about his plans to take down the
empire. But there hadn’t