Maggie of the Mist by Madeleine M. (best ebook reader for ubuntu txt) 📕

“Redd thought that it’d be a skill she should learn.” Vika cut in, obviously hoping to be included in scaring Keith. “Mind, he also thought that making her mad to get her to fight was a good idea too. He did deserve it.” Vika’s smile lit up her whole face. If he weren’t still trying to make sense of the fact that Maggie threw him, again, Keith would have believed that they were all sitting around the fire like the night before, telling stories.

Then, Maggie landed on her feet like a cat, not three paces from his own feet. She turned towards Keith with a darkened face and red rimmed eyes. Maggie had been crying. But why? “He threw one of his wooden swords at me. But I refused to fight. Then he started throwing insults at me, still I wouldn’t do it.” Maggie’s pained eyes seemed to be driving into Keith’s very soul. “Finally, he stopped pushing me and asked why a girl would want to learn sword play when all we were good for was being good little wives.” There was something in the way she was looking at him, that made Keith assume she was more upset about the words he’d said instead of Redd’s story.

“You should have seen how fast she came at me! One’d never think a wooden sword could cut through skin. My hand hasn’t been the same. Even after I healed it.” Redd said with a grin, as he rolled his sleeve down. Flexing his hand, for emphasis.

“There was a knot that you hadn’t sanded properly! That’s how it broke the skin.” Vika glared at the smiling trainer.

“Alright, story time’s over. We need to move. Now!” Maggie glanced towards the rising sun and shot one last glare at Keith, and then she stalked off towards Gregor. The others dispersed to pack up the camp. Keith was too afraid to move. When Maggie told Vika what that he saw the letter, he would be dead before midday.

*****

Gregor shifted uncomfortably beneath her as the small troupe topped a small hill. Another gust tugged at Maggie’s cloak – her aunt’s cloak – and whipped the hair that had fallen out of her braid into her face. Maggie sighed.

Even her horse could sense the danger in the cool wind.

“Hey, Maggie?” Vika whispered, leaning towards her from her perch in Dagger’s saddle. “Can you feel that? The trees feel…almost empty.” The girl’s blue-green eyes moved from Maggie to scan the trees.

“She’s right,” Angus’s voice was close on her other side. “I haven’t heard a single bird since we left this morning.”

Maggie nodded in agreement. The whole morning had seemed a bit off. Redd, riding in front of them, leaned around Keith sitting behind him to address them.

“Does anyone else smell camp fire smoke?” he called back, giving Maggie a look, telling her that he knew she had already taken note of it.

Keith just looked lost. A question plastered on his face as he looked from Redd to the three of them, and back. Maggie didn’t let it faze her. If he, the noble blood he was couldn’t sense danger, might he ever figure it out? She wasn’t about to explain to their ‘tag-along’ why these signs had all of them edge. Watching his quizzical look, other thoughts floated into her head. Might it be better if he knew meanings of all the things he ignored every day, instead of dismissing them like others? They might need him to be prepared. Maybe she should tell him.

Before Maggie had a chance to open her mouth, Gregor’s left ear shot back in the direction of a rather leafy tree. Maggie froze. The pendant seared the tender skin under it. She reached in, grasped the leather band and pulled the stone out of the collar of her shirt. A cold blue shone from the freezing surface.  Trying to block out subtle noises around her – the crunching of dirt under horse hooves; the rustling of clothes; and the clinking of the tackle – one sound erupted. The drawing of a bow string – a sound she, for one, could never mistake.

“Sweet Maiden,” Maggie cursed under her breath. They had finally caught up to them. Now they sat waiting to ambush – and there was definitely more than four this time. She reached down on her right side, slowly pulling an arrow from her quiver, making it slide up the inside of her arm.  She leaned over towards Vika, who was on her left – closest to the hidden archer – and beckoned her closer. “I spotted a rabbit in the underbrush.” She made sure her voice carried as far as Redd, but no further. She inclined her head ever so slightly, indicating that Vika should move to her other side.

As the girl moved – loosening the hidden blades on her arms, and whispering orders into the horses’ ears – Maggie took into account the others subtly preparing. Angus had shifted his crossbow so that it was sitting lazily on his lap. Redd feigned stretching, his hand placed on his hip – the new staff well within reach.  Keith, luckily, picked up on what the others were doing. His hand now sat easily on the hilt of his shinny sword.

Squeezing her legs against Gregor’s side, more of a comfort for her than a signal for him, Maggie let her left arm fall casually so her fingers could wrap securely around the leather grip of her bow. She pulled her hood up over her head and the cape closer around her body to hide her hands as they strung the bow. One more long breath and she was ready.

“Mark!” Maggie called.

“Wait, who’s Mark?” Keith asked, confused. Maggi knew she should have informed him, but now was not the time. With one fluid motion, she notched the arrow, drew back and sent it flying towards the hidden archer.

A man screamed in pain.

Maggie smiled grimly. She’d found her mark. As long as he hadn’t moved much, the hidden archer wouldn’t die from the wound. As time around them began to slow, Maggie cast one last sad glance in the direction of the man’s scream – some days she hated her eerie accuracy. With her next breath echoing in her ears, she notched another arrow, waiting for the rest to attack.

A precious heartbeat of silence echoed around them.

Then all at once, time returned to normal – possibly speeding up – and the bounty hunters swarmed Maggie and those with her. There were ten men in all. That made two of them for one of Maggie’s. A man with a broad sword and another with a long bladed dagger charged Maggie. She recognized the second as Jay, a wicked smile on his face. Gregor stepped forward, trying to crush their feet with his hooves. Jay dove to Maggie’s left as the other man raised his sword and jumped for her. She loosed her arrow and it lodged in the large man’s shoulder. He hollered in pain and dropped his weapon. His hand went to the arrow as he tried to free it. Maggie took that moment to whack him in his neck’s sweet spot with the butt of her bow. He collapsed unconscious.

Jay seized the opportunity of Maggie’s turned back to get her off the gelding. His hand roughly grabbed her shoulder and she didn’t have enough time to react before she was sent flying through the air. The air rushed from her lungs when her body crashed into the gritted surface of the road. Jay laughed darkly and ripped her bow from her hands, throwing it over his shoulders. “You shouldn’t’ve have done that, princess. Ben’s a good friend.” His young voice was low and dangerous as he growled out her title.

While she was down, Maggie cast a quick glance around, trying to see how her cousins and Keith were faring. Vika ducked the huge fist of Marcus and swept the man off his feet, his large sword clattering out of his hand. The butt of one of her daggers struck the back of his head and he stilled. The girl’s attention shifted to a partially stunned mad with a mace.

Maggie jumped to her feet, threw her hood off, and pulled the hidden knife from her boot. Jay rush forward and she had enough time to dodge his swiping blade. Thrusting her palm’s heel in to his nose, the young man stumbled backwards with his hand to his face. She noted more movement around her as her opponent recovered.

Angus blocked a blow with his shield, delivered by a lanky man with a hatchet. Next the boy knocked his attacker off his feet with a well-placed punch that sent him flying into a tree trunk. The body slumped after his head connected with the bark. Another man came at him sword raised. Angus tackled him and struck him in the back of the head with the side of his hand. With both his opponents down, he ran to help Keith. The Tine’la held his own against two men with rather heavy looking broad swords. One was Andes.

“You vex me, Your Highness.” Jay glared at her, blood spat like venom as he spoke the words ‘Your Highness’. “Copper might be ordered for you to be alive, but the King never did specify how alive he wanted you.” Gregor chose that moment to make his presence known behind the bounty hunter. His hind legs came up and sent Jay flying across the road.

Redd’s voice rang out clear amongst the clash of metal and yelled insults. “Oscailte, cliath.” Open, staff. Her pendant grew slightly warmer and took on a pinkish light at the words, as it sensed the magic Maggie had infused in his staff. She spotted her trainer beyond the scuffles – the enchanted staff growing to the perfect length for his tall stature.

Maggie wasted no time in reaching him. Her cloak was hastily stuffed into one of Gregor’s saddle bags before she sped off into the chaos. She slid under the man Vika tossed into the air and had to dive over another that Angus had sent sliding across the ground. She gave Keith a quick nod before he turned and she used his shoulders as a brace to leap over Andes as he rushed them both. She kicked a man with a pair of sticks chained together in the chest, sending him backwards, as he came up behind Redd. Landing back to back with Redd she shot him a smug look over her shoulder. He raised his eyebrows, amused.

“Show-off.” He scoffed, rolling his eyes. He brought his staff down on top of another man’s head. The man dropped his sword and stumbled back, hands clutching his head. “Did I teach you no modesty?”

“Hardly.” Maggie laughed as Jay rushed her again. She side-stepped his narrow dagger, grabbed his wrist and used his momentum to fling him over Redd as he crouched. Redd raised a questioning eyebrow but leaned down when she motioned him closer. Whispering Maggie told him the command for the last set of symbols. “Make sure to hold the end without markings, away from you. If you order it a second time before closing them, they get longer,” she warned as Jay climbed to his feet again, preparing to come at her.

Redd threw his head back laughing, being fluent in Tìrish. “You, Smithy, are a genius!” He declared as he ran to Keith, who was still trying to fight off Andes.

Maggie just rolled her eyes and smirked at his childishness. She took her stance, ready for Jay as he came at her.

*****

Keith caught a glimpse of his own red hair coming up behind the tall man he faced. He recognized Redd before he sent Keith’s opponent to the ground with an end of his staff. “I could have