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

Redd simply winked mischievously and said, “You haven’t seen anything yet, Tine’la.” He turned and faced the man he’d just knocked down.

Keith’s smile faltered and his heart felt like it had frozen in his chest. Redd had just called him a Tine’la! How could he possibly know?! The thought shot through his head before he could stop. He eyed the taller redhead standing in front of him warily. It was nothing to worry about, he decided. Keith probably just heard him wrong.

The man attacking Redd bellowed in rage and brought Keith out of his musings as he ran at them again. Keith lifted his sword up, ready to fight. Redd held his staff straight out in front of him. Keith gave him a look to let him know he thought the trainer was crazy. The young man only gave him a knowing grin.

“Oscailte, sceana!” Redd’s command rang out clear and confident. The man’s eyes widened in recognition and his assault slowed to a near stop, as some odd looking carvings began to glow. Giant silver blades broke free from then wood and shone brightly in the late morning sun. Redd chuckled in front of a stunned Keith. “Impressive, Smithy. Very impressive.” And he attacked the man standing dumbfounded mere paces from them both.

Keith tore his eyes away from the fight in front of him to find Maggie throwing fists with someone who looked not much older than himself – and was surprised to see she had the upper hand. With his attention elsewhere, Keith never noticed the man Angus had thrown earlier come up behind him, before it was too late.

A strong fist jerked Keith’s head back as it gripped a patch of his hair. Arching his back to try and reduce the pulling, Keith cried out in pain. The cold metal of a blade rested against the front of his throat, a lethal presence. Suddenly he was released and he stumbled a few steps back. His attacker was now flailing in a cloud of dust as Angus wrestled him. Keith regained his footing and hurried over to help the boy.

“Ben, get up!” A woman’s voice broke out around them. It was hard to place, but Keith glimpsed a flash of coppery hair off to his right before dodging an elbow aimed for his face. “Do your thing. I want those two boys down.” Keith felt cold fear wash over him. They were talking about Angus and himself.

Angus had just knocked the man to the ground and struck him in the back of the neck, before the ground beneath their feet began shaking violently. Loud cracks threatened to deafen Keith as he struggle to stay standing. “Angus! Keith! Above you!” Maggie’s voice barely made it to his ears through the noise. Keith spotted Maggie with her hands cupping her mouth as the younger man she’d been fighting with got back up off the ground. Her face contorted with pain as the man pulled her to the ground by her long braid. She hit the ground hard but managed to roll backwards and leap to her feet, her fists raised and ready to continue fighting. She was a spitfire, that one. Keith’s eyes shot to the sky above him searching for arrows or hawks. Any sort of weapon that might be attacking them from the sky.

What he didn’t expect was gigantic mounds of earth and rock.

Before either he or Angus had a chance to register the danger they were in, Redd appeared in front of them his magiced staff held out between them and the falling debris. “Oscailte, sceana!” Redd ordered the staff again. The blades that were already out began to grow larger as the trainer braced his feet and started spinning the wooden rod. It wasn’t until some clots were bouncing off him that Keith noticed the slight glow of magic surrounding the flying dirt. Did that mean it major magic or someone’s quality? It was hard to tell as stones and dirt peppered his face and the exposed skin of his arms.

Suddenly, Redd screamed and collapsed.

Angus was next to his brother in a heartbeat. Keith was there in another. Redd, face contorted in pain, clutched his thigh. Bright red blood stained the ground, pooling under the blades of the discarded staff. The world started to rumble again. The boy ripped the man who had cut Redd away from him and threw him like he was no more than a limp ragdoll. He crashed into a man that had attacked Maggie earlier. As soon as they collided the ground stilled again.

“Veils! Ben. Up.” The female voice sounded again, piercing through the echo of Keith’s pulse throbbing in his ears. He looked over at the man Angus had thrown and the man who’d been hit. A slight woman, clad in your average bounty hunter black with daggers and knives of every size displayed from shoulder to hip across her body, stood over the two of them. Tiny braids of copper pulled hair that would have been in her face back and into a larger gathering braid. With strength that didn’t match her size, she yanked the bottom man to his feet. She turned her calculating, stone cold hazel eyes towards Keith, then to Angus, until they landed on Redd. A cruel smile broke out on her lips, sending shivers down Keith’s back. “That one’s got major magic. He’ll fetch a fine price. Bring him.”

“What ‘bout the princess? The King wants her real bad, Copper.” A rather large man said as he tried to block several punches and a few good kick from a vengeful Vika. Keith recognized him, but couldn’t put his finger on where he’d seen him before. Then another thought struck him – what princess?

“Her Highness can wait, Marcus.” Copper gave a dignified wave of her hand to dismiss the idea. Flipping her hair over her shoulder, she patted the man called Ben on the arm and smiled seductively. “Do whatever you have to. I want him.” She turned her back on them all and strutted towards the tree line, disappearing in the shade and shadows beneath the branches.

“No! Leave him alone!” Angus screamed at the men who advanced on him and his wounded brother lying unconscious at his knees. He stood, face tear-stained and sent one man sailing with a punch to the abdomen.  Vika charged in, abandoning her fight with Marcus. She launched herself at another man, and gripping fists full of his hair, she steered him into someone else. Jumping off his back before they crashed to the ground, she landed and placed an elbow into a third man’s gut.

“Get away from him!” Her menacing voice, though several octaves higher and sounding more girlish than usual, made most of them hesitate their advance.

“Keith,” Maggie grunted as she wrestled with the same guy. She maneuvered her feet like an expert and knocked his out from under him. He fell flat on his back and lurched to his side as air rushed from his body. Her pale blue eyes met his, pleadingly. “Help them! Please, don’t let them take Redd. Aaahh!” Her hands flew to her side as she dropped to one knee and let her knife fall. The man rose up behind her and wiped her blood from his blade onto her back. He braced a foot on her and tried to shove her to the ground. She landed on both her knees with on hand out to catch herself and as the other clutched growing crimson stain on her left side.

Ben stood like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders, and once the ground started quaking once more, Keith knew that was exactly true.

No wasting a single movement, he sprinted towards Vika as Ben tossed chunks of road at her while she fought off two men at once. Keith dove and, gripping her waist, sent them both tumbling to the ground. “Veils! What were you…” The debris struck the two men in the chests – about the same height as Vika’s head if she’d still been standing there. The girl stared at Keith wide-eyed. Her lips moving but no words came out.

Keith had no time to be shocked at his own actions. He jumped to his feet and ran over to Angus who was currently holding his own against three others attacking him as well as fending off two more who tried to get to Redd. Before he could reach the wounded trainer, Keith was slammed to the ground. At first he thought he’d been hit by one of Ben’s rocks, but when a fist connected with his jaw, he knew it couldn’t be anything but human.

“Marcus, help me with this one. Leave him.” The weight was removed from Keith chest, unpinning him from the ground, as Marcus moved to help the other man.

He climbed to his feet in time to see Maggie fall to her knees again.

Her face was so pale. The stain at her side had seeped down to her leggings. Her eyes flashed with rage and determination as she sprang back up and brandished her knife again. She must have picked it back up at some point. He might not have to worry about her for a short while longer because Ben’s attention was still on helping the men get Redd.

Within a heartbeat, Keith was next to one of the men who’d broken through the barrier Angus and Vika kept. His instincts took over and he allowed his body to move of its own accord. He quickly landed a few punches and a particularly well placed kicks before sending the man towards Angus to be thrown. He was faintly aware of two other opponents receiving the same fate before he reached Redd.

Murmuring apologies, he gently removed Redd’s hands from the bloody clothes. The man was breathing through clenched teeth and his face was red and contorted in pain. With swift movements, Keith tore open Redd’s pant leg, exposing the wound. The gash wasn’t too deep, but it went from the inside of his knee and across the top of his thigh, ending midway up. Ripping the fabric of the leggings into strips and started tying them around his leg to help stop the bleeding – like Maggie had shown him how to with his own small cuts after sparring.

Once he was finished, Redd’s bloodstained covered Keith, causing him to look into the trainer’s face. “Let them take me, Keith.”

He must have heard him wrong again. There was no way Redd had just told him to let these people take him. “What?”

“You need to keep Maggie safe. I can’t heal myself now, and they already think I’m the one who knows major magic.” Redd said as he stared him straight in the eye.

“And you’re telling me this, because?” Keith was generally confused.

“We both know you have connections, Tine’la.” Redd gave him a pained smile, and upon seeing the look of shock on Keith’s face, he nodded. “Of course, I know who you are. Peasants are a lot smarter than you nobles think… Now, they’ll want to come after us. Don’t let them go in head strong. Maggie needs to get to the bogs, and she knows why. Get her there before anything else happens.” As Keith moved to stand again, his mind awhirl trying to figure out how to let them take Redd without the others seeing him and wanting to kill them, Redd grabbed his wrist. “I trust you to take care of my family, Keith. Don’t make a fool of me.”

Keith could only nod.

As soon as he stood up he was shoved away from the trainer and fell to the ground. When he tried to stand, the toe of a boot kicked him hard in the stomach, pressing the air out of his body. He hadn’t even caught his breath yet, when Vika landed next to him. Copper came