Daughter of the Stone by Char Marie Adles (best black authors txt) 📖

into one of gentleness. His hand traced down my arm, I hissed in pain and warning, but he didn’t notice. He pulled on my arm to try and bring it around, but he saw they were tied. He just stared at the rope that had cut into the skin of my wrists that was coated in dark crusted blood. His expression changed back into its normal reserved, but dangerous glower.

“Do you want me to bag her, milord?” asked the giant man behind me, holding up a brown corn sack.

“No,” the man growled and he lifted me from the platform onto the ground beside him. He knelt taking a knife from his robes and cut the rope at my ankles and then my wrists. He had to peel the rope from my wrists slowly. He looked up at me with startling clear eyes.

He looked around at all the people staring and cursed under his breath. He gazed down at me as he rose. I realized just how much bigger this man was then me. “Follow me and stay close,” he murmured to me.

I did just that as the other young man and older one came to meet him by a wall away from the crowds of people. Out of habit I stayed in the shadows close by, watching with wary eyes, listening to them.

“What did you just do, Balthazar?” asked the old man with a question in his eyes for his pupil.

“He just brought himself a woman, Master, of course. He must be getting cold at night being all alone and you know how he won’t marry,” the blonde one said with a grin to the old man.

The old man gave him a glare and turned back to the black haired man. Balthazar.

The name fit him. Dangerous like him, a warning.

“Master, I bought her for a reason. Take a closer look at her…around her,” he said in a low voice.

The old man stepped around Balthazar and stopped in front over me, looking me over.

He gaze grew confused again as he looked me over and then he turned pale. “So I see,” he said to the black haired man, “So I see. You were right in freeing her. She must be trained.”

The blonde man stopped grinning and looked at the old man, “She is one of us?”

The old man nodded and looked at me. “Yes. She is a mage. We will train her.”

The black hair man never took his eye off me as he said, “Yes, Master Merlin.”

The burning in his eyes that I was studying came to a halt at that name. Merlin. Merlin.

My father…

 

Chapter Two

I followed the two strange men and my father on a long stone path from the city square. It led to the dark forest and beyond over the tops of the trees one could see the towers of a tall stone structure. I knew this path well for I had traveled it less then two nights before.

No…they are taking me to the King’s castle, Home of the Knights. If I go there then I will die, or worse they will find out about my magic. They had called me a mage already, they knew too much!

I couldn’t stay here even if the man was my father. He could not know about me mother had said-

What had mother said?

I closed my eyes trying to remember. It had been so long ago…

Rain started to fall from the sky as I closed my eyes and I loved the feel as it traced down my cheeks. It was the one thing in the world that had always given me hope. It was amazing what something so small could do. It could bring life and take it away, but to me it wiped the world clean of all the cruelness that had gathered.

I could feel it already washing away my sins. Once again making me clean like that child I still was inside. In the ten years that passed since that day, I still remember. The rain not only washed away my past, but also renewed it within my mind, for it had rained the day my mother was killed as well.

I shivered as the wind picked up and turned the warm rain cold as it fell upon my body. I was only wearing a simple, rough tunic that had been given to me before I had been sold and it didn’t amount to much. It was naught more then a thin, rough sheet of cloth. By now it was plastered to my body, but I had worn worse and sometimes naught at all.

Then it finally came to me. The hazy, blurred memory dragged itself through my mind to where I could watch it play out once more.

She held me tight in her arms. She whispered, “Remember the name Merlin, my little one. He is your father and when you are free you must stay with him. Do as he says and live. If he finds out you are his child then your fate will change. You shall die. Remember and heed my words for this will be the last time you see me.” She had started to cry then, the tears streaking down her beautiful face when the shouts began outside. 

I felt a hand on my shoulder. I opened my eyes and realized I had been crying. I touched the tears now mixed with rain in wonder, I hadn’t cried since I was sold the first time.

That hand moved from my shoulder up to my chin. It tilted my head up so that I stared into those hard blue eyes of Balthazar. They searched deeply into mine, but I had nothing to tell, so he got nothing in return and let go of my chin when I yanked myself back.

“You blocked it,” he muttered as if he had discovered something rare, something that warranted farther study.

I glared at him.

Merlin glanced back to us with a stern look. “Move along. We do not need to be here at a time like this. It’s important that we get back before the king’s meeting.” He paused and looked around, then stared at each one of our faces. “There has been a recent murder attempt on the king and I have reason to believe that the assassin is still near the castle.”

Something flashed in his eyes as he started at the blonde man, then he turned his piercing gaze on me. I had the urge to flinch at the power rolling off him, but instead I glared back. I had nothing to fear from any man.

“What is your name?” he asked slowly, as if I might not understand.

I said nothing, in truth I did not know if I could talk. Ten years ago I spoke my last words to the world. I had no desire to speak, saw no reason when I would be leaving soon anyway, it wasn’t in my plans to be a slave again. I didn’t know what had sparked this new life within me, but I was grateful now it had.

His glower darkened as I said nothing and just glared back.

I owe him something; he is my father after all. A father who never knew about me and could not help me.

I slowly lifted a hand and placed it at the hollow of my throat and tapped it lightly. His eyes darkened for a moment before he nodded and so he moved on.

Another hand was placed on my other shoulder and I stared at the blonde man.

“He is always like that. You do not have to fear him. You are no longer a slave,” he said gently and Balthazar scoffed. The blonde man looked at him. “She is free now, is she not?”

Balthazar glared at him from the corner of his eye as he brushed past him. “That is not up to me. She is the king’s for she was bought with his money.”

The blonde man gasped. “No, you didn’t! You could not have!”

Balthazar smirked. “At least the king is a good man, do you not think? She will be shown to him the moment we get to the castle.” He moved on ahead to walk next to Merlin and left me by the other man.

The blonde man cursed Balthazar under his breath and turned to me with a look of apology. “I am sorry to say he is right. You cannot be trained until the king releases you, for you are his slave now. But do not fear for the king is a good man. You will like it here in Camelot, I promise you. Your powers will grow and you will be free.” He suddenly smiled. “That means we can be friends. I am Lancelot, a knight of King Arthur and the Round Table. I am sorry that you cannot speak, but I am sure that we will overcome that with time. Now let us go before we come across that assassin. We are not safe outside the walls of the castle.”

I hid my smile inwardly. Little did he know that was me he feared. If he knew it was me then he would cry for mercy like all the others did. But he is a nice kid and pretty too, it would be a waste to kill him and to have a friend for even a short while would help. Friend, what a foreign thought.

He took the heavy woolen cloak from his shoulders and wrapped it around me, clicking the broach to hold it in place. “I cannot have you die from chill before my king has met you,” he muttered and then started off, pulling me along.

Lancelot, my mind whispered.

 

Chapter Three

 

 

 

In the middle of starting my plan, we came to the courtyard in front of the king’s castle. We had passed through the outer walls, the inner walls leaving us to wonder into the inner bailey. A quick glance in any direction told me what I needed to know and already did. Guards and knights were everywhere, crawling around, looking, and waiting alertly.

They never make things easy, do they? I asked myself. My lips curled in a silent snarl.

Lancelot’s hands found their way to my shoulders and gave them a squeeze. I tensed, holding back the urge to toss him over those shoulders that he held.

“Calm down. You are not going to be in trouble. No one here will hurt you,” he said with an easy smile.

I wanted to smile, but I couldn’t find it in me to give him one. I had never smiled at