Read Dust and Water: A Song For The Stained Novella (A MAGICAL SAGA) for Free Online Page B

girls weren’t screaming I’d be running for my own life right now. Girls always ruddy scream and it makes it hard to think.
    All right, if I wait until these mounted traders are out of sight and get in front of the cart, I might be able to stop the thing, or I might become a road pancake.
    A hairy arm grabs me from behind and I almost scream.
    “Gotcha, boy,” someone says, and by the stench of him it’s a bandit.
    I ram my knife into his foot and in the second where he screams and falls backwards I jump to my feet, facing him with another blade in my hand.
    There’s three of them. Not a band of bandits – just scouts.
    The guy in front of me has his foot pinned to the ground by my weapon. Lucky these things come free from my knife-thief friend Ero. I don’t need to try and get that one back.
    The other two bandits ignore their fallen comrade, useless lot they’d be even if they were on my side.
    I look at their still sheathed swords and down at my little blade. It’s little, small enough to conceal against my wrist. Too small.
    Running like a jack rabbit smelling hounds; down the bank, through the sunken drain, and out into the middle of the road, right in front of two galloping slave traders.
    “Zakkai’s dead… no coin. Ruddy waste of time,” one of the traders shouts and draws his sword. “I’m going home.”
    The horse’s rear, men shout, swords swing and in the commotion, I find myself scaling the same bank I just ran down. The bandits and the slave traders set to work on each other. I don’t wait to watch the show.
    I do decide that my blade is worth retrieving and snatch it out of the bandit’s foot on my way past.
    “Thank you,” I shout over my shoulder.
    Finding Ash’s horse still tied to a tree I struggle onto his back.
    My heart pounding, and the horse not wanting to stand still, I search up and down the road for the cart.
    “Stinkin’ traders and bandit scum,” I mutter, but there are still some girls in danger – and I’m not sure when or why I started caring, but now that I do care I want to find out what’s going on and how I can help.
    The fact that bandits and slave traders are standing in my way boils my blood.
    “Ha!” I shout at the horse like I’ve seen Ash and Dom do.
    But I can’t ride down the road, that’s far too crazy even for me, so I hug tight to the horse’s neck and let him run like a wild thing through the trees.
    There, the cart… but it’s not moving.
    “Help!” a trader shouts from the driver’s seat.
    I pull Ash’s horse to a stop and whip my head around to watch. Ash’s horse fails to actually stop, but kinda slows and begins turning in circles. Sweat is beading like foam off his neck.
    “Help,” the driver shouts again.
    No help comes, and no help is going to come because they’re busy either fighting with or running from bandits.
    We move closer to the road. It’s the younger kid from the Meadowsblades, I saw him at the battle fire but didn’t actually meet him, and he’s on the traders back hitting the guy around the chest and shoulders with one hand and holding on with the other. I can see three cheering female faces in the back, but they’re tied up – and this kid isn’t making any progress.
    The trader reaches up and grips the kid’s shirt, ready to throw him off his back.
    The blade’s in my hand.
    I aim and let it fly.
    Silver metal whacks into the trader’s angry creased forehead. His eyes roll back before he topples from the cart – almost taking the kid with him.
    More girl’s cheers sound out, and the kid is beaming like he just won his first battle.
    I frown at the silver blade in the dirt. It hit the man on the hilt side – when did I become such a poor shot?
    “Remy, turn the cart around,” one of the girls says.
    They’re soon safe and out of sight, and I hurry to grab my now red and dusty weapon.
    By the time I’ve mounted up and begun moving towards the house, there’s no one on the road.
    “Ha, ha,” I