Read Serpent's Silver for Free Online

mentioned flopears. Were those the short people I saw here before—”
    “You don’t know about the flopears?” she asked, amazed.
    “As I said, I—”
    “They can freeze a mortal person in his tracks just by looking at him! That’s why we can’t resist them.”
    “A mortal person?” he asked, surprised at this term. “But all of us are mortal!”
    “Yes,” she agreed unhelpfully.
    He was rubbing her wrists where the circulation had been restricted by the shackles when Jac appeared, leading his horse. “I’m heading back to the Barrens before the flopears come back. You two want to come?”
    “If—we can ride,” Kian said.
    “Oh, don’t worry about Betts,” Jac said, patting the war-horse. “She can carry all of us. Only no skin, blast it, and I’m afraid not even that chain. Enough weight is enough for her.”
    “These Barrens—”
    “Blank, worthless land inhabited solely by outlaws and other dangerous creatures. Surely you’ve heard of it?”
    “Yes.” Back home it was the Sadlands; here it would, of course, be almost the same.
    “Well, climb on. You, missy, ride in front of me. You—what was your name?”
    “Kian. Kian Knight.”
    “That’s right: Kian. You ride behind me and hang on to me or the side of the saddle.”
    It wasn’t quite the arrangement Kian had envisioned, but he took Jac’s hand and allowed himself to be pulled up on the back of the great horse.
    “I’ve, eh, left something back on the road,” Kian said. “It may be worthless, but then again, I can’t say.”
    “You know where you left this, eh, thing?”
    “Close. It’s where I encountered a bearver.”
    “A bearver! Near the main road?”
    “Not too far. There were appleberry bushes. I’ll know the place.”
    “So will I,” Jac said, turning Betts upslope. “There’s that one stretch where the berries grow and the bearvers come. Good place for berries; bad place for bearvers.”
    Kian cocked his head to a now familiar sound. It came, musically, tinkling from the oaple tree he had noticed before.
    “Jac, if you want skin—eh, silver—why don’t you take the chimes?”
    Jac looked back at him, astonished. “You daft?”
    “No. I’m a stranger. If you want silver, why not—”
    “Because,” Jac explained patiently, “the flopears treat the chimes with their curse. You don’t take a chime or even a part of one. If you do, you’ll die before night.”
    “Really?” This might be the outlaw’s notion of a joke.
    “Really.”
    Kian thought of that as they rode nearer to where he had left the weapon. “Jac, if you don’t mind my asking, why the chimes?”
    Jac laughed. “You certainly don’t know much of the world, do you!”
    “N-no. Not this world, at least.”
    “It’s to mark boundaries,” Lonny said, turning her sweet face. “At least that’s what’s always said. Something to do with where the serpents are and where there are ancient secrets much better kept by flopears. No one in his right mind goes near a chime. You must be—you must be from another world.”
    “I am,” Kian said.
    “That doesn’t surprise me,” she said. “Anyone who would come wandering into Serpent Valley on foot has to be from a really distant place.”
    Considering that he had come into it in order to rescue her, this remark seemed ungracious. “Actually, in my frame, it’s—”
    “That’s it?” Jac demanded, pointing at something that gave off reflections in their path.
    “That’s it,” Kian said, relieved to have the subject changed. He eased himself down from the horse as Betts came to a halt. He was facing the others at close range as he did so. Lonny had nice legs, he thought, looking at the portion that emerged from her gauzy gown. Then he made his mind shut up, and turned to fetch the device.
    “Weapon, isn’t it?” Jac said as Kian put it in his scabbard. “Any good?”
    “No. At least I don’t think it is. I tried it on the bearver. First time.”
    “May I see it?”
    Kian