Read Stones of Power 01 - Ghost King for Free Online

gold, I promise you.'
    Alhyffa pulled his head in to her breast and stroked his hair, while her sky-blue eyes stared out towards the south. She saw three horsemen riding and each was holding aloft a severed head. They came closer - riding across the sky towards the window where she sat - and the sky darkened, lightning flashing behind them. She could not see their faces, nor would she look at the heads they carried; she closed her mind's eye against them and heard the bitter laughter as they rode on: Odin's messengers, the Stormcrows, taunting her with premonitions of disaster.
    She had never loved her father and thus never cared about his victories or his setbacks. But now she was torn. Moret's family was linked with Hengist and therefore she should wish him success.
    Yet once successful, her father would turn on Eldared and destroy him and all his get. Eldared with all his cunning could not fail to see this, therefore he must be planning the same tactic.
    And then what would be the future for Hengist's daughter?
    'Do not think of tomorrow, Moret. Enjoy the Now, for it is all any of us ever have.'

CHAPTER FOUR
    Thuro awoke in a narrow room with log walls and a single window looking out over the mountains.
    The room was icy-cold and the young prince burrowed under the blankets, hugging them to his sleep-warm body. He could not remember coming to bed, only the seemingly endless journey to Culain's log cabin nestling in a wood of pine. At one point Thuro's legs had given way beneath him, and Culain had lifted him effortlessly and carried him like a babe across his chest. Thuro remembered being dumped in a wide leather chair as the warrior tindered a fire in the stone hearth, and he could recall staring into the growing flames. But somewhere about that time he must have passed out.
    He looked out across the room and saw his clothes laid on a narrow chair. Glancing below the covers he saw that he was naked. He hoped fervently that Laitha had not been present when he was undressed.
    The door opened and Culain entered. His long dark hair was tied at the nape of his neck, and he was wearing a high-necked shirt of thick wool and dark leather leggings over mountain boots of cured sheepskin.
    'Time to be up, prince! And doing!'
    He walked to the bed and dragged back the covers. 'Dress yourself and join me in the other room.'
    'Good morning to you,' Thuro told his departing back, but Culain did not respond. The prince climbed from the bed and into his green woollen leggings and shirt of cream-coloured wool, edged with braid. Then he pulled on his boots and returned to sit on the bed. The events of the previous day washed over him like icy water. His father was dead, his own life in peril. He was hundreds of miles from friends and home, at the mercy of a grim-faced stranger he did not know. 'I could do with your help now, Maedhlyn,' he whispered.
    Taking a deep breath and offering a prayer to the Earth Goddess, he joined Culain in the main room. The warrior was stacking logs in the hearth when he entered and did not look up.
    'Outside you will find an axe and a hatchet. Chop twenty logs no bigger than you see here. Do it now, boy.'
    'Why should I chop logs for you?' asked Thuro, disliking the man's tone.
    'Because you slept in my bed and I don't doubt you'll want to eat my food. Or is payment above you, prince?'
    'I will chop your logs and then I will leave you,' said Thuro. 'I like nothing about your manners.'
    Culain laughed. 'You are welcome to leave, but I will be interested to know in which snowdrift you are planning to die. You are weaker than any boy I have ever known. I doubt you have the strength to walk down the mountain, and you certainly do not have the wit to know which direction to take.'
    'Why should my fate concern you?' ‘I’ll answer that question when I'm ready,' said Culain, rising to his feet and moving to tower over the youngster. Thuro stood his ground and answered the firm gaze with uplifted chin, giving not an