Read The Way Into Darkness: Book Three of The Great Way for Free Online Page A

on one.”  
    “Belterzhimi would want every whisper, every rumor he could get, so he could identify the driver.”  
    Kinz shrugged. “I do not blame him. If he could make to spy safely on The Blessing, he could better protect his side of the river.”  
    Cazia and Ivy looked at each other. “Did we tell him about the way the grunts destroyed those carts above Peradain?” Ivy asked. “I am not sure if we did. You should tell him, Cazia; he is my family, so I am expected to forgive very large obligations.”  
    Far across the clearing, Cazia could see the serpents still clustered at the eastern edge of the clearing. They hadn’t lingered that way at any of the previous campsites. “If I’d accepted that jewel, I could have made a translation stone for you, like you asked. Um, one moment.” She walked across the meadow, feeling the wind against her back. Soldiers watched her with blank, unfriendly expressions and she was careful to make a circuitous route that avoided the narrow stone column and roof without walls that comprised Kelvijinian’s temple. She knew she wasn’t supposed to approach it and didn’t want to give the archers an excuse to take a shot at her.  
    A dozen serpents lingered at the far edge of the meadow, but only two   appeared to be coiled and resting. The others held their heads high as if on guard. Great Way, they were beautiful creatures: long and muscular, their scales shimmering in the sun light like a rainbow.   As she came closer, she noticed a narrow path behind them, very near the base of the mountain. The serpents appeared to be blocking it.  
    Cazia told herself that Ivy knew better than she did. That the serpents, no matter how they swayed back and forth, no matter how many of them lifted their heads as she approached, no matter how closely they watched her, were allies to the humans of Indrega.  
    Not that she looked like an Indregai girl; her face was too broad and her skin too dark, but she had the clothes. That ought to be enough to protect her from them, shouldn’t it?  
    As she came within twenty paces, even the serpents who had been coiled and resting raised themselves up. All stared at her steadily, their heads swaying back and forth. Were they hissing louder as she approached? Maybe it was just that she was getting close enough to hear them.  
    Ivy had assured her the serpents were safe. Friendly, even. Her people who lived with them every day. Cazia told herself that the serpents seemed hostile because they were so different, like Mother and the other giant eagles. She was sure that, if she understood their body language, she would know that they were probably only rising up to greet her.  
    Then the nearest serpent bared its fangs and hissed at her.  
    Cazia gasped and staggered back, almost colliding with someone behind her.  
    “They know who and what you are.” A blond archer stood much too close. Cazia didn’t recognize her, but there were so many of these pale-narrow-skulled women with murderous expressions that it was hard to tell them apart. Her Peradaini was surprisingly good, though.
    The archer leaned in close. “They know how many of us your people have killed. If I shoved you at them, daughter of butchers, they would probably drag you into the weeds and eat you alive. Have you ever seen someone try to scream when the lungs have been punctured by a serpent’s fangs? Can you imagine one of them wrapping the huge jaws over your face before they gulp you--”
    “Enough!” Ivy’s thin voice startled the archer into silence. Although she barely came up to the archer’s breastbone, she wagged her finger in the soldier’s face and scolded her like a child. In Ergoll, though. Cazia couldn’t help but feel cheated that she couldn’t understand them.  
    “Come with me, please, Cazia,” Ivy said, switching back to Peradaini. “The serpents are territorial, and part of our understanding with them is that we will keep the lands inviolate.”