Dreamspinner Read Online Free Page B

have given for a timely rescue. Unfortunately, there was no handsome lad waiting to carry her off to his impossibly lovely castle and there keep her safe, no fierce swordsman to stand between her and those who would harm her, no prince wearing a circlet of silver on his head and carrying untold power in his hands to wield his sword and drive away those who wanted her for nothing more than her ability to endure countless hours of backbreaking labor.
    Nay, it was just her, sitting in a darkened pub, wearing worn slippers and a threadbare cloak, hoping beyond hope that she would see a doorway open up before her where there had been no doorway before.
    “You have no concept of what’s at stake here, or the things I’m willing to do to assure success.”
    Aisling opened her eyes and looked at Quinn giving Euan an icy stare.
    “And just so you know,” Quinn continued, “a body might get across the border if they knew how to flee.”
    “Flee?” Euan repeated with a snort. “How?”
    “Traders cross the border all the time,” Quinn said.
    “Traders who are not of Bruadair,” Euan clarified, “else they would be dead within the hour.
And
,” he added, cutting Quinn off in mid-protest, “even if we could find a man fool enough to test the veracity of that, you haven’t solved the very real problem of attempting to cross the border without a specific scrap of paper.”
    Quinn pulled something from under his cloak and laid it on the table.
    It was a trader’s license.
    Euan’s mouth fell open. “Where did you get that?”
    “It doesn’t matter,” Quinn said. “My solution is to walk across the border in plain sight, then trot off to find aid.”
    “Against Sglaimir’s army?” Euan said, rolling his eyes. “Impossible.”
    Impossible
was better used to describe her situation. Aisling wondered if the two sitting at the table might have an opinion on what she should do. She cleared her throat.
    “I need help—” she began.
    “Oh, be quiet,” Quinn said, obviously annoyed. “We’ve no time for your womanly cares.”
    Aisling was tempted to tell him her cares were slightly more serious than what hat to wear with which pair of shoes, but she supposed if they were talking about the fate of the realm, they wouldn’t care—
    Guards burst in the front door. Before she could do so much as decide how best to hide under the table, Euan had snatched up the trader’s license, taken her by the hand, and was dragging her out the back of the public room. She couldn’t believe those guards had come for her, but she wasn’t about to take the chance of being wrong.
    “Come
on
,” Euan whispered fiercely. “
Hurry.
”
    She didn’t need to be told that twice. She ran with Euanthrough the kitchens and out the back door. She continued to run down the street with him, because it seemed like the most sensible thing to do.
    Until she realized Euan had run them into an entire clutch of city guards.
    Euan shoved something into her hands. She looked down at it and realized, to her surprise, that it was the trader’s license. She looked up and watched as Euan was swallowed up in the crowd of black-garbed men brandishing swords. Before she could say anything at all, she had been taken by the arm and pulled away.
    By a Guild guard.
    “Nay,” she gasped, trying to jerk her arm away from him, “I’ve done nothing!”
    He drew a knife. “If you want me to use this, keep struggling.”
    She stopped only because it occurred to her suddenly that she might stand a better chance of getting away from him if she feigned acquiescence. After all, that was what she did best.
    The guard looked over his shoulder, cursed succinctly, then resheathed his knife in his belt and dragged her off the main street down a side street she’d never seen before. Then again, the pub wasn’t in the nicest part of town, so there were several streets she hadn’t dared explore.
    She ran with him, because she supposed that she might manage to dart away