Odin’s Betrayal by Donovan Cook EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author: Donovan Cook
- Language: English
- Genre: Ancient Historical Fiction
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
AD 854, SAXONY, EAST FRANCIA
‘There he is!’
‘Get him!’
Charles heard the voices and ran. He did not need to look behind him to
see who it was. He knew already. They had been picking on him since the
day he and his father had arrived in Hügelburg, a small fortified town near
the outskirts of the Frankish kingdom. That was five years ago. Back then,
they had all been small boys and the worst they could do to the red-headed
boy was call him names. But now that they were older, the abuse had gone
from verbal to physical and there was nothing Charles could do about it.
Not only because there were six of them, but also because he was smaller
than them all, even though they were all roughly the same age. That was
one of the reasons that the boys enjoyed picking on him.
Charles ran down the street to the only place where he felt he would be
safe. It wasn’t his house. The small, run-down building barely offered any
protection against the weather, and if his father was home, then he would
only expect Charles to fight the boys. He glanced at the tall tower sticking
out over the roofs of the houses as he ran, its bell silent but calling to him.
Charles did not want to look behind him to see how close his pursuers were,
but he knew they were near. He could hear it from their excited shouting,
like hunting dogs about to catch a fox.
‘We’re going to get you, piglet!’ one of the boys shouted. Charles
recognised the voice as Drogo’s. He was the leader of the group and bigger
than them all.
‘Yeah, piglet. We’re going to make you squeal!’ He heard the boys
laugh as Gunthar, Drogo’s cousin, shouted this. Gunthar was younger than
Charles by a year, but already bigger than him.
Charles kept his blue eyes on the tower in the centre of the town and did
not see the baker walk out of his bakery, carrying a tray full of freshly
baked cakes for the market. ‘Watch out!’ the baker shouted as Charles
narrowly avoided barging into him, but could do nothing as the tray sailed
through the air, the cakes flying everywhere. Stray dogs appeared out of
nowhere, eager for a free meal and getting between Charles and his
pursuers, as the baker waved a fist at him.
‘I’ll tell your father about this!’
‘Thank you, God,’ he whispered as he turned the corner and saw the
church on the other side of the market square, which was very busy today as
Duke Liudolf, the duke of Saxony, had come to visit their small town. His
heart raced in his chest and Charles smiled, thinking he was going to make
it. But he did not see the little boy who had freed himself from his mother’s
grip and was running away from her, laughing at his own little game.
Charles flew through the air as he tripped over the boy and landed hard, his
ears filled with the boy’s cries and his mother’s screams.
‘My son! You little bastard!’
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