Prince of Thorns & Nightmares by Linsey Miller EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author: Linsey Miller
- Language: English
- Genre:Action & Adventure Fantasy
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
KNIGHTY NIGH
IN A DINGY inn dripping with rain and choked with the scent of hunter’s
stew, in the middle of his first throw for the penultimate round of darts, His
Royal Highness, Prince Phillip of Artwyne, knighted the year before and
skilled in all manner of princely things, missed the dart board entirely.
Half the crowd groaned. A few threw copper rots at him, the coins
clattering to the floor. Phillip caught one, kissed it, and bowed to his
opponent. A miller with suspiciously good aim and a good few years on
him, she saluted him with her dart.
“Losing isn’t very knightly of you,” she said, nodding to his purse.
“Though I hope you’re chivalrous enough to pay up.”
Phillip had eschewed the usual trappings of royalty, traveling with the
nondescript crest of a lesser family on his clothes, but everyone in the inn
had seen him arrive on horseback with his armor the day before. Only a
knight could afford a courser, and everyone had upped the bets on the
games once he started playing. Fortunately, no one had connected him to
Prince Phillip yet. Portraits were rare in such a rural area, and his name was
ordinary enough to not rouse suspicions. Nobles were more common than
royals, anyway.
People expected knights; they didn’t expect errant princes.
“Have mercy,” said Phillip. “I sold my chivalry to afford dinner.”
Well, he was errant.
“Oh, don’t show him mercy,” said a woman behind him, her familiar
voice making him wince. “He loses nightly, so he should be used to it.”
Johanna, his squire for a year and friend for three, had no respect for
him at all, and that was how Phillip preferred it.
“I have half a mind to leave you here,” he said, and glanced at her over
his shoulder.
“You have half of a mind?” She gasped and clutched her heart, full
mouth in a completely believable O of shock. “I hadn’t noticed.”
It was better to let Johanna think she had the upper hand. Tall and well
built, she could easily take him in a fight. She preferred camping, where she
could write poetry aloud without anyone overhearing, but Phillip had
dragged them to the small village yesternight after two weeks on the road.
Her wet black hair was braided in a crown around her head, a sure sign she
wasn’t too angry about the detour. Not even Johanna would pass up a warm
bath.
“Stop letting him stall, Maxine!” shouted a woman near the door. She
had thrashed Phillip at chess the night before and was walking the coin
she’d won from him across her knuckles. “Win so I can go home earlier and
richer.”
Maxine—Phillip really had to start learning people’s names before he
lost to them—blushed all the way up her ears.
“Perhaps missing was a well-calculated move,” he muttered and faked a
yawn. “She a friend of yours?”
“Emma’s friendly enough,” mumbled Maxine.
Phillip had missed on purpose. People had been playing darts off and on
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