Player's Ruse (26 page)

“What do you mean?” His brows drew down as he observed my guilty expression. “Michael, what have you done?”

“I gave the reward for capturing the wreckers to Rosamund,” I admitted. “As a dowry. I’m her family, and since she and Rudy insisted on helping Makejoye make up his losses, it seemed the least I could do.”

Fisk’s mouth opened and closed like a landed fish. “You gave the money away?”

“You said you didn’t care about the reward. Time after time. You didn’t even want to know how much it was.”

“That was when I thought we’d have to die to get it. Which we cursed near did! And you
gave the money away?
”

I tried to think of some further defense, but there wasn’t any. “Yes. I gave the money away.”

Fisk closed his eyes in pain. “How much was it?”

“You don’t want to know.”

I set off down the sunlit hill; our friends were getting ahead of us. It had been a while since we’d had friends. I was looking forward to it.

“Yes, I do,” said Fisk, scrambling after me. “How much?”

“Trust me, you really don’t want to know.”

“That much? You might as well tell me, since it’s gone. I can’t believe you gave the money . . .”

I’d a feeling we’d be having this discussion for a long time to come. The future beckoned, adventure in the offing and my squire beside me. Who needs gold when you have friends? I would try that argument on Fisk sometime. When he was calmer. And duck. I looked forward to that, too.

HILARI BELL
retired from a career as a librarian to pursue writing full-time. Most would call her a fantasist, but her novels offer memorable characters and a potent mix of adventure, mystery, and fantasy that defies classification. Her growing list of titles includes
THE LAST KNIGHT
and
ROGUE’S HOME
, the first two Knight and Rogue Novels;
THE PROPHECY; THE WIZARD TEST; GOBLIN WOOD
; and
A MATTER OF PROFIT
.

Hilari says, “The Knight and Rogue books, of all the books I’ve written, are the ones I
like
the very best. I love both main characters. Michael and Fisk are an absolute blast to write.”

Hilari lives in her hometown of Denver, Colorado. You can visit her online at www.sfwa.org/members/bell.

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Copyright © 2010 by Hilari Bell. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bell, Hilari.

Bell, Hilari.

        Player’s ruse : a knight and rogue novel / Hilari Bell. — 1st ed.
                p.        cm. — (Knight and rogue)
        Summary: In alternate chapters, eighteen-year-old Sir Michael Sevenson, an anachronistic knight errant, and seventeen-year-old Fisk, his street-wise squire, relate their journey to Huckerston, a port town where dangerous bandits are raiding merchant ships.
        ISBN 978-0-06-082509-6 (trade bdg.)
        [1. Knights and knighthood—Fiction. 2. Fantasy.] I. Title.

PZ7.B38894Pl    2010
[Fic]—dc22

2008046905
CIP
AC

10    11    12    13    14    
LP
/
RRDB
    10    9    8    7    6    5    4    3    2    1

FIRST EDITION

EPub Edition © 2009 ISBN: 9780061964893