Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 87731 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87731 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Bria made no move to take it. “Nay.”
“Why must you be so obstinate?” Ogga scolded. “Do as I say and I will set you free.”
Bria reached out. “Let me touch you first so that I may see that you have kept your word when given.”
Ogga stepped back, her patience visibly thinned. “I have no time for nonsense. Touch it and tell me what you see.”
Bria shook her head. “I see things that have already happened. I do not see where someone is now.”
Ogga’s smile surfaced slowly and it immediately made Bria uncomfortable.
“That is precisely why you are valuable. If this truly belonged to the healer, then she touched it, carried it, left her mark on it.” The witch held the necklace in front of Bria’s face. “You may see where she once lived.”
Bria remained unconvinced and certainly not comfortable intruding in someone else’s life. “Why can you not use your magic to see that?”
Ogga’s face flared with anger. “Touch it or I will make sure you never see your husband again.”
Bria quickly stepped in front of Kaelan when he went to lunge forward and grabbed the leather cord. She worried needlessly that she would see nothing, a vision flashing instantly in her mind, and it shocked her.
She spoke without thinking. “You’ve been banished to your fortress by your own kind. This place is your prison. You and others went against the council.”
“They were fools.” Ogga snarled.
Her vicious anger distorted her face so much that Bria almost visibly cringed at the pure evil she saw there.
“They had the power and did nothing. They let Halric command them.”
“They feared for the children, for future generations,” Bria argued, having seen it all in the vision.
“And where did it get them?” Ogga asked, her anger continuing to smolder. “Their children were taken from them and raised without magic.”
Bria repeated what she had heard an elderly man say in the vision. “Magic will always survive and return home.”
“Bria is right,” Kaelan said. “Some young Thornek stray but they always return home, their connection to the tribe too strong to ignore.”
His words struck a chord in Bria. She had followed Kaelan into Driochmor without a thought. Had she instinctively known she was returning home?
Ogga scuffed. “And what about Braden?”
“He will find his way home to his tribe,” Kaelan said as if he knew it as a fact.
“Enough of this nonsense,” Ogga said. “Touch the pendant and tell me what you see.”
She had no time to debate whether Ogga could carry out her threat or not, and she would not have her husband taken from her.
Bria took hold of the pendant, and she immediately saw the troll holding it, turning it over in his hand, rubbing it against his shirt, shrugging then hanging it from his belt.
“You see something,” Ogga said excited.
“The troll found it,” Bria said.
“Aye but look past that and tell me what you see,” Ogga urged.
“I cannot. I can see only who touched it last.”
That got Bria thinking Ogga had touched the cord but not the pendant or she would have seen it. Why hadn’t she touched the pendant?
“Nonsense,” Ogga snapped. “The Wise can see all the way back to its creation.”
“Her ability has only made itself known,” Kaelan said. “It needs time to mature.”
Ogga glared at him. “She has no time. She sees it or she is useless to me, and if she is useless…” She let the thought hang there.
“This pendant has a piece missing from it,” Bria said.
“Useful after all.” Ogga smiled. “Tell me.”
“The piece interlocks with a similar piece,” Bria explained, pointing to a spot on the pendant where something had connected with it. “But I cannot tell where that piece is by touching this one. If I were able to touch things around where the piece was found, I might learn more.”
Ogga’s eyes brightened. “A chance to learn more. We will take it.”
“We?” Kaelan asked, though he did not need to. It was obvious what the witch was thinking and he did not like it one bit.
Ogga smiled. “You, your wife, and the troll.”
The beast stirred beneath the surface, not enough for anyone else to notice, but enough for Bria to feel it. The air around him seemed to tighten and she slipped her hand into his. His fingers immediately closed around hers firmly and she did her best to comfort, to ease the beast within.
“What of Braden? Does he know about this pendant?” Kaelan asked.
Ogga’s gaze sharpened. “Nay, Braden serves Tharne.”
Kaelan needed no further explanation. “If he learned someone could lead him to the healer, he would not hesitate to alert Dreth.”
“And your wife would be taken from you never to see her again,” Ogga informed him of something she was sure he already considered.
Bria felt Kaelan grow even more agitated beside her. A faint gold appeared in his eyes and brightened briefly before he lowered his head.