Anne Bishop Ephemera 02 Belladonna

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least, not by the Den's standards. Even Nadia had said as much, hadn't she?
"Can we not talk about Teaser? I don't need a sour belly so early in the
morning. Here. I brought a peace offering. Will you accept?" He held out a mug
of rapidly cooling koffee.
She took the mug of koffee but wasn't sure if she was ready to warm to him.
"Teaser was nice to me. The boys in the village were never nice to me."
"He's an incubus. There were things he was wanting from you that you wouldn't
be knowing anything about."
"I'm not a child, Michael," Caitlin snapped. "What be wanted was no different
from what the boys back home wanted, but at least Teaser was showing me a good
time, and he didn't expect me to go down on my back!"
She saw pain slash across Michael's face before he looked away, focusing on
that walled garden that led to other parts of the world.
"The world has disappeared right out from under me, Caitie, and I've lost my
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balance," he said quietly.
He hadn't called her "Caitie" since she was a little girl. She hadn't allowed
him to call her "Caitie," not since he'd taken up the wandering life. That had
been his punishment for leaving her. But she didn't have the heart to slap at
him for it. Not when she was feeling lost too.
"I thought I knew my life," he continued. "I thought I was resigned to the
bitterness of it and the hardship of it and the fear that I'd enter a village
just as I'd done for years but this would be the time the people would turn
against me because I was a Magician, and all their troubles would be laid on
my shoulders. I thought I was resigned to the things I couldn't have because
of what I was, and I had found a kind of contentment, even joy, when my being
in a place made a difference to someone. But the world is so much more than I
thought it was and I'm not sure of who or what I am anymore. I'm scared for
myself, and I'm scared for you. I've seen the monster, Caitlin Marie. I've
seen the thing that wants to chew up the Light and leave us all in the Dark.
And may the Lady of Light have mercy on us, because I don't know how we're
going to stop that thing."
Caitlin looked back toward the house and saw Glorianna and Lee heading toward
her and Michael. There was still enough distance between them not to be
overheard, but she lowered her voice just the same. "Do you think they know
how to fight the monster?"
"I'm thinking if they knew, they would already be standing on the
battleground. It's clear from the things that were said and not said last
night that they all think Glorianna is the key to fighting this battle."
Caitlin's breath rushed out of her, leaving her lightheaded for a moment. As
clearly as if she'd done it yesterday, she could feel herself as a girl
sitting near the attic window, looking at an old storybook she'd found in a
finely made wooden box, puzzling out the words with her newly acquired reading
skills.
"The Warrior of Light," she whispered, staring at Glorianna.
No.
Michael denied the words with all his will, but the truth of it clanged
through him like alarm bells shattering a peaceful morning.
No, he thought, struggling to breathe. Glorianna is the key to finding the
Warrior of Light, but she isn't the Warrior.
"I remember now," Caitlin said loudly. "The Warrior of Light must drink from
the Dark Cup."
Michael flinched, remembering the day he'd gone searching for Caitlin and
found her sitting in the attic with the book open in her lap, crying for the
woman in the story. Had she been old enough to understand the full tragedy of
the tale?
My heart's hope lies with Belladonna. She can't be the Warrior of Light. Can't
be. Lady of Light, please let it be someone else.
"What did you say?" Glorianna asked sharply, hurrying those last steps to
reach them. She stared at Caitlin. "The Warrior of Light must drink from the
Dark Cup. Isn't that what you said?"
Michael felt a wind blow through him. Felt Caitlin shudder in response to the
force of it. Saw Lee tense and lean as if to bend with it. And saw Glorianna
Belladonna standing before him face cold, green eyes wild, a flame in the
Dark. A flame that would destroy everything in its path. Then the moment
passed, and he wondered if he'd just imagined that wind blowing through him
until he looked at Caitlin and saw the same conflict in her face.
He had imagined nothing. Something had happened. The world had changed, and
nothing would be the same for any of them because he was standing in a garden
in a part of the world he hadn't known existed, looking at a woman who was the
living version of an ancient tale that was part of his family's legacy. On his
ninth birthday, his father, Devyn, had taken him up to the attic and showed
him the box of books that held the old stories.
"I've little enough to give you, Michael," Devyn said, resting ahand on the
box he'd taken out of a specially made cupboard "There's this cottage, but
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it's usually passed on through the female side of our family line. Since it
came to me, I guess there are no others anymore who can lay claim to it. But
this is just a place, boy. Just wood and stone. And if you have to leave it,
let it ff without regrets. But this..." He stroked the wood. "What's in here
is your real heritage."
Devyn opened the box and took out a book. He set it on Michael's lap, then
opened it.
After turning a few pages to try to understand why this book was so important,
Michael looked up at his father, puzzled. "They're just stories." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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