Read Online Mind of the Magic (Arhel Book 3) by Holly Lisle - Free Book Online Page B

out.”
    He nodded. “Let me try. I don’t have the magic you do, but maybe that will just mean I won’t look as tasty.” Witte frowned and stared down at his hands. After a long, tense moment, he stood and gestured, muttering something Faia couldn’t quite hear. A shimmer of silver appeared in front of Faia, like a window into the golden light. At first she saw nothing in the window at all—then Medwind Song appeared, somehow even more beautiful than Faia had remembered her. The Hoos woman stared upward, her lips curved in a smile of unimaginable bliss. She sat at a table with First Folk tablets in front of her, frozen—Faia couldn’t even see a sign that she breathed. Golden light surrounded her.
    “That’s Medwind,” Faia told Witte.
    “Oh, dear,” he murmured. “She looks like she’s in a bit of trouble, wouldn’t you say?” He waved a hand at the magical mirror he’d created.
    The scene in the mirror shifted. Medwind vanished, to be replaced by Roba Morgasdotte, who knelt in the burial chambers. A wax tablet and stylus lay in her lap, evidently dropped at the moment the golden light had overcome her. She was hugely pregnant, and frozen in place; her expression was identical to Medwind’s.
    “Oh, Lady! That’s Roba Morgasdotte,” Faia said “She was supposed to have had her baby months ago.”
    Witte frowned. “Tsk, tsk. This doesn’t look good. Not good at all.”
    The view shifted again, this time to Thirk, toppled on the ground where Faia had last seen him. He’d fallen when Roba pushed him while saving Kirtha’s life—he’d been trapped in that wall of light ever since. His equally blissful expression grated on Faia’s nerves, but she was pleased that he, at least, remained frozen in place next to his idol, Edrouss Delmuirie. And Delmuirie—
    Thirk’s image faded, replaced by Delmuirie’s. His was a face that would have looked at home in any back-country village—his heavy cheekbones and sharp nose should have made him homely. His eyes, staring upward with that same cowlike expression of contentment, didn’t improve his looks either. He had, however, the most perfect smile Faia had ever seen. She wished she could punch it off his face. She stared at him, glowering. The entire mess was his fault. “Idiot,” she snarled.
    Witte looked up at her, his expression hurt “Me? An idiot?” he asked. She pointed to the form in the mirror. “No. Delmuirie.”
    “Oh.” He nodded. “That almost goes without saying.” He waved a hand again and the view once more changed. Now the mirror showed Kirgen, who sat with a stack of drypress beside him and a scritoire in his hand, stopped in the middle of the translating work he had come to love so much. Faia bit her lip hard enough to taste blood—if she didn’t love Kirgen, he still remained one of her dearest friends, and the father of her daughter. Somehow, she had to save—
    “My da!” Kirtha shrieked, and leapt to her feet before Faia could stop her. The child bolted across the floor of the chamber and leapt through Witte’s window, straight into the enveloping golden light.
    “NO!” Faia screamed and lunged forward after her daughter. She, however, didn’t reach the light. Suddenly her feet seemed to grow to the floor. She couldn’t move—couldn’t take a single step.
    Kirtha ran as if moving through deep water, one step, two steps, and then a third—and then she froze, just inside the wall of light, one foot still lifted as if she were going to complete her next step at any instant. As she came to a stop, the light of Delmuirie’s wall grew even brighter and more intense, and billowed out again, coming to rest after a moment only a few finger’s breadths from the place where Faia stood, trapped.
    Behind her, Witte sighed. “Yes,” he said. “Yes, precisely so. Things proceed apace.”
    Faia tried magic to free herself—but every time she attempted to ground and shield herself so that she could break away from the