Girl of Fire (Berona's Quest Book 1) by Gabrielle Mathieu

Author:Gabrielle Mathieu [Mathieu, Gabrielle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fantasy
Publisher: Five Directions Press
Published: 2019-11-02T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 28

Berona

I’d gotten up early to watch Hirschi and Shandon ride off in search of a training camp. Shandon looked pale but resolute. Hirschi had his usual impenetrable expression.

Shandon had explained their plan to all the acolytes yesterday. The local farmers led their cows up to the lush mountain pastures when the weather turned warm and brought them back down to the homesteads with the advent of winter. The high hills around Yassin were dotted with simple wooden shelters where the herders stayed in the summer, along with stalls for milking the cows and the odd cheese-making shed. He and Hirschi would look for buildings in good condition, which could be repurposed as huts for us. Once they’d agreed on a place, Hirschi would approach the owners and make them an offer for winter usage, while Shandon would start working on spells for protection.

Kendall, Shandon, and Hirschi agreed they would not disclose the location to anyone at Yassin. They did not trust the Council anymore. They would lead the acolytes there as soon as things were readied. One of them would come back to Yassin periodically for supplies, which Oberin would gather together.

“We’ll keep you safe from her until you are ready,” Shandon said. “Then we’ll go to that damned Forest of Bones and destroy it. We’ll find a way.” His grief had hardened into a new determination.

Kendall fetched me for a practice session after breakfast. She insisted I get used to wearing a heavy chainmail vest. I fell hard trying to avoid her thrust. After she had a good laugh at my expense, she gave me the afternoon off.

Following a lunch of stewed cabbage, onions, and lamb, I strolled the grounds with Oberin, admiring the fallow garden, fenced against the hens and rabbits, and the sturdy pens of wooly sheep.

We scuffed through the copper and scarlet leaves of the forest to a lookout from which we could see the deep valley and the twinkle of a river. In the north gray clouds amassed. Soon the winter snows would come for good. By then we’d be on lower ground, training from the break of dawn until the candles burned down at night.

Still, no one could tell me how much training I’d need to face the Demon. Shandon merely said I would know when it was time.

“You’re shivering,” Oberin said. “Should we go back to Yassin?”

I was well wrapped in woolens and furs from the store rooms. It was not winter that made me cold. “It’s so frightening. To think I’ll be fighting that evil creature someday.”

Oberin turned to me, his face serious. “We call her a demon, but in ancient times she was known as the First Mother. When men and Kijari structured the world to suit their needs for shelter and food, the Elementals lost their wild places. They are her children. She wants to protect them.”

“The Elementals are terrible too!” I thought of the bloated Red killed that summer day at the farm. I had felt suffocated by the sickly-sweet smell of flowers.

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