Incorrigible: Secrets Past & Present - Part One / Entrapments (The Staves of Warrant)

Author:Rich, Morgen [Rich, Morgen]
Language: eng
Format: azw
Publisher: Bookmite Press
Published: 2013-05-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Weavers

Gráinne had no time to spare, or her bluff would be for naught. Scrambling down the back staircase, she darted around the carved settee in the reception room, leaving a lantern wobbling on the table beside it. Dashing through the dining hall and into the kitchen, she slammed the door and leaned against it, out of breath.

Caera looked over her shoulder at the commotion.

“Please . . . do not tell . . . Slyxx you left me alone with that hideous little male,” Gráinne blurted out in winded spurts. “If he asks, say Argwan ran inside and locked the door before you could enter. I will say the same.”

Caera paled, frozen in mid-task, with a stubby knife in one hand and a half-sliced potato in the other.

Gráinne feared the cook’s lack of colour predicted a fainting spell. “He will kill all three of us.”

Caera nodded and croaked out, “As you wish, Mar . . . Grahhhh,” before she turned back to the wooden table and continued to slice the potato.

Wasting no time, Gráinne headed back up to her room. She thought about Argwan’s inability to open the scroll cases, the first of which she had opened with ease. When she arrived in her chamber, she picked up the scroll case Argwan had thrown across the room and held it between her hands, rolling it with her thumbs and forefingers. As the case turned, the scroll inside clunked against the edges of its container. Each thump made her stomach knot until she could stand the suspense no longer.

“Time to find out.” She grasped the ends and twisted.

The case opened with a pop, and Gráinne flinched. “Did you enchant them so that only I could open them, Uncle Syldhen?” She pulled the scroll out of the tube and carefully unrolled it.

An intricate design filled the page. Two concentric circles formed an outer ring, a series of various knots filling the narrow space between them. Inside the innermost ring rested nine small circles—four inner ones and five farther out. The four inner circles sat at cardinal locations, and inside each was a symbol for one of the four physical elements: fire, water, earth, and air. Lines connected the inner circles to form a diamond while those connecting the five outer circles formed a five-pointed star. In the center of the star, a stick-figure humanoid lay atop a box. A second stick figure hovered above the first like a floating looking-glass double. The circle at the top of the star bore the word “rebirth” and its symbol while the words “growth” and “spirit” and their respective symbols marked the two circles positioned at the bottom points of the star. The arms of the star ended at the remaining two outer circles, one marked with the symbol for the moon goddess and the other labeled with the symbol for the sun god.

Gráinne studied the design. It reminded her of the mentor clerics in the Order of Numinus dragging sticks in the sand to instruct neophytes in the art of formal rituals for the seasons and to give thanks to the Goddess.

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