Riddle of Fate by Tania Johansson

Author:Tania Johansson
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi, epub
Published: 2014-05-28T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

The Impossible and the Unexpected

Derrin resisted the urge to give Phalio a parting smack in the face before following Roi. The boy ran to the stables and bridled a gelding. He jumped on, bareback, and heeled the horse on to a run.

Derrin didn’t bother running, choosing to Leap from one point to the next to stay with them. They raced down the gravel road by which the carriage had arrived, but took a narrow, barely visible, path to the right. The boy had to duck low to avoid the branches of the oaks lining the road and encroaching on the path. He kept himself flat against the gelding’s neck, urging it on faster.

The path dwindled and disappeared. At an apparently arbitrary point, the boy swung the gelding to the left. Sweat plastered Roi’s fringe to his forehead. He was showing complete disregard for his and his horse’s safety. The moonlight was dim and the boy would have no chance of spotting a rabbit burrow that would easily break the gelding’s leg.

Roi reined the horse in to a trot before following a faint footpath that curved to the right. It lead to a dilapidated cottage. Several windows were missing. The wooden porch, pocked with holes, wrapped around the front of the house. It had probably once been a lovely home.

As Roi neared, the front door, which was hanging on by one hinge, creaked open. “Power in Knowledge,” a girl’s voice called from within.

“Authority in Wisdom,” Roi called back.

The door swung open and a girl of about fifteen stood with a beaming smile, a sword in her hand, tip resting on the ground next to her foot. Her brown hair hung to her shoulders and framed a round face.

“I’ve almost forgotten what you look like, Len!”

Roi chuckled and leapt from his horse. “What are you doing with that toothpick?” he asked nodding at her sword.

“I’ll have you know this ‘toothpick’ would have skewered you if you’d forgotten your phrase.”

Roi waved a dismissive hand and followed the girl into the cottage. Inside it was clean and swept, but a smell of mould clung to the air. She led Roi into the kitchen where a small cookfire crackled with a black pot bubbling away atop it.

Roi went to take a seat, but the girl caught his arm, “Not that one, it’s spilled me to the ground twice today.” She swung the pot off the flames and replaced it with a pot of water, adding tea leaves.

How strange that he would race here as though every second counted only to sit there and make small talk. “Phalio was in a right state today,” Roi said.

“Oh?”

“Looked like he’d been throwing things around. That clock he was always so fond of lay in pieces on the ground!”

“That’s unlike him.”

“Carleen said that she’d heard another man’s voice in there, but she didn’t see him. And no one saw him come or go.”

“How strange,” the girl said, her eyes alight. “You’ve always said there’s been some strange people around his house.

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