Sword of Power by Oliver Pötzsch

Author:Oliver Pötzsch [Pötzsch, Oliver]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781503904415
Publisher: Amazon Crossing
Published: 2018-07-23T18:30:00+00:00

XVI

When they finally returned to the tavern, long after midnight, Lukas couldn’t fall asleep. Too much had happened up there at the castle, and the scratch he’d gotten from Barnabas the bear-man was hurting. But the wound wasn’t all that deep. This time, he wouldn’t need magic powers—a simple bandage and a little herb salve would suffice.

Lukas tossed and turned in bed, while Paulus, Giovanni, and Jerome all snored loudly nearby. Elsa, lying beside him, twitched in her sleep. She had only awoken for the briefest of moments when Matthias had laid her into bed. Occasionally she mumbled something indistinct, as though talking to someone. Apparently, she was having nightmares.

Lukas regarded his sister, who had changed so much over the past two years. She looked young and vulnerable, but earlier at the White Tower she had seemed much older.

Old and evil.

Like an evil old witch, Lukas thought, shivering.

Elsa’s sleeve had slipped upward a little, revealing the thumbnail-sized mole near her right elbow. Her father, the inquisitor Waldemar von Schönborn, had the same mole. Elsa had always denied their similarities, but Lukas was beginning to suspect that they were more alike than either of the siblings had suspected.

Far more alike . . .

Lukas thought back to what Elsa had said just after she had brought down the bear-man with that bolt of blue lightning. She’d called him a traitor, but it had been as though some stranger was speaking through her—she’d seemed completely different. Lukas knew what had caused that change.

It’s the book.

Immediately after they’d returned to the tavern, Lukas had hidden the Grimorium underneath their bed. He still wasn’t sure what to do with it. Now, as he stealthily reached for it, Elsa began tossing and turning violently in her sleep. Lukas froze when he realized his sister was staring at him with open eyes. Once again, only the whites were visible.

“The power . . .” she murmured. “Don’t risk it . . .”

But then she closed her eyes again and rolled over onto her side.

Moving as silently as he could, Lukas got up and sneaked to the door, Grimorium in his hand. His friends remained blissfully asleep as he hastened downstairs. He needed to be alone for a while so he could think. Zoltan had scratched the worst of the muck from the crown and then returned it to the chest beneath his bed, where he kept the scepter. Gwendolyn was sleeping in a small chamber next to his.

Gwendolyn was the only person Lukas would have enjoyed seeing at that moment. He thought she might be able to advise him on what to do with the Grimorium.

He certainly didn’t know.

Lukas went into the kitchen, where a few embers were still glowing in the oven. After laying on some fresh pieces of wood, he sat down near the reddish glow of the fire and began cautiously flipping through the book. It was the first time he’d looked at the Grimorium closely—Elsa had always kept it from him.

He was astonished all over again at how inconspicuous the Grimorium was, this infamous Book of the Night.

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