The Awakening by Nora Roberts

Author:Nora Roberts [Roberts, Nora]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Published: 2020-11-22T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Wind blew in from the sea and swept clouds, gray at the edges, east, over a wide roll of fields and the rocky promontories above them.

At least, she assumed east. For all she knew the sun rose in the north here. Some sort of grain grew in the field, swaying gold over the green. She spotted movement along the tower of rocks, and thought goats until she clearly saw two-legged creatures, wearing caps and long vests.

As she wondered over that, a group of kids she estimated as about the same age she’d once taught came into sight around a turn of the road. Pushing, elbowing, but in joking ways.

She counted five of them—two girls, three boys. One of the girls—dark skin, hair a mass of blue-tipped black braids—held up a hand.

When she dropped it sharply, she and two of the boys raced off in a blur of speed—impossible speed—while the other girl sprouted rainbow wings and bulleted through the air and the third boy dropped to all fours and became, in front of her eyes, a young horse that galloped after them.

“That’s something you don’t see every day, unless you’re here.” She glanced down to see what Bollocks thought of it, but he’d already run to and into the water.

She followed him down and, because her head ached, sat on the sandy shale and closed her eyes.

It soothed, the brisk wind, the lap of the water, the splashes and yips of the puppy.

She’d accepted the impossible as truth, Breen thought, and now she had to decide what to do about it.

She heard a cry, looked up to see a hawk circling.

And Morena sat down beside her.

“Showing off for you, he is.”

“He’s entitled to show off. He’s so beautiful.”

“We saw you wandering down this way, but you seemed well inside your own head.”

“I guess I was. I saw kids, five of them. If I have it straight, one was a faerie, one a were-horse. The other three were fast, ridiculously fast.”

“Elves. I saw them myself. They’re fast friends, that lot. You’ll usually see another girl with them, but she’s on a day of punishment for using a spell to do her chores.”

“So, one of the Wise?”

“Not so wise to think she could get away with not doing her chores proper as she was told to.”

Rules, Breen thought, and discipline for children. “So using magick to do the dishes, for instance, isn’t allowed.”

“We’ll say it’s situational. It’s discouraged, especially in the young ones, to take the short way. You have to learn how to milk a goat, plant a carrot, wash your linens, and all of it. Otherwise, you’ll end up lazy and fat, won’t you? Magicks are a serious business, not that they can’t and shouldn’t be fun along with it. But they’re not a convenience. If only that, you stop honoring what you have.”

Simple, Breen decided. And in its way, pure.

“I don’t know what to do with what I have. I lit a candle today. It took an hour of Nan’s coaching, but I lit it with an indrawn breath.

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