The Magic and the Healing by Nick O'Donohoe

Author:Nick O'Donohoe [O'Donohoe, Nick]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Juvenile Fiction, Animals, Dragons; Unicorns & Mythical, Fantasy & Magic
ISBN: 9780142407073
Google: ZdRvAAAACAAJ
Amazon: 0142407070
Publisher: Firebird
Published: 1994-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

F•I•F•T•E•E•N

THE WALK DOWN the stone steps was faster. Brandal had not been wearing his battle gear, and did not bother pausing until he was in front of the Seer.

Harral, who was wearing an odd new headband, regarded him with one reddened eye. "Hail the well-trained hero."

"Too well trained." Brandal sat on a comparatively dry rock near the lip of the well. Several small fish, startled by his movements and the unexpected torchlights, dashed madly away to the safety of deeper water. "We can defend ourselves, but we can't fight an army. If she finds a way to attack with her full force, she'll win."

"Ah." Harral scratched absently with his stone hand at the place where his flesh merged into roots. "Morgan, strategy, and boot camp. A terrifying combination, isn't it? Tell me," he said with apparent indifference to the answer, "do you ever wish you had agreed to her execution?"

Brandal raised his eyes, staring tiredly at the Seer. "I wish she were dead. I still don't feel I could have ordered her death, and I don't wish to kill her."

"You also still don't wish to see me. And here you are."

Brandal considered. "If she should get a copy of The Book of Strangeways—"

"She hasn't," Harral said flatly. "She has found it, and is trying to steal it. If she succeeds, she will have it within ten days."

"And if that happens?"

Harral recited it as though it were past history—which, Brandal reflected gloomily, the future is to prophets. "The Inspector General will die two days after she acquires the book. She hopes to kill him earlier."

"He can defend himself," Brandal said firmly.

"True. Unfortunately for himself, he can also defend others. In addition, the innkeeper Stein will die the day she acquires the book; the children of the Great will die within a year. Coincidentally, the last of the Great die fifty years to the day after the last of their young. You, O King, will live long enough to be punished as a deserter by the Wyr in Morgan's service."

Brandal waved that off. He had lived with that threat for some time now.

"The Stepfather God will be killed in a celebration the following spring."

Brandal was on his feet.

"Are you so surprised? She intends to kill all of Crossroads; could she succeed while he was alive?"

Brandal was numb. Murder for him was abhorrent, regicide (for obvious reasons) taboo; deicide was beyond comprehension.

"And what if we keep The Book of Strangeways from her?"

Harral spread his grotesque hands. "Then she fails, but only at the last possible moment. You haven't asked how she moves from world to world presently."

"The Wyr lead her, of course. I wouldn't trust them to lead troops, and apparently neither does Morgan. But they obey her; why?" He spoke with the hurt that, for Brandal, would always accompany betrayal. "I never expected them to be loyal to Crossroads; still… what's her hold on them?"

The Seer said only, "You haven't asked about the visiting heroes you were so anxious about last time."

"I know more about them," Brandal said glumly.

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