Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91636 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 458(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91636 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 458(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
“Who can tell me what happened?” Aliss asked. “No one has spoken of the incident to me.”
Fiona had no intention of keeping anything from her sister. Ignorance of the situation would only prove dangerous.
Obviously Tarr felt the same way since he answered, “We believe the arrow was meant to kill you. We have also learned that someone cut the straps to Fiona’s saddle, and if not found it would surely have meant her death.”
“Fiona and I thought this might happen.”
Anya did not look surprised. “We all worried over it.”
“Has any progress been made in finding the culprit?” Aliss asked.
“It is like chasing a ghost,” Anya answered.
“I do not believe in ghosts,” Tarr said.
“They are real, I tell you,” Anya insisted, and sat on the edge of the bed. “I saw one.”
Fiona squatted down beside her mother. “What did you see?”
“Months after you girls disappeared, I woke one night to see Shona standing beside my bed. She told me the twins were safe and I should not worry. Then she was gone.”
“She said nothing else?” Fiona asked.
Anya scrunched her eyes as if trying hard to remember, then all of a sudden her eyes rounded. “She made a sign in the air with her finger before she disappeared.”
“What sign?”
“A protective sign, the sign Giann the prophetess would make on entering and leaving our home.”
“Why would she do that?” Tarr asked.
“I assumed to protect us.”
“Where can Giann be found?” Tarr asked.
“I do not know. She travels the land and goes from village to village. I have not seen her in many months, though,” she said, startled by her own realization, “it is said she favors the Wolf clan.”
“Not a friendly clan,” Tarr said.
“But Giann is a generous woman. She goes where her skills are needed, perhaps if we let word out that her skill is needed here in Hellewyk, she would appear?” Aliss suggested.
Fiona stood and shook her head. “It could take time to reach her. We need information now.”
“True, but it is worth a try,” Tarr said. “Anya, who in your clan sought Giann’s skills?”
“Many went to her.”
“Anyone more than another?”
She thought, nodded, then slowly shook her head. “Odo spent much time with her, though it was more because he favored her, and not for her skills.”
“Still, he may be able to tell us something that would help,” Fiona said. “Was Giann around when we were abducted?”
“Nay, she had left before you girls were born, though she predicted the birth of twin girls for me.”
“Did you seek her skill to help find us?” Aliss asked.
“Odo did. Giann confirmed it was the slave Shona who abducted the twins, and she said they were taken far away. That was all she could tell us before she took her leave. I had hoped for more and wished she would remain with us just in case she was needed. But she had other matters to tend to, and she was a free woman; we could not force her to stay. When next I saw Giann she told me you girls were safe, but refused to say any more.” Anya grew upset. “You do not think she had something to do with the kidnapping, do you?”
“She knew more than she told,” Tarr said.
“Why keep it from me?”
“That is a good question,” Tarr said. “I will leave so that you three may talk.” He hurried out of the room.
“Such a sudden departure,” Aliss said, curious.
“I agree,” Anya added.
“He is up to something and I intend to find out.” Fiona fled the room.
Tarr braced himself against the wall at the top of the stairs and waited. He did not expect it to take long; Fiona should be following him in mere minutes. He heard her approach, though he had to admit she was quiet. Most would probably not hear her gentle footfalls, but his father had trained him to hear not only in the chaos but in the silence as well.
As she rounded the corner, his arm reached out and caught her around the middle.
“You set a trap,” she accused, and shoved his arm away. “You knew I would follow because you are obviously up to something.”
“You are angry that I caught you, not that I set a trap and I realized Giann is the key to this mystery? I wanted to speak with Odo about her.”
“I have not been snared since I was young, and father taught me the skill of avoiding capture. You should have told me that.”
“Why would he teach you such a thing?”
“It was a game to us, nothing more, and do not change the subject.”
“Forget that for now, I think I have discovered something more important. It was much more than a game,” Tarr said. “He was preparing you.”
“Preparing me?” Fiona glared at Tarr. “That would mean—”
“He knew this day would come.”
While the news surely must have shocked Fiona, she remained calm. “Why would he not have told Aliss and me?”