Children of Fire Read Online Free PDF Page B

witch’s breast to flow with milk. Suppressing a shudder at the sound of the babe’s suckling, he pulled his gaze up to meet Bella’s eye. Keeping his voice level he said, “I work for Sir Wyndham.”
    Bella pursed her lips together and her cold eyes narrowed. “Madam Wyndham, you mean.” She made no effort to hider her contempt for Conrad’s overly pious wife. “It’s too late for her. Her child is dead, and I can do nothing to bring it back.”
    She tried to slam the door in his face, but Roland was too quick for her. Jamming it open with his foot he pushed his way inside.
    â€œHow do you know about that?” he demanded. “The midwife only delivered the child an hour ago!”
    He was a tall man, thick through the chest and shoulders. He towered over Bella. But the tiny, silver-haired woman glared up at him unafraid before turning away and letting her free arm drop indifferently from the hut’s door.
    She headed to a small crib in the corner, glancing back over her shoulder to speak in a sinister whisper. “I see things. I know things. I have
power.
”
    â€œThen you know why I’m here,” Roland said, ignoring the implied threat in her voice.
    He followed her inside, closing the door behind him. The single room that made up the whole of the domicile was lit with a lone candle on a back wall near the crib. It kept the small hut warm, but most of the room was cast in dark shadow. He could just barely see shelves on the walls cluttered with numerous jars, and there was a small table piled with an assortment of bottles and vials in one corner. Things floated inside the glass, suspended in translucent fluids. In the gloom he couldn’t make out enough detail to identify them … not that he would have wanted to, anyway.
    â€œI don’t know why you’re here,” Bella admitted, speaking softly as she put the babe down in the crib and wrapped her in a soiled, stained blanket.
    She laced up the front of her tunic before turning back to face him, much to Roland’s relief.
    â€œThe things I see are not always clear,” she explained. “Only death is always easy to understand.”
    â€œYou knew Madam Wyndham’s child would die?”
    Bella nodded once.
    â€œWhy didn’t you tell anyone?”
    â€œWould she have listened to me?” she countered.
    â€œYou don’t seem upset that a newborn is dead,” Roland noted. He was angry, but he kept his voice quiet so as not to disturb the child.
    â€œI had nothing to do with that!” she snapped, keeping her own voice low. “There is a plague upon this province. Children die!”
    Her reaction was understandable. Bella was well respected in the town, but she was also feared, even by those she used her arcane powers to help. Celia Wyndham was a vocal supporter of the Order, and an outspoken critic of Bella and her ilk. It wasn’t out of the question that she might try to blame her child’s death on the witch-woman … if Madam Wyndham ever found out her child had died.
    â€œI know how that child came to you,” Roland said, getting to the heart of the matter with a slight nod toward the crib.
    â€œAnd what of it?” Bella demanded, her voice defensive. “I offered to raise the child, teach her the ways of my craft.”
    â€œWhy?” Roland wanted to know. “The child is cursed. Born under the Burning Moon.”
    Bella snorted. “Cursed? A word used by the fearful and ignorant! The child is blessed. She is
strong
!”
    â€œShe has the Gift?” Roland guessed, the pieces starting to fall into place.
    The witch refused to answer his question. “Who else would take her in but me? Better to let her die an orphan?”
    â€œThe Order would have taken her.”
    Bella grinned at him, exposing pearly, too-perfect teeth. It was a joyless expression, a smile meant to mock him.
    â€œYou know what the