Key Of Valor Read Online Free PDF Page B

each at a point where aspects of your life were unsettled and dissatisfying. And,” she added, “because you were paid. But you’ve continued to quest because you’re strong and you’re true. No one else, not in three millennia, has come so far.”
    â€œYou’ve learned the power of art,” Pitte continued, and stepped over to join Rowena. “And the power of truth. The first two journeys bring you to the third.”
    â€œYou have each other,” she said to the women. “And you have your men. Together you make a chain. You must not let him break it.” She stepped forward and spoke to Zoe as if they were alone in the room. “It is for you now. It was always for you to finish.”
    â€œFor me?” Panic wanted to gush into her throat. “If that’s true, why did we pick before? With Mal and Dana?”
    â€œThere must always be choice. Fate is the door, but you choose to walk through or turn away. Will you walk through?”
    Zoe looked up at the portrait, and nodded.
    â€œThen I’ll give you your map, your clue to the key, and pray that it guides you.” She walked over and took up a scroll.
    â€œBeauty and truth,” she read, “are lost without the courage to hold them. But one pair of hands can grip too hard, so that the precious slips through the fingers. Loss andpain, sorrow and will, blaze the rough path through the forest. Along the journey there is blood, and there is the death of innocence and the ghosts of what might have been.
    â€œEach time the path forks, it is faith that chooses the way or doubt that blocks it. Is it despair, or will it be joy? Can there be fulfillment without risk of loss? Will it be an end, or a beginning? Will you move into the light, or return to the dark?
    â€œThere is one who stands on either side, with hands held out. Will you take one, the other, or close your hands in fists to hold what is already yours until it’s ground to dust?
    â€œFear hunts, and its arrow strikes heart, mind, belly. Without tending, wounds fester, and scars too long ignored harden into shields that block the eyes from what needs most to be seen.
    â€œWhere does the goddess stand, her sword in hand, willing to fight each battle in its time? Willing, too, to lay down the sword when the time comes for peace. Find her, know her power, her faith, and her valiant heart. For when you look on her at last, you will have the key to free her. And you will find it on a path where no door will ever be locked against you.”
    â€œOh, boy.” Zoe pressed a hand to her stomach. “I can keep the paper, right? I’m never going to remember all that.”
    â€œOf course.”
    â€œGood.” She worked hard to keep her voice calm and even. “It sounded a little . . .”
    â€œViolent,” Dana put in.
    â€œYeah, that.” Zoe felt better, considerably, when Dana’s hand came to rest on her shoulder. “But, it seemed, compared to the others, that my clue was more a lot of questions.”
    Rowena held out the scroll. “Answer them,” she said simply.
    Â 
    WHEN they were alone, Pitte stood beside Rowena, studying the portrait.
    â€œHe’ll come after her quickly,” Rowena said. “Won’t he?”
    â€œYes. He’s had more time to study her, to learn her weaknesses, to understand her fears and her needs. He’ll use them against her.”
    â€œThe boy is safe. Whatever we do, whatever it costs us, we must keep him so. He is a sweet boy, Pitte.”
    Hearing the pain, the longing in her voice, he drew her close. “He’ll be safe. Whatever the cost.” He pressed his lips to the top of her head. “He won’t touch the child.”
    She nodded and, turning her head, stared into the fire. “Will she trust, I wonder, as completely as I trust you? Can she, with all that has gone before, and all she has to risk?”
    â€œEverything