Legacies Read Online Free PDF Page B

through his shoulders and arms, and down his back and his left leg. He woke abruptly and sat up in the darkness, panting, sweating, and recalling the intensity of the pain, a severity he recalled, but no longer felt. Except that it was still there…somewhere.
    Voices drifted up the ladder.
    â€œâ€¦hurts so much, Royalt…”
    â€œI know…I know.”
    Sensing the helplessness in his grandsire’s voice, Alucius crept out of his bed and to the top of the ladder that led to the end of the hall below. Although his grandparents’ room was a good five yards away from the base of the wooden ladder, the door was ajar. Like all herders, Alucius could hear from much farther away than could most people.
    â€œI’ll fix some root-tea and put some of the aspabark in it. That will help.”
    Alucius waited at the top of the loft ladder until his grandsire had walked toward the kitchen and until he heard the clank of the stove door and the clunk of the coal scuttle. Then, he slipped down the ladder. He glanced toward the kitchen, and then toward the closed door to his mother’s room. He eased through the open door.
    His grandmother lay propped up with pillows in the wide bed. Her eyes were closed, and she was breathing heavily. Even in the near-darkness—the only light being a glowstone on the bedside table—Alucius could see the tightness in her face and the pallor, an almost yellow-green tinge that came as much from within as from the greenish light of the stone.
    â€œRoyalt?…”
    â€œIt’s me, Grandma’am…Alucius.”
    â€œYou would know…” A faint smile appeared, one that vanished as her entire body stiffened.
    Alucius could feel that same stabbing pain, not so severe as when it had wakened him, but the same. He didn’t know what to say. Finally, he murmured, “It hurts a lot, doesn’t it?”
    â€œYes…child…it does.”
    Alucius edged closer to the bed, standing next to the finial rising from the post on the right side of the footboard and resting his right hand on it. “It’s been hurting for a long time.”
    Veryl did not reply, instead silently going into another spasm of pain.
    Alucius reached out and touched her leg, and the intensity of the agony almost convulsed him, and tears began to seep from the corners of his eyes. No one should have to bear that pain. No one, and certainly not his grandma’am.
    He swallowed, and then let his senses, his small Talent, become himself, as though he were lost in the Talent. He kept one thought, fixed it within himself—that the ugliness and the pain had to end, and that his grandmother had to get well.
    Yellow-red shot through him, and he trembled, and grasped the finial ever more tightly.
    Then a wave of whiteness washed over him, and then a wave of blackness.
    Alucius woke to find himself on the long couch in the main room, his mother looking down at him, her face drawn.
    â€œAlucius…” She bent forward and hugged him. “You’re all right. You’re all right. I was so worried.”
    â€œI’m…fine.” He yawned. “Tired…” He frowned, realizing that he’d been in his grandparents’ room. How had he gotten into the main room? What had happened?
    He squinted. He remembered fighting with the yellow-red pain, and wanting her to get better. His eyes widened. “How is Grandma’am?”
    â€œShe’s sleeping.” Lucenda’s hand went to her mouth. “Alucius…”
    â€œShe’ll be better,” Alucius said, yawning again, and turning on his side. “I know she’ll be better.” This time, now, he could sleep.

9
Hieron, Madrien
    The long and narrow workroom was lit by three crystal light-torches, their radiance far brighter than those few antiques remaining and used throughout the rest of Corus. On the racks that flanked two sides of the chamber were objects of