Memories of Ash (The Sunbolt Chronicles Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

basic defense spells Stormwind taught me or helped me to remember, and I get through them quickly. I wonder if she sometimes consulted these books while I was outside attending to my chores, for thus far there isn’t a spell I haven’t learned. They are mostly simple defensive sigils and their counterparts — like the protection on the trunk I so masterfully negated just now. Perhaps she used that ward specifically, knowing I’d easily be able to break it should the need arise. I wouldn’t be surprised if she did.
    The book goes on to describe how to prepare a circle of wards like those surrounding the valley. Or, as I recall from that last day before my sunbolt obliterated the rest of my memories, like the stone prayer beads I set around the vacant building where my friends and I meant to spend the night. Although those wards only contained the power to alert me to betrayal and could not provide any further defense.
    I rest my head in my hands. How differently might that night have unfolded had I been a fully trained journeyman by then, as I should have been? If I’d had such a book at my fingertips years ago, if I’d committed it to memory, each spell imprinted in my mind, the soldiers who attacked us might have been easily turned back. We might have escaped all together, betrayer and betrayed.
    I needed this book, needed it desperately. And now I may need it again. Except I need to have mastered it already, to have practiced the spells it describes until they come as naturally as breathing. At its first casting, a new-learnt spell can be as clumsy and uncertain as a newborn foal taking its first steps.
    We discussed my work each month and negotiated together what I would focus on, but I didn’t know about this text. Stormwind didn’t tell me — probably for good reason. She was trying to fill the gaps between what I’d studied with my parents and what I’d taught myself. She must have believed I would have another two or three years to learn from her, which would have been plenty of time to memorize this book — all of these books — from cover to cover. Neither of us considered that Blackflame’s reach might extend to this valley.
    Letting out a shaky breath, I go back to reading, stopping only when my head grows too heavy to continue.
    In the morning, after seeing to the chores I can’t forego, I raid Stormwind’s belongings once more. This time I look through the tightly wrapped bundles I’d relocated from the destroyed trunk. Eventually I find what I need, a set of pouches containing three necklaces. The first two are hardly any use to me at all, being fashioned of gold. A ward stone can hardly be made of metal. But the third necklace is lapis lazuli. The deep blue stone beads lie on my palm, coiled on their cord, and I wonder if I’m thieving.
    For now, I need to do this. When Stormwind comes back, I’ll return it to her. And if she doesn’t … well, perhaps I’ll still be able to give it to her. I add the gold necklaces to the pouch containing her diary and brooch and make my way back downstairs, clutching my prize.
    With Magical Wards and Defenses propped open beside me, I untie the cord from the silver clasp and slide the beads off. They’re comparable in size and shape — elongated barrels, thicker at the center and thinner at the edges. Together, they make a truly beautiful necklace, but no one bead stands out from the others, so I take a knife and carve a ring around the center of one of the beads. I’m not quite sure what I’ll say to Stormwind about that.
    With the first bead marked, I string them back on a different cord nearly six paces in length, tying a knot between each stone to space out their placement. I attach the silver clasp to the ends of the cord, creating a circle within which I can comfortably sit alongside my pack, or even curl up for a nap.
    Finally, I set about creating a set of wards. At heart, the spells I’m weaving are no different than the valley’s wards,