SummerDanse Read Online Free PDF

an answer, so I nodded again as I blinked tears back. He gave me a handsome smile.
    “Then this should come as no surprise to you.” He stepped up to me and held the stick to my neck.
    I let out a gasp of surprise. The stick was at least an inch thick and had been quite sturdy as he’d handled it; now, it bent as if it were a vine. He set it exactly in place, and I felt his fingers against my skin as he seemed to shape the thing. A moment later, he stepped back and admired his handiwork.
    “Yes, that will do nicely. Now, there’s a pail in the corner there, and clean straw in the stalls. Clean up that mess you made.”
    I rose from the stool and went to the dark corner he’d indicated. With my back turned, I reach up and fingered the wood that loosely encircled my neck. How had he bent it so easily? I shuddered. Then I picked up the pail, hoping no spiders or other crawlies were hiding in it. I almost asked for water, but decided that, assuming I would be spending the night in the cage again, I didn’t fancy having damp wood beneath me.
    I picked up a large handful of straw and went to the cage. Using the straw like a rag, I swept the waste into the pail, then used a fresh handful to wipe the area dry. When I’d got it as clean as I could, I stepped away.
    Anazian stood up and, using a foot so as not to have to touch it, he slid the pail over to the door. “Ruination of a perfectly good bucket, more’s the pity,” he muttered loud enough that I could hear. “Still, I don’t suppose it could be helped, after all. And it doesn’t really matter.” He took something from a shelf on the wall next to the door. “Change into this.” He threw it at me, and I caught it. A plain, white shift. “Now!” he shouted when I didn’t move fast enough.
    To my intense embarrassment, he didn’t allow me any privacy while I changed. I turned my back to him and tried to be as discreet as I could. Whether he actually watched me or not, I never knew, choosing not to look and see what he was doing.
    “Back inside,” he said.
    I wondered for a split second if I could make myself follow his order, but when he reached toward me, I pulled myself together and climbed back on my own.
    Shivering as he “closed” the opening again, I tried not to cry.
    He picked up my clothes and the lantern and left without another word.

    It worked. It was hard to do, harder than anything I’ve ever done before, but it worked! Long I sought the knowledge, and acquiring it was costly in both gold and energy. But it was worth the expense and more. I long to share this knowledge with my father. I am very sure it will help us accomplish our great task.
    It is unfortunate, of course, that the spell takes a full day to prepare for and a day and a night to recover from. And it cannot take one as far as one might wish.
    Ah, but when it is needful, what a wonder it is to move instantly from one place to another!

When I tried to sleep, I couldn’t get comfortable and instead simply tossed and turned. When my hand touched the wood around my neck, I sat up.
    I examined it the only way I could in the dark: with my fingers. It wasn’t at all tight, though not loose enough to take off. It was a perfect circle and, strangest of all, had no beginning or end. How could Anazian do such a thing? I passed it endlessly through my hands, even dragging a fingernail along it, but could find not chink nor seam.
    The night grew chill. I sat shivering for awhile, still fingering the wood collar. My maejic hadn’t worked the night before, but there was no reason not to try it again. After all, maybe it had just been the shock of everything that had happened. First, Grey getting stabbed and maybe—no, probably—dying. Surely Anazian knew exactly where to strike so that there would be no hope that his victim could survive.
    Then there had been transporting instantly from one place to another. Now it occurred to me that perhaps that’s what had weakened the mage the night