The Cypher Wheel Read Online Free PDF Page B

much about this city.”
    “Well, a great lot of help you lot turned out to be,”
Faedra snorted and held her hand out for the clue. Jocelyn passed
her the notebook.
    “No longer receiving patients. So it used to be a
hospital,” Faedra mumbled to herself. “The main hospital moved out
of the city a few years ago and they made apartments out of the old
one, but it can't be that one, it's not in the shadow of the
Cathedral. Privileged eyes? What does that mean? Hmm...” Faedra
looked around the group to see expectant eyes staring back at her,
the owners' breath bated in anticipation.
    Just then another group of people burst into the
museum.
    “Come on, let's think about this outside,” Faedra
said to her group. Deep in thought, pencil to her lips, she
followed Faen out of the door to the fresh breeze outside. The
willows seemed to whisper to her as the four of them stood under
their weeping boughs. After a moment, Faedra broke the silence. “I
have an idea. I'm not sure if it's right, but it's the only thing I
can think of at the moment. Just around the corner is The Great
Hospital. It's really old but it's not a hospital anymore; it's a
care home for the elderly.”
    “Sounds like a plan to me,” Etyran said.
    “Well, the only one we have, anyway,” Faen continued
with a sly curve to his lips.
    “This way, then.” Faedra directed her friends. They
took off at a steady clip out of St. James Mill and back around the
corner past the pub they just left a little while ago.
    A few moments later, they were standing in front of
the open iron gates at the entrance to The Great Hospital. They
stared at the rambling buildings that sprawled out in front of
them. Faedra's shoulders sank.
    “Even if this is the place, how the heck are we going
to find a teapot in that lot?” She opened her arms wide to
encompass the many beautiful buildings that were now home to some
very lucky elderly residents. Faedra turned to look up at the
ancient church tower that rose up to the right of her, for
inspiration. The original hospital had been housed in the church
itself. Apparently, it was the only church in the country to have
chimneys. They had to build fireplaces to keep the patients
warm.
    “This might help,” Jocelyn said a little off to their
right, tearing Faedra from her thoughts.
    Faedra, Faen and Etyran turned to see the young fairy
staring at the wall to the right of the wrought iron fencing.
Intrigued they wandered over to join her. On the wall was a large
information board telling the history of the buildings with
pictures to go with it. Jocelyn was pointing to one picture in
particular.
    “I think we have found where 'the eagles fly free',”
she said.
    “Oh, well done, Sister,” Faen said giving his sister
a rub on the shoulders.
    Jocelyn turned to her friends with a very satisfied
grin on her face.
    Faedra leaned in to get a better look at the picture
Jocelyn had pointed out. The entire vaulted wooden ceiling was
painted with dozens upon dozens of black eagles.
    The Eagle Ward was in the oldest part of the
buildings and it didn't take much to decipher which one that was.
They ran through a passageway and into a tiny set of cloisters,
their footfalls echoing off the walls. Even through their
excitement of getting close to the next clue, the cloisters threw
off a tremendous feeling of peace. Faedra fell instantly in love
with the building and its surroundings and thought to herself how
lucky the residents were to live in such a place. There were a
couple of doors they had passed but attempts to open them proved
fruitless, they were all locked. A few more strides and they came
to a door that was left open.
    “This must be it if all the others were locked,”
Jocelyn stated.
    Just as Faedra was about to follow the others through
the door, she sensed an energy that wasn't there a second before.
She turned to look through the cloister arches. Her eyebrows
scrunched. Was someone there? She leaned to one side, opening