The Forlorn Read Online Free PDF Page A

either. If the city was attacked again there was nothing to keep their house—apparently the oldest and worst in several neighborhoods—from collapsing in on itself.
    Mara needed to be close to the outside walls in case that ever happened.
    Just the idea of being without light and air terrified her. Had her pulling in a breath, just to prove to herself that she could.
    Her eyes opened.
    She didn’t have a frackin’ clue where she was. There were people around her—a woman, a man, both dressed in the color she’d learned was the color of healers in these Dardaptoan people. There was another man there, and she looked at him for a moment.
    That’s when the details of everything that had happened flooded her mind. She tried to sit up but couldn’t.
    The man from the library moved, his hands came to rest on her shoulders. “Don’t move too much, little one. They had to glue your arm together in a few places to keep you from bleeding too badly.”
    “Where’s my mother? My brothers?”
    “My brother Aodhan went to fetch them.” His words were soothing, and she could at least appreciate that. But who was he, and why had he been in the library? “What do you remember?”
    “Not much.”
    “Why were you in the library? Nalik had ordered it avoided for very good reason.”
    She heard the chastisement in his words and her spine stiffened—metaphorically. Mara didn’t have the energy to straighten for real. “I—“
    “You know what, it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you are safe.” His hands slipped up from her shoulders to her face. He shocked her when he cupped her cheeks. She looked at him, seeing the resemblance to the man who’d brought her family here so many months ago. They had the same shape face, the same dark hair, and gold eyes. Only this man seemed different somehow. Who was he? “Tell me, what is your name?”
    “Mara.” What else could she say? She was having a difficult time looking away from him. What did it mean, that she found this stranger so compelling? “What happened? I remember the library. I touched the face of the carving, then you were there. I don’t know what happened after that. How did I get here?”
    He frowned then pulled back. He sank onto the bed beside her, then wrapped one hand around her right. “I carried you. Do you remember the attack?”
    “There was an attack? I thought I just fell inside the library. It was a bit of a wreck in there…” Was he telling the truth? “How badly am I hurt? I don’t want my mother or brothers to see me this way. I…need to get home. See if they are ok.”
    “I’m sure they are fine. Do not task yourself too much yet,” the female healer said. Mara looked at her fully for the first time. The woman had bright red hair and freckles, and eyes that were very understanding and compassionate. She immediately felt a bit calmer. Were all the healers like that? She’d not very many of them, just a minor healer who’d treated one of her brothers when he’d cut his leg a week after they’d moved to this place. “We are fetching them. The attack was centered around where you were. Your family most likely was unscathed. It’s you we need to be worried about.”
    “Why the library?”
    “You know nothing about the curse?” It was the man on her bed again. Who was he and why did he feel like he had the right to be there? He must have been someone important.
    He wore a turquoise scarf, similar to the one the woman wore. Were they related then? Hadn’t she learned that these Dardaptoans were divided by House colors? Her brothers faced taunts all the time for not having true hashas. It had taken her a while to put it together. Her mother hadn’t bothered to give the boys—or Mara—any indication what Dardaptoan family she had come from. Her brothers were the only children in the small school who had no family color. When asked, her mother refused to even speak of it. Would only shake uncontrollably and change the