The Keys to the Realms (The Dream Stewards) Read Online Free PDF Page B

babes.”
    “Or kill them,” Euday added.
    “Yes, Euday, a sad truth,” Alwen acknowledged with obvious regret. “And the favored practice these days, I’m afraid. It used to be that Madoc would make regular travels outside the Fane in search of the wildlings and bring them back here. He called them his foundlings. But I understand it has been many years since any abandoned witches or wizard babes have been found.”
    Alwen loosed a short sigh and redirected the discussion. “As for the scrolls, as you can see, I have only four.” She let the rolls drop, one by one, naming each as they fell upon the desktop. “Caelestis, Eniad, Uir, and Morthwyl. The fifth scroll, the continuation of the Primideach line, Madoc’s heritage, is missing. As is his last testament, which was left for me but never recovered after his death.”
    Frustration sharpened the tone of her words. “This, of course, presents a dilemma on the issue of Madoc’s successor. I am his proxy, not his heir. My birthright is to lead the Circle of Sages. It was also Madoc’s express desire.”
    Glain was riddled with prickles of guilt. She shared Alwen’s distress for all the same reasons, but she had one that was all her own. Long had she been Madoc’s confidante, but in the frenzied hours of his last days, Madoc had gone to great lengths to safeguard his legacy. He had handed her his absolute trust and in return demanded a vow of silence. This quickly became a difficult pledge to keep, and Glain had struggled with it every day since. Madoc was a masterful keeper of secrets, but she had never quite acquired the stomach for it . At the moment, Glain felt as though she had swallowed far too many—and the morning meal was curdling in her gullet.
    Alwen leaned forward, elbows propped upon the open pages of the ancient book and hands clasped, contemplating them all again. “It has been suggested to me that Cerrigwen somehow found Madoc’s hiding place and stole away his testament when she escaped. I do not believe this to be the case. His testament remains in this castle, as does the record of his lineage. We must find them both.”
    “Might they not just as easily have been destroyed as concealed ?” Verica wondered.
    Glain went cold all over. This was an impossible thought. What if the scrolls were never found? The knowledge they contained had such great value that Madoc had protected them like precious treasure. What was to be done if they were lost?
    “I have considered this,” Alwen said. “But the information in those documents is too precious. The only person who might gain anything by destroying them is Machreth, but even he would be more likely to leverage the knowledge. I am also convinced that neither he nor Cerrigwen had access to these chambers. They couldn’t have taken the scrolls.”
    Glain could not help but wonder if Madoc had somehow not foreseen the potential for theft or destruction of the scrolls by some other traitor. And then again, perhaps he had, and this was all a test of her faith in him. Madoc had held a hard line when it came to revelations. What knowing came to a Steward by way of visions and signs was meant to be used to guide others toward a wiser choice. But when a person would not be persuaded, the fates were meant to unfold of their own accord—no matter how tempting it might be to force a different outcome. Whether or not a supernatural power should intervene was for the Ancients to say, and this had been where Madoc and Machreth had become so fatally divided. Madoc believed guidance still came from the Ancients, through signs and visions, whereas Machreth believed they had long abandoned their followers to their own designs. Glain had always sided with Madoc’s beliefs and would never have questioned his wisdom when he was alive. But in this moment, she was discovering an understanding for the alternative view. It was misery.
    “No,” Alwen proffered. “I believe the scrolls remain intact and within the