Watched by Warlocks Read Online Free PDF Page A

elf-like and magical.
     
    Father O'Grady smiled from ear to ear. “Because you're home, little one! We missed you so,” he said, burying the boy in his bear-like chest, taking in his heartbeat with his own. The boy pushed back, squirming to get out of Father O'Grady's hands. Ennis jumped down onto the ground, his feet curiously bare, and ran into the crowd of people. “My sir, where are you going?” Father O'Grady called back, before returning his attention to the young woman at his face. He helped her up by the small of her hand, and she smiled back at him. “Miss Lili, did you go off and become a hero for your son?”
     
    “I tried,” she said, looking around the crowd in the waning evening light. She seemed so grateful all her townspeople looked after he so intently.
     
    “We are lucky you have returned,” Father O'Grady said. “This has never happened even once in my lifetime. Please tell us how you made it back?” But she didn't answer him, a tiredness growing in her eyes, as if she had just returned from a long marathon or war. She glanced down at the third figure, whom none of the people in the crowd had ever met. Father O'Grady gasped when he realized he had almost stepped on the unconscious blond man at his feet. He kneeled down to the man, whose upper cheek featured a dark and purple bruise, his ragged clothes hanging in disconcerted shreds from his body. He was hairless and beautiful, blond hair and black eyebrows, perfectly symmetrical about his face. Lili stooped down as well, taking the man's paw in her hand, placing a single soft thankful kiss on his knuckles.
     
    “My hero,” she whispered, as the congregation carried her away before her emotions took over. Holding her in their arms, an elderly couple guided Lili past the crowd of people, toward the safety of the church-house, passing a curvaceous and subtly beautiful woman in the process. This was Elsa, the hero of our story. There were several women in the crowd, and they all seemed to take a peculiar interest in Lili's predicament, but possessed even more infatuation with the stranger in their midst. The fading sun, setting on the girls' round and ruddy cheeks, reflected an interest one might expect from much younger ladies, still in their teens.
     
    “I hope she's okay,” one of them said. “Maybe she brought back a husband for us.” The woman laughed.
     
    “That's such an indecorous thing to say, madam. Take it back. He's so beautiful. Who is he?” asked another lady, her broad shoulders grabbing the aforementioned curvaceous woman, pointing her in the direction of the crowd's concentration. “Elsa, look.”
     
    Elsa could not look, as the throng of legs and bodies blocked her view of the scene. She shifted her gaze back and forth, attempting to get a better look at whom Father O'Grady was talking to. “I can't see,” she said, feigning less interest than she had. “Let's forget it, gossips. We should focus on what we have regained. Lili and Ennis have been returned to us.” The comment had a powerful effect on snapping the two other women back into their places, as flashes of genuine guilt spread over their faces.
     
    “You're absolutely correct,” one said. “We mustn’t speak so lightly of a great tragedy which has been averted.”
     
    They all agreed with the woman, tightening their collars and rectifying their attention to the solemnity of the situation. This didn't last long, though, as the entire crowd moved as one entity, closer and closer, to the man laying on the ground near Father O'Grady. The blond man was in this moment a feature in some exotic show, inadvertently put on by the leaders of the town. The crowd filed in a single line past the man, getting one good glimpse, then moving on for the people waiting behind them. When Elsa's turn came, she saw this young, beautiful man sleeping soundly at her feet, while Father O'Grady called for the local healer to fetch a white sheet on which to carry him. Elsa