2 To Light A Candle.13 by 2 To Light A Candle.13 Read Free Book Online Page B

mind; something too good to be true. But here it was again, as real as the rocks in the road. He took a deep breath and swung his leg over Shalkan's back.
    "I'll see you later," Shalkan said. "Get some sleep." When the unicorn was sure Kellen was steady on his feet, he turned neatly on the path before the door and trotted delicately away.
    Idalia opened the door, and Kellen hurried to get in out of the rain.
    "Rain. It's been raining since we started back. It's raining now. Doesn't it ever stop?" he asked, yawning as he walked inside. Everything was just as he'd left it, with the addition of a cloak-tree and drip-pan just inside the door. Kellen hung his sodden cloak on the highest peg, stretching and yawning again.
    "Eventually," Idalia promised. "Normally I'd suggest a hot bath before bed, but frankly, I don't think you'll stay awake through it—and I'd hate for you to drown after all my hard work. Why don't you get out of those damp leathers and into your nice dry bed? You'll need to sleep off that Healing. And then we can talk."
    Kellen nodded, heading toward his room. Bed! His own bed! And it would be dry, and warm, and he would not have to drag himself out of it at first light for sword practice, or another long day in the saddle…
    With a mumbled thanks to Idalia, he slid back the door and walked inside.
    The bed was turned down and waiting for him. Everything had been changed to autumn colors; there was a new bed-robe laid out, and—Kellen grinned to himself—towels as well. He sat down on the bench beneath the window and pulled off his clothes, toweling himself thoroughly dry afterward.
    Even in the exhaustion that was the aftermath of the Healing spell, every time he used his hands he felt an enormous pang of relief. Just to pick something up, to close his hands, to look down and see, not numb bandage-covered lumps, but ten healthy responsive pink fingers was almost enough to rouse him to wake-fulness again—almost. He'd lived with the fear for so long, that—because of the way they'd been burned, by magic—there'd be nothing Idalia would be able to do to Heal him.
    But now that was all over. He was fine. Better than fine. Healed.
    Time to move on to the next crisis, Kellen told himself, stumbling toward the bed.
    He was asleep before he'd pulled the covers up over himself.
    A few minutes after Kellen disappeared into his room, Idalia looked in. She found Kellen's clothing strewn all over the floor, and Kellen asleep like a hibernating bear. She smiled faintly to herself and went to brew tea.
    She was tired, but not tired enough to seek her own bed. There had been several present to share the cost of the Healing, and so the physical cost to her had been minimal. Normally, she would have also had a price to pay…
    But not this time, apparently.
    Idalia frowned. She'd never heard of such a thing before, but Wildmages didn't run to libraries of books setting down the accumulated lore of Wildmages past. For one thing, the Wild Magic itself was fluid and ever-changing, and the way things had happened in the past wasn't the way things would necessarily happen in the future.
    As it seems I've just proven. Ah, well, if there are explanations to be had, I suppose I'll find them in the Books of the Wild Magic.
    Once the water was hot and her tea was steeping, she went to her room and got out her three Books.
    The Book of Moon, The Book of Sun, and The Book of Stars were the three Books every Wildmage possessed. The Books were magical in themselves, and once they had found their Wildmage, they could not be separated from him or her by any means save the death of the Wildmage. Nor could they be destroyed. In them was everything a Wildmage needed to know in order to set their feet on the path of the Wild Magic, and a lifetime was not enough time to master their contents.
    Idalia sat in the front room and read, drinking tea and listening to the rain. Though she found comfort in the familiar pages, she found very little in