Memory's Wake Omnibus: The Complete Illustrated YA Fantasy Series by Selina Fenech Read Free Book Online Page B

shifted near the closed door and a figure loomed toward them.
    “Mem, we shouldn’t have come,” Eloryn whispered over her shoulder. She clung to the back of Memory’s shirt as though she stuck there when they bumped together.
    Thanks for the told-you-so but we can’t go anywhere now. Isabeth and Roen stood behind them in the small room. The man blocked the doorway, the dark silhouette of his features starting to clear in Memory’s eyes. He stared down at the girls. Memory tensed. A shiver of terrified nausea crept up her back, and her hand moved itself toward her back pocket.
    “What do you think you’re doing?” He strode past them, straight at Roen, anger growling in his voice. He shook Roen by the shoulder with an outstretched arm. His only arm. Memory gasped. His right arm was missing from the elbow down, hidden by a rolled and pinned sleeve. Memory forced her mouth shut, trying to look anywhere but at his missing limb. Her eyes were inevitably drawn back.
    Roen spoke calmly and looked the man in the eye. “Father, please, can we talk?”
    “Brannon, love, they’re just children,” Isabeth said.
    “No, they aren’t. Look at the state of them. They... are trouble.” Brannon kept a grip on Roen as though he would throw him back out of the house. He turned and glared at the girls. Memory cringed.
    “We’ll go. Let us go, please?” Eloryn’s clutch on Memory’s shirt tightened and her pitch rose.
    “No,” Roen cried, then his volume dropped again. “I mean, please stay, you are welcome here.”
    “You know they aren’t. Get rid of them before their trouble follows them here.”
    “Father, please, they can’t go. They still need help.”
    “Why would you bring them here? You should know better. You’re free to come and go as you please. No one knows who you are. Has that made you forget what it’s like for your mother and me? The danger we’re in? You know what will happen if we’re found.”
    Roen’s composure cracked and his volume rose to meet his father’s. “We weren’t followed. They won’t-”
    “Do you even know what trouble they are in? Bringing a couple of strays home without any idea of the risk? What have you told them about us?”
    Roen frowned, opening his mouth but not speaking.
    Memory found words rushing out of her own mouth instead. “He really didn’t tell us much – anything – nothing at all. We just needed some help.”
    Brannon scowled at her, the deep wrinkles in his face twisting around a grey-streaked beard. He pushed Roen out of his grasp. “I want them gone.” He stormed across the room to a curtained off doorframe, and disappeared through it. A second later another door slammed.
    Roen rolled the shoulder his father had grabbed. He turned to Eloryn and Memory with a strained smile and a shrug. “You don’t have to go anywhere, really. Mother?” He gave Isabeth a pleading look and hurried through the same doorway as his father. The smell of bread wafted out, teasingly, and Memory glimpsed signs of a kitchen before the curtain fell closed again. Her stomach gurgled from the combination of hunger and stress.
    Eloryn tugged at Memory’s shirt and whispered, “We should go now.”
    Close behind them, Isabeth tutted. “I don’t see the harm in letting you get cleaned up and fed. Don’t mind my husband, he just worries.”
    Memory breathed in the scent of fresh bread again and closed her eyes. Whatever Eloryn’s reasons to go, the lure of ‘cleaned up and fed’ overwhelmed Memory. She hoped Roen wouldn’t be in more trouble if they stayed just a little longer.
    Memory turned around to face Eloryn, who eyed the front door. “Roen promised we’ll be safe. Let’s just rest a little, then go.”
    Eloryn’s lips pulled thin, but she gave a tiny nod.
    “Take a seat and I’ll see what I can find for you both,” Isabeth muttered. “So dark in here. Àlaich las.” A warm glow magically lit the room. Isabeth walked out to the kitchen without looking