Raven's Strike by Patricia Briggs Read Free Book Online Page B

belonged to Isolde the Silent.
    Tier had known about the mermori for years, but Seraph had seldom done more than look through the graceful silver forms, which to him looked like small elaborate daggers. He’d seen Isolde’s house once or twice, but that didn’t make the sudden appearance of a house in the middle of the wilds any less fantastical.
    They were looking for a way to free the Orders that the Path had bound to gemstones.
    â€œIt would have been easier,” Seraph told him one night, “if the Path actually managed to do what they had intended. If they had managed to separate the Order completely from the Traveler they killed, the gemstones could probably just have been destroyed to free the Orders.”
    â€œBut you can’t do that now.”
    She shifted against his side to get more comfortable. He didn’t tell her that her elbow was digging into his ribs where they were still a little tender because that would make her move away from him entirely. She’d wriggle around a bit more before she fell asleep anyway.
    â€œNo,” she said, yawning. “Brewydd says there were only ever a few Orders in the world. When one Order Bearer dies, the Order is cleansed and passes to a new bearer. Because of the Path’s interference, these Orders aren’t cleansed.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?” he asked. He’d missed these late-night talks. When they’d first left Taela, he had been too tired by the time they stopped each night to do anything but sleep. He was tired tonight as well, but not with the kind of exhaustion that made him lose consciousness as soon as he quit moving.
    â€œMost of the gems don’t work quite right,” Seraph said. “What was supposed to happen was when the gem was worn against a wizard’s skin, that wizard could use the powers of the Order just as if he was the Order Bearer they had stolen it from. Brewydd thinks that they were stealing the Order too soon, before it was cleansed by the death of its previous bearer.”
    â€œSo the gems are haunted?” Tier asked.
    Seraph nodded. “Or so we surmise. Volis said that none of the Healer gems work right.”
    â€œIf you break the stones, won’t the Orders be freed?”
    Seraph shrugged. “Probably. But they’ll still have bits and pieces of their previous owners’ experience—maybe even personality. Brewydd thought it might keep them from bonding at all—or, worse, make the Order act more like a shadow taint.” She took a deep breath. “Like the Guardian Order, maybe.”
    â€œI see why you can’t just destroy the gemstones,” Tier said, smoothing her hair.
    â€œIt might come to that eventually,” Seraph said. “But I’m not anywhere near willing to take that risk.”
    The mountains were a mixed blessing, thought Tier a few days later. It meant they were getting closer to home—but it also slowed their pace.
    Jes and Lehr had taken to ranging in front of them withGura, looking for chance game or wayside robbers—leaving the women to totter along with the cripple and his old warhorse, Tier thought sourly. Journeying with Benroln’s clan, he had gotten used to riding while others walked, but it bothered him more when his only companions were a pair of women.
    When they came to a fairly level stretch of road he threw one leg over Skew’s rump and dropped to the ground with a groan.
    â€œWhat are you doing?” Seraph put her hands on her hips and frowned at him.
    â€œI’m going to walk a bit,” he told her, and suited his actions to his words.
    â€œBrewydd told you to keep off those knees.” Seraph slipped an arm through his and walked beside him.
    â€œThat was a week ago,” Tier said. “I’ll only walk where the road is level. Skew needs a rest.”
    â€œHe does not,” she said stubbornly. “Tier—” She stopped herself. Her voice soft, she