Red Solstice (Alfheim Book 1) by Unknown Read Free Book Online Page B

available as well.  I make a suet crust and fill a large bowl with the pudding tying down the top with some butter muslin and string.  As the thing does take its own good time to cook I help prepare the potatoes and fresh garden vegetables ready and then pop outside to do a work out.  Aylsa comes to join me about half way through this.  I gather they had a little bit of a party last night after the gig as she is looking just slightly worse for wear and I wonder how bad my brother is.  I mention we have the bottle of wine that I bought yesterday and she grimaces slightly then adds that John said he would bring some more with him as well.  When we finally return to the kitchen Hilda has put on some fresh bread to bake and the smells filling the house are to die for.
     
    Time is suddenly running away with us and somehow we do not get back out to the 'office' before we are inundated with dinner guests.  So it is much later in the evening when Hilda and I leave the others to play some silly board game, which requires a lot of shouting and general laughter, and head on over to the out building.  I take a glass of wine with me as I have a feeling I may need it.
     
    “The reason that my husband had waited such a long time to come back for me was that he firstly had to ask permission of his lord and secondly he could not move between our realities except at an Equinox or a Solstice.  He had originally arrived at the Solstice and it had taken him until the Equinox to actually track and kill his target. His encounter with myself had left a lasting impression and he thought me as fair as I had found him.  His original reason for being here was to chase after one of his kind who had stolen from their lord.  It was his job to bring him back or kill him.  He was one who stood high in their military command and because of his abilities he was chosen to be his lord's Hunter.”  I do not much like the concept of this as I have certainly, as far as I know,  not done anything to be kidnapped or murdered. Hilda laughs at my expression and continues “I do not think that Mr Red is sent to kill you but I can imagine that there are those in Alfheim that would like to have you in their power.”
    “But why?”, I ask.
    She sighs, “Your mother is a high born woman and very important to her mother.” 
    “But John said that she came from another country,” my voice trails off.  Why can't people just tell me the truth.  I voice this, “Why can't people just tell me the truth”
    “Because they are trying to protect you and then they are forgetting that you need to know certain things that will keep you safe, and possibly they do not have the ability to defend you, as you could them.  Your elder brother is a fine, young man and has good intentions but he does not have the same abilities as you do.  He is definitely his father's son and your father was exactly as he seemed, a kind, talented artist.  No more and no less”.
    “Which must mean,” I say,  “that Red should have arrived similarly at the last Equinox and needs to leave at the coming Solstice, or else he is trapped here for a further three months.  So, I take it that  Red is also a Hunter and therefore someone highly trained in weaponry?”
    “He would have to be as it could be a matter of his survival and also your own as there are many factions in Alfheim that would like to thrust a proverbial spanner in your grandmother's works.  She is reported to have made at least one enemy in high places and she deems herself untouchable because of her, let us say, sexual charms.  He would also need to be an adept to have created the geasa that he has used on you.  How strong he is I cannot tell as that is not my field of study.  I am a healer.  I can only recognise some things and offer my conjecture as to others.”
    “But he seems so young, almost as if he is a similar age to myself, and there is a vulnerability about him.”
    She shrugs, “Perhaps that is