Sorceress' Blood by Carl Purcell Read Free Book Online Page A

feeling
welling up inside Rebecca was uncertainty, though. Whatever she
thought she knew about the world didn’t seem to make sense any
more and so why should the same morals she had always held to still
make sense? People killed each other left and right in the old days.
Men duelled to the death with pistols and way back before that you
were a noble, honourable person if you killed others. That was the
life of being a knight. She found it difficult to swallow but a sense
of urgency told her that now was not the time to get stuck on an
ethical debate with herself. There was a more pressing question that
needed answering: where did she go from here?
    Rebecca just kept driving. She knew that she had to get as far away
from the battle as she could before they realised where she’d
gone. Benjamin hadn’t given her any instructions about where to
go or what to do. She suddenly remembered what Lord Sebastian had
said. The order had separated themselves from the Sorceress’
family a long time ago so that no one could find them. Was that what
was going on now? Had Lord Sebastian and Benjamin just shoved them
out on their own and hoped for the best? Rebecca didn’t have an
answer. Rebecca just kept driving.
    After an hour, neither of them felt tired.
    “Ashley, reach under the seat and tell me if you find
anything.” Ashley did as she was told without a word. She felt
around under her seat until her hand touched something cool and
solid. Something metallic was strapped to the bottom of her seat.
    “There’s something stuck there.”
    “What is it?”
    “I don’t know.” Ashley took a firm hold on it and
tugged it a few times as hard as she could. Something clicked and
the thing came loose. “Got it.” Ashley withdrew her hand
and showed Rebecca what she’d found. The silver pistol Ashley
held looked a little smaller than Rebecca’s hand. Benjamin
wasn’t kidding when he said short. Rebecca was a little
confused that he’d called it a sword but the world she was in
now wasn’t the world she was in a week ago. In this world
garages were called stables, mansions were castles and now guns were
called swords.
    “Is it loaded?” Ashley began to examine the weapon.
“Careful.”.
    “How do I tell?”
    “I don’t know. Here, put it in the glove box.”
Ashley did as she was told and shut it away tight. Rebecca kept on
driving a while and slowly Ashley began to drift off to sleep. When
her only company had fallen asleep and the road stretched out
endlessly in front of her, Rebecca began to feel her eyelids getting
heavy. The road was becoming blurry. The street lights became hazy
and their little bursts of light began to fuse together and become
one long tunnel of light. Her head rolled to one side and she yawned,
her cheeks pushing her eyes closed for a second too long and the car
swerved. Rebecca felt it move and suddenly tightened her grip and
took control of it again. Ashley rubbed her eyes and looked around
wearily, not quite awake.
    Rebecca pulled off to the side of the road and turned the engine off.
    “What’s going on?” Ashley asked.
    “We’re just stopping for a while. I need to rest.”
Rebecca sat back in her seat and closed her eyes. Ashley let her head
fall gently against the window and let herself be taken by
unconsciousness. A visit to the Land of Nod. Rebecca soon followed
suit.
    Dawn came at an early hour the next day. The sun rose over the empty
horizon and spread its light over an uninteresting little silver
sedan, parked at a rest stop along the highway. It was the sort of
car you could easily go by without ever really seeing it. Rebecca
awoke to the first rays of the sun striking her eyes and piercing her
sleep, pulling her from a bleak, dreamless rest. When Ashley woke a
full half hour later, Rebecca was sitting outside on the front of the
car. Her face was thoughtful but her mind was drifting through a
random collection of concepts, giving each less than a second at the
front of her