The Last Druid by Colleen Montague Read Free Book Online Page B

up Calla’s injuries, but the most they could do was try to put some medicine and bandages on them; the cuts were deep and no one could say if the puncture wounds were poisoned or not, and the slightest touch to the whole area made Calla cry out.  She heard them muttering something about a possibility for infection, but they were out the door before she could hear any more.
    Morlan left her and out to speak to the guardsmen who had arrested Mika.  None of them had any clear idea about what happened or even why.  Calla thought she could still hear her stepmother screaming in rage, demanding to know why she had been stopped.  She would be sent directly to prison with an increased guard; no one wanted to take any chances with her, not after she tried to commit murder.
    Perhaps what they didn’t know was better off being kept secret.
    Ca lla sat at the back door with her knees tucked up under her chin, thinking, a little difficult since she was starting to feel strangely dizzy.  She couldn’t shake the memory of what had happened to her.  With the slightest gesture her stepmother had made a flying lizard’s corpse catch fire; the way she had looked, it was as though she had been controlling the thing, maybe even had created it.  And the way her eyes were glowing that unnatural red color, a dark crimson—it felt evil.  What Mika had done right in front of her…it was impossible.
    What is she? Calla thought.
    Whatever the case, Ca lla knew she couldn’t stay there anymore.  If Mika somehow had the power to summon unnatural creatures and to destroy their remains, then she was potentially capable of anything and a jail cell was not going to hold her for long.  Calla’s life would now be in danger, along with those she cared about if she stayed around.  Every sense was now telling her to go.
    But she couldn’t shake off one question: why did Mika suddenly try to kill her?
    Her thoughts drifted back to the conversation she’d had with Mai earlier that day.  Everything the Nymph had said sounded so impossible at the time, but after this...Ca lla wasn’t so sure anymore.  The Nymph knew something about her, and apparently Mika knew that same something as well—she had attacked with the intent to kill.
    What was it about her?
    Calla decided there would be more time to ask about that later; somehow she knew this was far from the end of the troubles to come her way.  As quietly as she could she got up from her seat and crept into the kitchen; she grabbed a bag from the counter, gritting her teeth against the continued pain in her arm, and grabbed what food items she thought wouldn’t be missed—bread, cheese, some meat and vegetables from down in the cellar.  She would grab weapons and clothes and whatever else thought she would need as she left.
    Hopefully that Nymph was still in the area.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    VIII
    The Watcher
     
    The Elf-like creature stood before the woman in her prison cell, towering over her.  He glared down at her with severe disdain.  She cowered before him, but he wasn’t convinced her act was real.  He was disgusted by what she had done: she had tried to kill the girl, and showed no remorse for her actions—instead she was proud of it and would do it again if given the chance.  He grimaced at the stink of the dark energy coming off her; it was stronger and heavier now that he was up close to her.
    The worst thing about the whole situation was that the child was a Druid—the only one that existed in the whole world, and the only one who could protect all life.
    He heard shouts outside—he didn’t have much time left.  The locals had to have noticed the unconscious guards at the front gate by now.  He would have to be quick about his business if he didn’t want to be discovered by any of them.  He continued to glare at the woman who crouched on the floor in front of him with her back pressed against the wall.  “You have committed the gravest of