The Pool of Two Moons by Kate Forsyth Read Free Book Online Page B

was that the Red Guards also had to follow the river if they did not want to force a way through the heavily forested ridges that rose on either side. Subsequently the League's journey was a game of hide-and-seek, aided by the long sight of Jorge's raven flying overhead and the old man's prescient witch senses.
    The biggest danger was presented by the seekers of the Awl who occasionally accompanied the patrols. Jorge could shield himself with the ease of long practice, but the other members of the gang were more difficult. Tomas was protected by a pair of enchanted nyx-hair gloves, but the others had no way of hiding their thoughts, and some of them clearly had the potential for working magic. A seeker was trained to search out anyone that had any hint of magical ability, and there was a real danger that one of the children would inadvertently commit some act of magic that would alert a seeker to their presence. Jorge had already had to forbid Jay the Fiddler from playing his old, battered violin. The thin, olive-skinned boy had played for them one night, and Jorge had been able to see the magic woven into his music as easily as a man with eyes could see the stars in the sky. He had shushed the boy quickly, afraid that what human ears could not have heard from a few hundred yards away, a seeker would be able to sense with ease.
    The younger of the two girls, a lissom, mercurial child called Finn, had been quite distressed on Jay's behalf and had tackled Jorge the next morning. "Dinna ye like what Jay was playing last night? Why did ye tell him to stop? He's a flaming witch with the fiddle, I always think! Did ye no' like it?"
    "Och, no, it was bonny, Finn, it's just because he is a witch with the fiddle that I stopped him. His music is full o' magic. It's dangerous with so many witch-sniffers around." Jorge could feel the little girl's bright eyes fixed on him. With a gasp Finn said, "Do ye mean4t? Is it really magic? I always said it was!" With a bound she was flying away, no doubt to find Jay and tell him what the seer had said.
    Jay came to him later, his voice hoarse with repressed feeling, to say shyly, "Finn said ye think my music has magic in it . . ."
    Jorge patted the boy's hand. "Indeed I do, Jay, though I canna tell ye how powerful it is. If the Coven was still in place, I would recommend ye go to Carraig, but the Tower o' the Sea-Singers is now just a pile o' broken stones."
    "So there's no hope . . ."
    "I dinna say that," Jorge said. "There are still some witches left, my lad. and if all goes well, we will no longer be hunted through the countryside but building the Towers anew. Then all our futures will be different."
    Jay the Fiddler was not the only one who seemed bright with potential to the old seer. Finn herself seemed to shine with magical power, and Jorge found himself wondering about her. He asked her about her background, but she was a foundling with little memory of her past. In Lucescere she had been apprenticed to a thief and bounty hunter named Kersey, a brutal man who had beaten her often and set her to stealing for him. The only possession she had which might hold a clue to her past was a tarnished and battered medallion which she wore around her neck on a string. She gave it to Jorge to feel and immediately he felt the tingle of enchantment. He ran his fingers over it and felt the raised form of some animal, a dog perhaps, or a horse. Although he questioned her closely, she had no memory of how she came by the charm or what it meant; she only knew it must not pass out of her hands.
    "Why did your master no' take it from ye? He must have known it had magic."
    "He was a bloody stupid man," Finn answered. "He was not a true witch-sniffer, no' like the Grand-Seeker Glynelda." She gave a little shiver.
    "Ye have met the Grand-Seeker Glynelda?" Jorge asked curiously, knowing that it was impossible that the head of the Awl should not have sensed the power in the little girl as he had done. She nodded,