The Timeseer's Gambit (The Faraday Files Book 2) by Kate McIntyre Read Free Book Online Page A

generous… oh, but smart, too. He was the perfect Youth. And then, of course, our Maiden. Elisa―that is, Elisabeth―Kingsley.” She shook her head. “I don’t know what Elisa is going to do without him. Lachlan, ah, you can’t replace someone that good.”
    “Are you getting all this?” Olivia asked Chris.
    “
Yes
,” he snapped back, but when he looked down at his notes, they were a disaster. One scrawled sentence stood out at him, nested in the midst of all those names and descriptions.
Faith did nothing for Fernand
, it read.
Hope and joy and he killed himself and left me.
    “Miss Faraday…” Mother Greta began, and Olivia perked up at being solicited a question. “If you please, I don’t understand something. How is it that you’re so sure a spiritbinder is responsible for this?”
    “Well, Missus Milton,” Olivia chirped, “I’m so glad you asked that! Fortunately, we have an
expert
on spiritbinding right here!” And then, a little gleam in her eyes, she turned to Chris.
    He wanted to argue with her about it, but then sighed. What was the point? She’d win in the end. “I’m certainly not an expert,” he said, setting down his notebook. “Just… my family… there’s ‘binding in our blood, that’s all, and I…”
No one wants a full explanation, Christopher!
He could practically hear Olivia’s voice. So he shook his head and pushed on. “The articles all specify that none of the bound items had been broken. The only things that can free a spirit from a binding are a breakdown of the bond, a spiritbinder actually freeing the elemental, or the bound item being damaged enough that it creates a… a loophole in the binding. A fiaran bound to an ice sculpture to keep it cold, for instance. The terms of her bond would no longer apply if the sculpture shattered, because now there isn’t an ice sculpture to keep cold, and…” They were all looking at him, and he hated that. He pushed on, getting to the ending as quickly as possible. “Nothing was broken and we already established that this was no coincidence, not with that sort of pattern, and so…” He trailed off, letting someone else make the conclusion.
    “Someone who wasn’t a spiritbinder could break a bathtub with a big enough hammer and a hard enough swing, but since the tub was fine, the undine wasn’t released from her contract.” Olivia clarified. “Bindings simply break down all the time, but they can’t be helped
along
without shattering the object they’re bound to. So. Any questions?”
    Mother Greta shook her head. “No. No, that makes sense. Yes. Our congregation… well, spiritbinders are very faithful. I’m not sure what it is, but I think they’re the most reliable worshippers we have.”
    “Young ones, or old ones?” Olivia asked idly, and Mother Greta gave her an awkward sort of smile.
    “There are no young spiritbinders, Miss Faraday,” she said gently. “Not anymore.”
    Olivia blinked, and then frowned. She hated to be wrong about something, and she shot Chris a look. “Sorry,” she said. “I know one who’s
very
young. Makes it hard to remember the state of things.” And thankfully, before the priestess could press, she continued. “I don’t suppose you keep record of your worshippers?”
    “No,” Mother Greta replied. “Of course not. The church is an open door!”
    Olivia rolled her eyes. The carriage rolled to a halt.
    Chris glanced out his window. Heart Church seemed so much larger up close than it did from a distance. He’d been there only a few times, when Fernand had talked him into it, and he’d never gotten used to just how grand it was. Stained glass representations of the Three and Three stared down serenely at him, and under all of those eyes, for a moment, he questioned his lack of real faith. Didn’t he owe the gods more than he’d given them? Like Fernand had always said?
    “Let’s go see this body,” Olivia said.
    His thoughts scattered.

    They sloshed through water