Victories by Mercedes Lackey Read Free Book Online

you everything you need to know,” she said. “You’ll understand the rest when you have the Hallows.”
    “So where do we start looking?” Spirit asked.
    “Yeah, seeing as we’re kind of on-the-clock here,” Loch said. “First of May, Armageddon Day!”
    “Too bad,” Vivian said. “I told you: I don’t know where they are, and neither does Merlin. They have to find you. There’s this thing about them: they find their rightful owners. Which should be you. If you aren’t and they don’t, well, then we’re screwed and I’ve already told you how well Plan B is likely to work.”
    There was a moment of disbelieving silence, and then Addie, Loch, and even Burke all started talking at once. Yelling, really. This was ridiculous, this was unfair, the four of them against all of Mordred’s Shadow Knights—and people with guns—and all they were getting were a sword and a spear and they weren’t even getting those, they had to go looking for them and nobody knew where—
    “What if they’re in California?” Loch demanded. “Or Vermont? What if they’ve gone back to England? What if Breakthrough grabs us while we’re looking for them?”
    “How are we even supposed to try to do something if all you’re going to do is put more obstacles in our way?” Addie shouted, near tears. “It’s like you want us to lose!”
    “What if we don’t find them in time?” Burke bellowed. “How do we even use them once we find them? I—”
    “We don’t have any choice!” Spirit screamed at the top of her lungs.
    Suddenly the room was dead silent.
    “We don’t have any choice,” she repeated more quietly. “You’ve all spent your time doing magic. Well, all I’ve been able to do until yesterday was study it—and I still have no idea what these so-called ‘School of Spirit’ powers are, or what they’re going to actually do for me. But what I do know is that you can’t argue with magic. You just can’t. You have to do things its way, and I happen to think that sucks. But you can’t argue with it. It won’t listen. So.… I guess I won’t blame any of you if you don’t want to do this. But I’m going to go look for these Hallows. And hope.”
    None of the others would look at her except Vivian, and Spirit couldn’t tell what Vivian was thinking. All Merlin said was that when their wielders were found, they’d appear. It wasn’t particularly helpful, but Vivian insisted she didn’t know anything more. Spirit had the strangest feeling that now that they’d gotten here, Vivian was content to let the four of them make all the decisions—which would have worked out a lot better if any of them had the slightest idea of what to do. We’re just kids, for crying out loud! In the real world, no one would expect us to make a decision about what car to buy, much less something like this! And what if we aren’t the “wielders” the Four Hallows are looking for? What then?
    She wondered if they’d taught the Fifth School of Magic when Vivian had been at Oakhurst. Doc Mac had known about it. He’d said it “dealt primarily with gifts of mental control and influence” which made it sound pretty creepy. And dangerous. She took a deep breath. You don’t have time to think about that now. Even if thinking about it is a lot better than thinking about the four of us being the only ones on Merlin’s side.…
    Loch finally broke the silence. “Muirin would have liked to be here,” he said softly. “And she can’t be. So I don’t want to do this—like, a lot —but I’m going to.”
    “Me too,” Burke said unhesitatingly.
    “I think it’s useless and it won’t work, even if we find these ‘Hallows,’” Addie said in exasperation. “But.… I’m in. Muirin was the first real friend I ever had. And they killed her.”
    In that moment, Spirit loved all of them more than she ever had before. This was ridiculous—like playing a game of Candyland against Death for the fate of the world—but no