SHE WILL MASTER TERRIFYING POWERS OF ENCHANTMENT...TO SAVE THE MAN SHE LOVES
In a land of sorcerers and elf warriors, powerful women weld magic--but the only things Elspeth wields are dirty pots and pans in a castle kitchen. That is, until she was...
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WHILE ELSBETH RECOVER, custodians of the Tower attempt to embroil Rhine in their disputes.
"They must be a hundred or more leagues away by this time. And why has Theo decided to go there now?" Rhine asked, none too pleased.
"I don't know, Sir," Jane said.
They just flit off on a whim. Was this fair? What was he to do now? What was he to do with Elspeth? They knew he was off to get the book. Now he had no way to destroy it, and no help either.
He looked at Jane and once more to regain his temper.
"It's not your fault, of course. He is a hero of the land, with the acclaim of all people and gold in his pocket besides. Not to mention a woman that many would die for. No doubt he has every right to visit his homeland."
Jane was grave and said nothing, she merely gestured up the stairs.
Theo was going home to flaunt his fame and wealth in the faces of those who scorned him. Not a desire Rhine shared, but he understood the deeper impulse—to stamp out that hot burning flame of shame over why you left—or were forced to leave. It sank deep within the soul. Theo's father was still alive as well, unlike his own parents. Perhaps there were attachments there, and of course, that changed the tenor of such a reunion.
Anne met them coming down the stairs. "Is the lady very ill?" she asked. She was like an intelligent little bird: curious, but always just out of reach. Slender, and perhaps the most classically beautiful of the three sisters, her gown sported long scalloped sleeves. They fell almost to the floor and rippled about in the air as she floated ahead on the stairs.
"Lack of food and exhaustion are to blame, I suspect. Food and rest should restore her." He hoped they would. What did he know of the healing arts? What did anyone know of what might befall a young maiden trapped in an evil spell book for decades?
And if destroying the book killed her? Sometimes he worried wizards—true wizards—were right in their excessive caution. He decided he would not delve into such considerations until he first found a way to destroy the book. Theo had left, but had he taken all his books with them?
He craned his neck but could not see into the study. Instead they crossed up stone steps past the balcony on the second floor, and then the devastation began. Where stone had crumbled away, wood had been used as a replacement. Sturdy but also crude and ugly, wooden beams interrupted the swooping graceful lines that had been flawlessly carved along the inner stonework almost a thousand years before.
Finally, on the third floor, Anne led him into a large old fashioned chamber. Like the rest of the castle a tangle basketweave of vines covered the windows letting light in through the chinks.
