Aster Wood and the Blackburn Son (Book 3) by J. B. Cantwell

Author:J. B. Cantwell [Cantwell, J. B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: J. B. Cantwell
Published: 2015-01-22T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

I was going home.

I was sorry to see the Watcher go, but no longer frightened. Maybe I would die this afternoon, and it would all be over much sooner than I ever could have expected. But she would witness it. She would see it all, and I wouldn’t be alone.

I didn’t feel that I would abandon my task now. I understood that I had taken it on myself, that I had made the choice to press on and level the Fold. And the choice was what gave me more power than any staff could. Even if whatever comforts Earth could still offer were to tempt me to stay, I would return here to finish what I had started.

The Watcher had already known the truth about me, that I had the strength to believe anything was possible, though she had let me discover it for myself. Where before I had been focused on home, now I understood that my journey wouldn’t be as simple as making it back to Earth. Everything mattered now, not just my childish desire to run home and hide. I remembered Kiron, back in his little cottage explaining the way travel through the planets in the Fold worked, and I realized that that scrunched up piece of paper he had used to illustrate space was what my life had now become. The page was me. The holes were the people and experiences that had made me who I was. And each location on the map of my life was crunched up tight in that crumpled ball, making unlikely neighbors of my mother and Jade. My father and Kiron. Earth and Pahana.

This crazy journey wouldn’t end. Ever. Life had become more complicated than I had expected, but in a wonderful sort of way.

I turned and looked out from the shade of the trees, suddenly hungry for more.

The chaser hung heavy in my pocket, and a plan began to form in my head. I needed to get back to Stonemore. I had so much to do, and I felt oddly pressed for time.

For a brief moment, an image of enormous ocean waves flashed in my mind and sunk my heart in my chest. I would never be able to make it across that ocean.

One thing at a time.

The bugs hummed loudly, but I wasn’t scared of them anymore. I stepped down closer to the edge of the water, the mud sucking at my boots as I neared it. I had come here on Pahana’s back, but no great animal awaited me to ride atop it across the swamp. I looked at the staff, wondering if simply possessing it would be enough to allow me to float. It would be a cold, wet trip back. Testing it, I placed the bottom tip of the wood below the water into the deep, soft mud.

Instantly, the lilypads that covered the water’s surface gathered on the water before my feet. I stared at the path, unsure. Then, sticking out a tentative toe, I took a step onto the green.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.