Free Weavers (The Frost Chronicles) by Kate Avery Ellison Page A

without turning around.
    “I have.” He spoke calmly, gravely. There was a distance between us, and it both puzzled and distressed me. I turned.
    “Adam—”
    “There are things that cannot be shared with you, Lia. I’ve received orders that the contents of the journal we discovered are to be kept secret. Only Jonn and his superior—me—and my superior are to know them. I am sorry.”
    “Don’t be sorry,” I said. “It’s how things must be. It might be a little odd, not being able to talk with him about it as we’ve been doing, but I understand.”
    The muscles in his jaw relaxed slightly at my words, and the lines on his forehead eased. “I’m pleased that you understand.”
    He was using formality between us like a shield. I made a noise of frustration in my throat and reached for the brush again. He covered my hand with his, and I stared at it.
    “Lia—”
    The barn door burst open and my sister stumbled in. “Lia,” she gasped. “Come quickly.”
    Adam pulled his hand from mine as we both turned.
    “What is it?”
    “Jonn’s having a seizure! It’s a bad one.”
    Seizure . The word struck me like a stone. I picked up my skirts without another word and ran for the house.
    My brother lay on the floor of the main room, convulsing. His eyes were white in his head and froth ran from his lips. Everiss crouched beside him, her hands fluttering over his chest, and when she saw me she scrambled up. “Lia! Quick!”
    “It’s all right,” I said, speaking firmly. “Put a blanket in his mouth—sometimes he bites his tongue. Ivy, grab the quilts. Let’s just keep him warm until it passes.”
    I didn’t miss the fear flashing in Everiss’s eyes as she hurried to do what I’d ordered. Her hands shook as she fumbled with one of the blankets that had been thrown across the back of Jonn’s chair. I knelt beside my brother and took his hand. His fingers were twisted in a gnarled claw of a shape, and I rubbed them. “It’s all right, brother,” I murmured.
    Adam came in and shut the door behind him. He knelt beside me and didn’t say anything, but his presence comforted me.
    Finally, the seizure abated. My brother lay still, his arms and legs limp, his mouth slack. I breathed out in relief. “Can you help me carry him to the bedroom?”
    Adam scooped Jonn up like he was just a bag of goose down and took him to my parents’ bedroom. He laid Jonn on the bed and I covered him with a quilt. Everiss and Ivy hovered in the doorway, their eyes wide.
    “He’s fine,” I assured Everiss, who looked ready to faint. “Sometimes he has episodes like this, but they always pass. Do we have anything we can make soup with? He’ll be hungry when he wakes.”
    “I’ll heat the water,” Ivy volunteered. She disappeared into the main room. Everiss went to the bed and stood beside Jonn, gazing down at his sleeping face.
    Adam and I went out to the fireside.
    “Have you ever called the Healer?” he asked.
    “Garrett Healer has seen him, as has his daughter, Brenna Healer. They could do nothing for him. There was another Healer, a traveling one who roamed the Frost between villages, and he described a procedure that he’d heard of in Aeralis that might help. Of course, such hope is impossible for us.”
    “Maybe if—”
    I lifted my head, and my eyes narrowed. Adam fell silent.
    “There are no maybes. There is nothing to be done. I will not entertain foolish notions about maybe. It will get Ivy’s hopes up, nothing more.”
    Adam ran one finger up and down the edge of his cloak. He didn’t speak.
    “He’s working too hard,” I said, standing and going to the table where the journals were spread in a semicircle. “The trip to Echlos must have exhausted him. That and the lack of food...maybe he should be off this mission.”
    “Don’t coddle him. He’s part of the Thorns now. He has a job to do, the same as you and me. You know that.”
    “Lia,” a voice called weakly from the bedroom.
    I hurried to