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Lindsey said. “And I will
tell you.”
Hogard growled and held it away from her
grasp.
“Let Miss Burning take a look,” Loyl
encouraged. “She has The Rewind.”
“What the thunder is a rewind?”
“If she can touch object, she can read its
history,” he explained when he noticed the others’ confusion.
“No way.” Josie’s jaw dropped.
“Yeah way,” Lindsey said coyly. “It’s a
charisma. I can see images from the past as if they’re playing one
of those old sixteen-millimeter filmstrips. Everything plays
backwards—hence, the name. Why do you think I went along on the
last mission with Doctor Steelsun? And why do you think I’m along
now?”
Josie folded her arms and seemed peeved for
some reason. Was it jealously? If so, the feeling wasn’t strong
enough for Lars to pick up on it.
“No sarcastic response—Josie?” Lindsey
teased. “You never could handle the fact that someone might be more
talented than you in some way.” She opened her hand and the Bulwark
gently set his ring in her palm. “The Charisma Focus Committee said
I’m the only one they’ve found who can do this. They even let me
name it myself.”
“I can tell.” Josie replied with the usual
vitriol, but Lindsey ignored her.
“I can read inorganic or dead objects, but
nothing that’s still alive. On the last mission into Sliven
territory, I discovered that certain types of spells interfere with
making imprints, so its not one hundred percent reliable.”
“And here I thought the mayor sent you along
for your shooting skills,” Lars said, while Josie scowled. “So how
come you didn’t do the Rewind thing on the part of the Blood Map my
father has?”
“I did, but think about it. Once the map was
torn in two, each piece going its separate way, their histories
became independent from each other. That means I can’t see the
history of the missing half without touching it. Duh.”
“Considering that the Seeker will lead us to
the map,” Josie added with a look of disdain, “your rewind seems a
little pointless.”
“Let me phrase this in a way you’ll be sure
to understand: the mayor didn’t want to put all of his eggs in one
basket. Especially a crazy basket like you.”
Josie rolled her eyes.
“A weird thing about the map is that your
fingerprints stay behind in the form of pink dots. Dr. Steelsun
says it’s a side effect of the map’s ability to read a person’s
blood. The prints fade away after a short while, but that’s how he
knew we had the real thing—not a forgery.”
“Did your charisma show you who was in the
battle where the map was ripped in half?” Lars asked. “If we can
narrow down the army, perhaps the map is in that army’s
nation.”
“Miss Burning has already been through a
vigorous line of questioning back in Galatia,” Loyl butted in.
“Please allow her to concentrate on the ring.”
She held the ring between her palms while she
closed her eyes. After a few minutes, her body began to sway. When
her eyes popped open, she immediately looked for Josie.
“What?” Josie asked testily.
“You’re okay.” She grinned. “He tried
to...you know, but ran out of time.” Josie closed her eyes and took
in a deep breath, grateful for the information.
“None of you guys’s business,” Josie added
before any of the men could ask the obvious question.
“Now onto the more pressing matter.” Lindsey
continued to concentrate. “A segment of time is inaccessible,
covered with gray fog—a spell was cast.”
A look of concern crossed the prince’s face,
while Dante pressed impatiently, “Tell us about the accessible
parts.”
“Remember the day we didn’t wake up until
noon and Hogard said an intruder had been in camp?” Everybody
nodded. “That naked man wasn’t a figment of Josie’s imagination. He
poofed into our campsite and shot all of us with his darts. Then he
went straight for the Seeker of the Four Winds, only taking it from
Josie’s wrist didn’t turn