Free Lost by Sarah Prineas Page A

one with the eye in it. “You’re cold.” She moved closer and put her arm around me; I rested my head against her shoulder. She felt so warm, like a glowing fire on a winter night. I closed my eyes.
    Tap step step , I heard, coming down the stairs. “How is he?” Nevery asked in a rumbly voice.
    “He’s very cold, sir,” Rowan said. Her breath on my cheek felt like candle flame.
    Rowan’s guard came up then with a blanket.Rowan put it around me, then put her arms around me again.
    “N-n-n—,” I said, and shook my head. I couldn’t move my mouth to speak. I wanted to tell Nevery about the Shadow’s eye in my hand.
    He leaned down and put his hand on my shoulder. “It’s all right, lad. Tell me later.”
    “What happened?” Rowan asked.
    “One of the Shadows attacked him,” Nevery said. “Outside your mother’s room.”
    Outside? He’d found me inside, hadn’t he?
    Another set of footsteps came down the stairs and stopped a few steps above us.
    “Lady Rowan!” said a deep voice. Her friend Argent, the one who gave her swordcraft lessons.
    She looked up.
    “Your mother, the duchess, was injured by the Shadows, Lady Rowan,” Argent said. “Did you know?”
    Rowan stood up abruptly. “She was hurt? Will she be all right?” She gripped the hilt of her sword.
    “Magister Trammel is with her,” Argent answered. “I don’t know if her injuries are serious. I will take you to her.”
    As Argent and Rowan hurried away up the stairs, I heard Argent’s voice ask, “Who was that ?”
    I leaned against the wall, already missing Rowan’s warmth.
    “Can you walk, boy?” Nevery asked.
    I nodded. The stone feeling was bad, but I could feel the Wellmet magic protecting me from the worst of it. Stiffly, I started climbing to my feet.
    As I fell over, Nevery caught my arm and steadied me. “Home to Heartsease,” Nevery said. “I don’t want Kerrn catching sight of you, boy, and asking awkward questions.”
    Even if she did, I couldn’t answer them.

CHAPTER 13
    N every found Benet, and between them they got me home and wrapped in blankets in front of the fireplace in Nevery’s study. Then Nevery did the dancing statue spell on me, and sent Benet down to the storeroom for more coal.

    I sat in the chair andcoughed up dust. Lady climbed into my lap and lay there like a warm pillow.
    “Dust all over the floor,” Nevery said. He paced in front of the hearth. “Glass shards. A smell of smoke. My guess is that you defeated a Shadow using a blackpowder explosive.”
    I jerked out a nod.
    “Boy, you set off a pyrotechnic device in the duchess’s chamber . You may have saved her life, I grant you that, but no one can learn of this, especially not the magisters.” He shook his head. “You do have a talent for getting yourself into trouble.”
    I wasn’t sure it was a talent.
    Benet came in carrying a bucket of coal.
    “All well?” Nevery asked him.
    “Yes, sir. Before we left, Captain Kerrn said to tell you the Shadows retreated. One guard killed, six wounded.” He added more coal to the fire and nodded at me. “He all right?”
    “He will be,” Nevery said. “Tea.”
    Benet went out.
    I wormed my arm out of the blankets, lifted my hand, still clenched around the Shadow’s eye, and rested it on the table. One by one I pried my fingers open, and the stone rolled out of my hand and onto the table. It lay there glowing purple-black.
    “What is that, boy?” Nevery asked, coming over to the table.
    “Sh-sh-sh—,” I said.
    “Curse it,” he muttered. He reached for the eye.
    “No—,” I gasped out. It might turn him to stone, too.
    Nevery paused, staring at me. “Don’t touch it, you mean, lad?”
    I nodded.
    “Very well,” Nevery said. He pulled the blankets over my arm again and sat down at the table, looking closely at the stone. “Ah,” he said, glancing over at me. “This was inside one of the Shadows, was it? The one you destroyed in the duchess’s room?”
    “Yss-s-s,” I