Free The Flute Keeper's Promise (The Flute Keeper Saga) by Ashley Setzer

wakes up now, and when he does he just
acts like he’s lost. He doesn’t even know who I am!”
    The door cracked open and a white-clad
Channeler walked in with a tray of herbs. “’Scuse me, Princess,” she said.
“It’s time for his regimen.”
    With another sigh, Chloe rose from
her spot. She leaned over and gave the king a peck on the cheek. “Love you,
Daddy. Till next time.”
    The king’s eyes opened. He
stretched his fingers weakly towards Chloe. She took his hand and gave it a
gentle squeeze. Tears flooded her eyes.
    A vision of my mother lying weak in
a hospital bed made me look away. Time had not smoothed the edges of the
memory. They were still so jagged that it hurt.
    “I just wish he knew me,” Chloe
said as we walked quietly out to the hall. “If he would just look me in the eye
or say my name…I mean, what good is saying good-bye if he doesn’t even know?”
    “But you’ll know,” I said. “Maybe
that’s more important.”
    “Maybe,” Chloe said. “Honestly, I
wish he was alert enough to tell me what to do about all our problems. He could
handle a crisis so much better than me! I hope everyone in Faylinn doesn’t hate
me before this is over.”
     “Maybe it can be over sooner than
you think,” I said. “I got a sign from the Seraphim.”
    Chloe paused mid-step. “Did they
tell you how to defeat Robyn?”
    I shook my head. “I still don’t
know exactly what I must do, but I have this.” I pulled out the red dagger.
    Chloe winced at the sight of it.
The last time she’d seen the dagger it had been plunged into her side. “ That ?”
    “It’s a key,” I explained. “It can
lock Robyn away in the Twi-Realm where she belongs. She really is a demon.”
    Chloe shuddered. “Demons can’t be
killed!”
    “But they can be sealed off from
our world.” I felt more confident just saying it. For the first time in months
I didn’t feel defenseless when I thought about Robyn.
    “If that’s a key, then where’s the
lock?” Chloe asked.
    “I don’t know, but I think it has
something to do with my ancestors.”
    “Hmmm,” Chloe said, cocking her
head. “Well that could be lots of things, couldn’t it? Guess you’d better get
to searching.”
    We’d arrived at Chloe’s room. The
princess yawned and bid me goodnight. “You know, of course, that you have all
the resources you need. Just let me know if there’s anything I can do. I’m
going to be a little busy tomorrow. Lord Finbarr wants to meet about something
or other.”
    “Is that you, m’lady?” called a
screechy voice from inside Chloe’s room.
    Chloe rolled her eyes. “What is she doing up? This new maid is just the worst!”
               
    I lay awake a long time thinking
while I turned the red dagger over and over in my hands. A key. A lock. A
demon. If I could connect the three, I could avenge countless deaths and end
Faylinn’s fear and suffering. It sounded so simple.
    It wasn’t. This was not how I had
imagined myself at seventeen. When I allowed my mind to drift to normal teenage
dreams, I felt guilty. Too much weighed in the balance for me to worry about
how to do my hair or what shade of eye shadow looked best. It was more
important that I stay focused. This was Faylinn, not the human world. I’d never
go to a prom or get a driver’s license, so was there really any difference
between seventeen and seventy?
    My heart gave a twitch. I dared to
wonder where I would be at seventy. If all went as planned, I supposed I’d be
spending my days at the cathedral, possibly teaching new trainees. It wasn’t
exciting, but it was a future nonetheless. As far as I knew, no other Wren had
even made it to seventy in the last three generations.
    I wondered how old my grandfather,
Alberich, was when he died. He couldn’t have been very old if Dad was just a
baby. He was probably no older than thirty, I guessed. That meant my
grandmother must have been quite young, too. I wondered if Grandma was