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

pretty.
What color hair did she have? Was she an outlander or a local?
    I understood why Linaeve had
advised me to research my grandparents. It was ridiculous how little I knew of
them.
    Once again I found myself afloat in
a sea of questions. For a split second I resented all my responsibilities. I
wanted to throw on a pair of blue jeans and go to a shopping mall so I could
forget who I was for just a while.
    Then I thought of the dying king
reaching out his hand to Chloe. In him, I’d seen the face of my mother, my
father, and the endangered dreams of an entire world.
    The dagger burned in my hands as the
image rekindled a fierce determination inside me.
    “I’m coming for you, Robyn,” I
whispered.
     
    ***
    The Cathedral was quiet when I
arrived at the crack of dawn. The morning felt cool and clean and I had awoken
refreshed. I had a definite mission now.
    I heard voices outside. Two people
were talking near the water well that served the dormitories. I recognized
Anouk’s infectious laughter.
    The young priestess was leaning
against the well with her chin propped in her hands. A forgotten bucket of
water sat at her feet. A thirsty cusith pup lapped at the water, unnoticed. Across
from Anouk stood a slender Fay youth with glasses and curly hair the color of
evergreen needles. He held a book of some kind and this appeared to be the
source of mirth.
    “Garland,” I said, surprised. “What
brings you here?”
    Anouk jumped, knocking over the
water bucket. The startled cusith pup ran away. “Gracious me, Emma! You snuck
up on me!”
    I raised an eyebrow as I watched
Anouk’s cheeks turn crimson.
    Garland cleared his throat.
“Pleasure to see you, Emma, it’s been a while. I was just sharing something I
found in this book with Miss Makoti.”
    I glanced at the book. “What’s so
funny?”
    Garland appeared pleased that I’d
asked. “There’s an error.” He flipped through the pages and handed the book to
me.
    The book was titled An
Illustrated History of Faylinn’s Beasts . The article Garland pointed out
had a picture of terrifyingly large, primitive bear. The caption said: “ Ursa
Giganormous , the biggest, hairiest rear ever to blight the forests of
Faylinn .”
    I snorted and handed the
book back to Garland. “You surprise me, Finbarr.”
    Garland looked perplexed. “Really?
How’s that?”
    “I didn’t know you had a sense of
humor.”
    Anouk tittered. “Who, Garland? He’s
always bringing me these kinds of things. You don’t see stuff like that in the—”
she caught herself, “I mean, in our library. In the castle books you can
see where the scribes got lazy or tried to have a little fun.” She giggled
again. “Can’t you just see it? The biggest, hairiest rear towering over
the forests?”
    “My lady, the image haunts my
nightmares,” Garland said with a respectable front of sincerity.
    Anouk laughed so hard
that tears rolled down the sides of her face. The sound had the distinct effect
of making Garland smile more broadly than I’d ever seen him smile before.
    Suddenly I felt awkward. I had
intruded upon a special moment. It wasn’t often that I got to see two of my
friends so happy. I went to leave.
    “Did you need something?” Anouk
asked as she wiped the tears off her cheeks.
    “No, not really,” I said. “I think
I’ll just go see if I can get in to talk to my Spirit Mentor.”
    “Sorry,” Anouk said. “No trainees
are allowed in the cathedral today. All the senior priests and priestesses are
in council.”
    “Council about what?”
    “The effort to spread knowledge of
magical defense and the use of charms to outlanders,” Garland said. “It was
Father’s idea, actually. He suggested they form some kind of traveling mission
to set up workshops in the villages so people will feel safer. The Seelie Court
doesn’t like it, though, so that’s why they’re having a council.”
    “Figures,” I said. Now I was out of
ideas. If I couldn’t get into the orchard or my