Free Those Who Fear the Darkness (BloodRunes: Book 2) by Laura R Cole

was taking and looked around for something to stall or divert
the firewall from devouring the grain. She hesitated in the
shadows, cursing her collar from forbidding use of magic without
express consent from her owner when on a job. She growled her
frustration and sprinted towards a group of people milling about
dumbly. “We need to start fires here, here and there,” she ordered
them but they stared at her without comprehension.
    “Why would we start fires?” asked one man, at
least bright enough to find his voice.
    Impatiently, Katya explained. “That big wall
of fire over there is coming this way, and in order to save the
grain we have to burn out the area around it so that the bigger
fire has nothing to feed it to get to the storehouses, now go!”
    The man proved to be smarter than the rest of
the group and he jumped into action, comprehension dawning on his
face, and he urged the others to help as well. Katya oversaw the
placement of the fires and made sure that they were being
controlled so that they would not turn on them and take the grain
themselves.
    Once she was satisfied that the grain was
safe, Katya focused on the rest of the crisis at hand, putting her
mind to work on the best solution to this problem before her. All
too soon, the work started becoming more morbid, when rescue
efforts turned to digging out corpses to be laid out in the streets
for loved ones to identify. The panicked screams grew fewer while
the mournful wailing grew louder, spreading across the city like a
fog.
    The sun was setting and the city took on an
eerie and sorrowful feel. Even the weather after such a horrible
disaster was calm, adding to the stillness around them in the sad
city. It was getting late, and Katya picked up her pace to return
to the gardens, a heavy feeling of grief settling over her. It was
a miracle that her owner had not called her back yet, hopefully
having been too busy dealing with the chaos at the manor to notice
her absence. When she returned, however, she felt his nauseating
presence even before she leaped silently over the wall. She
carefully controlled her breathing so that it was not obvious that
she had just sprinted back, and assumed her mask of
indifference.
    She stepped out onto the path far enough in
front of him so that he would not be too startled by her sudden
presence but still he glared at her.
    “Where in the blazes have you been?” he
demanded, “I have been calling for you for at least ten
minutes.”
    Katya was about to answer truthfully that she
had not felt her collar tugging, but caught herself, quickly
realizing the ramifications of this interesting news and her mind
raced to find a suitable alternative which would result in the
least amount of punishment. “My apologizes, Owner, but I had
assumed that you would not need my services whilst you took stock
of your own damage and thought that it would be prudent of me to go
and scout out the destruction in the city. If you act quickly
enough you could use this disaster as a cover for some of my
activities. Therefore, I was quite a distance away when you
called.”
    He did not answer right away, and he narrowed
his eyes at her. She inwardly cringed, hoping that he would buy
into this story without asking details of what she had found out.
Apparently, she had distracted him with this idea of taking
advantage of the chaos, and finally he said to her, “Well, that's
obviously what I was calling you for. You should know better than
to be anywhere other than where I tell you to be.” He gave her a
stern look and she shaped her expression into one of humbling
subservience, relieved that this hand-slapping was all the
punishment he seemed inclined to dole out to her tonight. “I have
another job for you.”
    Once again he went on about his latest plan
to get rid of someone he now thought was doing him harm. Katya let
one part of her mind record the important information while the
rest contemplated the relevance of her collar. The more she