Free Blazing Earth by Terri Brisbin Page B

was looking for the one thing he’d sworn to keep hidden.
    As he strode along the perimeter of the field that Lord Geoffrey wanted cultivated, Tolan knew that this part of his life was the only one he knew for acertainty. He crouched down and examined the soil closely, running his fingers through it to loosen the clumps. He’d been right to promise this land would take seed in just a few weeks. As he wiggled his fingers, he could feel the first traces of life returning to the once-deadened soil.
    Standing and brushing the dirt from his hands, he was content that at least this would go as he knew it should. He nodded to Langston and pointed at the men who stood off in the distance.
    â€œTell them to leave this be for another sennight,” he said. “Then we will plant.”
    â€œIt looks barren to me,” the man muttered as he shrugged.
    Tolan smiled and shook his head. “Well, ’tis not. The harvest will tell you so.”
    Langston walked off to speak to the men, the eighth task of just this morn, and Tolan wondered what else he could find to keep the man busy.
    No, what he needed to do was to discover the reason why Lord Geoffrey sought the circle Tolan knew lay buried deep in the impassible thicket on his lands. Though his father had passed on the knowledge that it was there and even though Tolan remembered catching a glimpse of it decades ago when just a small boy, the trees had grown into an impenetrable barrier around it. No one had seen it for years.
    Yet the nobleman knew about it and, clearly, he was terrified of the consequences if he did not find it. He might not know what it truly was, but someone did. The person who gave Lord Geoffrey the orders to findit. A person who was powerful enough and knowledgeable enough to know the importance of the stones and what their purpose was.
    Tolan turned and walked toward the outbuildings, searching his memory for what his duty was now. If he thought the circle under threat, what was he supposed to do? Who else knew the truth and how could he guard it against those who would threaten it? More than that, if he heard
that
voice calling, could or did others? Would more answer the summons?
    The mark on his arm pulsed then, reminding him that he might have little time to ignore this matter. If letting others get to the circle would truly bring about the end of the world, as his father had told him, what choice did he have other than to make certain that did not happen? Even if he did it alone. Even if no one else stood with him.
    He’d thought on this for hours as he’d lain awake and alone these last two nights. If he was truthful, he considered all this while trying not to think about Thea. And the nights were long enough for him to spend time doing both.
    Tolan planned to travel back to his farm alone and seek out the circle. He would see for himself what was at stake and from where that voice had spoken. Once the rest of the main fields were prepared and sown, he would be able to go there—in three or four days at the most. So he began collecting the seeds that would be the first crop to be ready. A knock on the door interrupted his work about an hour later. Expecting it to be Langston, who could never sort out his owntasks without guidance, Tolan lifted the latch, tugged the door open, only to find Thea standing there.
    â€œThea, I did not expect you,” he said, not knowing what else to say. “Are you well?”
    â€œI am,” she said with a nervousness that had never existed between them before. “I know you are a busy man with many duties, but I wanted to ask you to come to my cottage for supper this night.”
    On any other day such an invitation would have made him smile, but this was different. Her unease sat around her like a swirling cloak, almost as protection against . . . him? And he did not like it. It reminded him too much of the first times he’d met her when she shrank away from even an