Free The Purifying Fire: A Planeswalker Novel by Laura Resnick Page A

considerably more powerful than Luti’s, and when it hit the creature, the thing fell back with a screech, rolled over into a ball, and reshaped itself into the form of a giant spider.
    “I
hate
spiders,” Chandra said with feeling.
    She raised her hands to call forth a hot flow of lava, and dumped it all over the disgusting creature that was scuttling toward her with murderous intent. The massive spidery
thing
was smothered beneath the lava and incinerated by the liquid fire.
    The two women stared at the glowing pile of cooling lava that had destroyed their attacker.
    “Well.” Luti was panting. “That was … different.”
    “Ugh! Did you say you know what that thing was?”
    “Yes. I’m pretty sure it was a woodland shapeshifter,” Luti said, still breathless. “I’ve heard of them … but this is the first one … I’ve ever …” She sat down shakily on the bench again. “I’m too old for a shock like that.”
    “Even
I’m
too old for a shock like that.” Chandra’s heart was pounding after the brief fight.
    “No
wonder
the rosemary looked so overgrown,” Luti murmured.
    “That was pretty clever, I have to admit.”
    “Not that we won’t miss you, Chandra,” Luti said, her hand resting over her heart on her heaving chest, “but how soon can you go?”

    Chandra talked with Brother Sergil that evening, trying to get some idea of what to look for in the decorative border if she saw the scroll again. She didn’t learn much. As Luti had already told her, it might be a pattern, it might be artfully concealed text, it might be an ornate map. Or it might be none of those. But he did tell her enough so that she would be able to identify the scroll, considering she had no memory of it.
    Wonderful.
    She decided to go to Brannon’s room while he was getting ready for bed to tell him she was going away again, but that she would be back before long.
    “You’re not running away from
oufes
, are you?” he demanded.
    “No, of course not,” she assured him.
    “Because we’re better sorcerers than a bunch of elves and weird woodland creatures.”
    “Yes, we are.” She tucked him into bed and said, “But the brothers want to know more about the scroll I brought back—you remember the scroll?”
    “Yes. The one that the stranger stole.”
    “Right. So Mother Luti asked me to try to find it.”
    “I should come with you.” He started to get out of bed. “I can help you!”
    “I need you to stay here and protect the monastery,” she said firmly, nudging him back onto his narrow cot. “Therewas another attack today. That’s the fourth one. And if I hadn’t been there, something awful might have happened to Mother Luti.”
    “I heard! A woodland shapeshifter!” Brannon’s eyes glowed with excitement. “I kind of wish you hadn’t killed it right away, Chandra. Mother Luti’s never seen one before, and she’s really
old
, so maybe I’ll never get another chance to see one.”
    “I’m sorry about that,” she said. “It was pretty interesting.”
    “But you weren’t scared?”
    “I was a little scared,” she admitted. “Especially when it shaped itself like a
spider.”
    “Ooh! I wish I’d seen that! Was Mother Luti scared?”
    “Yes, I think she was pretty scared. And now, even though I won’t be here after tonight, it might take Samir a little while to convince that oufe tribe to stop sending assassins to the monastery. So who knows what could happen next?”
    “They might even send a spitebellows!” he said eagerly.
    Chandra didn’t know what that was, but she said,
“Exactly
. So while I’m away looking for the scroll, I need to know that someone is here protecting Mother Luti and the monastery. Someone I
trust
. Someone I can count on.”
    Brannon sighed, the weight of the world on his shoulders. “Oh, all right. I’ll stay.”
    “Good. Thank you.”
    “But just this time. Next time, I’m coming, too.” “We’ll see, kiddo.”
    “Chandra.”
The unfairness of