Free Found by Sarah Prineas Page A

go faster.”
    True. But I didn’t like that horse. So I walked, and walked, and walked.
     
    One evening, after studying the spell-book and memorizing more of the spell-language, I wrote a letter with pencil on one of the papers Nevery’d put into my knapsack.
    .

 
     
    ----
    Dear Nevery,
    I haven’t found my locus magicalicus yet . It must be farther away than we thought . This is taking too long . Have you seen any sign of Arhionvar yet? Are you working on the pyrotechnic defenses? I will come back as soon as I can .
    Rowan’s here, too . She brought horses, but they don’t work very well .
    Rowan told me about the death sentence on me . I’ll be careful when I get back . Did you get in trouble because of the finding spell?
    Hello to Benet . Thank you for the book . I have been learning the spellwords .
    —Conn

----

 
     
    I rolled up the paper and tied it with a bit of thread, then tied that onto one of the black bird’s legs. It’d fly straight back to Wellmet, to Nevery.
    “D’you want to send a letter to your mother?” I asked Rowan.
    “No,” she said.
    “The bird can carry a letter to Nevery,” I said, “and he’ll send it on.”
    Rowan folded her arms. “I don’t want to write to her.”
    “She’ll worry if you don’t,” I said.
    “Let her worry,” Rowan said, and walked away.
    I gave the bird a few biscuit crumbs and sent it flapping toward Wellmet.
     
    Nevery’s answer came the next day.

 
     
    ----
    I know about the death sentence, boy, and it is a problem, I agree. We must be circumspect.
    The aftermath from the finding spell is nothing I cannot manage. Captain Kerrn may suspect all she likes, but she can prove nothing, nor can the duchess or the other magisters, who are fools.
    I am more concerned at the moment with Arhionvar. You are right to worry about being gone from the city for so long. The dread magic could arrive at any time.
    Make all haste.
    —N.
----

 
     
    Nevery was safe, then. That was good.
    I wasn’t sure what circumspect meant. Very, very careful, I figured, or I’d end up swinging from Wellmet’s gallows tree.

CHAPTER 14
    R owan had a map. She kept it folded inside a square of oiled leather so it’d be dry in case of rain.

    Nearby, the burnt-black spell-line cut across a wide trade road, which led through a clearing edged by tall, straight pine trees. Rowan pulled out the map to have a look atwhere we were. “I think we’re about here,” she said. She’d put the map on the pine-needly ground and squatted down, pointing. Her gloved finger rested on a line leading to a dot with the word Torrent next to it. A city.
    “Have we traveled that far south already?” Argent asked, kneeling next to her.
    “I think so.” She shot me a sideways glance. “We’ve been making very good time, for some reason.”
    Because they had to drag me off the trail every night, she meant, and catch up to me in the morning because I’d set off, munching on a biscuit, as soon as the sun came up.
    “I didn’t think we’d be gone this long,” Rowan said. “We didn’t pack enough supplies, so we’ll have to get more.” She stood and, after squinting down at the map once more, folded it into its leather envelope. “We’ll follow this road into the city, stock up, and come back to the spell-path.”
    Leave the spell-line, did she say?
    Rowan looked at me and raised her eyebrows. “All right?”
    She was right. We needed supplies; we were out of bacon. But leaving the spell-line…
    “All right,” I said slowly.
    We mounted up, me on Mud-brown, and pointed the horses down the rutted road toward the city of Torrent. As we clip-clopped away, the spell-line hummed and tugged at me as if it was the line and I was the fish, caught.
    I pulled back on the reins, and the horse plodded to a stop. Call , call , call, went the spell. I climbed down off of Mud-brown’s back.
    Rowan turned her horse and brought it to stand next to me. “Can’t do it?” she asked.
    I shook