Free The Secret of Ashona by Kaza Kingsley Page B

what is right for you. You already have your answer. There are no other answers, only questions. Now it is up to you to pick the right questions.”
    That didn’t help at all. “Am I going to survive this quest? What should I do?”
    Erec’s questions made the Hermit burst out laughing. He did asilly dance in a circle, singing, “What should I do? What should I do?” until Erec got angry.
    “Cut it out! I might die if I try to finish this quest.”
    “Not true!” the Hermit exclaimed. “You will die. And you’re not even enjoying it!” The Hermit seemed to take great pleasure in Erec’s situation.
    In his overwhelmed state, Erec went from being angry at the Hermit to confused to almost laughing with him. Finally he shouted, “Just tell me what to do!”
    The Hermit said, dead serious. “Stay here. Skip the quest.”
    “But . . . but . . .” That was not at all what he expected the Hermit to say. “I can’t. What would happen to Trevor . . . and to those people who would die? And my chances of ever getting my soul back?”
    The Hermit winked at him with a grin. “I told you, you already had your answer. Now you’re just asking the right questions.” He held a finger to his lips, shushing Erec, and led him to the closet. “I brought you a present.” When he opened the closet door, Erec saw a new Port-O-Door had been set into the wall. “Ta-da! Are you ready to visit the Diamond Minds of Argos?”
    Erec nodded. He had to do this now before fear completely overcame him. He would just go and see what lay waiting for him there, not what would happen around the corner. Maybe there would be a way to save himself. There had to be.
    When the Hermit opened the Port-O-Door, Erec walked into its vestibule. He waited while the Hermit pulled up a map of Otherness and found a place called Argos, far on the edges of a desert with no civilization nearby.
    In a moment, Erec and the Hermit were walking out the door into a place like none that Erec had ever seen. Giant holes riddled the ground, and between them huge towering columns of rock shot up to the sky. Small stone paths wound like mazes between the holes and thecolumns. Erec saw no houses, no animals, no people. Only hard rock as far as the eye could see. He followed the Hermit along a winding path, careful not to take a wrong step and plummet down one of the round holes in the ground. When he leaned over and looked down into one of them, he could see something glowing red near the bottom.
    “Be careful not to slip into one of the pits. Would not be pleasant for you at the bottom.”
    “What is down there?” Erec asked, focusing on his footsteps. The path they walked on varied from a few feet wide to just a few inches across.
    “Those are the famous Diamond Minds. Not very fun to visit.” The Hermit shook his head.
    “Are those like diamond mines? Where diamonds come from?”
    “No, silly boy. These are not diamond mines. The Diamond Minds of Argos are the creatures that live at the bottoms of the pits. They are ancient and powerful. Those funny little Diamond Minds know everything that has ever happened, and they can tell you what will come to be, if you’re foolish enough to want to know. Once they lived together in a great community, and were one of the rare groups allowed to speak with the Fates.”
    Erec glanced again into one of the pits. Whatever glowed red down there might know what the future had in store for his family. Wouldn’t it be nice if he could just ask . . . ?
    The Hermit giggled, seeming to know what Erec was thinking. “It is normal to want to know. Which was part of the problem. The Diamond Minds became too important for their little britches. People would come from all over to see them. And the Diamond Minds would tell people their futures, yes they would. But that is doing nobody a favor, right, Erec? Are you enjoying your visions of your future?”
    Erec tried not to think of what the Hermit conjured up, and shook his