Free Call of Sunteri (Keepers of the Wellsprings Book 2) by Missy Sheldrake

and get to me. Me, or whoever holds the tether. I swallow the lump in my throat and nearly fall from the bench in my effort to free myself from the tight space between the two men who are oblivious to my sudden alarm.
    I race to my room and search everywhere: The bed, my packs, Mum’s bed, Mya’s bed, Mya’s packs, Mum’s packs. Under furniture, inside furniture, between mattresses. It’s nowhere. It’s gone. I try to think of the last time I had it. Flitt came to me yesterday just before supper, so I had it here at the inn. It has to be here somewhere. I go through my bedding again. I take off my shirt and my undershirt and shake them out. Nothing. My hands are shaking so hard I have trouble dressing again. I barely hear the knock on the door and Rian calling in over the ringing in my ears. How could I have lost something so precious? More importantly, who has it now? The thought of Flitt appearing to someone else chokes me. I gasp for breath as I wrench open the door.
    “What happened?” he asks. When he sees the state I’m in, his eyes widen in fear. “Azi, what’s wrong?”
    “The diamond,” I whisper. “The tether.” I hold up the empty pouch. “How did I lose it, Rian? I had it yesterday. I never took it off. I never do.”
    “We’ll find it.” He tries to calm me with an arm around my shoulder, but his touch just annoys me. “Here.” His fingers close around the pouch and he whispers a spell. My hair flutters around my shoulders as a soft breeze swirls around us, carrying with it a floral scent. A tendril of light swirls up from the pouch and forms a tiny globe. The globe bobs before us for a moment, and then darts off down the hallway.
    “Follow it!” Rian says. He grabs my hand and we jog after it as it weaves through the corridors of the inn and outside into the street. We lose sight of it for a moment and then I spot it far ahead, dancing its way to the north along the road.
    “There!” I cry and take off at full speed. The globe speeds up, too, through the village and down the road into a thick of trees. It veers from the path and disappears again into a thicket.
    “Azi!” I hear Rian call from behind me, but I don’t stop. I crash through the underbrush and dodge around twisting trunks, focused only on the globe. It shoots through a thick hedge of ferns and I jump after it. I’m mid-leap when I realize my mistake. The other side of the ferns is a ravine, at least two stories deep. There’s nothing I can do. The light hovers above me as I plummet, taunting me. I scream, and just as I’m about to crash to the bottom I feel myself caught and lifted. Blue energy shimmers around me as Rian’s levitation spell carries me upward.
    “Are you out of your mind?” He shouts as his spell settles me gently in the ferns. “What were you thinking?” I jump to my feet and turn, looking for the globe.
    “It’s gone,” I cry.
    “I dispelled the globe,” Rian says. “I didn’t know you’d be so careless about following it. Lucky I got here in time to catch you.”
    “Cast it again,” I demand as I creep through the ferns to assess the climb down. Maybe the diamond is there at the bottom, buried in the thick green underbrush.
    “No,” Rian says firmly.
    “No?” I spin to face him. “Why not?”
    “Because,” he says gently, offering a hand to me as though trying to tame a wild creature. His tone and manor irritate me. “I thought it would be in your room somewhere. I didn’t know it would lead us all the way out here. You’re unarmed and without your armor, and we’re a few hundred paces off the road in an unfamiliar forest. Be smart about this, Azi. Don’t overreact.”
    “Overreact?” I scoff. “Rian, this is important! It’s gone and we have to find it. Flitt’s life depends on it.” I shove past him roughly and storm away toward the road.
    “Azi, wait!” he calls after me. “What’s with you today? You’re not yourself.”
    “Well for starters, I don’t