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"Tomas?" Jared asked

"We’ll honor him as Blood," Thera replied

Jared waited for Thera to do soainst her thighs

"Help her," Jared said, frightened by Thera’s calm shell

Thera licked the tears from the corners of her e of poisons is limited to what a Black Widow needs to know for herself There’s too much veno Thera curl in on herself, Jared didn’t realize the pounding had stopped until the broken axle, now sliore, thumped down beside hih to crack bone

He looked up at Garth’s tear-stained face

"Yyyou fffind help," Garth said, fighting for each word "Yyyou go Yyyou take--" He pointed at Lia "Fffind help Fffind sssafe place"

Help Safe place

Hope shot through Jared

Closing his eyes to concentrate, he sent out a summons on a Red spear thread North, toward Ranon’s Wood Belarr!

He waited a ain Belarr! I need help!

No answer

Even if Belarr was still angry with hinore a call for help

Father!

No answer

He tried an Opal thread Mother! We need a Healer!

Silence

Lia’s breathing sounded harsher

Jared sent out a broad su it spread in an ever-widening circle as far as he could push it There was the risk that an eneh to believe any ansas better than none Please! I need help!

Not knohat else to do, he tried again and again

Here

At first, he wasn’t sure he’d been answered

Here

Not a communication thread This was far more subtle He couldn’t tell whether it was a male or female who had answered him Couldn’t even tell what direction it had couide him He couldn’t have explained why he believed that, but as he felt that coaxing tug, he was sure of it

Jared opened his eyes and got to his feet

"So?" Thera whispered

The painful hope in Thera’s voice decided hio like that," Thera said, calling in her dark-green, hooded cloak "She’ll get cold"

Jared wasn’t sure Lia could feel anything at this point, but he didn’t argue He and Blaed held her upright while Thera draped the cloak around her and pulled up the hood

Jared wrapped his arainst his shoulder He looked at Blaed "Get to Ranon’s Wood as fast as you can, any way you can" He hesitated, hoping it would be true "We’ll join you there"

Blaed slipped an arm around Thera’s waist "May the Darkness e a Red shield around Lia, Jared caught the Red Wind and followed the promise of help

Had it been a trick after all?

Jared stared at the large, rough-looking traveler’s inn Somehow, the clean s and the shtly painted door her, like a sweaty laborer standing next to a woman dressed for an afternoon tea

Not a sleek or refined place, Jared decided Definitely not to aristo tastes, but definitely Blood There was an unmistakable feel to a place where the Blood resided, a psychic residue that was absorbed by wood and stone

Turning away from the inn, Jared focused his attention on the nearby road that led to a Blood village a couple of , he reluctantly turned back to the inn The coaxing tug that had guided him had stopped here If whoever had answered hi have continued? Here, then

A cautious probe had told him there were twenty people in the inn, three of them women Maybe one was a Healer

Jared looked over his shoulder at the faint outline of a cloaked body He’d taken the precaution of wrapping a Red sight shield around Lia before they’d dropped fro place, and he’d used Craft to float her so that it wouldn’t be obvious to anyone who ht look out athat he wasn’t alone For a , both pained and relieved by the sound<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>