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Martin’s voice was flat and wary "This grove is wicked now"

Lia stuffed the orb back into the pouch and withdrew her bow and nocked an arrohich she kept in place with her finger, as Martin had taught her so well The air was full of sounds, of buzzing gnats and cawing ravens and the twitter of insects There were no sounds fro absolutely still, she could al about her legs Cautiously, patiently, she waited – watching the woods for the sign oflike s her lip, she focused on the source of the feelings and realized, to her shock, that they were e itself

One step closer Two steps She ducked around a tree, keeping low to the ground A single quail flew overhead that ht of food brought revulsion Fear filled the blackened grove to the brim Sickness and disease stalked the woods As she caan to alter The charred trunks of the oaks reathed in vines with bronzed leaves of a shape Lia had not seen before The leaves were ently and the oil stuck to her fingers

The mule brayed and Martin hushed it with an apple, his s

Lia griertips "I have not seen this plant before," she warned Bringing her pack around, she withdrew her gloves and an ement of leaves and stuffed them in the pouch

"Let us depart, Lia This is no place for the living The dead linger here"

"No, so," Lia said Carefully, she stepped through the tangled vines that tried to grope at her and entered the clearing surrounding the boulder The vines grew everywhere and wrapped around the base of the boulder Martin had never seen the depth of her potential with the Mediuht be able to stop the rock fro The Aldermaston would want to know as much as possible since he could not travel beyond the Abbey borders

She crossed around to the side where her face was and stopped, fearful at what she saw The Leering was alive, seething with power The face had once been hers Noas unrecognizable as even human The eye sockets blazed with red-hot heat, but the expression had been charred completely off The entire face of the rock shimmered aves of heat She knew that if she tried to summon water from it, it would only come out as steam

The entire boulder was pitted with cracks, as if the stone were about to burst from the force of the Medium’s power

Is this my fault? she asked herself In her memory, the power of the Mediuuer and his htless What was causing the Leering to behave in such a way?

Martin’s voice orried "Lia, co, Martin," she said, trusting her willpower The boulder was blackened, charred Lia closed her eyes and reached out to it tentatively At the Abbey, she could su at the laundry She could mix it with fire to warm it She did not really understand hoorked, only that they responded to her thoughts, as Colvin had taught her

She quietly willed it to stop burning so she could touch it

It refused

Fear bloo knew she was there It defied her

Stop, she told it in her ain, it resisted her A ainst her, drawn to the stone, to its powerful summons They fed on the fear it exuded So her will against it

The rock groaned The rove turned into a gust, then into a gale Lia’swith tendrils of vines coiled around the boulder like little snakes She held her thought fir her head spin and she nearly collapsed into the bed of oily leaves

She heard Martin shouting, but she could not hear his words through the blast of winds Her thoughts focused She could see in her roan, another furious storm Dead oak branches crashed to the forest floor, unable to cling to the trunks A h They will quit Now"