AutumnQuest Read Online Free Page B

if someone outside my room heard me.
    When I seemed to have cried my eyes dry, I rolled over and stared up at the ceiling, thinking through everything that had happened. And no matter what angle I looked at it from, I kept coming to the same conclusion: it was all my fault.
    I should have realized it really was a dragon egg right from the start and made Breyard get rid of it. Or I should have said something to one of the masters; they’d have gotten the truth from him and somehow managed to sort everything out. Or at the very least, I should have helped Breyard clean his room afterwards. And I definitely should have kept my mouth shut and not told my friends. Why hadn’t I thought of any of this when it would have made a difference?
    Eventually, I got up, went to the desk, and opened the top drawer. Clarity. That’s what I needed right now. I pulled the lavender tapers out of the drawer and noticed the dark blue resourcefulness ones beneath them. Hmmm. Interesting combination.
    A rap on the door startled me, and I dropped the candles back into the drawer, almost guiltily. I opened the door to find a lad from the kitchen standing there with a luncheon tray.
    “Thank you,” I said, taking it from him.
    “Welcome,” he muttered, then looked up at me with large, dark brown eyes. “I’m sorry, miss.”
    “What for?” Had he helped himself to some of the food? If so, he was welcome to it; I had no appetite, and besides, he looked scrawny.
    “About your brother, miss. We heard in the kitchen. “Tisn’t fair, a good man like Breyard.”
    I almost smiled at hearing my brother called a man. “Thank you . . . what’s your name, anyway?”
    “Traz, miss.”
    “Well, thank you very much, Traz.” I set the tray on my desk, then turned back to the door, where the boy continued to stand watching me with his huge eyes.
    “Come in, Traz. Tell me what you know of Breyard.”
    He shook his head. “Oh, no, miss. I daren’t. Need to get back to the kitchen.”
    I felt a twinge of disappointment. It would’ve been good to hear someone speak kindly of my brother. “Well, all right, but maybe another time?”
    Traz grinned enthusiastically, and, with a quick nod, disappeared down the corridor. I shut the door, wondering what he knew—and how—about Breyard.
    Back at my desk, I tried a bite of the meatroll, but it was dry and tasteless in my mouth. I washed it down with some apple juice, then decided to go ahead with meditation.
    Clarity. And resourcefulness. Trying not to think about what I was doing, I took both sets of candles from the drawer. I didn’t have an extra set of silver candlesticks—silver for Autumn—so I grabbed the first that came to hand: crystal, for Spring. Well, I was taking liberties no matter how you looked at it. I didn’t see how things could get any worse than they already were.
    After lighting all four candles, I sat on the meditation mat, breathing in the scents of thyme and rosemary that filled the air. A strange feeling of both calm and excitement flowed through me.
    Clear my thoughts.
    I slipped into my calm center with more ease than ever.
    Breathe deeply.
    A slow breath in followed by a slower breath out. Another. An unfamiliar vibration tickled my senses. Another breath.
    With the next exhalation, my spirit seemed to slip out of my body like the air out of my lungs.
    I walked through a wood. Sunlight shone through the green canopy above and made the fallen Autumn leaves gleam like gold. Energy flowed all around me, through me, strengthening me. Light from my soul danced with the spirits of the trees. I possessed power, power enough to do what must be done. Something unseen, unfelt, unpresent called to me.
    “Time to rise up, fulfill your destiny.” “I have no destiny. I am no one.” Those were the words I meant to say, but what came out was, “I hear. I follow.”
    “You do not follow; you lead.” The unspoken words echoed in my ears.
    Suddenly I felt as if I were waking up,