Bloodstone Read Online Free

before I see Burl. After all, the size and shape of the bloodstone will determine much about the companion gems.”
    “Ar-Deneth!” Mirianna gripped his shoulders again. “But that’s across the Wehrland!”
    Tolbert nodded absently. “It’s the only source if you have to have bloodstone.” He straightened and patted her hand without looking at her. “The two men the Master’s giving me as escort will be here in the morning. Be a lamb and pack my things while I finish this.”
    She nodded, but the rest of her body stood frozen in place by the shock of his announcement. This must be the fear my mother had for so many years. Now it’s mine, and I don’t know what I should do.
    Her father had traveled to Ar-Deneth several times. It was the last, when she was nine, she remembered most vividly, watching her mother’s hollow eyes stare at the western horizon day after day. Tolbert was three months late that time. He’d started out twice and each time been driven back, first by marauding Krad, second by heavy snow. Finally, he’d joined a group of fur traders and forged his way across the mountainous no-man’s land. Adelia thinned dramatically after that and, although she never spoke of it to her daughter, Mirianna was certain the memory of that fear hastened her mother’s death a year later.
    Now her father was about to embark on a similar journey, but one he hadn’t taken in eleven years. Mirianna studied her father. His hands moved quickly, confidently from tool to gem to setting. His eye was still sharp, requiring his magnifying glass only for fine detail. But his shoulders had stooped so, she could see over the top of his head when they stood side by side. On the occasions he made the four-day trip to Burl’s, he returned complaining of pains in his knees and back. One ankle swelled in hot weather, and he coughed at night if he forgot to drink the tea the town herbalist specially mixed for him.
    “I’ll pack,” she said, “but I’m going with you.”
    Tolbert cocked his head as if trying to grasp her words. He laid down the clasp and turned, his forehead grooved into three curving furrows. “You—but that’s the Wehrland.”
    She didn’t want him to know she feared for him or he’d refuse her instantly. No, she must choose her words and make him believe her fears lay elsewhere. “You’ll be gone for at least a month. What will I do here alone for that long? And if you’re delayed? We have no relatives here. I’d be a woman alone.”
    Tolbert frowned. “Our neighbors will look after you. They’ve done so before.”
    “Yes, but that was for only a few days at a time. This could be months.”
    His frown deepened. “I hadn’t thought of that. All the excitement...” He gestured to the bag of coins sitting in the center of the table.
    Mirianna could see confusion in his eyes. One more subtle idea, carefully planted, would be enough. She lowered her gaze and smoothed wrinkles from her apron, letting her hands worry the edge of it. “Besides, the miller’s apprentice has been looking at me lately, and—”
    “That little weasel?”
    She nodded, keeping her gaze averted. “He makes me uncomfortable when he...when he stares like that.” He was no worse than the others, but her father didn’t need to know that.
    “That does it!” Tolbert slapped his hand on the table. “Wehrland or not, you’ll just have to come.” He turned back to his work with a dismissive wave. “Don’t just stand there, girl. Hurry up and pack.”
    “Yes, Papa.” She turned away quickly, hiding her smile.
    Halfway up the ladder to the loft, her excitement waned. She’d convinced her father to take her, but just what was he taking her into? Even small children knew the Wehrland was a place from which not everyone returned. And those that did return, with her own ears she’d heard some swear they’d never enter it again. Well, we’ll be together at least, and I can watch out for him.
    ****
    At his campsite, the