Prophecy of the Sisters Read Online Free Page B

it home and made a translation. I
knew
you’d want to know more.” His eyes twinkle with these last words, and I recognize it as a small jibe toward my endless curiosity.
    I roll my eyes, smiling if only to feign exasperation with James. “Never mind, what does it say?”
    He looks back to the book, clearing his throat before beginning. “It starts out, ‘Through fire and harmony mankind endured
     until the sending of the Guards, who took as wives and lovers the woman of man, engendering His wrath.’ ”
    I shake my head. “Is it a story?”
    He pauses. “I think so, though not one I’ve ever heard.”
    I turn the single page. I don’t know what I’m looking for when clearly there is nothing else there.
    “It goes on from there,” he adds before I can begin asking questions, “to say ‘two sisters, formed in the same swaying ocean,
     one the Guardian, one the Gate. One keeper of peace, the other bartering sorcery for devotion.’ ”
    “Two sisters, formed in the same swaying ocean… I don’t understand.”
    “I believe it’s a metaphor. For the birth fluid. I think it alludes to twins. Like you and Alice.”
    His words echo in my mind.
Like you and Alice.
    And like my mother and Aunt Virginia, and their mother and aunt before them,
I think. “But what of ‘the Guardian and the Gate’? What does that mean?”
    He shrugs a little as his eyes meet mine. “I’m sorry, Lia. I don’t know about that part.”
    Mr. Douglas’s voice drifts down the hall and we glance at the library door. I look back at James as his father’s voice gets
     louder and nearer the library door.
    “Have you translated the whole page?”
    “Yes. I… Well, I wrote it down for you, actually.” He reaches into his pocket as Mr. Douglas’s voice sounds from just outside
     of the door, giving us fair warning of his arrival.
    “Very good, Virginia. Tea would be most lovely!”
    I put a hand on James’s arm. “Can you bring it to the river later?” The river is our usual meeting place, though not normally
     for something as staid as a book.
    “Well… Yes. When we stop for lunch? Can you meet me then?”
    I nod, handing the book back to him as his father comes through the door.
    “Ah, here it is! You see, James, it’s just as I said — I
am
losing my wits in my old age!” Mr. Douglas waves a leather-bound ledger in the air.
    James’s smile is brilliant. “Nonsense, Father. You’re simply too busy, that’s all.”
    I only half-listen to their banter. Why would the book be hidden in the library? It was unlike my father to keep to himself
     so rare and interesting a find, but I can only assume he had a reason for doing so.
    And I have reasons of my own for wanting to know more.
    It cannot be chance alone that Father was found dead on the floor of the Dark Room, or that shortly thereafter I discovered
     the mark, observed my sister in her eerie ritual, and was given this strange, lost book. I cannot be sure what it all means
     or how these events work in concert, but I’m certain they do.
    And I intend to find out how.

4
    Henry and Edmund are no longer at the river. Edmund has always been protective of Henry, and he will doubtless be more so
     now that Father has passed. There is a chill in the air, a portent of the coming winter, and worrying over Henry is a habit
     for us all.
    I follow the pathway to the terrace at its end, stepping into the woods and making my way to the boulder that sits in the
     shelter of a giant oak. Serenity creeps over me as I settle onto the rock that James and I call ours. It seems that nothing
     bad or frightening could happen here, and by the time I hear James approaching, I have almost convinced myself that everything
     is just as it should be.
    I smile at him as he draws near, peering up at him in the sunlight when he stops in front of me. He takes my hand and pulls
     me to my feet with a smile. “I’m sorry. We were finishing the Religious History collection. Father wanted to complete