Swords of Waar Read Online Free Page B

I was at a dead end. Leigh Gardner didn’t know where it was. Was I going to have to schlep all the way out to Iowa? That would take weeks! And there was no guarantee the thing would be there once I got there. And even if it was—and it worked—would Lhan still be alive after all that time when I got back to Waar?
    I closed my eyes, fighting back tears. Shit, if I was honest with myself, I’d have to admit he was probably already dead. Those priests probably slit his throat at the same time they grabbed me. But I couldn’t let myself believe that. I couldn’t just turn my back on him and stay on Earth because of a “probably.” I had to go back and see for myself. I…
    A murmur in my ears made me lift my head. It sounded like the tinnitus I’ve got from all my years riding Harleys and going to see rock and roll bands. It’s with me all the time, but I generally ignore it. This time, however, it caught my attention, pulling me out of my swirling brain.
    I waggled a finger in my ear, but the sound stayed with me, right on the edge of my hearing. Maybe it wasn’t my tinnitus. Now it sounded like traffic noise from down the block. Or somebody with a radio on static a few houses away. It wasn’t letting me think.
    I turned around, looking up and down the street, but the murmur still sounded like it was coming from behind me. I waved my hands around my head like I was swatting mosquitos. It didn’t make a damn bit of difference. I still heard it. I stuck my fingers in my ears. I heard it louder—a whole planet full of people whispering gobbledy-gook inside my head.
    And suddenly I knew what it was.

CHAPTER FOUR
    CORNERED!
    I ’d heard that same whispering six months ago in the cave when I’d touched the glowing green gem and been dragged across the universe to Waar—a thousand voices all babbling to me in a language I didn’t understand— downloading it into me. That’s what the teleporter gem did. It took you to Waar and taught you the language. If I was hearing it….
    I looked around, eyes wide. There was a gem around here! There had to be! That noise couldn’t be anything else!
    I took a step toward the house. The voices got a tiny bit louder. Was it inside the house or behind it? I stepped off the porch and started around to the drive. It got louder still, like bees buzzing inside my head. I frowned. Did Kline’s granddaughter hear this all the time? How did she stand it? I woulda been climbing the walls. But maybe she didn’t hear it. Maybe I only heard it because I’d touched a gem before. Maybe I was attuned to it now or something.
    I stepped into the backyard and started toward the back fence. The whispering got softer. Okay. In the house, then. I turned around and saw the old lady through the kitchen window, on the phone, and staring right at me. Her voice came muffled through the closed windows.
    “I’m calling the police!”
    I waved my hands and started for the kitchen door. “Don’t! Please! It’s here! I can sense it! It’s in your house!”
    Yeah, I am aware how crazy that sounded. I was crazy. It was so close. I had to get to it. I had to find it.
    Leigh shrank back as I ran up her back steps and rattled the kitchen door. She was crying into the phone. “Yes, Holliston Street! Hurry! She’s trying to break into the house!”
    “I’m not trying to break in, Mrs. Gardner. I’m not going to hurt you. I just want you to open the door. I know the transmigration ray is in your house.”
    Leigh hung up the phone and backed through a door, out of sight. “I—I have a gun!”
    I didn’t believe her. I banged on the door. “Mrs. Gardner! Open the door! Please! Just let me talk to you.”
    Nothing but whimpering. Goddamn it! There was no time for this. The cops were coming. I had to be gone before they came, and I would be if I could just find that gem!
    “Mrs. Gardner! Are you there? Can you just—”
    Right there in mid-sentence, my patience ran out. It was there one second, gone