The Binding Stone (The Dragon Below, Book 1) Read Online Free Page B

woman's head underneath her hair. Her face contorted and she stirred uneasily. Adolan's eyes drifted shut and he spoke a second prayer of healing. Once again, Geth felt nature itself stir to the druid's call. The dark-haired woman's face eased. Her breathing drifted and became regular. Adolan lifted his hand away. "I can feel her exhaustion. More than anything, she needs sleep," he said. "She'll stay this way until we can get back to Bull Hollow." He studied her face. "She's not like anyone I've ever seen. And the spell of fire that she cast was strange, too. That strange sound that came with it wasn't like any priest's prayer or wizard's invocation."

    Geth tilted his head and looked closely at the woman. Her bronze-brown face was long and almost too elegant, her skin smooth and flawless, though darkened by long exposure to the sun. A twisted band of polished bronze circled her head and wide, decorative bracers of the same metal wrapped her forearms. A simple cord around her neck supported a woven spiral of thick bronze wires. Caught within the spiral was a cloudy green-yellow crystal the size of two of his fingers held side by side. Her clothes, as well as the sandals on her feet, showed the strain of long travel, though the woman was hardly dressed for it: she wore only a short, light shirt and tapered pants, with a fringe that wrapped around her waist. In spite of the wear on it, the fabric of her clothes was a rich, deep red embroidered with gold-colored thread in strange and exotic patterns. Geth glanced at the spear in his hand. The shaft below the crystalline metal of the head was worked in similar patterns.

    "I don't think she's a wizard or a priest, Adolan," he said. "And that was no spell. I've seen her kind before."

    Adolan looked up at him. "In the Eldeen?" he asked, his voice low and cautious.

    Geth shook his head. "No. It was ... before I came to Bull Hollow." Geth's jaw tightened. He gestured to the woman's distinctive clothes and spear, to her fine features. "She's a kalashtar."

    Only the vaguest kind of recognition flickered in Adolan's eyes. "Kalashtar come from the east," Geth explained. "Far to the east--across the Dragonreach and the Sea of Rage, from Sarlona." He glanced down at the sleeping woman. "I saw some of her kind in Rekkenmark in Karrnath. A wizard told me that they have powers that aren't like any magic we know." He touched his forehead. "It's some kind of mind-magic."

    Adolan's eyes narrowed and his nose crinkled. "Do they all float like that when they fight?" Geth shook his head. "What do you think she's doing in the Eldeen Reaches?

    "I don't know," said Geth. He drew a deep breath. "But I don't think it's safe to take her back to Bull Hollow. We should leave her here."

    "Geth!"

    "Trouble followed every kalashtar I ever saw, Adolan." Geth gestured to the carnage around them.

    "She stumbled across young displacer beasts looking for prey. We already knew they were dangerous." Adolan stood up. "And she's asleep. What trouble can she bring down on us?"

    "She'll wake up sooner or later. There must be some reason she's stumbling through the hills in exhaustion."

    Adolan crossed his arms and fixed him with a glare. "She's most likely lost. We can't just leave her, Geth. The displacer beasts were the most dangerous things in the forest, but they weren't the only danger. We need to take her with us." When Geth glowered, he raised his eyebrows. "Are your fleas bothering you again, furball?"

    Geth bared his teeth. "I don't like it," he said.

    "You don't like much of anything. Think on this: we dealt with the displacer beasts and saved a life today. Be happy with that."

    Geth's lips pinched back together. "Ring of Siberys in a mud puddle, Ado."

    "With you around, someone has to be the optimist." Adolan walked over to the area of brush that had been animated by his prayer. A few long vines still squirmed across the ground. The druid grabbed them and began gathering them like some kind of