The Flute Keeper's Promise (The Flute Keeper Saga) Read Online Free Page B

wasn’t scowling,
but she did wear a slightly pained expression. “I just had…a moment. A memory,
perhaps.”
    My ears perked up. “Really?”
    “It was just a second. Just a
flash. You said something impertinent—”
    “Sorry,” I said, squirming.
    “I saw a different person standing
in your place. A million feelings. A thousand words all in one instant. How can
I describe it?” Her voice grew fast and breathless. “I saw him, just as though
he was standing here.”
    I’d never seen the spirit grow so
emotional. Fortunately, I knew some of the sordid details of the life of
Linaeve Winterwing, nee´ Grimmoix. She had left Ivywild to marry the Slaugh
king. I often wondered what kind of man Hagan Winterwing was to lure away
somebody like Linaeve. It wasn’t as though she’d had a bad life at Ivywild.
She’d been close friends with Florrie Finbarr and Othella when they were young.
Then again, she’d been raised by her aunt, High Priestess Grimmoix. That would
be enough to drive anyone away.
     “Maybe it was your husband!” I
said in excitement.
    Linaeve shook her head. “I cannot
say. My past is of no consequence.”
    “But—”
    “We must find some way to occupy
your mind,” Linaeve said with a dangerous tone of finality.
    Disappointed, I stared at the
floor. “If you insist.”
    “What of your family?” Linaeve
asked. “You haven’t spoken of them in a while.”
    My family history read like one
long tragedy. I far preferred teasing out the secrets of Linaeve’s life.
    “I’m sensing resistance,” Linaeve
said.
    “Mom and Dad are dead,” I said.
“There isn’t much to tell.”
    “But what about your grandparents?”
Linaeve asked. “Your grandfather was a priest, wasn’t he?”
    “Yes,” I said. The Seelie Court
threw that fact in my face every time they got the chance.
    “What happened to him?” Linaeve
asked. “What caused him to send your father away to the human world?”
    I was about to reply when I
realized I didn’t really have an answer. All I knew of my grandfather,
Alberich, was that he had been a priest but was later condemned as a dissenter
because he married in secret. After that the details became blurry. My father
had been sent away using a stolen Pyxis Charm while Alberich and his wife had
died in some kind of attack.
    “See?” Linaeve said. “It gives you
something to seek.”
    I had assumed that if I was meant to
know what had happened to my grandparents, I would have been told by now. In my
mind they had just been casualties of Faylinn’s murky, violent past.
    “I guess I could work it out,” I
said. “I don’t know where to start, though. My family tree in the orchard
wasn’t able to show me.”
    “Well, think of others who were
alive in his time. Surely somebody exists who knew him,” Linaeve said.
    I knew of a few people, but they
weren’t exactly fans of mine. “Judge Kesper acts like he knew my grandfather
pretty well. I could never talk to him, though. He’s awful! Then there’s High
Priestess Grimmoix. She would have known about grandpa’s training at least.
There’s no way I’m bringing it up with her. She’d just call me names and insult
him to boot.”
    “ Nechtu riskint nechtu gwifirun ,”
Linaeve said.
    “What does that mean?” I asked.
     Linaeve smiled. Her nearly
transparent body shimmered. “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”
     
    True to Linaeve’s advice, the
question of my grandparents did occupy my mind. I thought about it the whole
time I was in the garden with Anouk. Though I pleaded, Anouk wouldn’t let me go
into the library. I wanted to see if I could find out my grandmother’s maiden
name so I could eat fruit from her family tree.
    “Not today,” Anouk said for the
third time as she cracked nuts into a grinding bowl. “What’s eating you,
anyways?”
    I waited until Anouk wasn’t looking
and snuck a nut out of the bowl. “Nothing in particular.”
    Anouk gave me a knowing look from
beneath her droopy