Sword Bearer (Return of the Dragons 1)

She bit down into a roll. “His father was an even better baker,” she said between bites. “We all miss him.”

I nodded. I could see that her thoughts were elsewhere. I sat there and ate silently with her.

“Now that we have both eaten and taken in our tea, I will tell you what we can do. We can look at your blood, and see what that reveals. But I would rather that be a last step. Perhaps we will start with reading your palm, and scrying the ball. How much time do you have?”

“I don’t know.”

Her eyes unfocused for a moment and then she smiled. “I just contacted Woltan and explained our situation, without going into details. He was not too happy, but he wants you to find out as much as you can. He says to report to him when we’re finished.”

“You told him everything?”

She shook her head. “I can’t talk that quickly, not even with my head. We have a kind of mental shorthand. It lets us communicate faster, but it’s far less exact. We use pictures and sounds instead of words. He has a general idea of why you’re upset, and that it has to do with your parentage, and with an evil wizard... But as far as the dark lord’s name, and the word neffe, those were left out, for you to fill in later.”

She stared at me, as if seeking confirmation, and I nodded.

“Hold out your palm.”

I held out my palm and she ran her finger along it, lightly, back and forth, her eyes unfocussed, yet open.

At first her finger crisscrossed my hand methodically, covering every inch of my palm. Then my palm started to sting, to tingle. She was tracing paths of energy. It seemed this palm reading was more than reading simple wrinkles and lines in the skin.

Then she stopped, and looked at me. “I did a preliminary reading, and mapped your palm. Its pattern glows in my mind, and will stay there for several minutes. I can read your palm without consulting it now, but I prefer to keep contact with you, and reconfirm everything, as we go, if that is alright.”

I nodded, impressed with her abilities.

She ran her finger in a sweep across my palm. “Your natural life line is long, but crossed by many obstacles, many of which could prove deadly, breaking your life line prematurely.”

I nodded. “I know it’s not going to be easy.”

Marga smiled. “On your blood line I see three separate lines converging in you.”

I nodded again.

“I see a sudden change that has happened recently, and more changes left ahead. Lots of movement, some of it very sudden.”

“Your love line...”

I cut her off then. “I’d rather not talk about my love line, thanks.”

She smiled at me. “You are young. You get embarrassed with girls and worry about your skin. I understand. Later perhaps you will wish to talk, but I may not be there for you.” She looked at me, but I would not meet her gaze. She shrugged. “No matter. We have other tasks at hand.”

“What about my dream? Of the dark lord?”

She shook her head. “I see nothing here that speaks of that. We can look in the crystal ball, and examine some of your blood in a crucible.”

I nodded, although I didn’t like the idea of doing anything with my blood.

She pulled the crystal ball down from a pedestal to a mat in front of her. She touched my hand and held it an

d my face felt warm; but I felt energy in her hand and didn’t want to interrupt the magic.

I looked down at the ball and saw swirling images, moving so fast I could barely see. Some were of my childhood, some of me now. One was recent, when I sparred with Kalle. Then, just as suddenly, I saw an image of the future. I wore a helm, but it was me, and my sword was green with magical fire, and I smote my enemies.

The images whirled on, and Marga groaned. “Great power, great magic, and so many riddles... I am a little lost here ...”

The ball stopped on an image of a figure, in a dark black cloak — it was the image from the dream — and I stood before the man; but we couldn’t see his face, and there was nothing to hear. We could only see events.

That’s him; the man from my dream.