Assassin of Curses: (The Coren Hart Chronicles Book 3) by Jessie Eaker (best novels in english TXT) 📕

her dearly. It was part of a life she no longer had wanted. But she had been willing to dig those awful memories up to give me a few pieces of gold. It was indeed a rich gift.

When we had finished, covered in sweat and out of breath, I turned to her, and as I had seen in her memory, bowed from the waist. She hesitated a moment but returned the bow. When she stood, she started to turn away, her expression frozen. But I extended my right hand toward her.

“Thank you,” I said simply. “For everything. This has cost you greatly, and I am forever in your debt.”

She hesitated, looking down at my hand and then back up to my face.

“Fumiko,” I said, looking into her eyes. “Will you still be my friend?”

Her lower lip began to tremble, and her eyes grew moist. But she did not break her frozen expression. As someone drowning and reaching for help, she grasped my hand and gripped it tightly. I pulled her forward and gave her a friendly hug, only to have her openly weep into my shoulder. And I understood why.

There was no more hiding. No more pretending to be someone she wasn’t. She had shown me her worst, and I had accepted it.

When she stepped back, still wearing that frozen expression, I thought I saw the corner of her mouth curl up into the glimmer of a smile.

At a little before noon, we gathered in the center of the village and prepared to resume our journey. I had already briefed Fumiko and Spraggel on Haahleefah’s foretelling and asked their opinion on whether to proceed or return home. Neither of them hesitated and said we should continue. We would just have to be careful.

To see us off, they brought out Oddfrid on a stretcher. He looked better than he had but was still pale and very weak. I thanked him for what he had done and promised to reward him when we returned. He seemed surprised at my heartfelt thanks.

Kaleefah, and the ever-present Haahleefah, stood with us. “Be careful,” said the elder. “I will open a portal near the gates of the empire. But near is a relative term. I haven’t been there in... well, longer than I care to talk about. So I will have to open the gate somewhere I’m fairly confident will still be there. If memory serves me right, you will still have a two-hour walk to get there.”

I smiled. “That will certainly be closer than we are now.”

Off to the side, Spraggel was talking with the lady I had seen accompanying him during our stay. He took her hand and kissed it, saying something in her language. She threw her arms around him and hugged him so tight I thought I heard his joints crack.

Fumiko and Cabrina stood to one side along with Zofie. All of us were dressed in our travel clothes and had been provided refreshed provisions by our hosts.

I bowed to her. “I can’t thank you enough for all your help. If there is ever anything we can do for you, please let us know.”

Kaleefah gave one of her toothy grins. She reached over and pulled Haahleefah against her in a very motherly hug, which the younger one didn’t seem to especially care for. “I have heard that the princess has opened a school.”

I was surprised. “How did you know that?”

Kaleefah stroked her daughter’s head. “I have my ways. I’ve learned to keep an eye on the ongoings of the Xernow’s.”

“Yes, the princess started one, but it’s very small now.” I looked over at Zofie. “And with her like this, things have been put on hold.”

Kaleefah nodded. Haahleefah squirmed, but her mother held her tight. “This one has not dealt with humans outside of our village. It might be useful for her to be educated elsewhere for a while.”

I smiled and nodded. “I’m sure Zofie would be honored.”

The elder released the younger, who immediately stepped back out of hug range.

Kaleefah nodded. “It is time. Are you ready?”

I looked at my party and nodded. The elder turned and made some rapid hand gestures.

I was surprised since it was different than what Oddfrid had done. “I didn’t think hand gestures were needed for myst workings.”

She looked at me over her shoulder and gave one of her wide smiles. “They’re not. But I was always one for theatrics.”

“Oddfrid had us drop through the floor.”

She shrugged. “It is a little bit more myst efficient, but I suspect he does it that way mainly because he likes to scare his guests.”

Suddenly, the air in front of us wavered, and a vertical portal appeared, dark and black, with cold radiating from it. I even could feel a gentle flow of air coming out of it.

“Hurry,” she said. “I can only hold this for a few minutes.”

The crowd of gathered villagers began to shout good-bye in their own language. We waved and stepped through.

As I moved inside, the light left us completely, and I lost all sense of orientation. But it seemed only a short amount of time passed before I stepped out into the light of day. Not nearly as bad as when Oddfrid did it.

The portal snapped shut behind us, and we found ourselves on a large expanse of rock high up on a hill. The air was much drier and cooler than our previous location. I shivered as a chill wind assaulted us. Quite the difference from the tropical heat we had just stepped from.

The sun looked to have moved to early afternoon, which meant we had moved a bit more eastward. However, from the change in temperature, we must have moved much farther north.

From atop the hill, we had a clear view of the valley below us. The terrain