Halcyon Rising Read Online Free Page B

reiterated. “I will not hurt you.”
    She closed her eyes and gave a visible shudder. “I don’t know what you want from me.”
    “I only want the chance to examine the items in your satchel. My brother showed me the magnifying tube. I have never seen its kind before.”
    “Go ahead,” she snapped. “You’ve given me no choice but to allow you to do whatever you want.” She brought the tisane to her lips with a shaking hand and took a deep drink.
    Knowing how it must gall her to think of him pawing through her personal belongings, he turned away. He tried to justify his actions with the fact that he had rescued her from the dungeon. Though she had refused his bed, the little pallet of furs on the floor would be far more comfortable than the stiff-backed chair Simon had tied her to.
    Her gaze bored into him as he sank into his chair and spread her things in front of him. First he removed a pile of delicately made clothing. He shook out a gown of sapphire silk, frowning as the fabric snagged on his calloused fingers. He had never seen such a finely crafted garment and could not imagine why she wore her current garb when she owned something much more suitable. He set aside other items of clothing, in appearance like to a man’s but clearly sized to the lady, and several minuscule undergarments, trying hard not to imagine how the rosy, soft wisps of fabric would look like against her pale skin.
    Next came small containers of sweet-smelling liquids—for bathing, perhaps.
    He reached deep into the pack to pull out the mechanical instruments Simon had told him about, his hands trembling with suppressed excitement. The half-dozen strange, metallic items were so foreign he could not even think what to compare them to.
    All his life he had searched for solutions to the questions that plagued him. Now, at last, he sensed he was on the verge of some answers. But the metals and materials were so different from those he knew, he could not fathom their purpose. His frustration grew as he examined the odd symbols and writing that marked them.
    Even as a child, he had been able to outthink and outtalk the adults around him. He had studied with voracious hunger and hardly ever come across any problem he could not solve, any riddle he could not answer.
    But as he handled these instruments he acknowledged the limits of his intelligence for the first time. Whoever had designed these tools had knowledge he could not even imagine.
    He depressed a button on the side of a long, cylindrical tube and light shot out the top, startling him so badly he dropped the thing and surged to his feet.
    “Jesu Christ!” His pulse thundered in his chest.
    “Don’t be afraid.” The girl’s soft voice disquieted him even more — he had been so absorbed in his examination of her pack, he had forgotten she was there. “It won’t hurt you. We use artificial illumination such as this to light our way instead of fire.”
    He cast a quick glance across the room, but shadows obscured her face. He had not realized darkness had fallen.
    “Push the button again, and it will shut off.”
    Wary, he did as she suggested, and the light extinguished. “I can do that repeatedly? I can have light whenever I wish?”
    How wondrous it would be to have light without the time and effort of building a fire! He depressed the button again, and the crisp beam shocked him anew. He had never seen light so pure and clear, reminiscent of the sun’s brightness. He could read all night . . .
    “There is a small power source in the handle,” the girl explained. “Eventually the power will run out, but they are disposable, easily replaced.”
    He gave her a rare, genuine smile. “Thank you.” Questions seethed within him, but he did not want to appear too greedy. Later, he would ask more regarding the creation of light from darkness and the nature of this “power source.” For now, he was happy she had gifted him this small piece of information. Fate had handed him an