The Ninth Talisman Read Online Free Page A

pointed a talisman at Tala. “I think not,” he said. “Stay back, Priestess; I have changed my mind. I think I will find another village, one more to my liking.” He reached up with his free hand and doffed his cap, then returned it to its proper place. “Your pardon, ladies, but I think I will be going now.”
    The wind, which had died away somewhat, suddenly rose to a howl, and seemed to wrap itself about him; he flickered and faded and was gone.
    â€œNo, wait!” Tala cried.
    â€œFarewell, Priestess,” his voice answered from somewhere overhead. Tala looked up, blinking in the sunlight, but could see nothing but blue sky and high clouds. The wind whipped her hair across her face and stung her eyes, and she had to turn away.
    Then she pulled the bow from her shoulder, pulling it free of her thrashing hair, and knelt as she strung it.
    â€œSpirits of my homeland, hide me from my enemy,” she said, her words inaudible to human ears over the roar of the wind. “Forgive melies told in your service. Guide me to strike down your foe.” The string snapped taut, and she drew an arrow from the quiver on her back. “If you feel it just, drive this shaft of wood from your forests through his heart, so that he may never return to trouble us again.”
    She was far more concerned about what he might do to other villages, but a return would be possible if he realized she had been bluffing, and she knew that the
ler
of this land really did not care at all what might happen elsewhere.
    We forgive your deception.
    No word about her intentions—or theirs—toward the wizard. She grimaced. Then she stood, and turned until the direction felt right; at least one of the spirits was guiding her, but whether accurately or not she could not say. She nocked the arrow, drew it to her ear, aimed it upward, and let fly.
    The wind seemed to snatch the shaft from the bow; it sailed high and far, and vanished into the air.
    And then she heard a brief scream, and the wind abruptly died away as the wizard’s lifeless form plummeted from the sky into old Brewer’s barley field, landing with a hideous thump.
    For a long moment after that the world seemed unnaturally still; then Tanner said, “You killed him.”
    Tala did not bother answering; she was listening to the spirits. Several were speaking at once, telling her that the men were on the way back, that the touch of the wizard’s talismans and bindings upon the field was an abomination that must be removed but that his blood would freshen the earth once they were gone, that she was forgiven her lies.
    She wondered whether they realized how close to the truth her lies had been. She had never really intended to accompany the wizard, to become his property; she had had quite enough of feeling herself to be the property of the entire village, and could not see a single master as an improvement. That speech about the endless demands made on her, though, had come from her heart. She had never asked to be a priestess.
    But then, she had never asked to be born at all, yet she was very glad to be alive. Sometimes she enjoyed the prerogatives of the priesthood, as well.
    She thought for a moment about those talismans the wizard had carried. With those, if she could learn how to use them, she might be able to control the winds as the wizard had, to fly through the sky, or conceal herself from sight. That was tempting.
    But really, what would she do with such powers?
    For all her life she had had her priestly powers, the ability to bargain with the
ler,
to coax favors from them. What had they gotten her that any other young woman didn’t have, and what had they cost her? What would she do with even
more
supernatural power? She looked at Tanner’s face, and Chitchat’s, and saw that her own neighbors, her own aunt, were frightened of her.
    And as her arrow had demonstrated, the wizard’s charms would not hide her from