The Secret of Dreadwillow Carse Read Online Free Page A

queen,” she said, sitting up straight.
    â€œDid she? I don’t recall that being in the job description.”
    â€œWell, then why are you here?”
    Skonas rubbed his hands together. “I am here to teach you three lessons. You will then use those lessons to set yourself a fourth and final lesson.”
    â€œAnd . . . and then I’ll know how to be queen?”
    Skonas sniffed. “Is that important?”
    Jeniah’s heart fell. He wasn’t making any sense. This odd man did not seem capable of teaching her anything, let alone how to rule her people. Clearly the queen, in her weakened state, had not been very diligent in choosing her daughter’s new tutor.
    â€œThis is your first lesson. It’s—” Skonas paused as Jeniah scrambled to take out a piece of parchment and dip her quill in an inkwell. He gave her the most curious look, as if he had no idea what she was doing. Then he turned his back and continued. “It’s the lesson from which all other lessons spring: you are your own best teacher. Repeat that.”
    Jeniah’s brow furrowed, but she obeyed. “I am my own best teacher.”
    Skonas spun around. “Do you believe that?”
    â€œDo I believe what?”
    â€œThat you are your own best teacher.”
    Jeniah looked down at the parchment and quill. She found herself longing for Miss Dellers. Things were much clearer with the stately woman. Miss Dellers spoke only to impart important knowledge. Jeniah had no idea if any of what Skonas was saying was worth writing down.
    â€œIf that were true,” she said slowly, “you’d be out of a job. Wouldn’t you?”
    Skonas cackled. “Very astute,” he said. “Strangely clever. You’re beginning well.” But he didn’t answer her question.
    Sighing, she dipped her quill into the inkwell again. But before she could write a single word, Skonas snatched her parchment away.
    â€œWhat are you doing?” he asked, holding the page at arm’s length as if it were poisonous.
    â€œI’m writing that down. I write down all my lessons. And if all other lessons come from the first lesson,” Jeniah reasoned, “it must be the most important.”
    Skonas looked amused. “Yes, I can see why you’d think that.”
    â€œSo it’s true?”
    â€œNo.”
    Skonas crumpled up the parchment and tossed it aside. Jeniah balled her fists.
    â€œNo,” the teacher repeated, “it is not the most important lesson. The most important is the fourth. And when we get to that point—
if
we get to that point—there will be no need to write it down.”
    Jeniah tossed her quill aside, exasperated. “And why is that?”
    Skonas paused. Then he leaned forward and looked deeply into the girl’s eyes. The princess felt her pulse pound in her throat. She’d already resolved to dismiss everything the man had said. But that look in his eyes . . . The same instinct that fueled her curiosity about Dreadwillow Carse now told her one thing: Skonas was about to speak an irrefutable truth.
    â€œBecause it will be imprinted on your soul.”
    As Jeniah pondered his meaning, the teacher pursed his lips and whistled. Gerheart called in return and then swooped down, landing on Skonas’s gloved arm. Skonas nodded to the princess and turned to the door.
    â€œWhere are you going?” Jeniah asked.
    â€œWe’re done for today.” Skonas exited without another word.

Chapter Four

    NO ONE LIVING IN EMBERFELL COULD REMEMBER THE LAST TIME a gloamingtide fête followed Tower Rise so closely. A quick look through the history books found no such instance in the last two hundred years.
    But death never claimed monarchs on a convenient schedule. It was impossible to predict whether the two events—one a calendar mainstay, the other a jape of fate—might coincide. Now, they did. Just three short days following the