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“I guess it’s not any different than when somebody over here gets cremated,” Alora reasoned.
“Yeah,” said Beth. “But in our world, we don’t have to watch them do it. It’s all done behind closed doors, and we have a nice urn and a beautiful picture to look at.”
“I think it’s cool.” Wesley plopped onto the couch beside Kaevin, and put his feet up on the coffee table for an instant before returning them to the floor. He glanced at Beth. “Sorry, it’s a bad habit. We don’t have nice new furniture at our house.”
“To tell you the truth, I kind of preferred the old junky stuff. It gets old having to be so careful with everything. But I’m happy for Mom—she’s never really had nice things before.”
Nodding, Wesley said, “I totally get it. My mom says she’s not bothering to get any more nice furniture until I’m out of the house. And that’s fine with me.”
“Back to the funeral,” Alora interrupted, planting herself on Kaevin’s other side and sliding her fingers to lock with his. “Wesley, it doesn’t bother you when they light a pile of bodies on fire? Doesn’t that seem kind of gruesome? No offense, Kaevin...”
Her soulmate merely smiled.
“It might if they weren’t all covered up,” Wesley replied. “But it just seems kind of symbolic to me. I mean, the smoke rises up in the air, like it’s going to Heaven. Doesn’t that seem better than sticking a body down in the ground so it can slowly rot away? I’d rather go up than down.”
“Speaking of bodies...” Beth kicked off her shoes before crawling into an overstuffed chair. Are you really going to transport all those Stone Clan people back to Laegenshire, Alora? Including the dead ones? Do you have enough strength or whatever to do that?”
“I actually look a lot worse than I feel. And I’m not even using my gift to mask the pain this time. My shoulders are still pretty sore from being tied up, but nothing’s broken. Doc says when the swelling goes down on my face, I’ll look okay—maybe have a couple of scars from the deeper gashes.”
“Then I guess it’s a good thing Kaevin’s already stuck with you, since you look like you had a fight with a barbed-wire fence and lost.” Beth giggled as she dodged the pillow Alora threw.
“Thanks a lot.” Alora packed her words with sarcasm, but she honestly appreciated her friend’s lighthearted jesting. Beth always helped her keep things in perspective. “And I may have to see a dentist, because one of my front teeth got hit pretty hard, and it’s still hurting.”
“Ugh! I hate the dentist,” Wesley replied around a mouthful of M&M’s from the package he’d carried to Glaenshire to “keep my energy up during the funeral.”
“Not too surprising,” Beth remarked. “Personally, I love my dentist, and I’ve never had a cavity.”
“I figure a trip to visit the dentist can’t be as bad as visiting my father.” Alora’s wry humor was lost on Kaevin, who sat white-faced and quiet, trying to hide his pain, exacerbated from today’s funeral trip. She used her gift to share some of his discomfort, hiding her grimace behind a fake smile. “So I’ll be fine transporting everyone about. Kaevin, on the other hand, probably shouldn’t be moving around... even this much.”
“I’m fine,” he protested. “And stop doing that. I don’t need your help.”
Alora was distracted when Markaeus and Arista walked through the room, chatting in low tones.
“Hey! Where’re you two going?” Alora called out. “You look like you’re on a secret mission.”
“We’re going through the portal to take these to Glaenshire.” Arista held up a stack of papers. “Beth, did you want to come and give them to Mera yourself?”
“You have a gift for me?” Meravelle swept into the room, somehow managing to look sophisticated, despite her short stature, tight curls and turned-up nose. “I came to say farewells to everyone.”
Alora caught Beth’s eyes and nodded. They both knew Mera had come to say goodbye to Bardamen, who still hadn’t awakened, much to Doc’s frustration.
Beth snatched the papers from Arista’s hands and held them out to Meravelle. “Here you go. It’s just photocopies, so they might be a little harder to make out. But most of the images are pretty clear. And I can always blow them up larger if you have a hard time making out the writing, not that I can make heads or tails of anything.”
“What is this?” Mera frowned at the stack of papers in her hands.
“It’s photocopies of the Maladorn Scroll. When Markaeus fetched it from the Craedenza, I took pictures of the whole thing. I think most of them are in order, but of course the images will overlap and some of the writing will be repeated from one page to the next—”
“A miracle!” Mera’s smile was huge. And genuine. It was the first Alora had seen on her face since she woke up in Montana. “How can I ever thank you? You may have saved Tenavae from Vindrake.”
“And me, too.” Markaeus pushed his lower lip out. “I’m the one who brought the scroll here.”
“Well, I’m the one who stole it from Vindrake in the first place,” Arista declared.
“Yes, Arista. And how long would you have kept the scroll secreted away in your room?” Entering the room on crutches, Jireo’s teasing tone had a slight edge to it. Only one of Vindrake’s three shots-in-the-dark had hit him, so he’d been really lucky—or unlucky, depending on your perspective.
“So, you can read this, right?” Beth asked Mera, pointing at the pictures. “Because we really need to know how to reverse Vindrake’s bloodbond.”
Mera’s smile faded. “I can’t read the scroll’s writings... not yet. These things take some time. But I’m gifted in languages and wisdom, and I promise to study until I can interpret the words.”
