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  But then, as we took the first step, something strange began to happen.

  The room seemed to grow somehow—elongating until the far corner was about a mile away. At least that was how it seemed. I looked back over my shoulder and saw that Grav and Shekk were now far away—almost the length of a football field in fact.

  “Hey!” I turned back to Magda who was hobbling along beside me. “What’s happening?”

  “Don’t fear, child. I put a Goddess-eye around my corner.” She kept walking towards the far distant corner and somehow I was still walking with her, despite the fact that things had suddenly gotten very, very strange.

  “A Goddess-eye? What does that mean?” I asked as we drew nearer the corner which, somehow wasn’t painted black like the rest of the room. In fact, as we got closer, I saw that it wasn’t a room in a bar at all. Instead, I saw a pleasant forest glade with green and purple trees and blue flowers growing around the base of a rustic looking cottage.

  “A Goddess-eye is the first thing taught to the wise-women of the Goddess of Mercy,” she said, smiling at me. “It allows you to have space and privacy of your own, even in a tiny or crowded area. And no one can enter without your express permission—you are only with me because I invited you.”

  “Um, thank you for the invitation but I really should be getting back.” My voice sounded high and nervous in my own ears. But Magda only laughed at my obvious fear.

  “Now, now, child—there’s no need to be afraid—especially not of old Magda. I’ll not hurt you—I’ve been waiting here for five cycles to meet you so I could help you.”

  We had reached the cottage by this time and I saw that there was a low wooden bench with a little table out in front of it.

  “Now, you sit down and make yourself at ease,” she indicated the bench. “I’ll just go and get the yarex. I have some all ready for I had a feeling today would be the day I finally laid eyes on you.”

  Mystified, I allowed myself to be seated on the bench while Magda bustled into the cottage, humming softly to herself. She returned quickly with a wooden tray bearing a steaming white and gold pot. It had white cups with golden handles to match. I would have said it looked like an ornate tea set but the cups were extremely wide and shallow—almost more like small soup bowls with handles than tea-cups.

  “Now then.” Magda set the tray on the table between us. “You must pour or your fate will not read true.”

  Mystified, I raised the steaming pot and poured a quantity of pale golden liquid into one of the bowl-cups. There were tiny brown specks in it that settled to the bottom of the cup after a moment. I looked at Magda and she nodded, so I poured for her as well.

  “Now then, now then,” she said again as I put down the pot and picked up the cup. “There’s some as like their yarex strong but I didn’t think that would do for you. So I brewed it weak.”

  “Thank you,” I said, not knowing what else to say.

  “Well, go on.” She picked up her own cup and drank some of the steaming liquid. “Have some.”

  Since Grav had said it was safe and since she had already drunk some herself, I thought it was okay to drink some of the strange steaming mixture myself. To my surprise it was good—very good.

  I’d been living for the last two days on re-hydrated Vornish and Braxian food from Grav’s stores and though I would never have told him, most of it was just awful. Not that I’m one of those people who won’t try food from other cultures—I actually love Thai and Indian and just about any other exotic food you can think of. And to be honest, some of the Vornish food was okay.

  But Braxian cuisine was alive.

  As in long, pink two-headed snakes that tried to slither off my plate, or tiny creatures that looked like bright blue hermit crabs you were supposed to crush with a mallet and then pick out of their shell with a special one pronged fork that looked like a miniature spear. There were even creatures that looked like big red roly-poly bugs—the kind that roll into a ball when you touch them. These were as big as Grav’s thumb and you were supposed to douse them in bright green hot sauce made of some toxic pepper before popping them, still wriggling, into your mouth and letting them crawl down your throat.

  So you can see why the yarex, which reminded me a jasmine tea with a hint of some exotic fruit I couldn’t name, was pretty much the best thing I’d put in my mouth in ages.

  “Mmmm,” I hummed appreciatively, as I sipped it. What is it about warm liquid running down your throat that’s so soothing? I’ve never been much of a coffee person although my friend Charlotte is completely addicted to it. But hot tea—well, I drink probably three cups a day. I hadn’t realized how much I’d been missing it before I had the hot yarex.

  “You like it, child?” Magda took another sip from her own cup and smiled at me, nodding.

  “Very much,” I said, nodding. “Thank you. It’s lovely.”

  “’Tis said only the pure of heart may drink the yarex which is ground from the holy bark of the Goddess-tree,” she remarked. “Now I know you are indeed the one whose coming I foresaw.”

  Okay, now she was making me uncomfortable again. Why couldn’t we just sit in the sunshine beside her pretty little cottage and drink the yummy tea-like stuff in peace?

  “Oh, um…” I shifted on the bench, uncertain what to say.

  Magda laughed. “And now you’re unhappy because you think old Magda is crazy. No mind, child. I can read your dregs just fine, no matter what you think of me.”

  “I would never think—” I began but she was already taking my cup from my hands and turning it this way and that.

  I realized that somehow I had finished almost all the pale-gold yarex and there was nothing left but the tiny brown specks at the bottom of the cup, which had formed a kind of pattern.

  “Hmm…yes, I see. I see,” Magda muttered, frowning.

  “You see what?” I couldn’t help asking.

  She looked at me sharply.

  “I see that you travel from a familiar danger into a much greater and unfamiliar one.”

  “Uh, I guess so.” I shifted uneasily, thinking of Gerald and his abusive ways and the mission Grav and I were on. Still, her words were vague enough that almost anyone could have gotten something out of them.

  Magda laughed again. “You’re thinking my words could be meant for anyone. Very well, child—I’ll say it more clearly. You’re running from a beater—a male who lays hands on his female in a harmful way.”

  “I…you…how could you know that?” I whispered. I looked at the pattern of brown specks in the bottom of my cup. “Did the, uh, yarex dregs tell you all that?

  She shook her head.

  “Nay. I didn’t need them to. The way you flinched when your male defended you with violence, even though it wasn’t directed at you, told me as much.”

  “Grav…isn’t my male,” I said.

  Magda smiled. “No? Well, I’ll let time tell about that. Shall I tell you something else I shouldn’t know?”

  I bit my lip, then heard myself say, “Yes, please.”

  “You were dead, or deep asleep for years,” she said, looking at me. “But now you’re awake. Be careful that awakening doesn’t push you too far.”

  “What?” I leaned forward, looking at her intently. Could she possibly be talking about what I thought she was talking about?

  “You heard me. That part of you—the part you thought was dead or broken—it was only asleep. And it’s awake now. Awake and hungry, child. Very hungry.”

  “I know,” I whispered, thinking of how I felt around Grav, how I wished I could be closer to him, how I wanted to touch him all the time even though I knew it was completely inappropriate. “But I don’t understand. Why was it asleep? And why is it awake now?”

  “You were healed. That healing has awakened your own talent as well as your desire.”

  “Talent?” I shook my head. “I don’t have any talent.”

  “You do. And i