The Wretched of Muirwood (Legends of Muirwood #1)

Pasqua took her hands next and kissed them. “No, child. No – let me speak. You cannot understand my heart. You cannot understand, because you are too young still. But some day, you will be a mother, and you will understand then. So be still. Let me speak. Let me say what I should have said all these years. I have loved you like a daughter, though I never told you.” Her hands clenched tightly. “As if you were my own daughter. My own flesh. When you left, and I had not told you, I thought as if the pain would kill me. Dear child – I have loved you since you were a babe. Since the day the Medium left you here. Thank Idumea you have come home. You are home, Lia. Your home. Sowe, your sister is back!” The other girl was pulled violently into the embrace. “I love you both, do you hear me? You are my daughters. My sweet daughters!”


Lia could not see for the tears blinding her eyes, but she hugged Pasqua and thought her heart would break with so much joy when Sowe joined them.



The Aldermaston greeted her with a smile of affection and then turned to shut the door behind her, leaving Pasqua and Sowe in the corridor beyond. “I will only be a moment with her,” he told them before sealing it closed.

He walked back to his stuffed chair and eased himself into it. A tome lay open on his desk, a sheepskin covering beneath it. Part of the page was written on. The other part was clean and unblemished by etchings. She recognized it as Maderos’ tome.

“Welcome home to Muirwood,” he said, his gravely voice so familiar.

“Thank you for allowing me to return, Aldermaston,” she whispered, uncertain where she stood in his eyes. The reunion with Pasqua and Sowe had altered her heart in some unimaginable way. Her feelings were like a stew kettle bubbling over. She could not stop fidgeting with her hands.

The Aldermaston leaned back in his chair, wincing with the effort. “I am pleased you made it back safely.”

She swallowed, her eyes stinging with tears again. “I did. But I am sorry about Jon Hunter. You do not know how sorry I am…”

He held up his hand and grimaced, as if the pain were still too raw for him as well. “What is done is done. I cannot hold you accountable for his death, Lia. That would be unfair. I sent him, so I alone bear that blame. So the abbey has need of a new hunter. I began seeking to rectify that concern when I received the earl of Forshee’s message. Do not burden yourself with it. It was all the Medium’s will, surely.” He brushed his eyes, whether from tears or dust, but she could see the pain in his expression. “It will be no greater miracle that brings us into another world to live forever with our dearest friends than that which has brought us into this one to live a lifetime with them. Or almost a lifetime. Therefore, we weep when they depart. But we will see them again in another world.” A tear ran down his cheek.

She struggled with her feelings for the old man. Never in her life had she seen him weep.

“Lia,” he said, then paused, trying to choose the right words. “You may think it was caprice which has prevented me from allowing you to be a learner at Muirwood. I am certain you have assigned any number of motives to my unwillingness. You may even suppose that because of what happened during your adventure to Winterrowd that I would allow you now.” He leaned back even further in his chair and brought his hands together in front of him, his fingertips touching. “I have motives as other men have. But in this thing, I act for your own best good. You must trust me, Lia. You must trust that what I do, I do for your own best good. I have felt this premonition since that night of the great storm. The night you stole a ring from my chamber. It was the night that I began to truly realize how strong you were with the Medium already.” He bent forward, his voice heavy with meaning. “While I am Aldermaston at Muirwood, you will not be a learner.”

A flood of disappointment washed over her.

“Rein in your feelings, child. Until I finish. That may mean many things. It does not mean that you will never learn to read. I cannot foretell how long I will remain as Aldermaston and you are much younger than I. Those words were spoken to you through the Medium’s will at the time. I feel them valid still. You would make an excellent learner, Lia. And that is one of the reasons why I cannot let you.”

She subdued her disappointment. “Thank you, Aldermaston. I will trust your judgment in this. I know now that I should have trusted you…earlier.”

“Your trust is not easily earned. Thank you.”

She turned to leave then stopped. Reaching down to the pouch at her waist, she loosened the strings and withdrew the Cruciger orb. She was loathe to give it up. “I am sorry for stealing this from you. I will never steal from you again.”

As she was about to set it on his table, he held up his hand. The look on his face – the gesture – confused her.

“I must correct you. You did not steal it, Lia. You, of all people, cannot steal it. For it is already rightfully yours.”

She did not realize she had stopped breathing. “What do you mean?”

His eyes penetrated hers. His eyes, so deep and timeless, like the sea. “We found it with you in the basket. So you see, it did not surprise me that it worked for you or that it led you. Since you have already mastered its powers, I must allow you to keep what is rightfully yours. It is yours, Lia. The Cruciger orb has always been yours.”