Read Artemis Invaded for Free Online Page A

Blithe. He was very interested in the children, especially the second, a boy who showed some signs of being adapted. The Old One offered to adopt the boy. Blithe refused. The Old One offered to send the boy to a special school he had founded for adapted children. She refused this also. Then the boy vanished—apparently drowned, although from birth he had swum like a fish.
    â€œBlithe was not stupid and she had a weaver’s mind for patterns. When she learned that other children had disappeared, other children in whom the Old One had shown an interest, she grew nervous. She grew more nervous when she learned that no one seemed to know anything about his special school. Soon after Blithe, too, vanished, along with her older child.
    â€œMost people accepted the story that Blithe had moved to be away from the seas that had taken both her husband and her son. I said nothing but, based on her letters, I think she was either killed by the Old One or given a chance to be with her son if she agreed to cut off all contact with the outside world.
    â€œWhen you, Adara, showed signs of being adapted, I hoped no one would notice. You, however, were a determined little thing. There was no keeping you in if you wanted out—and you would insist on roaming about after dark. The bias against the adapted is not strong in Ridgewood. We are too close to those areas like Spirit Bay and Crystalaire that the seegnur frequented, and the seegnur favored the adapted. But I feared for you. What if the Old One took an interest in you? Would you, too, vanish?
    â€œI confided in Akilles, showed him Blithe’s letters. Though it broke our hearts to do so, we decided the best way to protect you was to hide you in plain sight. Bruin trained hunters. Far from being biased against the adapted, he was adapted himself. Moreover, we learned that he protected his students as closely a mother bear does her cubs. If you could be safe anywhere, you would be safe there.”
    â€œBut,” Adara protested, “Bruin was the Old One’s own student. He revered him.”
    â€œThat is what we meant by hiding you in plain sight. In Bruin’s care, the Old One would know of you, but he would also know that he could not touch you without risking alienating one of his most prestigious and well-known followers—a man who was known for teaching and protecting the adapted.”
    â€œI see.” Adara fell silent, feeling reality as she had always known it shifting and reshaping. “You never told me.”
    Neenay shook her head. “We couldn’t, because Bruin was the Old One’s follower. We had no proof, only suspicions.”
    â€œYou cut me off,” Adara said, not able to rid herself of her lifelong belief.
    â€œDid we?” Neenay smiled sadly, her fingers wrapping around the shuttle. “Did you see matters that way? We felt you cut us off. Since we needed you to bond with Bruin, for him to be your protector, we accepted this, but always with sorrow.”
    Adara pressed her face into her hands. Her voice muffled, she said, “I … I’m glad you told me. I only wish … But I see … Yes.”
    Surging to her feet, she crossed the room in what seemed to be one step and found Neenay on her feet, arms open wide.
    â€œMother!”
    â€œMy little girl … Welcome home. Welcome home.”
    *   *   *
    Something happened between Adara and her mother, Griffin thought, something that has cleared the air considerably. I’m glad. Adara was so tense on our way here. It’s good to have that gone, now that we’re leaving.
    After several days at Adara’s family home, during which time they had completed laying in needed provisions and updating their information about the region, the three had set out in the direction of Crystalaire.
    â€œAt least the road is a good one,” Terrell said as he guided Midnight to point. “Since Crystalaire was