Read Diviner for Free Online

see what it says? I don’t.” He looked in the opposite direction. “Dear Mother, I am happy in the Northlands with the great dragon king. Arxad told me I would learn more about medicine here, so I am looking forward to that. Papa will be proud of me when—”
    “Stop!” Constance grabbed the letter and spun away. As she pressed it against her lips, spasms rocked her body. “Leave now. Just leave.”
    “And what of the girl? I’ll give her to you at no charge. You can’t let her go to the stone.”
    Staying turned, Constance glanced over her shoulder at the girl. With hair cut into four different lengths and her face so sunken her eyes seemed ready to roll out of their sockets, she was truly a pitiful sight. Could she hide the girl here without getting permission, at least for a few nights? Fellina might return with Xenith at any moment, so getting food for the girl secretly might be impossible. And what of Arxad? He laughed with Magnar! Laughed about poor, sweet Agatha! And then … Constance bit her lip hard. And then Magnar ate her? Could that part really be true? Yeager didn’t see it happen, but if Agatha had really gone to the Northlands, why would Magnar have taken her away? Shouldn’t Arxad have prepared her for the journey?
    Constance hid her face and sobbed. Arxad wasn’t the kind master he pretended to be. He was just as heartless and cruel as all the others. She couldn’t hide this poor girl. No, she would be leaving this household herself. As soon as possible. But where would she go? The wilderness? Yes, the wilderness. Even though no one had ever returned from there, that didn’t mean they died. After all, since they were trying to escape, why would they return?
    Taking in a deep breath, Constance wiped her eyes and turned back to Yeager. “I’m sorry, but I cannot take this girl in. I understand what will happen to her, but there isn’t anything I can do about it.”
    “So be it.” Yeager shook the chain and walked toward the cave’s entrance. The three children followed, ignorant lambs being led to slaughter. As the shadows enveloped him, Yeager called back, “Just don’t preach to me again about being a slave trader, Madam Orley. You have just traded this girl to the mill for the sake of your loyalty to dragons, and some of those dragons ate your daughter.”
    When Yeager’s voice faded to silence, Constance looked at Agatha’s letter again, opening it with shaking hands. With her back to the cave wall, she slid to her bottom and read the precious words for the thousandth time. Yeager had quoted them fairly well, closely enough to prove he had heard them spoken. Just this morning she had read the letter, and the sweet prose had been a blessing, an uplifting start to her day:
Somewhere in the North, Agatha served the great king, perhaps as a doctor to the other promoted slaves …
    But now?
    Now Agatha’s dream had been shattered, along with her body and bones. The many months of hope had been a lie, a heartbreaking lie. The poor girl had been eaten by a vile monster, likely ripped to shreds and shared with other vile monsters.
    Sobbing again, Constance clenched a fist. The beasts! The villains! Somehow she would find a way to get revenge. First, she had to escape, get help and weapons, but how?
    She leaned her head against the wall and looked up at the dark ceiling. The cave’s boundaries never seemed so black before, so heavy, so crushing. Arxad and Fellina had always been kind, but now their kindness seemed a pretense, a way to get her to work harder, a mask to hide their real intent. Even if Arxad didn’t eat the slaves himself, he didn’t stop the barbaric practice. He didn’t speak up. His closed mouth was just as guilty as the open ones that had chewed Agatha’s body.
    Brushing away new tears, Constance looked past the ceiling and let her mind fly to the North. It was time to plan a way to escape, but it would be impossible without help, especially with everyone in