Read Fire Within: Book Two of Fire and Stone (Stories of Fire and Stone 2) for Free Online Page B

pulled its wings in close and lost its corporeal form as well, leaving Esset standing on a slightly scorched hilltop, alone.
    Esset just stood there for several minutes, adjusting to the massive changes to his world. Two years of his life were still gone, and he still didn’t know what had happened to Toman, but now he had a chance to find out, to do something. He had time . He wondered if he would ever take life for granted again. And the phoenix—Esset wondered if she was watching through him right then. He couldn’t tell, but then, she had said he wouldn’t be able to tell. For a moment, his skin crawled, but then he shook himself and promised himself he would ignore it; right now, saving Toman, if he still lived, was the most important thing.
     
    His parents had been watching for him, hoping against hope that he’d come back, so when they saw the bird in the sky, they met him in their small back yard. He’d barely banished the fiery bird when his mother was hugging him again.
    “Don’t ever do that to me again,” she scolded him.
    “I love you too, Mom,” Esset replied, hugging her back and smiling at his father. Then his smile faded as they stepped apart.
    “But we have work to do. We need to look into geas spells,” Esset said, looking at his father.
    “I sent Toby up to the library with a note for the head librarian to start pulling reference material,” Mr. Esset replied. “We can—”
    “No,” Mrs. Esset interjected firmly. “Jonathan, you are resting. You need food, and you need sleep, and then you can go bury your nose in a book. No!”
    Esset had begun to object, but his mother stopped him.
    “No arguing, I’m not losing my boy to ill health, not after all this. No complaints, no arguing. I’ll catch you up on what you’ve missed, so it’s not like it’ll be a waste of time.”
    “Time with you is never wasted, Mom,” Esset replied. Esset couldn’t say no, seeing her spirit back like that.
    “Don’t worry, son, I’ll get a good start and bring some of the books back here,” his father said. “I’ll be back before dark. We’ll burn the midnight oil if we need to.”
    “Thanks, Dad.” The two men hugged and then the elder of the two headed back into the house to grab his coat and head up to the royal library.
    Esset and his mother went inside and she chatted happily, filling him in on everything that he’d missed. Their happiness was tainted by Toman’s missing presence, but for the moment, they were both glad he was home, and Mrs. Esset stuffed her son full of all the food she could prepare.
    By the time Mr. Esset returned, Esset had eaten so much he could barely move. He’d already catnapped twice, so he was more than ready to tackle the books that Mr. Esset returned with. They pored over the literature until the small hours of the morning, only stopping to sleep until dawn. Over breakfast, they continued their work until Esset closed his book with a frustrated sigh.
    “It seems that the geas is the business of very skilled, very powerful mages, and no one else,” Esset said.
    “Mostly, yes,” Mr. Esset replied pensively, finishing the sentence he was on before bookmarking the page and closing his book as well.
    “I don’t suppose you know one of those and how to get him or her to help?” Esset asked, rubbing his temples. He knew one mage who might be capable of helping, but even if he could find him, he doubted Erizen could be persuaded to help. He wasn’t exactly the charitable type, and Esset would just as soon avoid the volatile mage. The only other mages Esset could think of were dead or just not powerful enough. Other than that… Well, he knew a few others with magical abilities, but not ones who could manipulate raw magical energies to the extent that would be useful to them now.
    “I know of none powerful enough,” Mr. Esset confessed.
    “But we’re not done our research yet. We’ve gone through all these books, but I asked Andarus to keep searching