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.Ross, you will find the purpose and direction you lack.You will not.Instead,you will continue to discover unpleasant truths about yourself, and in the end your reward for doing sowill be a pointless death.His words were cutting and painful, and there was enough truth in them that she was not immune to theirintended effect.But they were the same words she had spoken to herself more than once in the darkermoments of her life, when acceptance of harsh truths was all that would save her, and she could hearthem again now without flinching.Findo Gask would break down her resolve with fear and doubt, butonly if she let him do so.He smiled without warmth. Better think on it, Miss Free-mark.Should it come to a test of magicsbetween you and me, you are simply not strong enough to survive. Don t bet against me, Mr.Gask, she replied quietly. It may be that this is a battle you will win, thatthe magic you wield is more powerful than my own.But you will have to find out the hard way.JohnRoss and I are agreed.We will not hand over the gypsy morph not because you say we must orbecause you threaten us or even if you hurt us.We won t cede you that kind of power over our lives.Findo Gask did not reply.He simply stood there, as black as ink and carved from stone.The windgusted suddenly, whipping loose snow across the space that separated them.The demon stood revealedfor an instant longer before the blowing snow screened him away.When the wind died again and the loose snow settled, he was gone.-=O=-***-=O=-Some lessons you learn early in life, and some of those lessons are hard ones.Nest learned an importantone when she was twelve and in the seventh grade.She had only just the year before experienced theconsequences of using magic after Gran had warned her not to do so, and she was still coming to termswith the fact that she would always be different from everyone else.She had taken a book from theschool library and forgotten to check it out.When she tried to slip it back in place without telling anyone,she got caught.Miss Welser, who ran the library with iron resolve and an obvious distrust of students ingeneral, found her out, accused her of lying when she tried to explain what had happened, and sentencedher to after-school detention as punishment.Nest had been taught not to challenge the authority exercisedby adults, particularly teachers, so she accepted her punishment without complaint.Day after day, weekafter week, she came in after school to perform whatever service Miss Welser required shelving,stacking, cataloging, and cleaning, all in long-suffering silence.But after a month of this, she began to wonder if she hadn t been punished enough for a transgressionshe didn t really believe she had committed in the first place, and she screwed up her courage sufficientlyto ask Miss Welser when she would be released.It was almost March, and spring training for trackwould begin in another few weeks.Running was Nest s passion then as now; she did not believe sheshould have to give it up just because Miss Welser didn t believe her about the book.But Miss Welserdidn t see it that way.She told Nest she would be on detention for as long as it took, that sneaking andlying were offenses that required severe punishment in order to guarantee they would not happen again.Nest was miserable, trapped in a situation from which it did not seem she could extricate herself.Everything had begun to revolve around Miss Welser s increasingly insufferable control over her life.IfGran noticed what was happening, she wasn t saying, and Nest wasn t about to tell her.At twelve, shewas beginning to learn she had to work most things out for herself.Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlFinally, with only a week to go before the start of track season, she told her coach, Mr.Thomas, shemight not be able to compete.One thing led to another, and she ended up telling him everything.CoachThomas was a big, barrel-chested man who preached dedication and self-sacrifice to his student athletes.Winning wasn t the only thing, he was fond of saying, but it wasn t chopped liver either.He seemed perplexed by her attitude. How long have you been going in after school? he asked, as ifmaybe he hadn t heard her correctly.When she told him, he shook his head in disgust and waved her outthe door. Tell Miss Welser that track begins on Monday next and Coach Thomas wants you out heretraining with everyone else and not in the library shelving books.Nest did what she was told, thinking she would probably end up being sentenced to the library for life.But Miss Welser never said a word.She just nodded and looked away.Nest finished out the week andnever went back [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]