Page 179 of Keeper of the Word

He gave neither a nod nor a word, but a glint in his eyes beamed.

“Farewell,” Elanna said.

She strode quickly through the woods and returned to find Kyrie and Casta pacing back and forth.

Stars.

“I am returned,” Elanna said, hurrying to them.

“Elanna! Stars in heaven. Where have you been?” Casta threw her arms around her.

“I am most sorry. I know I was absent longer than I should have been.”

“We searched everywhere. Everywhere!” Kyrie yelled. “Where were you?”

“At the forge of the blacksmith on the edge of the woods. Look.” She withdrew the key.

“Oh my stars, ’tis beautiful,” Casta said at the same time that Kyrie said, “What blacksmith’s forge?”

“At the edge of the woods.” Elanna pointed in the direction from where she’d come.

The two exchanged a glance. “There is naught at the end of the woods, Elanna. We searched all over the woods and on the other side, too.”

“We searched for two days!” Kyrie’s hands shook.

“Two days? What are you talking about? I was away for a few hours at most.”

“And finally, yesterday,” Casta continued, “we Saw that theOrder of Siria could wait no longer. We sent them on their way to rescue Sir Tolvar.”

Elanna focused on the scene behind them. Only their own horses and six others stood corralled where they’d hobbled them at midday.

“Nay,” Elanna simply replied.

“We’ve been so distressed,” Casta said. “Yet we still sensed you. Although the strain you drew on my cord of light was more taut than I have e’er felt.”

“Maristel has been crying for two days, saying her stomach aches! How could you leave for that long?”

“Kyrie, cease. Truly, you must believe me. I was only gone for an afternoon.”

“Lanna?” Maristel appeared, followed by one of the Order knights. “Lanna!” She bounded into Elanna’s arms and clutched her neck. “Lanna go away. Lanna go too far into fortune.”

“What did you say, Maristel?” Casta asked.

“Lanna go into fortune.” She cupped her hands together into a circle and placed them over one eye. Then she grinned and gestured, palms up. “Then she come back.”

Kyrie and Casta mirrored Maristel’s wide-eyed expression.

Finally, Kyrie said, “You Sybyll Walked?”

“What? I did not. I—” But ’twas no other explanation. What had only seemed like hours to Elanna had, in fact, been days. And she reminded herself. The blacksmith she’d Seen had been a vision of the future. Thefar, farfuture. “Stars.”

“’Tis dangerous, Elanna.” Casta pressed her lips together.

“I do not even know how I accomplished it!”

Kyrie painted on her stern countenance. “Because you yearned to. Because our need is great. But a warning. You must cease pushing your well beyond what it can give you.”

“I know the histories, Kyrie.”