Finding The Soul Bridge (The Soul Fire Saga Book 1) Read Free Page A

taboo.
    The bear was blocking the path ahead of them. For a few confused moments it stared at them, whilst tasting the air carefully with its nose. It had walked out of the relatively thick forest onto their meagre path. The boys stood frozen, like the bear, as they regarded each other. As they’d been taught, the best thing to do was to stick together. If a bear charged them, they’d run in opposite directions around a big tree, as this would most likely confuse the bear for a moment, and cause it to give up its chase.
    “The tree on your left looks clear all around it,” whispered Jem.
    Thist turned his head to look at the tree as Jem said, “Go!”
    The bear, growling, gave chase on all fours. However, both Jem and Thist ran around the left side of the tree. Jem swore as Thist tripped over a large root. The bear, now roaring in fury, closed in on Thist purposefully. Thist screamed like a pig on fire.  Thist’s shrieking startled the bear, Jem, and a flurry of birds and squirrels. Jem cleared his head and ran. He had rehearsed this scenario in his head a thousand times. Grabbing his mushroom sack by the neck, Jem leaped up onto the bear’s back as it bent over Thist, pulled the sack over its head and drew its crude drawstring tight. The bear stood up to its full height and lashed out with a vicious backhand which caught Jem in the face on its way back, and its claws gouged flesh out of his left cheek. Before he could regain his feet on his own, Thist was pulling at Jem’s shirt.
    “Get up Jem, get up and run.” Following his scream, Thist’s voice was a hoarse croak.
    Thist and Jem, although both of them were shaken, were single-minded in their determination to get out of the forest. They ran.

2
     
     
    The hagget swore as it beat its disease-stricken hand on the floor. It writhed in agony and frustration as spittle dripped from its mouth. “They killed my bear.” It shrieked.
    The hagget’s bear was a real bear, but it was possessed as a medium for the crystal ball. The spell that the hagget had conjured was faulty and the boys had run into a crazed creature with a grudge and a headache. “Those stupid boys!” wailed the hagget.
    The hagget shrieked in pain as the muscles in its back cramped up causing it to writhe on the floor like a worm.  It grappled for the tincture that gave relief. The self-medication had become a habit of addiction as well as survival. It needed it to function just as much as it hated it and loved it. It snorted the powder deep into its nostrils and waited for the effect to start. Its nostrils and sinuses started to tingle, burn and then it settled with just a throbbing headache. The throbbing headache caused its eyes to tear as it grappled with the mission of a thousand failures. “Let’s just start over.” gurgled the hagget’s voice. “We cannot give up now.”
    The hagget gritted its last remaining tooth against a raw part of its gums and righted itself. “Where is that spell?”
    It groaned as it hobbled across to the far side of a tiny room. It took a tome from the shelf with a feeble hand and dropped it.
    It stood for a long moment as it drew breath and rested. “I have not possessed a being myself in centuries. But now I must break an oath.” Its hand trembled as it fumbled the tatty tome back up to the table. Its hands trembled in exhaustion and it knew that it would have to hurry as the end of its own life was drawing near. “Where is the spell of total transference?”
    It mumbled as it flipped the pages one after another. Its eyesight was poor and it had to scrutinize each page with its weepy eyes just to make out what was written poorly in black ink on tatty brown paper.
    “I will conjure a form for myself to take. This will be the last time.” It vowed again as it found the intricate spell.
    Conjure my servant young and free
    Wrought him well and strong for me
    Form my servant willing and strong
    Sustain him for ninety nine days long
    The hagget stroked