Opal's Wish: Book Four of The Crystal Warriors Series Read Free

dark-skinned people were a rarity here—wherever “here” might conceivably be.
    “Duh,” she said, wiping her nose on the back of her hand. “I was gonna say
muscley.”
    Apparently black skin did not unnerve this child. Good. A useful piece of information. “I would share a secret with you, young one,” he said, hoping if he gained her trust she would reveal more. “But you mustn’t tell a soul.”
    Her eyes rounded. “I won’t tell anyone,” she said, her voice squeaky with excitement. “I promise!”
    He leaned forward to impart a bit of the wisdom his mother had once gifted a small, skinny boy who’d suffered what his disappointed father had termed an
irrational
fear of horses. “Even grown men as big as I are oftentimes afraid.”
    “Really?”
    “My word on it.”
    The tiny frown creased to a scowl that was impressive for one so young. “You’re just saying that to make me feel better,” she said.
    Damned if he didn’t feel like smiling again when he had no cause to smile—not given the precariousness of his current situation, not after enduring an emptiness so profound it was a miracle he’d not lost his mind. Or perhaps he finally had. Perhaps this “reality” was nothing more than the product of a fractured psyche. Perhaps in truth he was still entombed in darkness. If so, he would embrace this fantasy for however long it lasted.
    “I was fearful of your spectacles,” he said. “And then I recalled where I’d seen such a wondrous invention before.”
    Her jaw sagged. “Huh?”
    “Spectacles.”
    A screwed up nose conveyed her confusion. Perhaps he had mispronounced the word. “This clever contraption that makes things appear larger.” He gently tapped a forefinger on the metal frame bridging her nose.
    She crossed her eyes, the expression made more comical magnified through the thick lenses. “My
glasses
?”
    Danbur fought the grin that threatened to bloom across his face. Doubtless she would take it the wrong way and be offended. “If that is what
you
call them, then yes.”
    “You were scared of my glasses?”
    He nodded, keeping his expression grave. “Indeed I was.”
    “Wow.”
    Whatever that strange word might signify, she was no longer breaking his heart with her efforts to suppress her sobs. All in all an excellent outcome—even if she now regarded him as one might regard some alien beast from a traveling menagerie.
    “My name is Danbur,” he said.
    She gave a little burbling giggle that dared him to throw caution to the sands and laugh alongside her. “Danbur? That’s a funny name. I’ve never heard of anyone called
that
before. Can I call you Dan, instead? Dan’s a proper boys’ name.”
    He cocked his head to one side, gauging her expression, her body language. When he detected neither mean intent nor slyness in her tone he nodded. “Very well.”
    She stuck out her hand, gazing expectantly at him.
    Ah. A greeting was in order. He leaned forward to engulf her small hand in his, and relaxed his arm muscles when she enthusiastically pumped his hand up and down.
    “I’m Seraphine,” she said.
    Interesting.
Seraphinite
was a crystal so rare his fief’s priests possessed but one example of it and—
    A tremor coursed through him and he was struck by a sense of… of… teetering on the verge of discovering something vital. And then it faded, leaving him pondering the startling coincidence that this girl-child would be so closely named for a seraphinite crystal.
    He didn’t believe in coincidences.
    He mentally shook himself, sloughing off the disquiet still scuttling over his skin. “’Tis a pleasure to meet you, Seraphine.”
    As the last syllable of her name slid from his lips a sharp pain lanced the base of his skull. He grit his teeth, breathing slow and deep, waiting for the next one….
    It never came. Apparently a dull throbbing, akin to the aftermath of a night spent carousing, was to be his only punishment for escaping his crystal prison. For now,