The Amber Legacy Read Free

It’s not for anyone.’
    ‘Dad went,’ said Daryn.
    ‘Your father’s a man. He makes his own decisions.’
    ‘I’m thirteen. Two more years and I’ll be a man,’ said Daryn adamantly.
    ‘Let’s hope you’re a smarter man than your father,’ Dawn murmured.
    ‘So, no news from Dad?’ Meg asked.
    ‘Nothing.’
    As the boys stood to leave the table, Meg said, ‘You can wash up tonight. Mum’s not doing it.’
    The howls of protest from Daryn and Mykel were squashed by Dawn. ‘Go to bed. Meg and I will clean up. But you boys can organise Peter before you all climb into bed.’
    ‘When can I have my own room like Megen?’ Daryn asked.
    ‘When you’re a man in your own house,’ Dawn replied.
    ‘But how come she gets her own bed?’
    ‘I’m oldest,’ said Meg.
    ‘It’s because you’re a girl,’ said Mykel.
    ‘Go to bed now, or you’ll be doing the dishes,’ Dawn warned.
    After the chaos of three boys left the room, Meg put a small pot of water on the fireplace to boil. ‘Why do you let them get away with so much?’ she asked, as she tied back her mane of red hair.
    ‘I wanted to talk to you,’ Dawn said, the question ignored.
    ‘What about?’
    Dawn put down a grey plate from which she was cleaning scraps, and wiped her hands. ‘I want you to come with me to Samuel for a foretelling.’
    ‘Mum!’ Meg protested. ‘Not this stuff again.’
    Dawn put her hands on her daughter’s shoulders, looking up at her and noting how tall and strong she was getting. ‘You’ve grown again.’
    ‘I need new trousers and a new pair of boots.’
    ‘You should start wearing dresses like a woman.’
    ‘Don’t be silly, Mum. How could I do the work in a dress?’
    Dawn poured a bucket of cold water into the wooden washing tub, saying, ‘It’s time Daryn took more responsibility. He is almost a man.’
    Meg snorted contemptuously. ‘Nothing would get done if it was left to him. He’s a lazy little slime. All hedoes is fish and hunt. He still doesn’t know how to harness the bullock to the plough.’
    ‘Then show him. He can do it this year.’
    ‘I’m not wearing dresses to be a pretty girl, Mum. I want some new trousers.’
    ‘Will you come with me to Samuel?’
    Meg threw up her arms in frustration. ‘Mum, I don’t have a Blessing. You know that. We’ve been to Samuel before.’
    ‘Three years ago. You were a child. Emma says that the Blessing sometimes doesn’t mature in some the way it does in others.’
    Meg lifted the boiling water from the fire and carefully poured it into the large wooden washing tub, and began humming a ballad. As she put down the pot, she saw her mother’s plaintive expression, and sighed. ‘All right. I’ll come. But I don’t believe in all this magic and foretelling. It’s not real.’
    ‘It is real,’ Dawn replied.
    ‘Have you ever seen any real magic, Mum?’ Meg challenged.
    Dawn hesitated, her silence an answer, but she quickly added, ‘That doesn’t mean it isn’t real. I’ve heard a lot of stories about it happening. The Queen’s Seers can use magic.’
    ‘Mum, you believe fantasy stories. People make them up.’
    Dawn shrugged. ‘Perhaps. I still want you to see Samuel.’
    The worst part of sleeping was also the most fascinating. She had dreams, strange dreams, dreams that made no sense because she found herself in places she’d never been with people she’d never met. Every night, as she settled into her pillow, she wondered what dream would visit her. Some nightsshe had no dreams at all—at least nothing she could remember in the morning. Other nights the dreams were so clear that she woke wondering whether or not what she thought she had dreamed had really happened.
    Knowing that her mother was insisting on her seeing the crazy old man made sleeping difficult that night, and she felt as if she would never fall asleep. When she did, she slipped into a dream that seemed new and yet familiar.
    The place was cold and dark, so dark. Yet