The Mask of Omegon (Gwen Farris Book 6) Read Free Page A

get that she was actually her yet. So it would probably be a bit
much for her to start slapping him around or anything like that. Rude, if
nothing else.
    “All right. Walk me through what
you’ve been doing? All of it. If you’re actually a bad guy and not just
a good person helping trees, tell me now. We can just fight about it and call
it a day? I just can’t take any more lies right now. My cup is too full of
those already.” Not that a person that had committed great crimes would just
admit it. Except that it had worked for her before, in that world. Just asking
for the truth like that.
    He nodded.
    “I haven’t been doing much else. A
little bit? For real, I mean, not pretending like we’re doing. There’s a man in
town. A shopkeeper that keeps cursing people if they don’t buy enough. I
traced the spells back to him, but can’t prove it under the law… So I rather
cursed him in return. Not a death curse! Just to make it hard for him to think
when he tried to do magic against anyone else. I’m stronger than he is and
willing to put the time in with the solo ceremony needed. That’s… Not just
helping plants.” He seemed almost ashamed. As if he were being honest with her.
Which was what she’d asked for. It didn’t fit the game though, if he
were still doing that.
    Then, the power raising had been real, and magic wasn’t normally raised for no reason.
    Gwen just waited, not really certain
they weren’t about to trade blows. That didn’t happen however. The guy stood
there instead, since it was clearly her turn to add to the scene they were
playing out.
    “Take me past everything you’ve been doing and demonstrate it to me?”
    That took about an hour. Her hand
lamp had plenty of power left by the time he was done. As far as she could
tell, other than a bit of fairly tame vigilante work, having fought others who
were using their powers to hurt people, if from a distance, the boy really
hadn’t done much of anything. Except things that she might have done herself, if she’d thought of them.
    They even walked out into the
night, under the stars, to inspect some of the formerly afflicted trees. They
had scars on them, but seemed to be healing now. Not all of them, but he hadn’t
claimed the job was done. There were traces of power there however. Energy that
she could feel pressing on her mind as she focused on the plants. Almost like
they were crystal packs. Weak ones that pushed at her mind, telling her of how
they were healing.
    What there wasn’t, she realized,
was any hint of her about to be attacked. Normally, if that kind of thing were
going to take place she’d feel a bit of pressure on the right side of her head.
Feeling nothing probably meant she was decently safe. Unless he wanted
to ask her out, of course. Then she’d be in trouble. If that happened
there wouldn’t be any warning and she wouldn’t know what to do about it.
Saying yes crossed her mind on the matter though. She was too old to be
constantly alone. Everyone was, probably. Really, if she were smart she’d
probably ask him out. Or hint that he needed to ask her. That was the way
things were done in that place, she knew.
    The thought got her to grin a bit.
That kind of thing wasn’t going to be all that likely. Not unless he really
thought she was named Bethy and just playing girl investigator. Though, that
the idea was even a thing there was interesting.
    “I think that what you’ve been up
to is… fine? I mean… You’ve been breaking a few laws, but I can’t actually
be bothered with that. You’ve tried to help people, which is more
important.” She smiled at the boy and winked. That was probably a mistake,
since it was kind of flirting with him. “ Not that you don’t need to hide
that kind of thing better. You’ve been raising enough power that the neighbors
were catching on and reported it. That means you’ve been leaking all
over the place, which is sloppy. Meditation might help you increase your focus?