(Is this the fabled Heartstone? Is Eric's quest finished?)
He looked
up as she settled beside the fire. Not too close but not far enough he couldn't
reach out and drag her into his arms if he wanted to. Irritated with himself,
he jabbed the fire again. "It's true."
"I
know," she said then shot him a wary look. "I've always been able to
tell when someone is lying."
He nodded.
Many females had a keenly developed truthsense. "Stonebearer, the loss of
your mother grieves me but, still, I must have the Heartstone. Surely there was
someplace where she kept it safely hidden."
"My
mother and I were found wandering down Highway 90. I was just a baby. I don't
remember anything before that." Her head ducked and her hand snaked to her
chest to rest there lightly. "She had amnesia. There was nothing to
identify us, no reports of a missing woman and her child. All we had was the
clothes on our backs.... And her necklace."
"Her
necklace?"
The woman
reached inside her shirt and withdrew a thin gold chain. At the end of it hung
a dark red jewel. "It's all I have of her, of our life before...."
Slowly, she pulled the chain over her head and held the
stone in her palm. "She never took it off. She called it a legacy, said I
was to have it when she..."
Her head
came up, her eyes shone wetly. "We always thought it was just a garnet but
if...if--" She thrust it at him. "Take it."
Heartstone is available in Trade Paperback and E-Formats at Mundania Press
http://www.mundania.com/book.php?title=Heartstone
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