“Stand up and fight,” he demanded, his voice thick with anguish.
“I can’t,” Barbara said miserably.
“Yes, you can!”
“You don’t understand. This fight isn’t over,” she looked up at him, fresh tears spilling from her eyes, “until one of us is dead.”
Though he was appalled, he wasn’t surprised. He’d really expected as much, especially after his vision at Crystalwood was confirmed.
But foremost in his mind was protecting Barbara.
Fen grabbed Barbara by the arms, forced her into a sitting position. “Stand up and fight.”
“No!” she cried bitterly.
“Barbara you have to!”
“I can’t!”
“Barbara!” Fen said firmly. She looked at him. His voice caught in his throat, the words trapped by the growing lump there. He tried to force that lump down but it ended up coming out with his words. “I would rather die than see you suffer another moment.” Tears spilled down his cheeks as he finished.
This awakened new tears in Barbara as she said, “And I would rather die than to hurt you.”
Fen chuckled despite his tears. “I guess that means we’re at an impasse, then. But we can at least put on a good show. C’mon.” He helped her to her feet. “It’ll be just like when I was first teaching you.”
Barbara smiled wanly. “But these aren’t toy swords, Fen.”
“Doesn’t matter,” he said. “We were learning. Just having fun. That’s what we’re doing now.”
Without thinking, Fen bent down and picked up the Sword of Tilk. He started to hand it to Barbara then looked at it in amazement.
“He broke the enchantment on it,” Barbara said as she took the sword from him. “Anyone can pick it up now.”
“And the curse?” Fen asked.
“Oh, that’s still there.”
Great, Fen thought. One more thing to worry about.
But there was no time to worry about it at the moment as his sword clanged against the raised Sword of Tilk.
Enter to win 1 of 2 sets of the “Sword of Tilk” Trilogy. Visit link:
http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/66510-worlds-apart
Leave a Reply