Read Online Keystone (Gatewalkers) by Amanda Frederickson - Free Book Online Page A

the tables and started playing with a candle flame, passing her fingers back and forth. Candles were one of her guilty pleasures. “We need you in a more specialized capacity.”
    A long fingered hand flew out of the darkness and snatched her hand away. “You will burn yourself.” His fingers felt like a metal bracelet around her wrist.
    Charlie fought to keep her face in character. Burn herself on a fake flame? Not likely. “We intend to find the Keystone and those responsible for stealing it.”
    He released her wrist as if it were suddenly red hot. “How do you intend to accomplish this?”
    “With your assistance,” Charlie said. “My source assures me that –” don’t mention his bloodline! “– you… have a means.” She absently started playing with the candle flame again.  
    Watching him closely, Charlie caught the slight hesitation at her words. Thus his forced chuckle didn’t fool her.
    “Your source is telling you tales,” he said.
    “I have no reason not to believe them.” Charlie let her finger linger too close to the candle flame, and it bit her fingertip. Charlie gave a startled gasp, automatically thrusting the offended finger into her mouth. It had only been a small sting, but the one thing the VR projectors were not supposed to simulate under any circumstances was pain. Charlie told herself she must have imagined it, but she warily decided not to test it.
    “If that is why you came, I am afraid you will leave disappointed.” Rhys picked up a large knife and attacked some poor hapless tuber on a cutting board.  
      “You are the only one who can help us find Princess Maelyn.” Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope.
    The steady snap of the knife against the chopping board paused. Charlie could almost picture the clockwork ticking. Rhys started chopping again, more slowly. He scraped the chopped pieces into a bowl, and then tested the concoction in the mini cauldron.  
    Would this be the time to let him mull it over, or push a little? Then again, they were working on a deadline here, in more ways than one. Her half hour was probably already half over. How about the Han Solo approach? “You would be rewarded for your assistance, of course,” Charlie said.
    Rhys snorted. “What would I do with a reward?”
    Charlie shrugged. “Fix up your house?”
    “I like my house as it is.” Rhys set the cauldron aside and covered the bowl with a cloth.
    “Buy fancy new alchemy equipment?”
    “Alchemy? I have no interest in turning lead into gold, nor any similar nonsense.”  
    She shrugged. “How am I supposed to know what all this stuff is for?” she said, gesturing at all the apparatuses. “What is this stuff anyway?” she said, indicating the green paste in a ceramic bowl near her elbow.
    “Poison,” he said. He started choosing bottles and jars off the shelves, and packed them carefully in a wooden box. “
    Right.” Charlie scooted away from the bowl. Dying within the first quest of the game would be lame. “Ummmm.” Charlie cast about for another idea. “You could buy fancy new clothes?”
    “Who is there to see me?”  
    “Get a girlfriend?” Charlie muttered under her breath.
    He stopped and looked back over his shoulder. Charlie didn’t need to see his face to read the funky look he sent her.
    Right. Sharp hearing then. Mental note. Get a life? But she didn’t say it out loud.
    Rhys closed up the box with a pair of leather straps to keep it secure. He tucked it under one arm, then started blowing out the lights.
    “What are you doing?” Charlie said uneasily. She wasn’t afraid of the dark, but she hadn’t realized how much those small lights brightened the room until now.
    “Leaving. I suggest you precede me.” He blew out another candle. Only two candles and the low burning flames in the fireplace were left.
    “Wait, there was another pixie with me earlier. Did you see where she went?”
    Rhys shrugged, the motion barely detectable to Charlie’s