(Isla)
The woman removed the last piece of cloth and pushed the case toward the center of the table. The wood was darker around the Keeper mark, as though someone had touched that spot many times. Orin stepped closer but didn't reach for it. His attention stayed on the symbol.
"Did your mother ever tell you what was inside?" I asked. The woman looked at me before shaking her head. "You really never opened it?" I wasn't sure I could have waited twelve years.
"She made me promise I wouldn't." The woman kept her hands beside the case. "She said opening it at the wrong time could put me in danger." Her expression told me she'd taken the warning seriously.
I understood why she'd obeyed. Her mother had died only five years after traveling north in search of Orin. Whatever she'd discovered mi
