Thomas Kinkade Cobblestone Bridge

Thomas Kinkade Cobblestone BridgeThomas Kinkade Clearing StormsThomas Kinkade Bridge of Faith
upraised, trembling.
She'd struck Esk once before - the blow a baby gets to introduce it to the world and give it a rough idea of what to that had been the last time. In three years under the same roof there had been cause enough, when milk had been left to boil over or the goats had been carelessly left without water, but a sharp word or a sharper silence had done more than force ever could and left no bruises.
She grabbed Esk firmly by the shoulders and stared into her eyes.
"Listen to me," she said urgently. "Didn't I always say to you that if you use magic you should go through the world like a live in a fire, but that doesn't stop them trying. And they're just bright enough to hate us because we're alive."
Esk shivered. She remember the gritty feel of the cold sand.knife goes through water? Didn't I say that?" Esk, mesmerised like a cornered rabbit, nodded. "And you thought that was just old Granny's way, didn't you? But the fact is that if you use magic you draw attention to yourself. From Them. They watch the world all the time. Ordinary minds are just vague to them, they hardly bother with them, but a mind with magic in it shines out, you see, it's a beacon to them. It's not darkness that calls shape themselves but what they can steal. They could no more survive in this world than a fish could
"What are They? I always thought they were just a sort - a sort of demon