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Flying South Chapter 7
This is chapter 7 of my novel Flying South.
FLYING SOUTH
Chapter 7
Deep springing burns the fire
unquenched the web of energies
witchy, wild
Do you remember, my sisters?
From Changing-Woman's Song by Shona Jackson
My head felt full of smoke, dazed and stupid. Maybe I was dead? I couldn't remember what I'd been doing or what I was supposed to do; whether I was lying in the Aradian Order House or further back, in my bed at home, listening to the rain beat on the eaves. Further back, far back, farthest back. Rain and wind and voices clear and strong, narrowing to one voice that spoke in my ear. Couldn't understand it, it meant nothing in the winds where I rode free and tireless.
For a while the voice faded to nothing, while I struggled to wake and to see. Earth was beneath me, not the wild air currents, yet the ground seemed to ceaselessly swing beneath me, as though it whirled in a dance of its own while I clung helplessly on top. From far away I heard flock cries, but they were seagulls, not my own kind, so I didn't answer them. If only I could get my balance again I could leap into the air and find my own flock, somewhere near here, but the dizziness continued and with it the alien voice very close to me. It wouldn't leave me alone. Something heavy was holding me, preventing me from extending my wings or getting to my feet, and I still couldn't seem to open my eyes. The voice went away again and presently I sank into exhausted sleep.
I opened my eyes. Sand and pebbles were scrunched uncomfortably under me and I couldn't get my breath at first. This was possibly because two people were sitting on me. One I could see clearly, a girl a few years younger than I was. She peered into my face and then let out a clear shout that deafened me. "She's awake."
"You two climb off her, let me talk to her," said a second voice. The girl and an even younger boy obeyed and shifted off a few paces, letting the third person come forward to kneel by my side. She was a leanly-built young woman in a patched brown gown, her hair mostly concealed by a hood shading her face from the sun and my sight. What hair I could see was dark brown and tied back at her neck. "Do you know who you are?" she asked.
"I . . . " About to say how stupid a question that was, I stopped, unsure. Who was I? I'd been dreaming of coasting the winds with a flock of other birds like me, but that couldn't be right. I wasn't a bird. Pale and skinny human legs and arms stuck out of the filth-encrusted shift I was wearing like a repulsive second skin. A light breeze cooled the afternoon sun which shone on me. There was something wrong about that but I couldn't decide what it was, and it couldn't matter that much. I glanced aside at the two children, hoping for inspiration, but they only stared back in open curiosity. They were very alike, brown-haired and blue-eyed, clearly brother and sister.
"I was coming back to the nesting grounds," I managed. The words emerged with difficulty and my throat felt dry and raw.
"Can you remember why?"
"Had to help. Kulal said I had to get away, that the elders wouldn't let me leave."
"So you remember you're human." She sounded relieved and critical all at once, watching me as though I might leap for her throat. "Can you tell me your name now?"
"It's spring," I said. "It was winter here, but over there it was summer."
I tried to get up, to see what was around me, but a terrible weakness flooded through me and I flopped back down as though my bones had disappeared. Nausea rolled in my stomach and I moaned, trying to turn on one side so I wouldn't choke in my own vomit. The woman quickly helped me, waiting until I was finished being sick before moving me away from the spot.
"Erlina, cover that over with sand?" she directed, and the young girl obeyed. As for me, I had no say in the matter whatsoever. As I moved, I saw a fourth person watching me. This was a girl slightly younger than I was, with dark brown hair cropped boyishly short. She looked concerned – and familiar - but I still couldn’t remember her name.
"What's the matter with me?" I asked the woman.
"You're very tired, that's all. You've made a long journey." Despite her calm words, she looked worried, glancing over at the children and also in the other direction from time to time. "Can you drink some water now?" She held a flask to my lips and I managed to dribble and gulp until I had some of the water inside me. My mouth didn't seem to work that well either.
The boy came over to peer at me. For the first time I noticed the richness of his red doublet, the smooth look of the white shirt beneath it that indicated silk. On a child of no more than twelve, that meant really rich parents. The girl was in boy's clothes of similar richness, probably her brother's, since they were much of a size. What were a couple of great noble's children doing with . . .
“Mariel,” I whispered. “Catri.”
"Finally," the girl said with a grin, and at that everything clicked into place; her face, who we were, though where was still a mystery. "Took you long enough. Can you remember your name now?"
"Amber, of course." I wasn’t as confident as I tried to sound. I had human form, but my mind wasn't all the way back yet and that scared me. It seemed far better to stay lying in the sand. I smelled salt on the breeze. "We're on the beach."
"Well done,” Mariel said. I couldn't find any irony in her crisp tone, which was unusual. “We were sure we’d lost you.” I wondered whether she was pleased or dismayed about that. “Now, since we need to get away from here as soon as you can move. I'm going to channel some energy into you." She laid her hands on my shoulders and closed her eyes to concentrate. From her, the invisible life force flowed throughout my exhausted body. Though this body hadn't made the tremendous flight over the ocean, it was the one that paid when I shapechanged back.
I managed to stand, very slowly, because my head still whirled around at the slightest movement. Catri and Mariel steadied me and waited until I could walk. At least, I stuck out a foot and fell forward on to it, then staggered frantically while I got the other one under me. The first one wasn't where I needed it any longer, so in another three seconds I was on the ground. "What's wrong with me?"
"You've forgotten how to walk," Mariel said, chuckling unsympathetically. "I've never seen it this bad, but then, no one I know ever shapeshifted for more than a couple of hours. How long were you in bird form?"
"How long?" I echoed. The bird had not sensed time as a human might. I dimly recollected a sense of urgency to finish the journey, to reach this beach, but that was all. Had it not been journey’s end, Mariel and Catri might never have reached me. I got up too fast and fell over again. They shrugged and helped me up for another try.
Perhaps an hour later I had the way of it and we walked from the beach through dunes covered with sand-grass and from there to a cart-track through a rather thin, ferny forest. There were no horses or donkeys waiting for us. I looked at the track, then back at Mariel and Catri. "Where now?"
"That way leads to the fishing village of Gartree," Mariel said. "We’re in hiding there, or were, until I had a dream directing us to this beach. Best foot forward - if you have one."
"Thanks." As we moved slowly along, I glanced at my companions, then down at myself. Two richly-clad children, two peasant women in shabby gowns and one person in a once-white shift stiff with muck and other stuff I couldn't recognise. We were going to attract attention. Spring flowers grew all around us, brightening the rather drab woodland with their reds and yellows and whites. Birds called about us, seeking mates. Definitely spring.
My mind worried at the problem of the seasons and now and then took time off to study Mariel and Catri, who remained silent and worried-looking. So did the children, walking a few yards ahead of us. I realised they hadn't said a word since the girl - Erlina - had exclaimed that I was awake.
"Mariel, who are those children?"
"The girl is Princess Erlina, Maiden of Albion, and the boy is Prince Kieran, her Royal Brother," Mariel answered curtly.
“What are they doing with you?"
"Not now."
A few minutes later, Mariel glanced uneasily around us and raised her voice a little. "Erlina, Kieran, into the trees. Duck down." Catri and I were evidently trusted to find shelter on our own. We followed, crouching behind the ferns, moments before the drum-thunder of hoofbeats announced the passing of a mounted company. They wore livery in red and black, moving too fast for me to see anything clearly, but I didn't need to. I knew the Royal Guard when I saw them even after all the shocks my brain had had lately.
We stayed where we were until the hoofbeats had faded to nothing. I glanced at the children. Erlina looked terrified and her brother bewildered. No one volunteered anything to me, we went back to the now-churned road and continued our journey. "You know," I commented a bit later, "if the children changed out of those fancy clothes, you'd be harder to spot."
"If we hadn't found them barely an hour before we found you, we might have done that," Mariel retorted. I squirmed and kept walking in silence, thinking that it was strangely reassuring to be snapped at by Mariel. That was the normal way of things: the sun rises, there’s kitchen duty and Sister Mariel is in a bad mood with the novices. Despite her energy giving, my whole body ached as though I'd been stretched on a rack. I longed to be lying on hides in Skyfire's hut while the warmth baked the aches out of my bones.
The track turned and presented us with a row of grey stone cottages; Gartree village. The breeze, unfettered by trees, blew chill about us. I glanced up and saw clouds crowding the sky. We walked in close to the cottages, seeing no one about. Mariel led us along a muddy narrow pathway into the centre of the village, if such it could be called. We faced another grey row of cottages and a larger building with its own courtyard and a sign over the door declaring that this was the Ship's Rat. It featured a cheerful looking tawny rodent in a pirate's hat, waving a sabre.
Instead of walking towards that entrance, Mariel took us quickly around the back. Well, even a stable would be good at the moment. A boy saw us and ran for the inn, which had me instantly on edge and looking for a way out, but moments later, a woman looked out from the inn’s back door and beckoned urgently to Mariel.
"Upstairs quickly," was all she said. Mariel didn't introduce any of us, but spoke quietly to her before leading us into the inn. We plodded up three flights of wooden stairs and through the doorway of a room with two beds, a window seat in the alcove, a wash-stand on a small table and a clothes chest. With five people, it was crowded. The woman came in after us. She was middle-aged and worried-looking. In her hands she held a tray laden with bread and cheese and some apples. Under her arm was a bundle of brown cloth. She nodded to Mariel as she set the tray down on the nearest bed, together with the cloth, then quickly left, closing the door behind her.
I picked up the cloth. Yes, I'd guessed right, it was a homespun gown, patched and old, but next to my grimy shift, it was royal satin. I went over to one side of the room for what privacy I could have, dragged off my shift, which tore like paper, then donned the gown with great relief. Mariel was talking to the two children. I could have heard the words, but didn’t try. My mind felt heavy with fatigue, though it was barely twilight and I didn’t want even one more thing to happen to me before food and sleep. I could tell, though, that Mariel had told the truth about finding the children only a short time before she’d found me. She didn’t have the look of a person with a plan.
Mariel raised her voice a little as I approached her and the children. "Wash," she told them. "Then you can eat and then you have to sleep. Later's time enough to talk things over." They must have been exhausted, because they did exactly what she said and were asleep within moments of lying down on one of the beds. Catri tugged a blanket over them, after which the three of us then ate, sitting on the other bed and the window seat, not talking until most of the food was gone.
I munched slowly on an apple, perching on the window-seat to look out over the dark cobbled courtyard of the Ship's Rat Inn as the gray evening closed us in. There was still the sharp tang of winter in the air, like the feeling of fear.
I had felt safe, once I found the sorceresses in Skarrel after leaving my home. They had seemed powerful, better than ordinary people and wiser than anyone I’d known, yet those ordinary people had made laws and cast the Aradian sorceresses out, sent them running to hide like field mice at harvest time.
I had escaped that doom when the dragon took me and had avoided really thinking about it for all the time I had spent in the summer world, with the people who befriended dragons. Now I was literally hurled back into that world from the freedom of the skies, thrown back into confusion and homelessness. True, Mariel and Catri were with me, but Catri was younger than I was, though she’d started off as a street-child and was a far better survivor than I, and Mariel a junior sorceress, only recently promoted when Clare left to run her own House. Then my attention was somehow drawn from the gathering evening and I found the junior sorceress regarding me. There was nothing young in her eyes now.
“The last time I saw you, Amber, you were hanging from the mouth of a dragon who’d snatched you from the deck of our boat,” Mariel said slowly. “We thought you had been killed and eaten, but there was no time to waste with mourning you, I’m afraid. We continued our journey to Harp Island, where I spoke to Mother Audryn via the seeing water and she raised the possibility that the dragon was the same one that you had saved, though why the beast should still be about was a mystery neither of us could explain. Why don’t you try to explain it now?”
"Well, when am I? It was winter when I left, but when I reached the end of the journey, it was summer. I know I was there for at least two moons. What happened?"
"It's only four months after you left,” Mariel said. “You must have travelled a long way, so far that the seasons changed, but dragons are very swift, faster than any ship or any other winged creature. The Snow Tern you became flew back at the speed of the flock, taking long enough that you forgot what you were. If I hadn't called you, you would have stayed a bird forever."
Screaming and shitting and flapping my wings on some seaside cliff. I shivered.
The way Mariel looked at me wasn't comforting either, she seemed so weary and empty eyed, so I rushed in, filling the gap with talk. "So that's me. What's been happening here? Why did that woman rush us up here? Why didn't you use magic to hide us before; there weren't any Inquisitors with that group of horsemen."
Mariel ignored this. “Amber, where were you?”
“With the dark people,” I said randomly. “Islands by a coast where the dragons live. They cared for me but they didn’t want me to leave, they were scared that I would bring ships.”
Mariel laughed, a brief coughing sound. “I’m tired, Amber, but not so tired that I’ll settle for that. Talk.”
FLYING SOUTH
Chapter 7
Deep springing burns the fire
unquenched the web of energies
witchy, wild
Do you remember, my sisters?
From Changing-Woman's Song by Shona Jackson
My head felt full of smoke, dazed and stupid. Maybe I was dead? I couldn't remember what I'd been doing or what I was supposed to do; whether I was lying in the Aradian Order House or further back, in my bed at home, listening to the rain beat on the eaves. Further back, far back, farthest back. Rain and wind and voices clear and strong, narrowing to one voice that spoke in my ear. Couldn't understand it, it meant nothing in the winds where I rode free and tireless.
For a while the voice faded to nothing, while I struggled to wake and to see. Earth was beneath me, not the wild air currents, yet the ground seemed to ceaselessly swing beneath me, as though it whirled in a dance of its own while I clung helplessly on top. From far away I heard flock cries, but they were seagulls, not my own kind, so I didn't answer them. If only I could get my balance again I could leap into the air and find my own flock, somewhere near here, but the dizziness continued and with it the alien voice very close to me. It wouldn't leave me alone. Something heavy was holding me, preventing me from extending my wings or getting to my feet, and I still couldn't seem to open my eyes. The voice went away again and presently I sank into exhausted sleep.
I opened my eyes. Sand and pebbles were scrunched uncomfortably under me and I couldn't get my breath at first. This was possibly because two people were sitting on me. One I could see clearly, a girl a few years younger than I was. She peered into my face and then let out a clear shout that deafened me. "She's awake."
"You two climb off her, let me talk to her," said a second voice. The girl and an even younger boy obeyed and shifted off a few paces, letting the third person come forward to kneel by my side. She was a leanly-built young woman in a patched brown gown, her hair mostly concealed by a hood shading her face from the sun and my sight. What hair I could see was dark brown and tied back at her neck. "Do you know who you are?" she asked.
"I . . . " About to say how stupid a question that was, I stopped, unsure. Who was I? I'd been dreaming of coasting the winds with a flock of other birds like me, but that couldn't be right. I wasn't a bird. Pale and skinny human legs and arms stuck out of the filth-encrusted shift I was wearing like a repulsive second skin. A light breeze cooled the afternoon sun which shone on me. There was something wrong about that but I couldn't decide what it was, and it couldn't matter that much. I glanced aside at the two children, hoping for inspiration, but they only stared back in open curiosity. They were very alike, brown-haired and blue-eyed, clearly brother and sister.
"I was coming back to the nesting grounds," I managed. The words emerged with difficulty and my throat felt dry and raw.
"Can you remember why?"
"Had to help. Kulal said I had to get away, that the elders wouldn't let me leave."
"So you remember you're human." She sounded relieved and critical all at once, watching me as though I might leap for her throat. "Can you tell me your name now?"
"It's spring," I said. "It was winter here, but over there it was summer."
I tried to get up, to see what was around me, but a terrible weakness flooded through me and I flopped back down as though my bones had disappeared. Nausea rolled in my stomach and I moaned, trying to turn on one side so I wouldn't choke in my own vomit. The woman quickly helped me, waiting until I was finished being sick before moving me away from the spot.
"Erlina, cover that over with sand?" she directed, and the young girl obeyed. As for me, I had no say in the matter whatsoever. As I moved, I saw a fourth person watching me. This was a girl slightly younger than I was, with dark brown hair cropped boyishly short. She looked concerned – and familiar - but I still couldn’t remember her name.
"What's the matter with me?" I asked the woman.
"You're very tired, that's all. You've made a long journey." Despite her calm words, she looked worried, glancing over at the children and also in the other direction from time to time. "Can you drink some water now?" She held a flask to my lips and I managed to dribble and gulp until I had some of the water inside me. My mouth didn't seem to work that well either.
The boy came over to peer at me. For the first time I noticed the richness of his red doublet, the smooth look of the white shirt beneath it that indicated silk. On a child of no more than twelve, that meant really rich parents. The girl was in boy's clothes of similar richness, probably her brother's, since they were much of a size. What were a couple of great noble's children doing with . . .
“Mariel,” I whispered. “Catri.”
"Finally," the girl said with a grin, and at that everything clicked into place; her face, who we were, though where was still a mystery. "Took you long enough. Can you remember your name now?"
"Amber, of course." I wasn’t as confident as I tried to sound. I had human form, but my mind wasn't all the way back yet and that scared me. It seemed far better to stay lying in the sand. I smelled salt on the breeze. "We're on the beach."
"Well done,” Mariel said. I couldn't find any irony in her crisp tone, which was unusual. “We were sure we’d lost you.” I wondered whether she was pleased or dismayed about that. “Now, since we need to get away from here as soon as you can move. I'm going to channel some energy into you." She laid her hands on my shoulders and closed her eyes to concentrate. From her, the invisible life force flowed throughout my exhausted body. Though this body hadn't made the tremendous flight over the ocean, it was the one that paid when I shapechanged back.
I managed to stand, very slowly, because my head still whirled around at the slightest movement. Catri and Mariel steadied me and waited until I could walk. At least, I stuck out a foot and fell forward on to it, then staggered frantically while I got the other one under me. The first one wasn't where I needed it any longer, so in another three seconds I was on the ground. "What's wrong with me?"
"You've forgotten how to walk," Mariel said, chuckling unsympathetically. "I've never seen it this bad, but then, no one I know ever shapeshifted for more than a couple of hours. How long were you in bird form?"
"How long?" I echoed. The bird had not sensed time as a human might. I dimly recollected a sense of urgency to finish the journey, to reach this beach, but that was all. Had it not been journey’s end, Mariel and Catri might never have reached me. I got up too fast and fell over again. They shrugged and helped me up for another try.
Perhaps an hour later I had the way of it and we walked from the beach through dunes covered with sand-grass and from there to a cart-track through a rather thin, ferny forest. There were no horses or donkeys waiting for us. I looked at the track, then back at Mariel and Catri. "Where now?"
"That way leads to the fishing village of Gartree," Mariel said. "We’re in hiding there, or were, until I had a dream directing us to this beach. Best foot forward - if you have one."
"Thanks." As we moved slowly along, I glanced at my companions, then down at myself. Two richly-clad children, two peasant women in shabby gowns and one person in a once-white shift stiff with muck and other stuff I couldn't recognise. We were going to attract attention. Spring flowers grew all around us, brightening the rather drab woodland with their reds and yellows and whites. Birds called about us, seeking mates. Definitely spring.
My mind worried at the problem of the seasons and now and then took time off to study Mariel and Catri, who remained silent and worried-looking. So did the children, walking a few yards ahead of us. I realised they hadn't said a word since the girl - Erlina - had exclaimed that I was awake.
"Mariel, who are those children?"
"The girl is Princess Erlina, Maiden of Albion, and the boy is Prince Kieran, her Royal Brother," Mariel answered curtly.
“What are they doing with you?"
"Not now."
A few minutes later, Mariel glanced uneasily around us and raised her voice a little. "Erlina, Kieran, into the trees. Duck down." Catri and I were evidently trusted to find shelter on our own. We followed, crouching behind the ferns, moments before the drum-thunder of hoofbeats announced the passing of a mounted company. They wore livery in red and black, moving too fast for me to see anything clearly, but I didn't need to. I knew the Royal Guard when I saw them even after all the shocks my brain had had lately.
We stayed where we were until the hoofbeats had faded to nothing. I glanced at the children. Erlina looked terrified and her brother bewildered. No one volunteered anything to me, we went back to the now-churned road and continued our journey. "You know," I commented a bit later, "if the children changed out of those fancy clothes, you'd be harder to spot."
"If we hadn't found them barely an hour before we found you, we might have done that," Mariel retorted. I squirmed and kept walking in silence, thinking that it was strangely reassuring to be snapped at by Mariel. That was the normal way of things: the sun rises, there’s kitchen duty and Sister Mariel is in a bad mood with the novices. Despite her energy giving, my whole body ached as though I'd been stretched on a rack. I longed to be lying on hides in Skyfire's hut while the warmth baked the aches out of my bones.
The track turned and presented us with a row of grey stone cottages; Gartree village. The breeze, unfettered by trees, blew chill about us. I glanced up and saw clouds crowding the sky. We walked in close to the cottages, seeing no one about. Mariel led us along a muddy narrow pathway into the centre of the village, if such it could be called. We faced another grey row of cottages and a larger building with its own courtyard and a sign over the door declaring that this was the Ship's Rat. It featured a cheerful looking tawny rodent in a pirate's hat, waving a sabre.
Instead of walking towards that entrance, Mariel took us quickly around the back. Well, even a stable would be good at the moment. A boy saw us and ran for the inn, which had me instantly on edge and looking for a way out, but moments later, a woman looked out from the inn’s back door and beckoned urgently to Mariel.
"Upstairs quickly," was all she said. Mariel didn't introduce any of us, but spoke quietly to her before leading us into the inn. We plodded up three flights of wooden stairs and through the doorway of a room with two beds, a window seat in the alcove, a wash-stand on a small table and a clothes chest. With five people, it was crowded. The woman came in after us. She was middle-aged and worried-looking. In her hands she held a tray laden with bread and cheese and some apples. Under her arm was a bundle of brown cloth. She nodded to Mariel as she set the tray down on the nearest bed, together with the cloth, then quickly left, closing the door behind her.
I picked up the cloth. Yes, I'd guessed right, it was a homespun gown, patched and old, but next to my grimy shift, it was royal satin. I went over to one side of the room for what privacy I could have, dragged off my shift, which tore like paper, then donned the gown with great relief. Mariel was talking to the two children. I could have heard the words, but didn’t try. My mind felt heavy with fatigue, though it was barely twilight and I didn’t want even one more thing to happen to me before food and sleep. I could tell, though, that Mariel had told the truth about finding the children only a short time before she’d found me. She didn’t have the look of a person with a plan.
Mariel raised her voice a little as I approached her and the children. "Wash," she told them. "Then you can eat and then you have to sleep. Later's time enough to talk things over." They must have been exhausted, because they did exactly what she said and were asleep within moments of lying down on one of the beds. Catri tugged a blanket over them, after which the three of us then ate, sitting on the other bed and the window seat, not talking until most of the food was gone.
I munched slowly on an apple, perching on the window-seat to look out over the dark cobbled courtyard of the Ship's Rat Inn as the gray evening closed us in. There was still the sharp tang of winter in the air, like the feeling of fear.
I had felt safe, once I found the sorceresses in Skarrel after leaving my home. They had seemed powerful, better than ordinary people and wiser than anyone I’d known, yet those ordinary people had made laws and cast the Aradian sorceresses out, sent them running to hide like field mice at harvest time.
I had escaped that doom when the dragon took me and had avoided really thinking about it for all the time I had spent in the summer world, with the people who befriended dragons. Now I was literally hurled back into that world from the freedom of the skies, thrown back into confusion and homelessness. True, Mariel and Catri were with me, but Catri was younger than I was, though she’d started off as a street-child and was a far better survivor than I, and Mariel a junior sorceress, only recently promoted when Clare left to run her own House. Then my attention was somehow drawn from the gathering evening and I found the junior sorceress regarding me. There was nothing young in her eyes now.
“The last time I saw you, Amber, you were hanging from the mouth of a dragon who’d snatched you from the deck of our boat,” Mariel said slowly. “We thought you had been killed and eaten, but there was no time to waste with mourning you, I’m afraid. We continued our journey to Harp Island, where I spoke to Mother Audryn via the seeing water and she raised the possibility that the dragon was the same one that you had saved, though why the beast should still be about was a mystery neither of us could explain. Why don’t you try to explain it now?”
"Well, when am I? It was winter when I left, but when I reached the end of the journey, it was summer. I know I was there for at least two moons. What happened?"
"It's only four months after you left,” Mariel said. “You must have travelled a long way, so far that the seasons changed, but dragons are very swift, faster than any ship or any other winged creature. The Snow Tern you became flew back at the speed of the flock, taking long enough that you forgot what you were. If I hadn't called you, you would have stayed a bird forever."
Screaming and shitting and flapping my wings on some seaside cliff. I shivered.
The way Mariel looked at me wasn't comforting either, she seemed so weary and empty eyed, so I rushed in, filling the gap with talk. "So that's me. What's been happening here? Why did that woman rush us up here? Why didn't you use magic to hide us before; there weren't any Inquisitors with that group of horsemen."
Mariel ignored this. “Amber, where were you?”
“With the dark people,” I said randomly. “Islands by a coast where the dragons live. They cared for me but they didn’t want me to leave, they were scared that I would bring ships.”
Mariel laughed, a brief coughing sound. “I’m tired, Amber, but not so tired that I’ll settle for that. Talk.”
What a weekend.
(Anonymous) 2005-11-21 08:40 am (UTC)(link)Poor Mariel, sounds like she's had a harder time than Amber...
Waiting in excitement,
leece
See what I'm doing at http://www.cafepress.com/aliciasmith