A Rush of Wings by Laura E. Weymouth

Author:Laura E. Weymouth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Published: 2021-11-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

“Close your eyes,” Elspeth said to Rowenna, as she sat in the middle of the riverside meadow. It was the first truly warm day of spring, and the sun beat down on Rowenna’s bare head. She was beginning to sweat, but Elspeth seemed as cool and composed as ever.

Rowenna did as she was told, receding inward, to the dark shore that the sea of her craft beat ceaselessly against.

“Call the wind to you.”

It came frisking down from among the pines.

“Now invite it in.”

Rowenna opened her eyes, fixing Elspeth with a questioning look.

“Ask it to inhabit you? I’m not—I’m not sure how to explain it.” As Elspeth searched for words, Rowenna could see a glimmer of frustration in her face.

“It’s like—a partnership.” Elspeth tried again. “A working together and being together. I would show you, if I could. My mother showed me. But you’ll just… you’ll have to sort it out yourself.”

She pressed a hand to her forehead, and a stab of pity twisted through Rowenna. She made for an ignorant student, and Elspeth was trying to help her in spite of that, all without any obligation to. Obediently Rowenna shut her eyes again.

Come here to me, she thought at the wind.

We’re here with you, near with you, the wind sang, stirring the damp hair on Rowenna’s forehead.

No, come here, Rowenna tried. Closer? Nearer? I’m not sure?

The wind seemed to hesitate. And then: You wish us to see with you? To be with you?

Yes, Rowenna thought firmly. Come in.

With a sudden gust the wind buffeted her, and an overwhelming vertigo made Rowenna sway. She could see herself, seated in the meadow, and Elspeth at her side, but all from above, as if she hung suspended in the sky like a bird.

Or like the wind.

And the wind itself, which had always spoken in half-understood phrases, was within her. Rowenna stood on the shore of her craft and could feel the wind’s wildness, its wideness, as it moved through her and surged over Inverness, jubilant and free. She could understand it without words—with the sort of knowing that came in a flash of intuition.

The wind twisted about Rowenna and sank her into vision, and remembering.

Dimly she saw the River Ness. A woman with a lined face and graying auburn hair stood in the shallows, and a pair of liveried guards had hold of each of her arms. Greaves waited on the riverbank, and at a signal from him, the guards shoved the woman farther into the water and forced her below the surface. The water roiled as she struggled, and then all went still. They pulled the woman up and she choked and gasped, but before she’d fully caught her breath, under she went once more.

Again and again the guards ducked her, until a familiar voice rang out.

“Stop,” Elspeth Crannach begged, tears shining in her eyes. She stood in the shade of a nearby pine, at the side of someone in fine broadcloth. But his face was shadowed, and Rowenna could not make it out.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.