Changeling's Time by S.L. Dove Cooper

Author:S.L. Dove Cooper
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dovelet Books
Published: 2020-06-05T00:00:00+00:00

Silence. The first thing Nightshadow noticed was how quiet it was. Have I followed the Changeling? he wondered and tried to move. It hurt, so he lay still and waited for his senses to return more fully. The second thing he noticed was the big, darker shade at the far end of the nest. “Elder Greywing?” he asked, thought-voice yet blurry and mussy. He thought he’d received no answer until he managed to realise that the other peeweww was speaking. Nightshadow tried to call out again, but the images wouldn’t come. It took him a while to figure out that the other peeweww’s thought-voice was drowning his own out. As the Keeper’s words sank in, Nightshadow’s hope fluttered like a leaf out of his grasp.

“And the Stars fled,” the Keeper was singing in his feeble voices. It was surprisingly clear. “They fled from the monsters for those were stronger than They. And when the Stars returned all Their world tasted of blood and agony, and no beautiful leaf-sea danced beneath Their light and none of Their children were waiting to greet Them. For the Starchildren had fled from the Darkness that sought to devour them. Again and again the storms raged as the Stars fled and Their children were frightened and alone. What could we do? What could they do? The Starchildren fled beneath the blood, beneath the storms, beneath the roar, to build a new home.

“And they were together no more.”

As the tale went on, Elder Greywing’s voice steadily grew feebler. Nightshadow knew the song well — it was one all peeweww grew up learning — but the Keeper’s sound-voice did not fit the punctuation and stress that Nightshadow had been taught, some of the images in the Star Keeper’s thought-voice were wrong, and the story wasn’t told in order. Mercifully the old peeweww sometimes repeated lines or whole verses, making it easier for Nightshadow to understand.

“When the Changeling came, the Darkness was not far behind. The Changeling is a trickster, a shifting pattern, now and again wishing doom upon the Stars and Their children for it cannot abide Their radiance. And when the Changeling was yet small and pale like the Daystar, the Darkness and its servants came and that heralded the doom of the Age of Miracles. Teach them all to see with the Stars, Keeper. Let the Stars take poor Greywing. They took all else.” The Elder fell silent. Though possibly Nightshadow had fainted again because the next thing the peeweww knew Keeper Greywing was perching on the ledge outside the entrance. “Why won’t you take poor Greywing, Stars? My beloved Tailbeat, my Shadowstar. Poor Greywing lost his Glow, Changeling. The Darkness stole them all. Never see him grow old and strong, like his brother. Grey raised him well, Stars, taught him all he knew. Come back to him. Come back as You never did to me. Embrace him as You never embraced poor Greywing.”

Nightshadow didn’t move, didn’t know what to do. The Star Keeper spoke

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