Passages by Passages (epub)

Author:Passages (epub)
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: DAW
Published: 2020-11-24T00:00:00+00:00

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As Abilard wheeled and cantered for the Palace, Sparrow settled into a static calm. She no longer worried about the Council, because she was in that liminal place between an end and a beginning. She was sure the Council would have a pivotal role to play in what would come next, but at this moment, she was still focused on the most recent goodbye.

The Palace was stunning in its magnificence. Sparrow had expected it to have altered from her memory, but if anything the edifice was even more exquisite than she remembered.

Abilard took them through a massive courtyard covered in fine white gravel, the little stones crunching satisfyingly under his silvery hooves. They passed beneath an ornate marble arch, intricately carved with the royal arms of Valdemar, and into a second, smaller courtyard, this one paved in serpentine swirls of colored bricks.

The door at the end of the pathway was shaped from a gigantic chunk of stout wood, looming far above Sparrow’s head. Abilard drew close to a mounting block that had been set up for a graceful dismount at the great entrance. First she, then Cloudbrother, slipped from the saddle, their legs sore and stiff from the long, unbroken ride. Sparrow surreptitiously stretched her legs under her long skirts, wiggled her toes to get the feeling back.

“Here we go, then,” Cloudbrother said under his breath as the gigantic double doors swung open, revealing the two ceremonial Guards, one at each door, guarding the way.

The one directly opposite looked the trio up and down.

Burst into a huge smile of recognition.

Keeth!

It was Sparrow’s brother . . . that big, loveable dunderhead had made his way up in the world, indeed.

“What are you doing here, little mother!” he exclaimed with a booming, disbelieving laugh. “Last I heard, you was doing your witchy ways up in the great northland. Don’t tell me you are the one what got summoned to the Council for afternoon session! Will wonders not cease.”

“Hello, my big brother!” Sparrow entirely forgot herself, she was so happy to see him again. “My little one was Chosen just the other day, and he is down in the Collegium right now, getting settled. Lucky for me we could combine trips, all on the spur like this.”

Keeth beamed. Bless the man, he was comfortable in his own big, loud life, and he was happy for her in her Herald-driven one. “I am not surprised, my bells and whiskers no! That little fella was Herald born, sure as I’m alive. Good for him. I will watch out for him, don’t you worry, Spark. I will do it, all the time, I’m right here after all.”

The childhood nickname warmed her heart all the way through. “I better go,” she said. “I don’t want to keep the Council gentlefolk waiting on us.”

He nodded, then playfully slapped the other guard’s shoulder with one enormous, meaty hand. “That’s my little sis, if you can believe it. We grew up in a goat pasture of

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