The Book of Air: Volume Four of the Dragon Quartet by Marjorie B. Kellogg

Author:Marjorie B. Kellogg [Kellogg, Marjorie B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Daw
Published: 2003-11-04T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Erde returns to the garden and slides into a seat at the stone table. Looking into Rose’s distant stare, she is convinced that a terrifying darkness lurks within. Much more than exhaustion has driven Rose of Deep Moor into retreat from the world.

“Should we bring her to him?” Raven asks.

“He says it would be better not to move her,” Erde replies.

“I’m glad to hear it. Linden thought a change of scene might help, but I’ve been resisting that.”

There’s a third chair at the stone table under the apple tree, directly opposite Rose. Erde can’t recall it being there before, but Raven takes it without comment. Rose’s uncanny stillness doesn’t mar the compassion and intelligence in her features. She is not a beautiful woman, like Raven, but certainly the one you would turn to in a crisis. Now, the crisis is hers. Though Rose’s face is suffused with calm, it’s the calm of withdrawal, not of being alert and in command of one’s self. Erde is sure that some terrifying darkness lurks within that distant stare. Much more than exhaustion would be needed to drive Rose of Deep Moor into retreat from the world.

Erde seats herself, then signals Raven to join her at the table.

“Are you sure?” Raven has been holding back in the fragrant leaf-shadow of the rose arbor. “I won’t be in the way?”

“Of course not. The more support we offer, the better, wouldn’t you think?” She wonders if Raven expects a grand gesture of some sort. Whatever healing the dragon can manage, it will be a very quiet event.

Now, dragon . . . how shall we proceed?

I WILL NEED SOME BODILY CONTACT WITH HER IN ORDER TO DETERMINE IF THERE IS ANYTHING PHYSICALLY WRONG.

Erde is utterly certain that Rose’s healing will not be so easily accomplished, but she is equally certain that things done properly must be done as the dragon requests. So she takes Rose’s strong, mute hands in her own and quiets her mind to give the dragon room to do his good work. She pictures Rose busy and smiling, and lets the music of the garden fill her awareness: the birdsong, the hum of passing insects, Raven’s shallow, anxious breathing. But all too soon, Earth has completed his exploration.

THE DAMAGE TO HER BODY IS NOT THE CAUSE.

But there is damage?

I MADE A FEW . . . ADJUSTMENTS THAT MIGHT BETTER NOURISH HER HEART AND MIND. BUT I DARE GO NO FURTHER.

Erde sets Rose’s hands back on the table, side by side.

“What does he say?” Raven whispers.

“That the problem is in her mind.”

“Can he heal that?”

“Do you remember at the Seeing, when I first came to Deep Moor and was still mute, how Rose could hear the dragon in her head?”

“I remember it was very painful for her.”

“Exactly so. He worries that he’ll make matters worse if he intrudes upon her thoughts, whatever they may be.”

“So . . .?”

“It will require a human touch to help her.”

“A human touch in her mind?”

Erde nods. She is reaching her own understandings seconds before she must convey them to Raven.

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