The Princess and the Snowbird by Mette Ivie Harrison

Author:Mette Ivie Harrison
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2010-06-12T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Liva

THAT NIGHT IN the forest with Jens, Liva dreamed of a boy with the aur-magic. The boy could not have been more than five years old, with a funny smile, and his front top teeth missing. She saw his parents burning before him. She could not save them, since her dreams only showed her what was happening in the moment, but she had a chance to save him, for he was still alive. For the first time, she was glad she had had a magical dream.

There were images from the dream of a port town that told her he lived south, past the village where Jens had once lived, past the forest where her father had died.

Behind the pyre of the boy’s parents, she had seen the rise and fall of ocean, and ships in docks. It must be Tamberg-on-the-Coast.

She had heard her father speak of the place, but she had never been herself. There would be many humans there, more than she could imagine. And all of them hated the aur-magic. In her dream Liva saw them shaking fists as the man and woman burned.

It would be dangerous to go there.

The boy was already in custody, captured by a gray-haired man who spoke of hunting down others with the aur-magic. She could not delay. She could understand now why her father’s decisions had to be made so hurriedly.

Liva must act quickly, too. She could not stop to wake Jens, nor to return to her cave and tell her mother. She gazed for a moment at Jens’s relaxed features, and hoped that she would see him again soon. But he could not help her. She must do this alone.

Liva scratched a message in the dirt, then changed into a kestrel and soared out over the forest. She flew on all day, directly south, following the river. At dark, she could tell by the unfamiliar salty smell in the air that she was approaching the ocean, and the town. Her heart pounded into her throat, and her stomach ached with anticipation of what was to come.

She quested out toward the boy with her aur-magic. She could sense him, but only just.

For her entry in the port town, she debated whether to be a gull or a pigeon, but in the end thought she might try a common magpie, a bird her father had called the least worthy of all birds. He told her mother once it was because a magpie ate the young of other birds.

“And humans do not do the same? And many others?” demanded her mother.

Her father sighed. “Most humans do not eat others of their kind.”

“What they do is the same as eating,” said her mother.

“You do not like them. I understand,” her father said. He turned to Liva. “There was one particular flock of magpies who lived just outside the palace, when we were newly crowned, she and I. They cawed at her, circling, whenever she came out. They smelled the hound on her.”

“Horrible things,” said her mother.

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