Two Novels of Far-Future Apocalypse by Poul Anderson

Author:Poul Anderson [ANDERSON, POUL]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-5040-6400-2
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2015-09-14T16:00:00+00:00

XXII

Spring always came shyly to Hervar. But on a morning when Donya rode forth alone from Owlhaunt, the season was fully there.

A rainshower before dawn had left the long low ridges and valleys aglitter; but as warmth grew, the wet rose off in wisps of mist that glimmered and vanished. Hollows kept pools which a breeze ruffled. Grass was still short and tender, intensely green, studded in blue with forget-me-nots. Pine groves towered unchangeable, but willows now shook their blades and newborn leaves danced on birches. Cloudless, the sky was filled with sun, wings, and song. Far off, a moonhorn bull watched over his cows and calves. Their coats were fantastic red. His crown gleamed. Closer by, hares bolted, pheasants left thickets, the earliest bees and dragonflies were questing. The airs eddied about so that sometimes they carried odors of earth, sometimes of the river.

Donya followed the Stallion west until her garth was lost to sight. Finally she found what she wanted, a large flat stone which jutted partly out into the stream. She dismounted, tethered her pony, took her clothes off and stretched happily as light poured into her skin. When she settled on the rock, it glowed against leg, rump, palm of hand. For a while she watched minnows play above pebbles on the bottom, and let the current lull her. Then she took up the letter she had brought along. It had come the day before, via a postal rider who had stopped at Fuld. She had not shared it with her household, and wasn’t sure she wanted to.

The sheets crackled between her fingers. Awkwardly scrawled, frequently misspelled, the Rogaviki language was nonetheless as clear as it could ever be.

In Arvanneth, on the night after equinox, Josserek Derrain greets Donya, lady of Owlhaunt in Hervar.

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