Valerin the Fair by Rien Gray

Author:Rien Gray [Gray, Rien]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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Winter in the Brocéliande was stark and strange. Its trees were bare, its animals scarce, and ice stretched across any source of open water like cruel, cold glass. Valerin watched her breath emerge as mist with idle fascination while she escorted Sebille through an old copse of pine, wondering if the circle had ever set foot in this place before, back when the land wore a veil of eternal spring.

The fire under Valerin’s skin offered fair protection against the chill, but Sebille had gifted her a wide mantle of fox fur for greater comfort, and the leather she wore underneath was reinforced with new buckles and studs, the bracer Martis destroyed now replaced with a fine, soft twin. Iridescent fire surrounded Sebille like a cloak, dispelling snow with a soft hiss whenever it dared to fall upon her, and cutting a sharp path around her slippers with every step they took.

"You haven't told me where we're going," Valerin remarked.

"Nor do I plan to," Sebille answered with a smile. "This is a surprise, prince of mine. I won't offer the answer freely, although you are welcome to guess."

She mulled the possibilities over for a moment. While there were maps in Sebille's library, the sorceress claimed the majority of them were long out of date, and Valerin hadn't recognized any of the landmarks etched into the parchment to begin with. How was she to name what had not been discovered?

"It must be somewhere with great power," Valerin wagered, "because we are being forced to travel by foot. You can take us nearly anywhere in the world, when you so choose. Unless something is barricading the path."

Sebille's eyes lit up. "A sharp beginning. What else?"

Valerin pressed her tongue against the inside of her teeth. "There is someone you want to meet there. We want for nothing, so why travel to find necessities? Your magic remains intact when we are together, and you certainly don’t lack power."

"Close," the sorceress mused. "There is someone I want you to meet. Although I suppose it has been an era since I've shown my face as well."

That stumped Valerin further. Sebille rarely spoke of others, and those she mentioned were often in the past tense, long dead or long lost. They certainly weren’t visiting the druids; during the fall, Valerin had caught a fleeting glimpse of the circle, but with Sebille in her shadow, the women who raised her could not assuage their natural fear.

After that, Valerin decided to keep her distance, leaving charms made of branches and kitgut for the new apprentices to find on their travels. If the druids had need of her, she would hear the dirge for Eabha anywhere.

Lack of surety kept Valerin silent until a band of green broke across the horizon. The color was unspeakably radiant for the season, and as they walked closer, she picked out dots of crimson and gold, hanging heavy beneath the verdant expanse. Even an oxgang away, Valerin knew what trees looked like in their harvest season, laden with fruit.

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