Wren to the Rescue by Sherwood Smith

Author:Sherwood Smith [Smith, Sherwood]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Book View Cafe
Published: 2011-08-01T07:00:00+00:00

“Here I lie, wounded, cold and alone,

In this damp fortress of solid stone . . .”

Wren gave a gasp of pleasure. “That’s from our—Tess’s and my—favorite play, The Quest of Eren Beyond-Stars.”

Connor grinned. “Beset not by monsters, brigands or beasts . . .”

“But by darkness and silence and memories of feasts!” Wren kept her voice low so it wouldn’t carry, but she couldn’t hide her enthusiasm.

Behind her, Tyron snorted. “If she talked to herself like that, no wonder she escaped. They wanted to be rid of her.”

Connor laughed. “Quiet, O enemy of poets. You know that play, Wren?”

“Tess and I acted it often, under our Secret Tree.”

“Two of my cousins and I used to do it as well. How about this one . . .”

Connor tried more quotations. Some of the plays Wren knew, but most she did not. Her sole source of plays had been Tess’s one book. But she listened with enthusiasm and pleasure as he repeated the most extravagantly bombastic lines, lowering his voice sinisterly for villains, sniveling whinily for traitors, or squeaking in an impossibly high voice for certain of the female characters.

From time to time Tyron added a caustic comment about what had really happened, according to the historical records. Wren enjoyed these interruptions. She loved history as well as stories, and she was beginning to understand why Tyron had no use for the exaggeration of plays. He didn’t say anything belittling about people who liked them. He just offered the facts about a well-known situation, or talked about how the facts were not really known and the playwright had surmised how it had gone.

It was so much fun, she scarcely noticed how the trail narrowed steadily and also got steeper. Their pace slowed, but they kept winding their way upward.

Twice Tyron called a halt so they could search each branching of the trail. Some of the paths they chose were narrower than goat tracks, only as wide as a human foot.

Again they found a stream rushing and rumbling down the rocks and got a good drink. Wren also washed her face and hands in the shockingly cold water.

o0o

Just before sunset Wren and Connor started acting their way through The Quest of Eren Beyond-Stars, Wren saying her heroine’s lines with great energy and feeling, and Connor doing the rest of the parts in a variety of voices and accents. Tyron listened in silence as he scouted for a likely spot for them to spend the night.

“Something with at least one solid wall to lean against,” he muttered out loud as he peered ahead in the long mountain shadows. Wren handed him the water bag and he drank thirstily. Passing it back to Connor, he continued: “It’ll be dark soon, and we won’t see any cliff edges. The rocks we sit down on we’ll have to sleep on.”

“My quest carries me far, from a world with silver sun—what?” Wren stopped, tapping Tyron on the shoulder. They were walking in single file, Tyron leading and Connor last.

“I was just muttering to myself.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.