John Morressy by Voice For Princess

Author:Voice For Princess
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2012-06-25T21:52:50+00:00

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worthy of a wizard’s attention. Left to itself, it would have dissipated within a few days. But to placate the worrisome Vosconu, he had worked a first-class counterspell that would keep the vineyards safe from bad magic for generations to come. And this was his reward: doubts and accusations. First Princess, now Vosconu. It was difficult not to be bitter. It was, in fact, impossible.

As winter closed in, Kedrigern kept more and more to his study, seeking the counterspell that would restore Princess’s speech and her confidence in him. He examined, one by one, the books that stood in tottery stacks about the room, or were jammed without system or order onto the shelves. It was a Herculean task, and his progress was agonizingly slow. Day after day he sought the necessary passage, and though he found a great many interesting things, he did not find what he wanted.

The first snow fell, and soon melted away. The next snow remained, and another soon covered it, and before long the little cottage lay snug in a hollow carved by the wind, surrounded on three sides by a rising, sweeping curl of snow. Only in the front of the house was the ground swept clear by the wind that blew unimpeded up the valley and over the meadow. On sunny windless days Kedrigern and Princess, warmly cloaked, took lunch in the dooryard, enjoying the sunshine and crisp air all the more for their long confinement withindoors.

But there was no talk of magic during these alfresco lun-cheons. Deprived of his chief topic of interest, Kedrigern, who had no fund of small talk, was reduced to observations on the weather, a subject soon exhausted. One afternoon, having remarked that it was warm for the time of year, but not as warm as it might be, and that in any event, snow seemed unlikely for the next few days, he leaned back in his chair, turned his face up to the sun, and clasping his hands over his well-filled stomach, drifted off into a light doze, from which he was awakened by a startled “Brereep!”

He snapped awake and saw Princess standing by the gate, shading her eyes from the glare of the sun and snow as she peered out over the meadow. She turned to him, pointed into the distance, and repeated, “Brereep!”

“Are you sure, my dear?” he said, climbing to his feet. “It’s not the season for traveling.”

“Brereep,” she said, pointing to a tiny dot far in the distance.

“Yes, it does,” he agreed, digging under cloak and tunic for his medallion, drawing it forth and raising it to his eyes.

“It is. It’s Axpad!”

“Brereep?”

“From the guild I belong to. Used to belong to, anyway. The one Conhoon was in. That’s where we got our medallions,” he explained. “Only good thing I ever got out of the foolish organization was that medalion. Now, what on earth could bring Axpad… ?” He fell silent, looking out at the speck trudging across the white expanse, and then, in

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