Raven Speak (9781442402492) by Wilson Diane Lee

Author:Wilson, Diane Lee
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2010-05-26T16:00:00+00:00

FJÓRTÁN

If the old half-wit wanted to follow them back to the clan, then so be it. That had been her opinion when they’d set out. So how, Asa wondered only a short time into their journey, had Wenda managed to shoulder her way into the lead? Asa wasn’t going to follow her anywhere except home, and she most definitely wasn’t going to believe anything the woman said. Except for that part about not trusting her; that she was willing to take as truth.

The woman was certainly a mystery. Too many years living alone had no doubt addled her mind, along with too many years “speaking” with birds. But her cramped, birdlike walk carried her up the trail without mishap, and her singsong mumbling was shot through with happiness. There was no sign now of the violence that had nearly propelled Asa over the cliff, though the memory alone kept her eyeing the steep drop-off.

An ominous scraping sound behind her preceded a clatter of hooves and a grunt, and she turned to find Rune struggling to regain his balance. The woven bags he lugged made the narrow trail doubly difficult and he had to move carefully, his nose sweeping the ground, his eyes large and darkened in concentration. Back and forth his ears flicked, marking the undulating pitch of Wenda’s murmuring, the crunching grit of the granite path, and the irregular ping and pop of threads snagged on stumpy-fingered branches.

Turning back, Asa nearly collided with Wenda, who had stopped to ponder a cleft in the fjord. Asa followed her gaze up to where a faint foot trail within the cleft rose abruptly. “We’ll go this way,” Wenda said, pointing. And without so much as a glance backward she clambered atop a boulder, then nimbly stepped across to another.

“No.” It surprised her that the word had come out so vehemently.

From her vantage point Wenda looked over her shoulder.

“We didn’t come that way,” Asa said.

“This way’s faster. It’s steeper at first, but then as straight as the raven flies.”

Asa hesitated for just a moment, weighing the facts. She needed to get back to her clan as fast as possible, not only because she carried precious foodstuffs, but also because she’d been away for far too long. The memory of her mother’s feverish face stabbed her with guilt. Yet … the mountains were unfamiliar, and no matter what Wenda promised, Asa wasn’t following her. “No,” she said again, firmly. “We’ll go this way.” She made a vague gesture toward the path hugging the fjord. Wenda shrugged and returned, this time falling in behind, and they tramped on.

Retracing the narrow fjord seemed to go faster than yesterday. Was it because she was headed home, with enough food to satiate the starved bellies of her people, or because she’d finally fled the confines of Wenda’s weird, debris-riddled cave?

With each step closer to the ocean the gloom of the fjord lessened. The sea was at first a glimpsed jewel, its blue-green facets dazzling the eye, and then, gradually, a vast entity that at once inspired and overwhelmed.

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.