The Queen of Raiders by Sarah Kozloff

Author:Sarah Kozloff [Kozloff, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

25

Alpetar

Peddler tucked Saulė’s Mirror away into its small velvet pouch. If he caught the first rays of morning light or the last gleams of the day on the silvered surface, the Spirit granted him a vision of far-off events. These images, however, appeared unlabeled as to time or place, thus Peddler found himself frantically wrestling with their elusiveness. The Mirror had shown, for instance, a group of Alpetar men and boys slaving to load heavy ore carts, and later, he had seen their bodies, lifeless in the dirt. Where were they working? When had they died? Who were they?

He had seen a party of travelers, forlornly tramping the High Road with a big wagon. On three occasions the Mirror had focused on the oldest boy, as if he was of special import.

Another evening he had been shown the Nargis heir shivering in her sleep in a tiny seam of rock, warmed by an Alpetar cap and a woven blanket. Peddler was not sure how he knew her identity—he just recognized her, as if her face was already imprinted in his mind.

Each time he was granted one of these visions he had wanted to intervene—to rescue or at least offer companionship. But he was only human; the Agency Saulė granted him did not lend him any magical ability to move from place to place any faster than his donkey, Aurora, could pull his cart. And the visual clues did not offer specific information about exactly where to search.

So he considered the Mirror’s images as almost a curse; snatches of information about crises that he knew about but felt powerless to affect. He was bold enough to want to take action—he thought that Saulė had chosen him for his courage and initiative even more than his faith—but this summer, time and again, he had found himself wrong-footed and out of position.

He patted Aurora. “Do you reckon, old friend, that this time we can get to the right place at the right time? You’re going have to pick up them feet and step lively now.”

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