Taking Flight

Начало книги

The girl squirmed on her seat, and the old woman cast her a quick, angry glance. She quieted, and the woman turned back to her customer.

“Well, lad,” she said, “what would you have of me?”

The boy hesitated.

“I’m... I’m Kelder of Shulara,” he said.

“I know,” she replied, nodding.

It was a lie, of course; she hadn’t known anything of the sort. In fact, it struck her suddenly that the name might be false, and instead of looking omniscient she might look foolish if she believed it. “Kelder of Shulara” — well, really, that probably was a lie! And not a very original one, at that. Smoothly, so that the boy saw no pause, she winked at him and continued, in a mysterious tone, “I know all I need to know.”

The lad looked suitably confused and impressed. Behind him, the little girl rolled her eyes upward and mouthed something — it looked like, “Oh, come on, Grandma!”

“So, Kelder of Shulara,” the woman went on, a bit hurriedly, “you have come to Zindre the Seer to learn your future — and I see it laid out before me, vast and shining. There is too much to tell you all of it, my child, for your life will be long and rich; you must ask me specific questions, and I shall answer them all...”

Читать дальше →