Sarabande: River of Falcons Book 4

1. Life and Death

It was dinner and the old stone palace was stately and subdued, with only the minimum of beeswax candles on display here and there in an arched window or high-ceilinged room. Even the dining room was dimly lit, stores of luxuries like candles being in short supply everywhere after the long years of the sorcerers' domination. Now, at least, the Queen was freed and sitting at the head of the table again, and some of the royal family were with her: Drift, her orphaned daughter, reunited, and Ubi, Drift's half brother, who had suffered two long years of captivity in the sorcerers' stalls.

In a pause in the conversation, Summer, the wise old Fena healer who had brought Drift up, leaned forward. "Ubi," she said, "please tell me about your studies at First Garden. How far did you get before you had to leave?" (Summer had been a captive of the sorcerers.)

Ubi looked momentarily startled, but he collected his thoughts, cleared his throat, and began to talk about studying in the library with Onuma. Summer thanked him, then turned to Arty, who told her about practicing animal-form shifts with June. Then Drift described their studies of medicinal herbs with Arnica.

"Would you like to renew your studies?" Summer asked.

Drift nodded. "Knowledge is power. Right, everyone?"

Arty, Sasha and Nighthawk nodded their heads in agreement, and Ubi shrugged.

"Good!" Summer smiled. "Let's start tomorrow. Meet with me at midmorning and I'll show you—"

"I need you then," the Queen interrupted. "You can see them in the afternoon."

Summer nodded. "Very well then, after lunch," she said pleasantly.

"Agreed," Drift said, "but we left our student notebooks in the dormitory. How about if we go get them after breakfast?"

And so it was decided that Drift, Ubi and Arty would fly down the river to the Garden the next morning.

*

The two falcons came in low and fast, wings whistling, and sped straight over the wall, startling several elders who were walking along a path nearby. Ignoring the women's complaints, they wove rapidly through the trees, landed in front of the dormitory, and resumed their human forms (Drift shifting out of Gyrfalcon form, and Ubi out of Peregrine.)

"You're getting faster," Drift said. "And your dives are great."

Ubi smiled. "But you can still out-maneuver me."

"Yes." Drift paused. "Um, has something been bothering you?" she asked, eyeing him. "You seemed moody at breakfast."

Ubi shrugged. "I didn't have an appetite."

"Which is definitely not like you," Drift said.

Ub shrugged. "It's just..."

"Just what?"

"Well, it's Mother. The Queen. She doesn't seem the same."

"As before you were both captured? I don't suppose anyone is, after something like that."

He nodded. "But it's more than that. I'm older now, and I can see what she's really like."

"Which is?"

"Not very honest. And strangely caught up in herself."

"Huh."

"Don't you have an opinion?" Ubi asked.

"Me? No. I don't know her well at all, and I don't want to offend you. Oh, here comes Arty. His flight form's fast, too. Look at him."

Arty smiled as he came out of his shift. He had taken the form of a Goshawk. "Beats swimming," he said, referring to the Artulans' main animal form, the River Otter. "At least for longer distances. Can you grab my notebook?" He glanced at the dormitory; Drift and Ubi were standing just in front of the steps to its porch. "Arnica wants me to run by Onuma's cottage and drop off a note. I'll meet you back here."