Sarabande: River of Falcons Book 4

55. Ubi's Flight Path

Ubi's flight path took a quick turn to the left as he realized he was setting off on a journey without having eaten anything. A stop at the kitchen seemed prudent before continuing onward.

He found the kitchen deserted, but there were some freshly made rolls cooling on a rack next to the oven. He slipped a half dozen into various pockets. Then he found a block of cheese and cut it in half. "Half for their dinner, half for mine," he said to himself as he wrapped it in a dishcloth and slipped it into a pocket of his cloak. "That should just about do it. Except for some desert," he added as he spotted a cheesecake covered with blueberries. "Hmm, how will I carry this? Oh well," he muttered, picking up a fork. "Better just eat it now." He sat down in front of the cheesecake and began to take big bites out of it. When he had gotten through about a quarter of it, he heard someone coming.

It was Thistle. Ubi jumped up, leaving the fork next to the cake, and rushed out the back door. In a moment, he had shifted into Peregrine again.

Thistle came to the door and watched him in surprise. "Ubi?" she called. "Is that you? Where are you going?"

He did not reply. He was already flapping heavily across the back yard. Thistle winced as he nearly got caught in a tree. He seemed to be having trouble gaining altitude. She shook her head as she watched the Peregrine finally make it above tree level and head off.

Ubi was not sure where he was going, but he knew enough not to try to force it. It would do no good to worry about where Drift might be. It was better, he knew from experience, to push his thoughts away and just let himself go. Some image or clue would occur to him eventually.

There was a light wind out of the southwest, so Ubi flew with it, heading toward the northeast. Since he had no idea which way to go, he felt he might as well let the wind take him. At least the flying would be easy.

After a while he realized that he had come to the uninhabited stretch of forest where Sarai had made her camp. It was getting late. The thought of her cozy cabin appealed to him. He rose higher and began to search for it. Finally he spotted the spiral garden in the clearing and circled down to a landing.

He went up the steps to the front porch and tested the door. It was closed, but not locked. He let himself in, extracted his food from his pockets, and hung his cloak up. Then he sat in a rocking chair on the porch with his feet on the railing and stared out at the garden, wondering what to do next.

A goat wandered up, eyed him curiously, and set to work devouring a lilac bush. Ubi laughed. "That's not for eating," he said. "Sarai's going to be mad when she sees it's gone." He got up and went into the kitchen, then came back out with one of the rolls and began to eat it while he watched the goat finish off the bush. The goat looked at him as it ate the last leaf, then it walked off into the front yard. Ubi watched it nibble an overgrown tomato vine, then wander off into the woods. His gaze wandered around the clearing, then it lit on the spiral garden. He frowned. What did it remind him of?

"The coin!" he said. "Sarai buried a gold coin with some kind of good luck charm in the center of that garden." (On their last visit to Sarai's cottage, he had chanced upon the coin when he was weeding, but Drift had made him put it back.) He had nothing better to do, so he got up and walked toward the spiral garden, thinking he might dig the coin back up and take a good look at it. When he got to the entrance to the spiral garden, he hesitated. It reminded him of something else, but he could not quite remember what. Shrugging, he began to follow the little path. As he walked around, he hummed some melody that suddenly occurred to him. It was not a proper melody really, it was more of a repetitive chant, but he rather liked it. Where had he heard it before? Suddenly he laughed. "The transvection spell!" he said. "Of course!" He began to chant the spell, holding the image of Drift firmly in his mind.