The Dragon's Tapestry

Chapter Thirteen

The wind was wild, the whole earth was breathing deeply, laughing and panting and singing, and the grasses, like earthfur, bent beneath the wind’s caress. Up sprang the little wind babies: stinging thinwings, fly­ing iyos and far-jumping jimmies, all doing their braidy dance with unseen curls of air. The clouds had furled into fans of white mist, and beyond them the sky was deep and wide. Marwen let her heart and her wingwand soar into them.

“Father,” she said aloud into the wind, for the first time believing it was true. She had always believed in the wizard, but now she no longer needed to believe, for she knew. And she also knew that the wizard Nimroth was not afraid of Perdoneg, for no one returns from the land of the dead, not even to do battle with dragons. But beyond this there was a deeper joy within her: Nimroth loved her, and he had come for her. She wished she could shout it to the world, to Maug. But Maug was too far away, and the world was too far below.

“Father,” she said aloud again.