A Blackbird In Silver (Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

me,’ Estarinel said, laughing.
    ‘Yes, but – sometimes I can’t be sure how she really feels. I thought perhaps she might confide in you…’
    ‘If you want the truth…’ he paused and Falin began to look anxious. ‘She’s more fond of you than you know. She loves you, but hides it. She won’t admit she’s afraid you’ll find someone else while she’s away.’
    ‘I wouldn’t, but she might,’ Falin groaned. ‘If only I could go with her!’
    ‘Why don’t you? If you neither of you ever says anything, you’ve only yourselves to blame.’ Estarinel grinned. ‘Falin, ask her. She’d like nothing better, I know.’
    Falin’s eyes brightened. ‘If only my parents can spare me on the farm for a few months.’
    ‘That can be arranged. I can always help them out.’
    Delighted, Falin thanked his friend profusely. ‘I still can’t see the attraction of book-binding to someone who spends most of her time careering about on horseback,’ he added with a wry smile.
    ‘Oh, Arlena’s always loved books. She has plans for a library in the village. She says she’s sure to receive loose manuscripts, or ancient books falling out of their covers – so all good librarians must know how to bind.’
    ‘If I go with her, I suppose I’ll learn as well,’ Falin mused. ‘But once we’re home, I think I’ll stick to farming… and horse-breeding for you, eh?’
    ‘It seems to be what I’m best at,’ Estarinel agreed.
    ‘Do you think you’ll continue your mother’s tradition of experimenting with other breeds?’
    ‘Oh, I don’t know,’ Estarinel said, looking across at his fine stallion, Shaell. ‘Forest ponies and Gorethrian horses are all very well… but I’ll always like the heavies best of all.’
    ‘You’ll need someone to help you,’ said Falin pointedly.
    ‘What’s this – a hint that I should be handfasted as well?’
    ‘You and Lilithea seem so close.’ Falin smiled. ‘I only wondered…’
    ‘No, no. We’ve been like that since childhood – like brother and sister, really.’
    ‘Oh, sure of that, are you?’ Falin began, then abruptly thought better of what he was about to say. If Estarinel knew that Lilithea saw him as rather more than a brother – he didn’t want to be responsible for the shattering of her hopes. ‘Here comes breakfast,’ he said, pointing to three figures approaching them up the hill. Bright hair flowing, lithe figures all energy.
    Estarinel laughed. ‘Good. By the way, about your trip with Arlena – while you’re there you might bring us one of those bay Forest ponies the Ohnians have. Mother needs a good, sound mare.’
    ‘Of course,’ Falin answered cheerfully. ‘What else are friends for?’
    Estarinel remembered every detail of the morning, the last normal morning there had been. Simple, benign plans to keep the wheel of life turning. He could not have conceived that Arlena would never go to Ohn to learn a craft, or that she and Falin would never marry; or that his other sister Lothwyn, the little dark one, would never teach her weaving skills to the village children, that his mother would never raise another crop of foals, nor his father lambs.
    The two women who made up their party – Falin’s sister, Sinmiel, and Lilithea, who was Estarinel’s neighbour – and the farmer, Taer'nel, who had traded some fifty sheep for the horses, joined them on the flower-laden hill. There they sat as the sun climbed, eating a leisurely breakfast as they appreciated the beauty of the land, and discussed the good and bad points of the horses they had brought.
    About mid-day the party of four riders bade farewell to the farmer and wound their way home through the bewitching fields of Forluin, herding sheep before them. By late afternoon they came in sight of the Estarinel’s family farm. Set in a bowl-shaped green valley, the farmhouse was built of ancient stone, so encrusted with climbing plants it appeared to have erupted from the earth on which it stood.