By the Silver Wind Read Online Free PDF Page A

our loyalties, and our love.”
    Though Kjorn sat between them, Shard sensed Asvander tensing, and beside him, Brynja. “What is it?” he whispered as two gryfons stepped up, a leaner, pale male and gull-gray huntress, both of the Ostral Shore.
    But Brynja looked around him to catch Asvander’s eye, and he shook his head once, as if refusing an accusation. “I had nothing to do with it.”
    “Brynja,” Shard began.
    “Listen,” she said, shifting her feet and narrowing her eyes.
    “Warriors,” said the pale male from the little knoll on which all the singers and tale speakers had stood.
    “Huntresses,” said the female, her face glowing in the firelight. “For our honored guests, and our new allies, the Vanir, and Prince Kjorn, the long lost heir of Kajar, we offer a song of the Second Age.”
    The male’s gaze slid across the fires. “When gryfons, like eagles, hawks, and witless birds still mated only with others of their clan.”
    “When all bloodlines ran pure,” said the female. Anticipation grew in the pride, Shard sensed it like wind fanning an ember.
    “When enmities ran even purer,” barked the male.
    “Tyr shone his light on the hearts of two warriors.”
    “If it pleases my lords,” the male said, dipping his head, “we give you the Ballad of Oster and En.”
    So beloved, apparently, was the song, that Shard heard others whisper the title with relish along with the singer. Brynja, however, let out a slow hiss of air through her beak, and glared once again at Asvander.
    “If you—”
    “I didn’t,” he growled, and Dagny made an unhappy noise at the tension. “This is all him. ”
    By him, Shard supposed he meant his father. He would have to wait for enlightenment, for when the song began, all fell quiet to listen, even Brynja and Asvander. The male sang first, his voice as long and pure as the tenor howl of a wolf, so surprising that Shard’s feathers prickled.
    “Long ago and far away
    In the time when all legends began,
    There lived bold Oster of the saltwater shores
    And a beautiful huntress called En.”
    The gryfess sang the next verse in rich alto, her voice like thunder to the male singer’s skyfire, the song a haunting storm.
    “Their clans made war on the saltwater shore
    And stained the blue lake red.
    But when bold Oster met the beautiful huntress
    He vowed never to fight again.”
    Brynja fluffed her feathers, then shook herself and sleeked again, and Shard preened hesitantly at her wing, trying to calm her. She shook her head, and with the next verse, he began to understand her tension.
    “Let’s flee the war and the saltwater shore,”
    He said to the huntress called En
    She agreed, and away they winged
    Together, forever, they pledged.”
    All around, gryfons whispered along, hummed in their chests, cast fond glances to the singers and to each other. Shard peeked around and noticed some of his Vanir listening, rapt. Taking up the refrain together, the singers’ voices mingled and soared in sharp harmony.
    “We will fly beyond the Dawnward Sea
    Where the sun rises eternally.
    My love will be safe
    And I will be free
    Beyond the Dawnward Sea.”
    A song of the first gryfons to mate outside their own clans. And not just any gryfons, Shard thought with irritation as he understood the tension between Brynja and Asvander. Oster, a founder of the Ostral Shore, and En, whose bloodline, most claimed, could stretch down through the centuries to Kjorn himself, Sverin, and all their cousins, including Brynja’s family.
    Shard sought a glimpse of Asvander’s father around the fire. He sat with his mate and Asvander’s younger sister, watching the singers attentively. His tail twitched lightly in time with the song.
    “Asvander,” Shard whispered, and Dagny hushed him sharply. Surprised, Shard sat back, listening to the next verse.
    “But word of the plan went along in the wind
    And reached the father of En.
    He sent her sisters out across the land
    To bring her home to