Rhapsody, Child of Blood Read Online Free PDF Page A

stopped, then looked around in dismay. The water was moving more rapidly than she had expected, and the banks were marshy; one of her shoes sank in and stuck tight. Gwydion helped her pull it free, but when it emerged it was covered with mud. She looked helplessly over to the willow tree where she hoped to take him, and then down at the intricately laced shoes.

    'I'm sorry, Sam," she said, disappointment clotting her voice. "I don't think I can make it, and I can't really take my shoes off—they take hours to put on as it is. You should still go, though. The view from under the willow tree is amazing."
    'There really wouldn't be any point in going without you," Gwydion said. He looked around for an easier place to ford the stream, but found none. A thought occurred to him, but he didn't know if he could bring himself to suggest it.
    'Well, you could carry me," she said, as though reading his mind. "That is, if you don't mind."
    'No, not at all," he said in relief. His voice cracked at the first word, and he hid his embarrassment by tying up the ends of his cloak to keep them from dangling in the river. When the heat in his face had subsided he put his arms out. He had never carried anyone before, and he swore to himself that if he dropped her he would find the nearest poisonous plant and put himself out of his humiliation.
    Emily came to him without a hint of caution. She wrapped one arm around his neck, and then, as if guiding him, took his arm and placed it behind her knees. He lifted her with little difficulty and carried her carefully to the stream, and then across it. He kept walking once out of the water, wending his way through the soggy grass to the willow tree, where he put her down gently.
    It was a magnificent one, with many trunks surrounding a main shaft wider than he could have reached his arms around three times. The tree had grown enormously tall with its ready supply of water, and the delicate leaves cast lacy moonshadows on the ground, like summer snowflakes.
    Emily patted the willow lovingly. "Farmers believe that a solitary tree in the middle of pasturelands is the home of all the fairies that live in the fields," she said, looking up at the tallest branches and smiling. "That means this tree is very magical. It's terrible luck to lose a fairy fort to lightning or fire, and no farmer would ever cut one down."
    Gwydion thought back to his vision, the pasturelands burned and desolate. He had seen the willow then, blackened and dead, and he shuddered involuntarily at the memory. He turned back to Emily. She was walking around the tree, her hand resting on the branches above her, speaking to it softly in a language he didn't understand.
    When she came back around to him she smiled. "So, now that you've seen it, what would you like to do next? Do you want to go back?"
    'Not yet," he said, returning her smile. "Do you know anything about the stars?"
    'Yes; why?"
    'Will you teach me?"
    'If you'd like." She started to sit on the ground under the tree, but he stopped her.
    He loosed the drawstring of his cloak from around his neck and spread it out on the ground for her.
    Her grin of approval made him shiver. "Sam?"
    'Yes?"
    'Would it bother you if I took off my dress?"
    Gwydion felt all the blood drain from his face. A moment later, he was painfully aware of the place to which it had decided to run. Before he could speak she interrupted him, embarrassment in her voice.

    'I'm sorry; I should have been more specific. I mean this part." She touched the blue velvet overdress awkwardly. "I assure you, I am quite modestly attired beneath it.
    It's just that this is my only fancy dress, and if I spoil it, it will break my mother's heart.
    Would you mind?"
    Many answers ran through Gwydion's head, and the corresponding expressions all passed over his face in an instant.
    'No," he said.
    Emily turned her back and walked over to the tree again. He watched her unlace the bodice of the velvet overdress and slide it over her