The Skull of the World Read Online Free PDF Page A

herself. I like to do things during the day and sleep at night.
    I do-hooh not know why-hooh. Under moon-hooh all is cool-hooh, and Owl is queen, as mute-hooh as wind. It is good-hooh.
    For you, maybe, but no' for me, Isabeau said with a smile. It is almost night now, though, Buba, and I need your keen eyesight and your wings. I need to find somewhere to hide until the sun comes again.
    Haunt-hooh to snooze-hooh in, the owl said know-ledgeably.
    Aye, but somewhere big enough for all of me. Isabeau smiled, remembering how the owl had found her a hole in a tree the previous night, barely large enough for Isabeau to fit her hand in.
    Huge-hooh haunt-hooh then, the elf-owl said, staring at Isabeau unblinkingly. Since the bird was no bigger than Isabeau's hand, the young witch seemed enormous to her. Buba fluffed out her wings, rotated her head around so she could see what lay in all directions, then took flight. The beat of her wings was silent, her velvety feathers fringed to muffle the sound. As white as the ground, the owl disappeared from sight in moments.
    Isabeau sat down on her skimmer to rest, then began to poke around in the snow with her skewer, looking for anything to eat. Although she still had some supplies left, it would not take long to devour all that she carried. The cold and exertion always made her very hungry indeed.
    If Isabeau had been a true Khan'cohban, she would have tracked down and killed a coney or bird for her supper, or dug a hole in the ice through which to fish. But Isabeau was no Khan'cohban. Her years as the ward of Meghan of the Beasts had formed her character and philosophy too fully for her to take another creature's life. So, despite the scorn and mockery of her pride, Isabeau continued to refuse to kill or eat meat.
    Found by the old wood witch as a baby abandoned in the forest, Isabeau had been taught to revere all life and think of the woodland creatures as her friends. Her guardian had had a little donbeag as her familiar and Isabeau had been taught to speak the languages of animals as fluently as she spoke the language of humans. She could no more murder a coney than she could a trusted friend, and so during the cold dark months spent on the Spine of the World, she had subsisted only on what she could herself gather to supplement the stores of the pride. Most of the pride's gathering of grains, fruits and nuts was done by the children and old people in the summer months and stored in huge, stone jars in the haven. Since Isabeau left the pride in the summer to return to her family, she did not help in the gathering and so could not ask that she be given more than her fair share of the jealously guarded hoard. Winter was therefore always a hungry time for her, and she had grown adept at finding edible barks and fallen nuts to give her the protein she needed.
    Digging through the snow for something to eat made Isabeau miss her guardian keenly. Although Meghan of the Beasts was now Keybearer of the Coven, the most powerful sorceress in the land, Isabeau still thought of her as the grumpy old witch who had raised her. She had a sudden sharp longing to be back in Lucescere, toasting her toes by Meghan's fire and listening to her tales of the Three Spinners. When she had eaten her fill of Meghan's delicious little honey cakes, she could walk over to the palace to visit with Iseult and Lachlan, playing spillikins with the children while her oldest friend, the jongleur Dide, sang some wistful love song . . .
    Isabeau had to swallow hard to dislodge the lump in her throat. If I starve to death in the snow I'll never be going home, she told herself sternly and bent once more to her task.
    By the time the little owl had winged silently back to her shoulder, she had found only a handful of lichen and bark and a few small nuts and was looking rather forlorn. Buba kindly offered to hunt down some insects to share with her but Isabeau declined with a shudder. It was pitch-black in the valley and bitterly