“The best we could ask for,” Alec gasped, sitting down beside him. “Owls, footpads—I think it’s a sign.”
“Take what the Lightbearer sends and be thankful,” Seregil murmured, looking around again.
“It was a good place, the first one I ever really thought of as home,” Alec said, sobering a little. “If someone were to build a new place here, do you suppose they’d haunt it?”
Seregil knew who “they” were. “If they did, it would be a sorry thing for them to find no one but strangers, don’t you think?”
Alec was quiet a moment, then said, “We could do with a bit more room than we had, the way you clutter things up. It might be hard to find someone trustworthy to run it, though. And to do the magicking, too, with Magyana and Thero gone.”
“It could be managed.” Seregil smiled to himself in the darkness. “You know, I never could stand playing the noble for long, and I’ve had my fill of it these past few months.”
“It’d be bad luck to use the same name. We’d need a new one.” Alec leaned down and pulled something from beneath the beam—a long barred wing feather. “How about the Owl?”
“The Dragon and Owl.” Ya’shel khi, a voice whispered in Seregil’s heart. “After all, we’d want to attract the right sort of trade.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lynn Flewelling’s first novel, Luck in the Shadows, was named a Best First Novel by Locus Magazine, and was a finalist for the Compton Crook award in 1996. Both Luck and its sequel, Stalking Darkness, have received international acclaim. Flewelling teaches writing workshops and has been a guest instructor at the Stonecoast Writers’ Conference, the World Science Fiction Convention, and Maine Writers’ and Publishers’ Alliance. She currently lives in western New York.
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