by Rachel Lee
“And do not forget,” Tess said proudly, “the lute. Before we leave you must beg Ardred to play the lute for you. His fame as a lutist grows rapidly.”
Ardred shook his head. “Helping a foal into the world is more important. But I do love music.”
He sighed and lowered his head, then said quietly, “The blindness I suffered before was far worse than the blindness I suffer now.”
Tom reached out and touched Ardred’s shoulder. “I understand. I truly do.”
“I believe you do.” But then Ardred brightened. “Mortality is a beautiful thing.”
Those among the group who had always been mortal looked at him in surprise. Alezzi spoke. “You don’t miss being immortal?”
Ardred laughed. “How could I? You have no idea what a sweet beauty mortality lends to each and every day. Joys I would have missed before now leap into my heart. Thank the gods for this gift.”
Tess took his hand and picked up his thought. “We were born into shadows. Myth and prophecy and destiny hovered over our days, weighing our souls, binding our paths, blighting our hearts. Now we live in the light. The light of ordinary lives. Waking and sleeping. Planting and harvest. Winter and spring. And aye…birth…and death.”
“To the light of ordinary life,” Archer said, lifting a mug of Bandylegs’s ale.
The others joined in the toast, and then Tess raised her mug to theirs. “Aye. To light.”
For on this night, the shadows were gone.
SHADOWS OF DESTINY
ISBN: 978-1-55254-798-4
Copyright © 2007 by Susan Civil-Brown and Cristian Brown
First printing: January 2007
Author Photo by: Kim Doner
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Worldwide Library, 233 Broadway, New York, NY 10279 U.S.A.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
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