“Hush,” said Aidris. “I have come back . . .”
Bajan knelt beside the bed. Sabeth knelt too, and showed her the child. It was small and red-faced and sturdy, with clenched fists waving and black hair, a child of the Firn, a prince. She looked at the child and at the faces of those around her wistfully, coldly, as if she took leave of them. For now she knew that her foreboding was true: she would live to be very old, to be the Old Queen; she would outlive them all save only the newborn child. Her childhood, her exile would be half forgotten in the course of a long life, returning as pictures or legends, just as her long life itself passed in a moment upon the eternal plain.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1984 by Cherry Wilder
Map by John M. Ford
Cover design by Frances Lassor
ISBN: 978-1-5040-2697-0
Published by Mashup™
Distributed in 2015 by Open Road Distribution
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A Princess of the Chameln Page 33