Quite suddenly, Kalinda vanished and Myrmidor and Darkfall merged into one indistinguishable bulk.
‘Night fall … Darkfall,’ Soonkar murmured.
fermata
The seal had been washed far from its home waters by the storm, but now all was calm. Now it needed rest and its instincts drove it unerringly towards the nearest land. The bright eye was harsh and hot here, and it swam deep to avoid it, seeking coolness and quiet.
Without warning a huge ghostly shape swam above the seal, cutting off the savage brightness. A darker shape sped after it leaving a bitter spore in the water.
The watcher hovered over all three, wondering what it meant that the enormous whale with its strange markings, the human vessel and the tiny seal all followed the exact trajectory of the comet drawing ever nearer.
Patience, Wind whispered in its mind. Sometimes wisdom is patience …
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Isobelle Carmody began the first of her highly acclaimed Obernewtyn Chronicles while she was still at high school, and worked on it while completing a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in literature and philosophy, and then a journalism cadetship. The series, and her short stories, have established her at the forefront of fantasy writing in Australia. Both the first in the Legendsong saga, Darkfall, and its sequel, Darksong, were completed while Carmody was living in Prague, and she now divides her time between her home on the Great Ocean Road in Australia and her travels abroad.
She has also written many award-winning short stories and books for young people. The Gathering was a joint winner of the 1993 CBC Book of the Year Award and the 1994 Children’s Literature Peace Prize, and her most recent book for younger readers, Billy Thunder and the Night Gate, was shortlisted for the Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children’s Literature in the 2001 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.
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