by V M Jones
Now old Usherwood’s doing her best to frown severely at the little figure in pink-and-grey Eeyore pyjamas tugging at my hand.
Obediently, I follow her over to the huge carved dresser where the brocade table linen is kept. Everyone in the room is watching us now, even Meirion with his sightless eyes. They’re smiling. Starting to smile myself without knowing why, I watch as Hannah kneels and opens the door. There’s a strange sound coming from inside.
I bend and peer in.
There in the darkness is Tiger Lily. She’s made herself a nest among the tablecloths and napkins and is lying in it with her back to us, purring thunderously. She looks up when the door opens and narrows her golden eyes at me smugly. Impossibly, the volume of the purring increases. As usual, I’m lost. ‘What …’
‘Shhhh. Look,’ Hannah is whispering. She reaches in with careful hands, scoops something up and holds it out for me to see. It even looks small in Hannah’s little hands: the tiniest pastel-coloured kitten — all velvet tummy, scrunched face and pincushion claws. ‘There are four of them.’
I gaze down at Hannah’s bright face, at the tiny kitten cradled in her hands. And then, for no reason at all, Meirion’s words of long ago come into my mind: For you, Child of the Wind, your destiny lies where you least look for it — the beginning will be the end, and every end a new beginning.
I see Hannah’s name as an endless circle, with no end and no beginning:
She laughs up at me, and the future shines from her eyes.
Acknowledgments
I would like to acknowledge my editor, Lorain Day:
For your wisdom, guidance and endless patience;
For your rare gift of always being right, yet somehow never annoying;
For being there every time I needed you,
And above all, for your friendship —
Thank you.
Copyright
HarperCollinsPublishers
First published in 2005
This edition published in 2012
by HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited
www.harpercollins.com.nz
Copyright © V.M. Jones 2005
The right of V.M. Jones to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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National Library of New Zealand Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Jones, V. M. (Victoria Mary), 1958
Quest for the Sun / Victoria Mary Jones.
(Karazan quartet)
ISBN: 978-1-86950-480-9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-7304-9918-3 (epub)
[1. Quests (Expeditions)—Fiction. 2. Fantasy—Fiction.] I. Title. II. Series: Jones, V. M. (Victoria Mary), 1958-Karazan quartet;
bk. 3.
NZ823.3—dc 22