“Kwenz tried to take this away from us,” I said. “We had to boot him back to the Shadow. Where the Chwahir live, but they want to bring the Shadow to the rest of us. If you don’t believe me, just go north to Chwahirsland after you get home. The Shadow here is like a little piece of it. Want to see it again?”
Raneseh said yes, and the other two were quiet—Pralineh bewildered, Rel just Relling.
So I brought them in and introduced them to Clair. Everyone was too stiff and polite for me to retail our conversation—who wants to remember polite nothings?
Clair helped me with the transfer downstairs. We went to the lookout where you could just glimpse the black castle under the Shadow. I explained about the black eyes enchantment, and the magical wards, and the spells on the people, then we returned.
Raneseh seemed uncomfortable at Clair’s total lack of protocol. I suspect he would have thought us fakes except for the magic, and the White Palace, and the Shadowland. All as I’d said.
Rel took it all in, with no expression.
Pralineh seemed to be amazed, and worried.
Then we gave them a tour of the White Palace. Rel looked interested instead of blank when we came to the library, and Raneseh let out a long sigh that I don’t think he was aware of. Pralineh turned her eyes to the furnishings, and how the light fell.
“Go ahead. Look around,” Clair said.
I showed Pralineh the music magic, and she started and stopped several pieces.
Then, as Raneseh buried himself in several books at once (he had them all open and was looking from one to another with more excitement than I’d ever seen in him) Clair went up to Rel and said, “Interested in traveling?”
Now how did she see that? I hadn’t said a word to her!
Rel looked at her in surprise.
“My cousin is an itchfoot,” Clair said. “He looks out windows the same way you did in the hallway out there, right before he takes off for another trip.” That made me laugh. How long had it taken me to see it?
Rel gave a slow, wary nod.
“Would you like to look at a map? I only have one for our portion of our continent.”
“I’d like very much to see it,” he said. “Thanks.”
He sounded like a normal person, instead of Rel.
We left him with the map, then wandered away. Clair gave me a funny look, then whispered, “I was expecting a monster.”
She was kidding, of course. For a second I could see him as she seemed to—a tall fellow, even taller than Puddlenose, well-made, despite the raggedly cut black hair and scruffy clothes.
Raneseh recalled himself, and said they should return. Since Clair had to go to Seram Aru, she agreed.
I transferred us to the marker I’d left in Raneseh’s study, all safely.
When we’d recovered, I said, “Do you see why I had to get back home?”
“It has been an education in many ways,” Raneseh said.
Pralineh shuddered. “It must have been horrible to have that Shadow so close.”
“It’s still there. That’s why we have to be on the watch.”
Pralineh thanked me, asked me to visit again, sent another of those thoughtful looks between the rest of us, and went out.
I said, “Raneseh, Rel should be talking to you.” I went out and shut the door.
I wandered down the hall, and Pralineh came out of one room to go into another, and saw me hovering. “Cherene, is something wrong?”
“I think—I hope—something is going to be put right.”
A couple minutes later the door opened again. I was so curious I bombed in uninvited, but they expected me.
Raneseh said with an odd expression, “It appears I had two prisoners, one bound by gratitude.”
Rel looked down at his hands.
Raneseh said, “I chose to abjure the world. But it is unfair to expect, by implication, that my household will feel the same. Rel is free to follow the wind, as you say.”
I grinned, and turned to Raneseh. “Could you tell me who the person was who sent Kwenz to you?”
Raneseh looked toward the window. “An old acquaintance,” he said slowly. “I knew in my young life. He is known as Mondros.”
Rosey.
o0o
Well, that’s it.
I went home, leaving Rel to begin his wanderings. I wish I could say that everything was fine and we became buddies, but that didn’t happen. I’m still my pickle-brained, obstinate self, and Rel is ... Rel. But our further adventures are in another notebook or three.
For now, this one is finished, on a good note, when life was quiet again, as the leaves began to turn to autumn gold.
Map
Special thanks to ...
… those friends in Junior High who in 1965 asked for more stories about CJ, PJ, and Rel ...
And to my cousin Marjorie
Copyright & Credits
Copyright © 2011 Sherwood Smith
ISBN: 978 1 61138 066 8
Second Edition
Book View Cafe
January 2011
All Rights Reserved.
Cover Design Copyright © 2008 by Vera Nazarian
First edition, Norilana Books, 2008
This book is a work of fiction. All characters, names, locations, and events portrayed in this book are fictional or used in an imaginary manner to entertain, and any resemblance to any real people, situations, or incidents is purely coincidental.
V. 20110430vnm
Other Young Adult Books by Sherwood Smith
Sartorias Deles Stories
Over the Sea: CJ’s First Notebook
MH Bounces Back: CJ’s Second Notebook
Poor World: CJ’s Fourth Notebook
Crown Duel
A Stranger to Command
Senrid
Hunt across Worlds
Fleeing Peace
Wren’s World Stories
A Posse of Princesses
Wren Journeymage
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Mearsies Heili Bounces Back Page 30