Since the schedule is being disrupted slightly I’ll go ahead and post the installment for Monday now. For the installment on the 25th I should be back on track.
Chapter 14, Part 2
Sela’s scowl could have curdled milk. “Now, if only we could say the same about you.”
Marta just shook her head. “Longfeather, I am going to do you one last favor—I am going to change you back into a goshawk until tomorrow morning. Use the time to travel to Goandel, and meet us there in about three days’ time. If you are not there I will assume that you have disobeyed me again and I will turn you into something that can’t cause trouble for anyone. Ever. Do I make myself clear?”
“Very clear,” Longfeather said. “But I thought you were already done with me.”
“I have thought of a use for you. It won’t change my decision, mind, but you are going to do something to repay at least a small amount of the harm you’ve caused, and what you would have caused by throwing your lot in with the people who put you in that cage.” Marta leaned close to the cage amd told Lonfeather what else was expected of him. He clearly was not happy about it, but Marta took no heed of that. “Now go.”
In a moment it was done. Longfeather hopped through the bars of the cage but instead of flying away immediately, he fluttered up to land on the top of the cage and turned to face Marta again.
“Before I go, I was entrusted with a message for you.”
“From whom?” Marta asked.
The goshawk that was Longfeather shrugged his wings. “I think ‘from what’ might be more accurate. She called herself Amaet, but I don’t think she was human. It was the way she appeared, glowing like a star, and then vanished that made me suspect.”
Marta held very still. “Oh? And what did Amaet say?”
“She said to tell you ‘I’m waiting.’ Those words exactly.”
“That was all?” Marta asked.
“Yes, mistress,” he said.
“Then away with you. And remember what I said.” Continue reading