Dragons and Destiny Read Free Page A

Lind teacher of his youth who had insisted that he
and his year mates learn the rudiments of the human tongue.
    : You are
unhappy. Come to me :
    : How? :
    : I am waiting
on the long hill outside your domta. Come to me so we can be
together :
    Is this a
dream? Julia pinched herself to make sure. It hurt. Okay
then, not a dream.
    Julia came to
the decision that would change her life. Whatever all this meant,
she was going to meet this Lind, this Alyei who was talking to her.
She had never met a Lind and she was desperate to do so even for a
few snatched moments in the middle of the night. If she had to marry Thomal Allanson she wanted the chance to meet one of these
wonderful creatures before she did.
    She sat up and
felt for her dress with her left hand. Her feet found her shoes,
there was no time to think about stockings. Julia stood up. She
struggled into her dress and crept towards the loft ladder. She
left the hated head-scarf behind.
    No one stirred
as she ghosted through the downstairs room and towards the door.
She picked up the first coat she found on the pegs, not realising
it was her father’s best leather jacket. The door-bolt was stiff
but she managed it and slipped outside. With due care for the
latch-noise she shut it and throwing all caution to the wind ran as
fast as her cumbersome skirts would allow towards the long hill. As
it was dark as pitch, she stumbled painfully and often on the
uneven ground until she reached the farm boundary fence which she
clambered over with some difficulty. Her skirt caught in the post
and she tore it as she broke free.
    Alyei was
waiting just beyond arrow range of the farm. He saw her struggling
up to him.
    : I see you
Julia. Come to me :
    They ran
towards each other.
    : I am here
:
    Julia’s arms
were round Alyei’s neck. She was sobbing with joy, filled with the
sense of love and belonging that was Alyei and she knew now as she
stood beside him that he shared these feelings in full.
    : We must go
:
    : Go? Where?
:
    : To Vada. We
are together, now and for always :
    The two
followers that Sanei had sent to keep an eye on Alyei looked at
each other with happy faces and turned away, returning to their
patrol area with satisfaction of a job well done. Alyei had found
his life-partner.
    Julia looked
down at the buildings that had once been her home. Her
disappearance would be noticed in the morning as soon as her mother
realised the water hadn’t been brought in and the range lit.
    “Let’s go now ,” she agreed with a thrill of nervous anticipation. “My
father has a fast horse. When he finds out I’m missing he’ll come
after us.”
    “He will not
catch us,” declared Alyei with a grin, his great white teeth
showing bright even in the dark. “Horse run fast but Lind run
faster.”
    “I still think
we’d better go now.”
    When Anselm
Wallace found out that his eldest daughter was nowhere to be found,
the duo were long gone. She never knew of his anger, disappointment
and loss of face amongst the villagers, nor of her formal
out-casting by the resident priest.
     
     
    * * * * *
     
     
    AL580 -
Niaill
     
    Eight year old
Niaill loved playing the game ‘Hide and Seek’. With a laugh he ran
off to find a hiding place where his cousins, brothers and sisters
wouldn’t be able to find him. Out he ran from the trees that
surrounded the open space on top of the Mound where he and his
extended family were having a picnic, intent on a quest for the
perfect hidey-hole.
    Where should he
go? The seekers would first look for him up in the trees; Niaill
was a consummate tree-climber and they would be sure to search
there. If he wanted to stay hidden the longest (and that was the
aim of the game) he would have to find somewhere better than that.
He gazed around the clearing looking for inspiration and found it;
a great chunk of moss covered stone at the edge of the shorter
grass near the rocks. He didn’t have much time; he could hear his
older brother Danal counting. He ran