The Snow Queen Read Free Page A

of the Lady’s trances, “Then ... my father isn’t a Summer; he
isn’t even on Tiamat?”
    “That I
can’t tell you.” Clavally stood up. Moon saw a strange concern cross her face
as she looked back at
Sparks
.
“But I do know that merrybegots are specially blessed. Do you know why I’m
here?”
    They shook
their heads.
    “Do you
know what you want to be when you grow up?”
    “Together,”
Moon answered without thinking.
    Again the
bright laughter. “Good! I’m making this journey through the Windwards to urge
all the young Summers, before they settle into life, to remember that they can
dedicate themselves to the Sea in another way than as fishers or farmers. They
can serve the Lady by serving their fellow human beings as sibyls, as I do.
Some of us are born with a special seed inside us, and it only waits for the
Lady to touch us and make it grow. When you’re old enough, maybe you two will hear
Her call, and go to a choosing place.”
    “Oh.” Moon
shivered slightly. “I think I hear Her now!” She pressed cold hands against her
leaping heart, where a dream seed sprouted.
    “Me too, me
too!”
Sparks
cried eagerly. “Can we go now, can we go with you, Clavally?”
    Clavally
pulled up the hood of her parka against a sudden buffet of wind. “No, not yet.
Wait a little longer; until you’re certain of what you hear.”
    “How long?”
    “A month?”
    She rested
her hands on the two small shoulders. “More like years, I think.”
    “Years!”
Moon protested.
    “By then
you’ll be sure it isn’t just the crying of sea birds you hear. But always
remember, in the end it won’t be you who will choose the Lady, but the Lady Who
will choose you.” She looked again, almost pointedly, at
Sparks
.
    “All
right.” Moon wondered at the look, and straightened her shoulders resolutely
under the hand. “We’ll wait. And we’ll remember.”
    “And now—”
the sibyl dropped her hands—“I think someone is waiting for you.”
    Time began
to flow forward again, and they fled, running—with many backward glances—toward
town.
     
    “Moon,
remember the last thing she said to us?” The silver play of notes dissolved as
Sparks
lowered his flute
and looked back, breaking in on Moon’s memory. The mers stopped their own song,
looking toward the boat.
    “Clavally?”
Moon guided the outrigger around the point of land that jagged inward at the
mouth of the bay. The shoreline of the
Choosing
Island
was as spiny as the trefoil the sibyls wore. “You mean, that my mother was
waiting for us?”
    “No. That
the Lady chooses us, not the other way around.”
Sparks
glanced toward the surf line, made his
eyes come back to her face. “I mean ... what if She only chooses one of us?
What will we do?”
    “She’ll
choose us both!” Moon grinned. “How could She do anything else? We’re
merrybegots—we’re lucky.”
    “But what
if She doesn’t?” He fingered the packing of moss where the halves of the wooden
hull had been lashed together. Inseparable ... he frowned slightly. “Nobody makes you become a sibyl, do they, just because you pass the test? We can swear to
each other now, that if only one of us is chosen, that one will turn it down.
For the sake of the other.”
    “For the
sake of us both.” Moon nodded. But She will choose us both . She had never doubted, since
that moment years ago, that she would come to this place and hear the Lady call
her. It had been her heart’s desire for half a lifetime; and she had made
certain
Sparks
always shared it, not letting his hopeless star dreams lead him away from their
common goal.
    She put out
her arm and
Sparks
took it somberly; they shook, hands clasping wrists. The clasp became a hug
before she knew it, and the doubts in her heart burned away like morning fog.
“Sparkie, I love you ... more than anything under the sky.” She kissed him,
tasting salt on his lips. “Let the Sea Mother witness that you hold my willing
heart, only you, now and