( Keturan Begins His Quest )

While she was speaking, Keturan had drifted into the flow of her story. He knew all about Llira, of course, but this was the first he had heard of what had happened to it. He wondered about Mara as well. What would the child of a mortal and a faerie be like? What had been so special about Artan Zandare? Keturan had known about the Lliran-Arlesian ( Read more... )

Queen Magdalena died four days later, on Mara’s eighteenth birthday. Mara stayed in her room after the funeral, leaving only to search in her mother’s closet, as if driven by some strange compulsion she could not name. A black veil obscured her features as she searched among the dresses and stacked boxes, arranged in tottering piles. At the bottom ( Read more... )

Heinrich and Magdalena had officially announced their adoption of Mara. The people knew that Kanmira was her mother, but not that her father was Arlesian. Mara was to receive the second name of Honoria, which had been Heinrich’s mother’s name. Kanmira had not been seen again.

It was a festive day in Llira. The houses were decorated with ( Read more... )

           They said it floated upon the sea. No one could see what lay within it. All the sailors saw was the storm, waves lashing, rain pouring down, and lightning flashing in the sky. But it never moved beyond its bounds. The storm stayed in place, like a wall. A wall that drifted.

Those who had sailed around it reported it was a ( Read more... )