Taking Flight

Actually, he had been planning to do exactly that, but he was not about to admit that in front of the girl he was destined to marry. He didn’t want to look like a coward, or a fool, walking all this way for nothing.

Besides, her very presence proved that Zindre the Seer had not lied.

He had traveled far, beyond the hills and into strange lands; he had seen the road stretching before him; he had found the girl he was to marry-but he had not yet seen great cities or vast plains or strange beasts, he had not seen beautiful women in the plural. Irith’s magic might qualify as “mighty,” or it might not, but the prophecy had said “much mighty magic.” And he had not yet championed anyone lost or forlorn. It was not yet time to return safely home with his bride.

And he wasn’t about to let Irith think he was a coward or a fool; if she spurned him, his entire destiny would be jeopardized.

“Where are you going, then?” Irith asked.

“Where are you going?” he countered.

“Oh, I haven’t decided-and besides, I asked first!” She smiled brightly. “So where are you going?”

“That way,” he said, choosing a direction more or less at random and pointing east along the highway.

“Oh, good!” She clapped her hands together in delight. “All the way to Shan on the Desert?”

He nodded. Why not? Why shouldn’t he actually do it, go all the way to Shan on the Desert? It was a great city, wasn’t it? The prophecy had said he would see great cities. And the Bazaar there was said to be full of wonders and magic.

“I haven’t been there in the longest time,” Irith said. “Could I come with you? We could get to know each other better-I get lonely sometimes, living by myself.”

“Sure,” Kelder said, trying to sound nonchalant. “I’d be glad of some company myself.”

That, of course, was an understatement. Kelder thought she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, and given half a chance, he’d have followed her wherever she wanted to go. To have her following him was even better, since she couldn’t very well consider him a nuisance in that case.

The prospects for a short courtship and swift marriage were looking better every moment.

There were obstacles, of course, like his limited funds, but he tried not to think about those.

“Let’s go, then, shall we?” She got to her feet, and he caught another glimpse of the curious colored rings on her ankle as her breeches fell back into place. She started down the hillside.

He started to follow, then stopped. “Wait a minute,” he said, flustered, “I need to pack up my things here!” He turned, and quickly gathered up his belongings, stuffing them into his pack as fast as he could.

When he was sure he wasn’t leaving anything important he got up, slung the pack on his shoulder, and trotted down the hill to where Irith waited, smiling. It was only as he came up beside her that he realized her wings were gone.

“Hai!” he said, startled.

“What is it?” she asked, looking about.

“Your wings,” he said, feeling very foolish. “Where’d they go?”

The thought occured to him that maybe she had never really had wings at all, maybe they’d been an illusion of some kind-but hadn’t she said she had wings?

“Oh!” she said with a giggle, “didn’t I tell you that? It’s part of the spell. I don’t have wings all the time, only when I want to. And they’re kind of a nuisance when I’m walking, so I got rid of them.”

“But…” Kelder began, then stopped. He really didn’t know how to express his puzzlement, especially not in Trader’s Tongue.

“Oh, don’t worry about it, silly!” Irith said. “Come on!”

She started walking, and he hurried to catch up. A moment later, he asked, “But where do they go?”

She shrugged, a gesture he found wonderfully winsome. “I don’t know,” she said. “It’s magic, of course.”

“But when you want them back, where do you … I mean…”

She sighed. “Don’t worry about it, all right? I’m a shapeshifter, that’s all. That’s what the spell really was. I can shift back and forth between being me with wings, and me without wings, just the way some wizards can turn themselves into cats or birds or other things. That’s all!”

“Oh,” he said, trying to absorb this. Shape-changing or not, that something could exist sometimes, and not at other times, did not seem to make very much sense.

Then he decided not to worry about it. It was magic, and as far as he knew, magic didn’t have to make sense, it just was. If she could shift her shape, she could do it, and there wasn’t any point in trying to figure out how, any more than in trying to figure out how that wizard had made a tree whistle.

Figuring out more about Irith herself was far more interesting, anyway.

And at least it meant that he needn’t worry that the wings would be in the way.

They walked on, chatting occasionally and simply enjoying each other’s company the rest of the time, strolling on at a comfortable pace, eastward toward the rising sun and Shan on the Desert.