The Farwalker's Quest by Joni Sensel Page A

together at the door across the lane. When Scarl had been summoned, Luna didn’t even say hello.
    â€œWalk with me, please,” she said, striding away. Over her shoulder she ordered, “Ariel, you stay here.”
    Scarl gazed thoughtfully after her. Then his eyes slid to Ariel.
    Her breath caught. Could she really spend three weeks with those piercing eyes?
    â€œThe horse is around back,” he said under his breath, “if you’d like to go make friends.”
    Ariel watched Scarl’s long legs catch him up to her mother. He tipped his head toward Luna and clasped his hands at his back as he walked.
    â€œThere’s that crow again,” Ariel thought. If she didn’t know that shape-shifters existed only in stories, she would have thought she had met her first one.
    Seeing them hurry away, she abandoned the hope of overhearing their talk. Disappointed, she skipped from cobble to cobble, watching her mother’s gestures from a distance before she took Scarl’s advice.
    Luna must have walked him ten times around the village square before returning. Meanwhile, Ariel found the horse tethered on a patch of scrubby grass. She stood lock-kneed at first, her heart thumping, until she could look at the horse without flashbacks of the forest on Namingfest Day. His enormous, warm eyes won her over. She stepped closer, first gingerly stroking the animal’s nose, then slipping both hands into the cozy nook beneath his thick mane.
    â€œWould you protect me, if I needed you to?” she whispered.
    The velvety nose merely sniffed at her pockets.
    Hearing footsteps, Ariel looked up. The two adults turned the corner of the cottage. Luna’s eyes still crinkled with worry, no conviction clear on her face.
    â€œHis name is Orion,” Scarl said, approaching.
    â€œIs he smart?” Ariel asked.
    Scarl shrugged. “Not really. He’s sturdy. And kind. Have you ridden before?”
    Ariel’s eyes shot to her mother. Luna allowed a fraction of a smile to soften her lips.
    Words could barely get out through the cramp of anticipation and fright in Ariel’s chest. “No,” she admitted. “But I’ve been on a boat and climbed a tree.”
    Scarl’s lips twitched. “It’s not much like either. You’ll learn.”
    â€œRun to Madeleine’s house now,” Luna told Ariel, “and see if she’ll trade with me for one or two of her birds. Scarl says that in a few days you could send me something tied to its neck. A bit of ribbon or string, so I’ll know you are well. He thinks that since they’ve had practice, the bird would find its way home.”
    In fact, Madeleine gushed and nodded, round-eyed aboutthe idea. Ariel soon returned home with two birds in a grain sack. Luna sat Ariel down with them sternly.
    â€œThis part is my idea, not his. Keep it secret.” She waited for Ariel’s promise, then handed her several strings snipped from an old fishing net. “The yellow means you’re all right. The black …” Luna kneaded her hands. “If anything is wrong—anything at all—send me the black. Some Fishers will come after you. You know they will if I ask.”
    Ariel nodded. Several of her father’s old friends had looked out for them since his death. The salty-skinned men would become almost as ungainly as seals on land if they had to travel far on their feet, but she knew that nothing would stop them. Madeleine’s birds might never reach home from farther away than the Finders would take her by lunchtime tomorrow, but Ariel didn’t say that. Neither did her mother. The pigeons made them both feel better.
    Ariel spent the rest of the day getting ready, stuffing a knapsack with warm clothes and her new skirt to be worn in the grand village of Libros, plus all the food that would fit. The sky was dark by the time she flew around Canberra Docks, saying good-bye to people she’d miss.