The Farwalker's Quest by Joni Sensel Page B

She enjoyed the amazement on their faces much more than the pained sympathy that had shone there since Namingfest Day.
    She couldn’t find Storian, though. And she saved Zeke for last. It was nearly bedtime before she undertook her toughest good-bye. Tired, she passed through the square toward his family’s cottage. The sycamore spread its shadow against the night. She brushed her hand on its trunk as she passed, wondering what else it knew about her or the future.
    It must have been just about then that her mother changed her mind.

CHAPTER
10
    â€œIt will feel like flying, I bet,” Zeke decided, “riding up high on that horse.” Jealousy pushed through the worried crimps in his face. “I wish I could go with you!”
    â€œMe, too.” Ariel and Zeke stood fidgeting just inside the door to his house. They both knew she needed to get home and to bed, but she couldn’t push her feet outside. Her skin, wideawake, itched for morning.
    â€œAre you scared?” he whispered. His parents rested not far away.
    She nodded. “But excited, too. Scarl said I’ll see snowy peaks and rivers of flowers.”
    Zeke tugged a lock of his hair. “It’ll be okay. My father would know if it wasn’t.” With a sidelong glance he checked Jeshua’s expression. Perhaps not fully reassured, Zeke added, “Be careful of them, though. And don’t fall off the horse. I’ll ask the maple about you every day until you come back.”
    Shaking his right arm, he showed Ariel the tip of her bone dart hidden away in his splint. “I’ll still keep this while you’re gone, if that’s okay.”
    She threw her own arms around him. “Bye, Zeke. I’ll bring you a present if I—”
    The door banged open, nearly hitting them both. Everyone in the room jumped.
    Luna, a shawl flung over her shoulders, whisked inside. Her eyes swept the room. When she spotted her daughter, partly hidden behind the door, Luna reached both hands to pat her. She seemed to need proof that Ariel was solid and all in one piece.
    â€œOh, I’m sorry, Luna,” said Zeke’s mother, rising. “Zeke has kept her too late.”
    Gripping Ariel’s shoulders in hands so tense they might have been wringing laundry instead, Luna rolled wild eyes toward Zeke’s parents.
    â€œJeshua, I don’t care what the tree says,” she moaned. “I’m frightened.” She lunged to grab the Tree-Singer’s arm. “Something will go wrong, I can feel it! Will you tell the Finders I’ve decided against it? I’m sorry they’ve waited, but I can’t do it!” Her head whipped in denial. Her hair, already let down for bed, swirled across her face.
    Yelps of surprise and protest jammed in Ariel’s throat. Jeshua took her mother by both arms and murmured her name, trying to calm her. Zeke’s mother rubbed Luna’s shoulder as well.
    â€œNo. No.” Slipping into tears, Luna clung to both of Zeke’s parents. “I ignored this same feeling the night before Remus was lost. I thought it was silly. I won’t ignore it this time. I can’t lose her, too.” The words melted into sobs.
    Zeke’s mother and father exchanged a long glance while they mumbled soothing words. Jeshua’s eyes found Ariel, standing stricken next to the still-open door. He rubbed his brow.
    â€œAll right, Luna.”
    She turned her reddening face to him. “You mean it?”
    â€œI likely will rue it, but yes. We can’t have you like this. I’ll go see Elbert now.”
    â€œWait!” Ariel cried.
    Her protests sank into the flagstones. Zeke’s mother walked her and Luna home while Jeshua took up his task.
    Their own cottage squatted, familiar and dull, at the same place on the same lane in the same village forever. Ariel knew from past fits of temper that its door did not slam well enough to satisfy her. Instead she