The Warrior of the Third Veil Page 7
“And you, Pali,” Arzu was saying as he approached, “tell me your news! You went to the Mountain and came back with an ancestor: that was all we could speak of last night. It is getting light, show me your new sash! Oh—good morning, Hasim!”
Hasim had spoken with Arzu on several occasions about the likely result of his suit, and was gratified that Arzu believed him an acceptable match for her sister (and grateful too for some of her words of advice, for if he knew how to catch a wild falcon, he had little knowledge of women). At her words of welcome he stepped forward, the white gyrfalcon on his wrist sleepy still in her scarlet hood.
Pali was crouched by the fire, feeding the small flame until it d thrived. She stood slowly, shyly, and lifted the end of the sky-blue sash she wore to show Arzu and Hasim.
Arzu reached out a hand to feel the silky tassels of the fringe. She glanced across at Hasim, who looked at the white falcon, and found his words slipping away from him. Arzu and he both knew that one who had come to the Third Veil so young was never going to rest long in the tents of her clan.
“Are you going hunting, Hasim?” asked Pali, when she could not bear the silence of embarrassed awe any longer. “That is a very fine falcon.”
“Thank you,” he stammered, and with another look at Arzu, said: “Congratulations.” And he fled to his horse and the hot wind of the desert, and rode until he could look at his heart and say to himself, if ruefully, that he did not wish to trail behind Pali until she entered legend.
PALI HERSELF DID NOT realize what had happened until she encountered Hasim returning, a few days later, and asked him how his hunting had gone. He merely looked at her and shrugged, and walked off to his own tent. She went to ask Arzu why Hasim—who had always been so cheerful around her—was angry, and at Arzu’s sigh she realized what had happened.
She remembered standing before Ialaar the wishing stone and wondering what path she took.
Not the one to the Second Veil and the tents of her people, a husband and children of her own, and the long arduous training to reach the Third Veil.
She looked across the fire to where Lord Andrej sat with her mother, and even as Arzu sighed again with resignation Pali began to smile with wonder at what the road before her might hold.
Author’s Note
Pali Avramapul is one of my favourite characters; she will recur in person and in rumour throughout many of my other stories, from the deeds she does before and after she joins the Red Company. Look out for a third story about the Sisters Avramapul in 2018; if you’d like, please join my mailing list to be given the news of new releases.
Other books currently available are Stargazy Pie and Bee Sting Cake, in the Greenwing & Dart series, and a standalone set in what is mostly our world, Till Human Voices Wake Us.
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Did you love The Warrior of the Third Veil? Then you should read Stargazy Pie by Victoria Goddard!
Magic is out of fashion.Good manners never are.Jemis Greenwing returned from university with a broken heart, a bad cold, and no prospects beyond a problematic inheritance and a job at the local bookstore.Ragnor Bella is a placid little market town on the road to nowhere, where Jemis' family affairs have always been the main source of gossip. Having missed his stepfather's funeral, he is determined to keep his head down.Unfortunately for his reputation, though fortunately for several other people, he falls quickly under the temptation of resuming the friendship of Mr. Dart of Dartington, Squire-in-training and beloved local daredevil. Mr. Dart is delighted to have Jemis' company for what will be, he assures him, a very small adventure.Jemis expected the cut direct. The secret societies, criminal gangs, and illegal cult to the old gods--to say nothing of the mermaid--come as a complete surprise.Book One of Greenwing & Dart, fantasies of manners—and mischief.
Read more at Victoria Goddard’s site.
Also by Victoria Goddard
Greenwing & Dart
Stargazy Pie
Stone Speaks to Stone
Bee Sting Cake
Whiskeyjack
Blackcurrant Fool
Love-in-a-Mist
Plum Duff
The Sisters Avramapul
The Bride of the Blue Wind
The Warrior of the Third Veil
Standalone
In the Company of Gentlemen
The Hands of the Emperor
Not Far From the Tree
Till Human Voices Wake Us
The Connoisseur
In the Realms of Gold: Five Tales of Ysthar
The Return of Fitzroy Angursell
Petty Treasons
The Tower at the Edge of the World
Watch for more at Victoria Goddard’s site.
About the Author
Victoria Goddard is a fantasy novelist, gardener, and occasional academic. She has a PhD in Medieval Studies from the University of Toronto, has walked down the length of England, and is currently a writer, cheesemonger, and gardener in the Canadian Maritimes. Along with cheese, books, and flowers she also loves dogs, tea, and languages.
Read more at Victoria Goddard’s site.
Victoria Goddard, The Warrior of the Third Veil
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