Free The Singer of All Songs by Kate Constable Page B

the air. ‘There is no shame in being afraid to drown when you have never been taught to swim,’ he said at last. ‘They say that children of Penlewin can swim before they can walk. Between the sea and the marshes, they have little choice. But I’m sure there is not one among them who can tame a swarm of stinging bees without flinching.’
    Her teeth were chattering so hard that she had to force the words out. ‘I would have drowned if not for you.’
    ‘Ah, well.’ He cleared his throat, embarrassed. ‘Then I owe you my life only twice now, not three times over. But all the same, you’d better learn, and quickly. I wouldn’t want to fish you out a second time.’
    She gave a shaky laugh. ‘So you will take me with you?’
    He stared into the fire, not meeting her eyes. ‘I hadn’t thought to take an apprentice. But I can hardly send you back. And I suppose I’m still in your debt.’
    This was not the hearty welcome Calwyn had hoped to hear. ‘You’ll need my help in the mountains; you know yourself that your foot isn’t mended yet.’With a sudden flare of temper she added, ‘And I don’t want to be your apprentice. I have my own power; I am your equal in chantment.’
    ‘Though not in swimming,’ said Darrow gloomily.
    Calwyn’s indignation was so great that her tears vanished. ‘If you think I’ll hinder you, then I’ll go on alone,’ she flashed, and started to her feet.
    Darrow said mildly, ‘Then I’ll thank you to return my cloak.’ And Calwyn saw a smile in his grey eyes. ‘Come, dry your hair, don’t waste the fire. I would like to get some distance between us and Antaris before we rest again.’
    Obediently Calwyn knelt and spread out her hair with her fingers before the flames, glad of the dark curtain that hid her face, and the sudden smile of wild joy that she couldn’t suppress. For the first time since she was a baby, she was outside the walls of Antaris; who knew what wonders and terrors lay before her? At her side, the river gurgled, as though it were laughing with her, and the whole forest sang with birds.
    Presently Darrow covered the fire with earth, and they began to walk again. This time there was no path to guide them. They followed the river as closely as they could, though trees clustered thickly along the bank. Darrow pointed toward one of the mountain peaks. ‘We must head that way, to the peak shaped like a hawk’s head. There’s a pass that will lead us through to the lands of Kalysons. That’s how I came here.’
    ‘We call that mountain the Falcon. That’s the way the traders come.’
    Calwyn was tired, her clothes were still damp, and it was not pleasant to walk in wet boots. She thought longingly of the breakfast of warm bread and honey that she would have had if she’d stayed on the other side of the Wall. But all the same, as the sun came up, touching the tops of the sparse trees with gold, she wouldn’t have wished herself back in her narrow cell for anything in Tremaris. She breathed deeply. ‘The air tastes like – like queen’s jelly!’ she exalted. Had her mother felt like this, at the start of her adventures?
    After a time she asked, ‘Do you think Samis will follow us?’
    For a moment Darrow did not reply. ‘I think he will stay in Antaris for now. Having come so far, he won’t wish to leave without the chantments of ice-call. True, he will be disappointed to lose his quarry. But it is the hunt he loves above all, and the hunt is not over.’
    ‘He might never find us,’ suggested Calwyn buoyantly; anything seemed possible this morning.
    ‘Maybe not,’ agreed Darrow, with the shadow of a smile.
    By afternoon, Calwyn was dropping with weariness. Darrow noticed it.
    ‘We should sleep now,’ he said abruptly, when she yawned for the third time, ‘while the sun will still warm us. We can walk by moonlight.’ He pointed with his stick toward a sunlit glade. ‘That looks comfortable enough.’
    Calwyn thought he must be teasing her