Free Shadows of the Dark Crystal by J. M. Lee Page A

You’re welcome to turn in at any time. But, but, I thought you might like to know, Kylan always tells a song after sup.”
    In the deepening evening, Naia saw the pointed roof of the dwelling Maudra Mera indicated. Though she wasn’t particularly interested in hearing a song, she also wasn’t a child, ushered off to bed so early in the evening by her mother.
    â€œThank you, Maudra,” she said. “I’ll just need to find Neech, then I’ll be over. I don’t want him to get lost.”
    â€œThat
eel
?” Maudra Mera asked. When Naia nodded, the
maudra
sighed but shrugged. “Yes, yes, of course . . . Well, we will see you soon for bedtime. Good night, my soggy dear.”
    Maudra Mera took her leave, returning to Lord skekLach’s elbow as he continued his interviews with the Spriton. As the line dwindled, the children and Podlings came back from dishes duty. Naia walked the perimeter of the square, whistling and calling quietly for Neech as the little ones gathered to sit on the wide walking stones near the hearth where the cooking fires had died down to glowing red embers. With Lord skekLach’s earthshaking voice and Lord skekOk’s tinny wobbling one as the backdrop, the children whispered among one another with excitement, and Naia couldn’t help but pay attention when a slim Gelfling boy her age approached. It was the boy who had been staring at the split seed-nut when she’d arrived. He held a lute in one hand and took a seat on the bench facing the audience.
    It figured such a strange one would be a song teller. Songtelling wasn’t popular with the Drenchen. Weaving fantasy stories was a waste of time, according to her mother, who favored hard-talk and action. Stories were only good for distractions. While Naia peeked in between houses and in bushes for Neech, Kylan the Song Teller stood on the hearth and faced the Skeksis Lords, giving a deep well-practiced bow before taking a seat and tuning his instrument. Before long, he launched into a melodic overture on its thin harmonic strings. It was nothing like the Drenchen drums, but it was still beautiful, and he played well.
    Naia finally found Neech draped from a small potted tree beside a hut’s doorway, crunching on some night bug with happy snaps of his jaw. She gave him a kiss and let him take his place on her arm, making ready to spend the night as quickly as she could in Maudra Mera’s home, out of the gaze of the census-taking lords and, as much as possible, out of the
maudra
’s as well. With the lords to entertain and their
very important
people to be counted, Maudra Mera had little time for Naia and that was fine enough. She would accept the hospitality for what it was and say her polite good-byes on the morrow. In the meantime, though, she felt more alone in Sami Thicket than she had in the wild field beyond it.
    Well, it’s to be expected
, she thought.
They are Spriton, not Drenchen.
Their
maudra
was very different indeed, so of course their clan was as well.
    From the hearth, along with the melody on the stringed instrument, Kylan began to sing:
    Let me tell you a tale of Jarra-Jen
    Who flew Thra once over and back again
    Met a four-armed monster with half a heart
    Jarra-Jen and the Hunter, and the Leap in the Dark
    Naia paused to listen. The words sounded peculiar coming from his otherwise gentle voice. The awkwardness that had guarded him before, when she’d spoken to him first, had vanished, and now when he spoke, his tone was alive with energy and confidence. Even the Skeksis Lords turned their heads, Lord skekOk tilting his beak until it was pointed almost straight at the shining Sisters in the night sky.
    Now the Great Sun is waning as the Rose One takes chase
    Thra’s Winter ninet as it drifts us through space
    The nights long and chilly, the days short and shy
    The Brothers scarce seen all three in the sky
    Now traveling by foot through the Dark Wood