Free The Alleluia Files by Sharon Shinn Page B

seen in this century. Two days later a Jansai caravan found her on the side of the road, frozen to death, the baby girl in her arms. Also dead. I don’t remember the last time I have felt so sad.”
    “I don’t wonder. What a miserable tale.”
    “The day after that,” Mercy went on, as if he hadn’t spoken, “the angel David killed himself. Flew as high as he could go over the Heldora Mountains, folded his wings to his sides, and let himself fall. You cannot imagine the shock we all felt. He had been such a beloved and warmhearted boy. Everyone assumed, of course, that he had been Rinalda’s lover. We never had any proof. But I see no other way to read the story.”
    “And this is the heritage of that lovely girl! No wonder she sings with such an unearthly voice.”
    “I don’t know how much of her own story she knows. So few people remember it these days—and, of course, Gretchen has kept her far from Cedar Hills for most of her life.”
    “Yes, tell me about this Gretchen and where in the world Lucinda has been all these years. I don’t believe I’ve ever laid eyes on either of them.”
    “Gretchen was David’s sister—mortal, of course, but brought up in the hold just like he was and used to angel ways. About three years after David and Rinalda died, she went to Michael and offered to raise Lucinda herself. He objected at first, because he saw no reason an angel should be raised anywhere except one of the holds, but she finally convinced him. She had always been a fairly earnest young woman, and David’s death made her almost grim. Quite formidable. In the end, Michael agreed. And she took Lucinda away with her to Angel Rock and there, as far as I know, they have lived ever since.”
    “Angel Rock! That dreary place!”
    “Yes, it is not where I would have chosen to grow up myself. But she does not appear to have taken any particular harm from it. She looks reasonably refined and you have to admit her voice is amazing.”
    “Yes, but those are fairly external signs. To be brought up by a joyless maiden aunt on some tiny island in the middle of the ocean—it makes even my careless blood run cold.”
    “No, I don’t envy her her life,” Mercy agreed. “I invited Gretchen to come to Cedar Hills for a few days, and bring Lucinda. I hope she accepts. I think it would do them both good to be around more ordinary company for a while. And I plan to tell Gretchen that I’d be happy to keep Lucinda for a few weeks—or a year or as long as she cares to stay. I think it’s time that girl had a few normal hours in her life.”
    “I wonder why this aunt Gretchen spirited her away like that,” Jared commented. “I would have thought she would have considered Cedar Hills the best place for the girl.”
    “Maybe she was afraid Lucinda would always be treated strangely because she had such an odd history. Or maybe she was angry at Michael because he allowed such a series of disasters to happen, right under his nose. Or maybe—and sometimes I’ve thought this was the true reason—she was afraid of Rinalda’s tainted blood. That rebel streak. She wanted to get the girl as far from the mother’s influences as possible. Who knows?Maybe she was right. There are no Jacobites on Angel Rock.”
    “Let me know if she comes to you at Cedar Hills. I’d like to get to know her.
    I’ll come down and visit.” “I’ll be glad to have you.”
    After a few more idle remarks, they rose to their feet and went their separate ways, back to the friends and obligations of their separate holds. It occurred to Jared as he wound his way through the still-lively crowd that he had promised to make two visits in the next few weeks, although neither journey had been in his mind when he first came to the Plain. Not that it mattered; Christian and Mercy were two of his oldest friends. Visits to them could be nothing but enjoyable.

C HAPTER F OUR
    L ucinda moved through the Gloria with a sense of inexhaustible wonder. She had