Free Whisper by Christine Grey Page A

birds with wings that couldn’t fly an inch, why should it be so hard to believe in a race of people who can fly without wings?”
    “Well, I guess I…”
    “I’m just teasing, Dearra. I can understand why you might think that, but they do not have wings and they can fly, although it’s more like levitation than flying.”
    Dearra thought about this for a moment, trying to recall the rest of the mythology she’d heard about the Etrafarians. “Are they really tiny, as the stories say?”
    “That depends on your definition of tiny. Tiny is a subjective word, isn’t it? If you mean are they a mere few inches tall, then no. The Etrafarians average about four and a half feet tall. Some are as small as four feet, though they can grow to be upwards of about five feet tall. They have especially sensitive skin and eyes, since Etrafa is a completely wooded country, or so the legends tell us. Their eyes appear almost cat-like since they have adapted to the lower light of their forest home. They wear cloaks that cover them from head to toe to protect them from the sun in this region.”
    “Where is Etrafa? I should think it would be a fascinating place to visit.”
    Darius shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. “No outsider knows, as far as I can tell. They hold that secret pretty closely, and with their strong magical abilities, I imagine you could sail almost to her shores and never see a thing if the Etrafarians didn’t allow it.”
    “Why come here then? If they are that private a people, why mix with others at all?”
    “Honestly, I don’t know. There are never more than a dozen or so here at any one time. Some go and new ones come. They make a lot of money providing horses to the Breken. No one can train horses like they can, but still, up until about a thousand years ago, they just came here to trade. Then, one day they settled in and never completely went away.”
    “So about the time of Cyrus,” Dearra said quietly, her words for Darius alone.
    Darius stopped again, pausing to consider. “I never thought about it before, but you’re right. That is a strange coincidence.”
    “Yes, isn’t it?” Dearra said, half to herself.
    “For Cyrus’s sake, boy!” Daniel said. “How much further is it? It feels as though we’ve walked forever, and I’m exhausted.” Daniel stopped walking and stood with arms crossed, waiting for an answer.
    Darius looked up from Dearra, surprised at Daniel’s outburst. Daniel was ordinarily a pretty rugged individual, and it was unusual for him to complain, but when he looked, the real problem was made clear to Darius almost immediately. Carly was leaning subtly against Daniel. Her breath came in little panting puffs of air as she struggled to collect herself. Darius could have kicked himself for being so inconsiderate. Dearra had a sheen of perspiration on her face from trying to keep up with Darius, how much harder must it have been for Carly who was even smaller?
    “Only a short ways more,” Darius said. “We can take a slower pace from here. We need to get everyone some lighter weight clothing as well. It will keep us cooler, and we will blend in more with the locals.”
    Daniel grumbled. “Well, see to it that you do take a slower pace, then. I’m not a young man anymore.”
    Darius grinned to himself. Daniel was forever complaining about his age, even though he was still a very young man. The people of Maj lived to be over a hundred and Daniel was only thirty-six.
    Darius didn’t miss the gentle way Daniel took Carly’s arm as they started up again. He was sure to go much slower from that point forward, mostly because he was afraid of what Daniel would do to him if anything happened to Carly. This thought caused Darius to shudder and smile at the same time as, looking down on Dearra, he understood exactly how Daniel felt.
    ***
    After an hour of walking, they arrived at a two story building that looked cleaner than most of the establishments they had passed thus