Free The Farwalker's Quest by Joni Sensel Page B

“By then everyone might have forgotten Namingfest Day.”
    â€œOh, I really don’t think …” Luna’s voice faded.
    To escape from Foolery for as much as a month! The idea was too tempting for Ariel to resist. Images spun through her head. She’d never been out of Canberra Docks. The tales Storian told about other places, however, were always exciting.Buildings with towers. Hills of salt. Houses in trees. Once, a Fisher blown lost by a storm had sailed home months later with patterns drawn on his back and a musical instrument made from hundreds of tiny gold bells.
    Elbert might have been hearing her thoughts. “Libros is quite different from here,” he was saying, “a grand adventure for someone her age. There’s a market where people trade sweets and a whole building filled with relics to look at. One little telling dart would be lost there.”
    Ariel could not imagine seeing anything from the old days more mystical than her telling dart—and then she could. Libros might have a bike.
    Elbert let his words sink in, and then he looked squarely at Ariel. “I’d understand if she was too scared to go. Nobody travels much anymore, least of all someone young. A few Finders and the odd Tree-Singer, that’s about it—them that aren’t fearful of losing the way. Not many others are bold enough.”
    Sparks flew inside Ariel at the suggestion that she might be too scared. The whole proposal was terrifying, of course. It would have been scary with someone like Jeshua, whom she trusted completely. With Elbert and Scarl—! She felt faint. But the thought of treading distant hillsides awoke a yearning inside her, a fire in her gut under the fright. She wanted to go.
    â€œAnd it wouldn’t be easy,” he continued. “Even with the horse, there’s rain and rough country and bugs.” He grinned, shifting his gaze again to Ariel’s mother. “But I can assure you she wouldn’t get lost.”
    â€œGoodness.” Uncertainty wavered in Luna’s normally firm features.
    Holding her breath, Ariel watched her mother’s face. Consent would mean entrusting herself to strangers who had givenher nightmares. Yet denial would be worse, if only because it meant that nothing would change. She’d remain a girl with no talent and no future, a failure. Stung by that truth, Ariel’s heart clamored to prove that she had a worth, even if it was only a willingness to step into the unknown. If she could not be a success, she could still be a rebel, breaking the unspoken rule that chained others to places they already knew.
    â€œLet me,” she whispered. And then she told the biggest lie of her life, and the only one she’d told more than once. “I’m not scared.”
    Surprised, Luna smoothed her apron. “There’s really no need to consider,” she told Elbert. “Whatever I thought, there’s no way she could be ready to leave with you today.”
    â€œHmm.” Elbert scratched at his beard again. Ariel wondered if lice lived there, and whether she’d still want to go if they did. “We could wait until morning, easy enough,” he said. “It is late to be starting today.”
    He added, “I confess, it would be more a favor to us than a reward. Maybe a little of both.” His mouth remained poised to keep rolling. He stopped it with visible effort.
    Ariel wanted to beg, “Mama, please?” like a toddler. She pressed the words back. Her eyes strayed to the dart in Elbert’s hand, and a memory flashed in her mind. Zeke had told her the dart would fall into her keeping again. This must be how.
    Thoughts of Zeke begot an idea. She tugged gently at her mother’s arm and murmured, “Could we ask Jeshua?”
    â€œCould you give us a little time to discuss it?” Luna asked Elbert.
    â€œOf course, of course. I should have said that myself.” He started