the vowels and swapping a z for the s.
“Close enough, sure,” Father replied.
The woman began pointing at the beach and asking questions, her eyes hopeful. Father told her she was concerned with sand, and then a beach, and then a coast when she seemed unsatisfied. The woman danced around in a circle and shrugged. Remembering the strange boat that I could no longer see in the darkness, I spoke up for the first time through the side of the wagon.
“She wants to know where she is, Father.”
“What? Hmm. I think you may be right, Kallindra.” He spoke to the woman again. “You’re in Brynlön. This is Brynlön.”
The giant woman cocked her head at him. “Lonzeer Breenlawn?”
“Oh, fire and mud,” Father groused. “This will take all night!” He held up his hands to the woman in what he hoped was a universal signal to wait. “Excuse me for a moment.” He stalked back to the rear of the wagon.
“Kallindra, fetch me a map of the continent. Jorry, keep her in your sights.”
“Yes, sir,” we chorused. I rummaged through a trunk for a recent map of Teldwen drawn by some Kaurian to celebrate the crowning of their new mistral, and once I found it, I slipped it through a gap in the planks for Father to take. There was no need to open the back door; security always. The woman hadn’t moved during this time. She waited patiently.
When Father returned to her, he squatted down and unfolded the map on the sand near her campfire. The woman’s face lit with a large smile and showed off a few crooked teeth. Father started by pointing at the cities nearby—Möllerud and Setyrön—and then jabbed repeatedly between them and said, “We are here.”
Motah, if that was her name, grinned and made affirming noises and then suddenly clocked Father upside the head with her elbow. He fell over, stunned, and she ran out of the firelight toward her boat, taking the map with her.
“Hey!” Jorry shouted, and he fired the crossbow into the dark in her general direction but must have missed. We heard no grunt or scream, only the sound of a boat hull scraping across the sand. There was no use wasting another bolt. We couldn’t see anything past the fire.
Father sat up and cursed loudly to let us know he was all right, and Mother laughed at him. She even slapped her thigh.
“You see there, Jorry?” he roared. “I just got robbed by a pair of tits.” Mother nearly fell off the wagon from laughing so hard.
I wonder sometimes what kind of parent I will be with the examples I have to follow.
I also wonder where that woman was from. She was so very strange. We will have much to talk about at the clave when we get there.
—
When it was clear that Fintan had finished speaking in Kallindra’s personage, the crowd murmured among themselves instead of applauding, but he seemed to expect this. He nodded at Survivor Field as he took shape in the green smoke and said, “Fascinating, isn’t it? One invasion caused by an eruption and another that may have been facilitated by a chance meeting. Of course we don’t know that Motah—or whoever she was—ever made it back to her home successfully. But I happen to know that there were other scouts like her, perhaps a large number of them, and we don’t know how many of them managed to secure a map. As I said, a recording of this encounter only came to me by accident. What else the Bone Giants learned of us and how they learned it is a mystery to be solved later.” Fintan held up a finger and waggled it back and forth as he spoke.
“I am fascinated by Kallindra’s record not because it is the history of the blessed or of the military or of some political leader but because it is the record of an ordinary person who had no idea what was coming. And ordinary people have their stories, too, don’t they? You all have your stories, I’m sure!”
A roar from Survivor Field answered him.
“I thought so. That is all for today, so let the story tonight be of fine drink and finer company! Tomorrow we will hear more from Nel Kit ben Sah and find out what was happening in Kauria and Ghurana Nent!”
I didn’t sleep well and woke before dawn. I made a cup of tea and sat at the kitchen table with my hands folded around the Raelech