“It’s a good thing I’m a wizard and not a swordsman,” Glyndon went on. “There aren’t many spells that really require two hands.”
“And the visions?” Kayl asked. “Do you think they’re—”
“They’re gone,” Glyndon said with certainty. He glanced down at his sling, then looked at Kayl and smiled. “The trade was worth it.”
“What will you do now?”
“I don’t know. Go home, maybe.” He hesitated, then said carefully, “And you?”
“In the long run? I’m not sure. I’m not going back to being an innkeeper, that’s sure. Maybe I’ll try to find a way of helping the Wyrds and Shee who’re leaving the southern countries. They might be able to use a good strategist.” Kayl smiled down at a tiny patch of unfamiliar blue flowers beside a boulder. “You know, I used to think I had to know things like that, that once I made a decision I had to stick to it. I think that’s why I spend so much of my time mulling over the past.”
“What?” Glyndon looked puzzled, but interested.
“I was trying to prove that the decisions I’d made were the right ones,” Kayl explained. She shrugged. “Now… Well, I have another twenty or thirty years left; I don’t have to decide today exactly what they’re going to be like. I never really knew that before.”
“Um.” Glyndon tilted his head backward to stare at the branches of the trees above them. “I hadn’t really expected to talk philosophy with you today.”
“Oh?”
“Kayl, you know that I love you, and I want to stay with you. But I don’t think I can face a four-month trip back to Kith Alunel with the Silver Sisters.”
“Neither could I. So I’m not going with them.”
“What?” Glyndon stared at her. “I thought…”
Kayl smiled and shook her head. “You and Barthelmy. I don’t belong in the Sisterhood anymore, Glyndon. I’ve known that for months. It just took me awhile to stop wishing I did, that’s all.”
“But if you aren’t going to Kith Alunel, then what?”
“I talked to Bryn and Alden last night. When the camp breaks up, they’re going on to that Waywalker settlement Ferianek told them about. The children and I are going with them. The whole group will be leaving for the coast soon, to hire a ship to take them to the island once the spring storms are over. I don’t think it will be too hard to persuade them to stop and let us off somewhere on Varna.”
“Varna? Kayl, are you sure?”
“Well, if they won’t, we can find a ship that’s headed there,” Kayl said practically. “It shouldn’t be hard, at this time of year.”
Glyndon laughed. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You didn’t ask. Glyndon! Be careful; your shoulder!”
“Demons take my shoulder,” Glyndon said. He pulled her to him with his good arm and fastened his lips over hers. “Does this mean you’ll marry me?” he asked a few minutes later.
“Do you want me to?” Kayl laid a hand on his mouth to stop his immediate protest, and went on, “I’m not going to spend the rest of my life on Varna, you know. And I meant it about trying to help the Wyrds.”
“We’ll do it together,” Glyndon promised. “After fifteen years of wandering, I don’t think I could settle permanently on Varna even if I wanted to. It’ll be nice to go home, though. Now, answer the question: Will you marry me?”
“If I don’t want to set a bad example for the children, I’m going to have to.” Kayl tried to make her tone serious, but she could not keep a straight face. Her mouth insisted in stretching out into what felt like a remarkably foolish grin.
Glyndon laughed and started to kiss her again. He was interrupted by a muffled cheer from a nearby clump of bushes. Startled, he and Kayl looked at each other; then Kayl shook her head and stepped away from him. “We heard that,” she called in the sternest voice she could manage. “So come out here, right now.”
With a series of rustling noises, punctuated by crashes, the eavesdroppers made their appearance: first Mark, then Dara, then Xaya. Mark looked somewhat downcast but pleased; Dara and Xaya were trying hard to appear properly repentant in spite of their excitement. “I thought I’d taught you better than to listen to other people’s conversations,” Kayl said, but she was too happy to put her heart into the scolding.
“Well, but it was important to us, too,” Dara said. “And oh, Mother, I’m glad!”
“So am I,” Glyndon confided.
“Don’t encourage them, Glyndon,” Kayl warned. He gave her a smile that made her head swim, and she forced herself to look back at the children. “Whose idea was this, anyway?”
“Mine,” three voices said promptly.
Kayl rolled her eyes. “All right, then, back to camp with the three of you. I’ll figure out what to do with you later. Go on!”
The children went. As they disappeared among the trees, a breath of wind brought Dara’s satisfied voice back to Kayl and Glyndon: “I told you she was going to marry him. She just takes a long time to say so, that’s all.”
“Huh,” was Mark’s comment, and the children were gone.
Glyndon looked at Kayl, his eyes dancing. “I can see that being a stepfather is going to be an enlightening experience. I wonder if I ought to ask Dara what you really think, the next time I’m not sure?”
“You do and I’ll put salt in your ale for a week,” Kayl threatened.
“Your wish is my command,” Glyndon replied. He reached for her with his good arm. “Now, where were we?”
A Biography of Patricia C. Wrede
For more than twenty years, Patricia Collins Wrede (b. 1953) has expanded the boundaries of fantasy writing. Born in Chicago to a large, literary family, Wrede spent her childhood immersed in the Chronicles of Narnia, classic fairy tales, and L. Frank Baum’s Land of Oz—a foundation in imagined worlds that paved the way for her future career.
After receiving a degree in biology from Carleton College in 1974, Wrede completed an MBA at the University of Minnesota, and began working as a financial analyst in the late 1970s. In her spare time, Wrede wrote fantasy stories in the vein of the classic novels she read as a child. Her love of fantasy even fueled an interest in tabletop role-playing games: Lyra, the first gaming world that Wrede invented, was based on the unpublished work-in-progress that would become Shadow Magic. In 1980 she became a founding member of a group of Minneapolis-based, fantasy-fiction authors known as the Interstate Writers’ Workshop, or Scribblies, with whom she later worked on the critically acclaimed Liavek shared-world anthology series.
That same year, Wrede sold her first novel, Shadow Magic, which was published in 1982. It was the public debut of Lyra, a magical world shared by four races whose cultural differences see them constantly at odds. Wrede used Lyra as the setting for four more novels: Daughter of Witches (1984), The Harp of Imach Thyssel (1985), Caught in Crystal (1987), and The Raven Ring (1994). Wrede’s strong prose, sense of humor, and powerful female leads drew special attention to her early novels. Her quick success allowed her to begin writing fulltime.
Though the Lyra novels found popularity with audiences of all ages, Wrede aims her more recent work at young-adult readers, beginning with her four-book Enchanted Forest Chronicles, which follow the adventures of a young princess who becomes apprenticed to a dragon. Her other fantasy series include the Cecelia and Kate novels, cowritten with Caroline Stevermer and set in Regency England; the Mairelon books, which also take place in Regency England; and the Frontier Magic trilogy, based on Old West pioneers.
Wrede lives and works in Minnesota.
Patricia Collins’s baby photo, taken around 1955 when the family lived in Maywood, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.
Patricia playing piano in her family’s living room in Hinsdale, Illinois (another Chicago suburb).
Patricia (the tallest) with her four siblings (from left: Susan, David, Carol, and Peg) in Tulsa around 1968.
Patricia’s senior yearbook photo at Hinsdale Township High School Central in Hin
sdale, Illinois.
Patricia’s high-school commencement photo, 1970.
Patricia and her father, David M. Collins, outside her dorm at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. The photo was taken at the beginning of her freshman year, in 1970.
Patricia’s wedding in July 1976 to James M. Wrede.
An outline of the Wyrd government, as Patricia was developing Shadow Magic in the late 1970s.
Patricia at a Minicon panel in Minneapolis in the early 1980s. Minicon is Minnesota’s longest-running annual gathering of science fiction and fantasy fans.
Patricia celebrates her parents’ fiftieth wedding anniversary in 2002 with her family. Back row, from left: Margaret (Peg) Hill, Carol Collins, David Collins, Susan Domeyer, and Patricia. Front row: Monica Collins, David M. Collins.
Patricia with Star Wars Stormtroopers outside of the St. Paul Saints baseball field in St. Paul, Minnesota. A Jedi threw out the opening pitch and Darth Vader showed up several times during the game.
Patricia outside her home near Minneapolis, Minnesota.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
copyright © 1987 by Patricia C. Wrede
cover design by Andrea C. Uva
978-1-4532-3363-4
This edition published in 2011 by Open Road Integrated Media
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New York, NY 10014
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Patricia C. Wrede, Caught in Crystal
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