And when at last the dawn arrived, the two of them took their finished canopy out into the garden, which was beginning to bear fruit again for the first time in many years. Then taking their devisement by the corners, they spread it into the air. The plains wind caught it, and lifted it like a raven sail. The west wind swept them aloft, high over the plains. Far away on one horizon, Aeriel could see the desert of Pendar, and offered a silent prayer for the Pendarlon, that he might by this time be well healed of his wounds. In the other direction, she caught sight of the mountains of Terrain, at whose foot her village lay.
Before them lay the Sea-of-Dust, and beyond that, Esternesse.
And just as they crossed from over the plain to above the sea, they heard far away in the distance behind them, a hideous cry. It came, Aeriel realized, from the depth of the dead lake on the desert's edge, and embodied all the raging hate she ever could have imagined, and more.
"The witch," she heard Irrylath behind her breathe, "she has discovered the duarough's trick, and that I am lost to her."
"Talb," said Aeriel, listening to that furious scream, "I hope he slips safe away. If she should take him..."
But her companion shook his head. "No," he answered quietly, with the first hint of calm, true hope she had heard from him since his awakening, "I think we need not fear for him."
The scream of the white witch rose louder, shriller, and ended in a shriek that caused the very air to shudder. Then, as its echoes rebounded from the steeps and gradually died into silence, Aeriel looked up at the sail blown full above them and saw—as the last of the lorelei's magic left it— that it had turned to white. And so on a throw of pure white feathers, she and her chieftain's son crossed over the Sea-of-Dust, alighting later that same day in Esternesse.
Don't miss the thrilling second volume of The Darkangel Trilogy Aeriel's love has transformed the darkangel and rescued him from his mother, the dreaded White Witch.
But though Aeriel and Irrylath are free, the rest of Avaric is not.
The White Witch grows ever stronger. Her evil magic blights the land, and her other darkangel sons are growing more bold in their attacks as her power increases. Worse yet, the White Witch has not wholly relinquished her claim on Irrylath—her plans require all seven of her sons, and she will not give up Irrylath so easily.
If Aeriel is to save her world, she must track down and defeat Irrylath's bloodthirsty darkangel brothers—and confront his terrifying mother face-to-face.
"Superb.... The author's imagination seems boundless." —
Publishers Weekly
Available at your local bookstore in fall 1998
The Darkangel Page 18
