Shifting Stars by Gary Stringer (best fiction books of all time txt) 📗

“You’re planning to go up against Dreya the Dark? There isn’t enough alcohol in the world to get me drunk enough to make that sound like a good idea!”

“It’s not a good idea,” Cat replied. “It’s just the only idea.”

“OK, let me get this straight. You’re going to – what – ask Dreya the Dark very nicely twice, and when she refuses, assuming the sorceress hasn’t killed you, you’re going to attack her and demolish the Black Tower itself?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Cat shook her head. “I’m not going to attack her; I’m desperate, not suicidal. No, I need to do something far more difficult: I need to impress Dreya the Dark.”

Mandalee snorted, “I don’t think Dreya the Dark does ‘impressed.’”

“That’s because she hasn’t met me, yet,” Cat replied.

“Oh!” Mandalee laughed. “So, because I fell for your charms after you blundered into my traps, you think Dreya’s going to do the same?”

Cat offered a mischievous smile. “Are you saying you don’t believe I can do it?”

“Message getting through, at last, is it?”

“Is mine?” Cat retorted.

“What do you mean?” Mandalee asked with a frown.

“You’re doubting me again, and I’ve told you how I react when you doubt me.”

Mandalee groaned, “You take it as a challenge to do it anyway!”

Catriona stood, confidently. “Challenge accepted!” she declared. “All I need now is your blessing.”

Mandalee, too, got to her feet and embraced her friend. “Always,” she insisted. “You know that. Whatever ridiculous radical plans you come up with, I have your back, no question.”

When they broke the hug, Cat’s smile had grown into a broad grin. “Thanks for the support,” she said, “but when I said I needed your blessing, I actually meant your clerical blessing. Specifically, on my arrows.” She pulled a few clear of her quiver. “And maybe a bottle of water or two.”

“What ever for?” Mandalee wondered.

Cat laughed. “Don’t worry, Mandalee,” she said. “It’s all part of my ridiculous radical plan!”

*****

Catriona didn’t head straight for Gaggleswick and the Black Tower. First, she had another destination in mind, flying all the way to the home of the Red wizard, Xarnas, who had trained Dreya. Nobody else could know Dreya the Dark half as well as him, and that was information she needed.

My mother had already done background research on Xarnas and discovered a useful little nugget of information. His youngest daughter was married to a Faery boy, and they were expecting their first child. Out of respect for the boy’s heritage, Xarnas wanted to give them a special gift: a book of traditional Faery children’s rhymes and lullabies. Such a book was tough to find without the right Faery contacts since human-Faery relationships were still something of a rarity at the time.

Even Catriona herself couldn’t find a book that was good enough, in her opinion, so pulling from her childhood memory of growing up among the Faery, she had written her own.

Xarnas was astonished by the book when Catriona knocked on his door, introduced herself and presented it to him.

Recognising Catriona’s Faery heritage, he told her, “I’d wager that much of what you’ve written here is deeply personal to you.”

Cat felt a pang of regret, thinking about her fantastic childhood and the parents she had lost far too soon.

“Yes, you’re right,” she nodded, sadly, “but I felt it had to be that personal, to match the value of the information I seek in exchange. In fact, no,” she reconsidered, “not ‘in exchange.’ For once, I’m not going to trade the human way. I’m happy to hear of another human-Faery couple and delighted that a great man such as yourself would respect Faery culture enough to give them such a book. In Faery culture, trade is based on giving freely that which is precious, so in that spirit, the book and all it contains are a gift from me to you, given freely, so that you might, in turn, give it freely to your daughter and son-in-law, and they eventually to their child.”

“In that case,” Xarnas said, “it seems to me, as a point of honour, that I should give freely to you something that is precious to me. What can I do for you?”

Cat told him she wanted to learn everything she could about Dreya the Dark.

Xarnas studied Catriona as he considered that. “When most people ask about Dreya, they either want to know about her extraordinary power, or how I could train what they see as a ‘servant of Darkness.’ Some have even been known to use the word ‘evil.’” He shrugged. “At least they’re honest: many others think it while not daring to say it. I suspect you are not like any of these.”

Cat shook her head, emphatically. “I would never be so pejorative,” she promised, “and I very much doubt Dreya is a servant of anything.”

She explained further that she was not only interested in Dreya's powers and abilities, but also the Faery woman herself. Her personality, her interests – to understand her, or at least begin to.

“A laudable goal,” Xarnas approved. “To seek knowledge and understanding lies at the heart of our Red order of Balance.”

With that, he invited her into his home, where he was pleased to tell her everything she wanted to know.

He also told her he had heard varying accounts of Catriona Redfletching, but the only one he paid attention to was Justaria, his successor on the Triumvirate, who described her as ‘a handful of trouble.’

“I’m certain she intended it as a compliment.”

Cat smiled a smile of secrets. “Oh, you have no idea how much trouble I can be,” she said, eyes dancing with mischief. “I’m a veritable Trickster, sometimes!”

Xarnas grinned, “And that is exactly what you will need to be to grab Dreya’s attention. If you want to impress her, you will have to fight her without ever attacking her.”

He paused for a moment, before adding, “I would never tell this to anyone else, no matter what they tried to trade, but in the spirit of giving freely, I will say this: I feel sorry