I offered him a smile that was careful and poised.
“I’ll miss our time together,” he said, his voice touched by a softness that was rare in him.
I paused mid-breath. “Gadriel, what do you mean?”
He leaned in and pressed a kiss to my lips softly.
“My favored,” he whispered. “What you wish for will not be granted. Leya will be coming to Torhiel.”
6
I still hearmy mother sometimes, calling for me as she once did on those quiet mornings in Brier Len.
“Odessa,” my mother’s voice rang out from the window of our small cottage, bright with warmth. “Where has my little raven gone?”
Her voice drifted faintly through the canopy as I wandered deeper into Brier Len’s forest, swallowed by its tangled wooden maze. My bare feet padded across the moss-covered earth as I chased a darting black shadow weaving through the trees. I giggled as it flitted from branch to branch, inviting me to play.
The shadow paused.
I crouched behind a towering pine, pressing my small palms to the bark. Peering around the trunk, I spotted it. Perched on a high limb, feathers glinting like onyx in the light. I counted softly to myself.
One, two, three…
With a squeal of delight, I sprang forward from my hiding place, laughter tumbling from my lips as I pointed up at the feathered shadow.
“Found you!” I shouted triumphantly.
Kraa, kraa, kraa!
The raven cawed and began to circle overhead. One by one, six more ravens joined, spiraling above me in widening arcs. Their cries, sharp, wild, and harsh to most, blended into something soothing to my ears. I tilted my head back, smiling as their shadows passed over my face, dark wings slicing the light.
“They’ve come to visit you again!” my mother called gently from a few feet behind.
“Look!” I pointed with my small finger, eyes wide. “There’s seven! I’ve never seen it before!”
My mother approached, her smile soft and strange. She twirled me around in a slow circle and sang in a low, melodic hum, “...another raven born anew just for you…”
Then she stopped, pressing her hands to my cheeks, her eyes alight with something I didn’t yet understand.
“Happy seventh birthday, my sweet.”
With me on her hip, Mother carried me deeper into the forest, the seven ravens soaring behind us. She glided through the woods, stepping over rocks and roots with ease, leading us to a stream bordered by stones. She moved as if she had traveled this path countless times before.
We reached a quiet stream, its banks ringed with pale stones, and she set me gently down. Crouching before me, her eyes glinting with mischief, she said, “Did you know a group of ravens is called an ‘unkindness’, my little love? Isn’t that curious?”
My brow furrowed. “Ravens are unkind?”
“Only by name,” she chuckled, tilting her head toward the birds overhead. “But names are deceptive sometimes, aren’t they? Do these ones seem unkind to you?”
I shook my head firmly. “No! They’re my friends.”
She tapped my nose lightly. “Exactly. Don’t let something as silly as a name make you doubt what you already know in your heart.”
“Right,” I said boldly.
“Names have great power, Odessa,” my mother murmured,pointing to the stream ahead. “Before you were born, the waters spoke to me. The currents carried a name. Your name.”
She gazed at the stream with reverence, as though it still whispered secrets only she could hear.
