Starflower by Anne Elisabeth Stengl Read Free Book Online Page A

night to think of me ?” As she spoke, her hands touched her own face as though to assure herself that she was still as pretty as she’d always been. Her mouth formed a hard line as she brandished her fists the stranger’s way, and the woman drew back a little from her.
    â€œMy only choice,” Gleamdren continued, “was to offer you my bed and my gown. Display my sweet-natured heart, you know. At least then,when the novelty of you has worn off and you’re long gone from Rudiobus, my suitors will still remember the kindness of Gleamdren.”
    The smile on the woman’s face grew, and in her eyes, fires danced. “I am sure rumor of Lady Gleamdrené Gormlaith already flies across the worlds. Rumor of her beauty and of her favor in the court of Iubdan.”
    Gleamdren looked mollified. “Well, it’s all Eanrin’s verses, you know,” she said modestly. “They do have a way of getting about, his being Iubdan’s Chief Poet. Not that I give him the time of day, mind you. I’m not such a fool as that. You give a lad an inkling of favor, and suddenly he forgets all that undying passion of his! Best to string them along—but you distract me.”
    â€œIndeed, such was not my intent.” The counterpane fell back as the woman slid her legs around and over the edge of the bed. “Did you have something more to say to me, Lady Gleamdrené?”
    â€œI want you to kidnap me.”
    â€œWhat did you say?”
    â€œI want you to kidnap me.” Gleamdren set her jaw. “I’m not a fool, you know. I did not fall for your little glamour.”
    The woman said nothing. She stared into the maid’s eyes, momentarily uncertain.
    â€œI’m not the sort to fall in love,” Gleamdren continued in a most practical voice. “So it’s not in my nature to fall for glamours either. Not even a spell is going to make me love someone so unconditionally! No, when I saw you, I felt neither love nor pity for you, no more than that silly Eanrin did, I’m sure. But unlike Eanrin, I stop and think about things now and then. So when you were brought inside and even Bebo was taken in by your ‘great beauty’—though, I must say, I don’t see what’s so great about it. Even with enchantments, you’re far too scrawny to be beautiful—I thought to myself, ‘Who could possibly deceive even my queenly cousin?’ Not another Faerie, surely. Bebo is older than all of them. No enchantment of the Far World would get past her eye.
    â€œThen I thought, well, what about a witch? Not a mortal witch, of course; those poor hags and silly sorceresses couldn’t begin to deceive even Eanrin, much less my cousin! Perhaps a Faerie witch, then. Buteven Vartera, the Witch Queen of Arpiar, couldn’t get past Queen Bebo’s protections. And she tried! Lumé love you, how she tried, so desperate to find the Flowing Gold was she! Everyone wants the Flowing Gold. And every gold-hungry witch and monster of the Far World has tried to take it at least once. But you . . .”
    Gleamdren’s stream of prattle died away as she smiled knowingly upon the colorless woman. “You did what even Queen Vartera could not—you deceived Bebo. You wheedled your way into Rudiobus, extracted promises of safe haven from the king and queen. You are more than a mere goblin witch, aren’t you?”
    â€œWhat, then,” the woman whispered, “am I?”
    â€œA dragon.”
    The candles all about the room flared, then sank on their wicks. The warm glow vanished, exchanged for a dull redness. Gleamdren and the stranger gazed at each other. And slowly the glamour unraveled.
    Hri Sora sat on the edge of Lady Gleamdren’s bed, clad in her soft green nightgown. Her skin was stretched too thin over her frame, and in places it broke, revealing cruel scales beneath. These were black with a red-hot iridescence