and my ears will listen

[truthwright]

Time goes by. Shura's mother lets her cut a cloudpine branch, and she and Helen go flying together.

Helen celebrates her eighth birthday by baking all her favourite people a cake again. And then she goes away with Kas, to Iceland and Russia and back by way of Alaska.

When they fly in, Kas on Petaal's cloudpine and Helen on her own, Helen is wearing blue jeans and a pink T-shirt.

Comments

[alicornucopia]

Narida turns to look at them.

"What," she asks, gesturing to Helen, "is the intended meaning of this -?" She sounds like she intended to finish the sentence with another word or phrase but cannot come up with one that suits what she means.

[carillons]

Helen looks down. Pink cotton and blue denim, instead of black silk.

"Oh," she says. "I forgot I was wearing that. It doesn't mean anything."

[alicornucopia]

The queen makes a restrainedly distasteful face and turns from her. "Inkeri Saara," she says, "what were the words you spoke?"

"The Shade-Dreamer will return on the eve of the sixty-sixth year of her vanishment, and call on the magics of all the worlds," repeats Inkeri.

"Are those the exact words?"

"Yes."

"Does it refer to Isabella Amariah?"

"Yes."

"When exactly is the eve of the sixty-sixth year of her vanishment?"

"The day before she would have been gone sixty-six years. I don't know the date."

"Is there anyone else you are supposed to tell?"

Inkeri tilts her head again, and says, "I think so."

The queen pinches a leaf off a plant a row away from where she was weeding, shreds it, and mutters a Svaaric verse, tossing the shreds at a blinking Inkeri.

"Who do you think you should tell?" the queen inquires, after squinting at the possible prophet.

"Helen's father," says Inkeri.

"Go and do it, and then come back and tell me how he reacts."

[carillons]

...Helen hovers a little ways back, and she listens to Kas.

"He's at Ranata's house," she murmurs.

[alicornucopia]

"Okay," says Inkeri. She gets back on her cloud pine and flies to Ranata's little cabin that she uses for extended stays on clan lands.

[truthwright]

Petaal is curled up just outside the cabin door as a tiger, and Kas is leaning back against her with an arm slung comfortably around her neck.

[alicornucopia]

Inkeri lands.

Without preamble, she announces, "The Shade-Dreamer will return on the eve of the sixty-sixth year of her vanishment, and call on the magics of all the worlds."

[truthwright]

"What," says Kas.

[alicornucopia]

Inkeri tilts her head and repeats herself, and then adds, "The queen thinks I might be a prophet."

[truthwright]

"Why are you telling me this," he says. The words form a question, but the intonation doesn't.

[alicornucopia]

"I'm supposed to," says Inkeri. "I think knowing who I am supposed to tell might be part of being a prophet, because the queen asked me if I was supposed to tell anyone else, and then told me to tell you."

[truthwright]

"Well," shit," says Kas. He rubs his face with both hands. "Are you done, then?"

[alicornucopia]

"Yes, that's the whole thing. I am supposed to tell the queen how you reacted."

[truthwright]

"You do that," he says, and he gets up, and Petaal turns into a witch and follows him into the cabin and shuts the door.

[carillons]

(Helen winces.)

[alicornucopia]

Inkeri hesitates, but then flies back to the garden where the queen is, and lands again, and describes how Kas behaved.

"I think you're a prophet," the queen concludes.

"Will I make more prophecies?" inquires Inkeri.

"Possibly not. Some people with your birth blessing don't make even one prophecy in their lifetimes."

"Oh," says Inkeri.

[carillons]

Helen drifts back a little more, and then turns and flies away.

She doesn't quite mean to listen behind her, but she does.

[alicornucopia]

"How can you tell if someone is a prophet if they never make a prophecy?" asks Inkeri.

"If they have the right goddess and domain and no obvious birth blessing. Prophets occasionally appear even in clans that don't birth-bless, although then it's harder to be sure," the queen replies. "You should tell your friend not to come to me in mortal garb again."

"I can tell Helen you said so."

[carillons]

Helen notices she is listening to the queen. She decides to stop.

[alicornucopia]

After a minute, Inkeri catches up to her. "The queen doesn't want you to talk to her while you're wearing mortal clothes," she reports.

[carillons]

"I know, I heard," she says. "Then I stopped listening."

[alicornucopia]

"Oh. After that she told me that even when I am not making prophecies I'm still a prophet and this gives me special clan status and I will learn more about that soon," she volunteers.

[carillons]

"That's cool," says Helen.

[alicornucopia]

"It might be," allows Inkeri. "Your dad seemed very upset about my prophecy."

[carillons]

"That happens sometimes," says Helen.