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Spring Snow [Bera Steinbjornsdottir series 5] [MultiFormat]
eBook by Diana L. Paxson
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$0.89 |
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$0.76 |
eBook Category: Fantasy/Spiritual/Religion
eBook Description: Bera had spent years studying with the Voelva, and now she wanted her teacher to initiate her. But there are many forms of initiation, and the one you get is probably the one you least expected.
eBook Publisher: Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Works Trust, Published: Sword & Sorceress 15, 1998
Fictionwise Release Date: March 2010
4 Reader Ratings:
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Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: eReader (PDB) [31 KB]
, ePub (EPUB) [40 KB]
, Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [18 KB]
, Portable Document Format (PDF) [193 KB]
, Palm Doc (PDB) [19 KB]
, Microsoft Reader (LIT) [69 KB]
, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [90 KB]
, hiebook (KML) [74 KB]
, Sony Reader (LRF) [51 KB]
, iSilo (PDB) [16 KB]
, Mobipocket (PRC) [20 KB]
, Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [53 KB]
, OEBFF Format (IMP) [30 KB]
Words: 6119
Reading time: 17-24 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Portable Document Format (PDF) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED
 
"Here is another of Diana's wonderful stories based on Norse legends. One of the nice things about doing extensive research for your novels is that you can usually pull several short stories out of the same background." -- Marion Zimmer Bradley, author of The Mists of Avalon.
Bera felt an icy kiss touch her cheek and squinted upward. When they had left Bjornsted that morning, the sky had been clear. Now the opaque whiteness of the sky was blurring around them as snow began to fall. But it was not cold that made her shiver. She had traveled in all weathers in the thirteen years since she had followed the Voelva, Groa, from her father's hall to learn the craft of spae, by which one wandered the worlds to see visions for the people; but the storms that had buffeted them on this last journey came with a persistence more than natural, as if some Mind sent the wild gusts slashing at their faces.
Bera had meant to bring up the question of her initiation on this journey, but Groa sat huddled on the seat of the wagon beside her, snow already beginning to settle on the folds of the heavy cloak wrapped over layered shawls so that she looked like something unhuman, a broken tree stump or an outcrop of stone.
But stone did not cough. Bera did not like the sound of that coughing, or the fact that her teacher tried to hide it.
"We won't make Lade by nightfall," she said, pitching her voice above the wind. "But I can see smoke beyond those trees. We should get off the road and seek shelter at the next farmstead."
Haki, who rode ahead of them, reined in his pony. Clearly the bondsman approved, but it was for the Voelva to make the decision. The wagon creaked as they rolled forward. Bera brushed snow from her eyelashes, trying to see ahead. If this kept up, the question would be moot, for the wagon could not travel in deep snow.
"Groa! What do you want to do?" she began, and the wisewoman muttered something into the folds of her shawl. "I'll take that as agreement--" Bera exclaimed, shaking the reins in an attempt to make the horse move faster. It was not fair, she thought angrily. When they were among folk, it was Groa who had all the honor, but here on the road, the responsibility was hers.
"Haki, can you see the turn-off to the farm?"
"I think so -- just past those pines. Thor save us, it's cold!" he replied. "Who'd expect such a storm so late in the year?"
Bera nodded. The feast of Sumarmal was just past, when folk celebrated the end of winter and made offerings to the gods. At Bjornsted, where they had been honored guests, the meadows had been bright with early flowers. But the new grass lay now beneath a covering of white.
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