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eBook Category: Fantasy
eBook Description: One of the most important things a court minstrel can learn is when to keep his mouth shut, especially when dealing with the Faerie Queen.

eBook Publisher: Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Works Trust, Published: Sword & Sorceress 12, 1995
Fictionwise Release Date: May 2007

11 Reader Ratings: Great Good OK Poor

Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [174 KB], eReader (PDB) [18 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [12 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [12 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [65 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [84 KB], hiebook (KML) [60 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [47 KB], iSilo (PDB) [10 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [13 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [46 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [21 KB]
Words: 3627
Reading time: 10-14 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

"All of Cindy's stories have an unexpected flavor--they are never quite as simple as they seem at first."--Marion Zimmer Bradley

Fiona paced anxiously from window to window, looking down on the starkly-lit landscape. The light pouring through the unglazed openings made silver swirls of the dust her skirts swept up as she crossed the cold stone floor. Pushing a lock of auburn hair from her eyes, she paused to stare out of the largest of the three windows. The world looked very different from this perspective than it had that afternoon from the hillside below.

Returning from the cheese market with supplies for her mother's inn, Fiona had let the pleasant weather and the beauty of the rolling dales lure her from the safety of the road.

"Foolish daydreamer," her mother often scolded her. "That fanciful temperament of yours will be your bane, or mine." But Fiona could no more still the wild heart within her than she could have been unkind. Besides, dinner time was far away and what harm would it do to while away an hour on such a pretty day. But then she had heard the distant chime of a wire-strung harp. Ensorcelled by the sound, she discarded cap, shawl, and shopping basket in unaccustomed abandon, to dance after the harper's wondrous music. It had led her to the haunted ruin of this ancient fort.

Though Fiona had lived her entire life in the shadow of these hills, she had never seen nor heard of such a ruin. Yet here it sat, a weathered sandstone edifice crouching like a great ginger cat atop the highest mound. Its single dark tower thrust skyward with an air of foreboding, but even this could not deter her from entering the ancient keep.

Curiosity led her to explore its silent halls, but something more compelling had drawn her to the tower stairs, urging her upward until she stood in this very room. Then, that remarkable compulsion had released her, leaving Fiona feeling light-headed and weak. Suddenly weary from the long climb, she sat down on the floor with her back against the wall, to rest for awhile. But scarcely had Fiona settled herself, when she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep, to wake when the moon had risen.