Read A Blackbird In Silver (Book 1) for Free Online Page B

countrymen?’
    There was a murmuring of agreement. ‘In truth there is only one course we can take. Our priority must be to restore our country to its former perfect state, eradicating all traces of the unspeakable Worm; to cure the disease it has left behind. To prevent it attacking us, or any other country, ever again.’ Englirion paused, and Estarinel looked at Falin, wondering if his friend knew what the last statement meant. Falin looked equally puzzled.
    Englirion made to continue, but succumbed to a fit of coughing. A woman with long white hair went on in his place.
    ‘Most of you know, for many of you saw her, that a Lady of the Blue Plane came to us.’ At this there was a murmur of wonder from the fringes of the crowd. ‘Not the Lady herself, but one called Filitha. However, I know some of you only arrived today, and I sorrow that you missed her.’
    Estarinel felt, rather than heard, Lilithea sigh beside him. ‘She came because of the Worm, and the sorrow and despair we are in. She grieved for us… and she said that although the H’tebhmellians have never been able to help the world directly, they can offer advice, and this we accept with the love and trust there has always been between us.
    ‘There will be a party to try to destroy the Worm. But only one of us will go, and he or she must first sail south to the House of Rede, there to find the rest of the party. It will be a long voyage, but necessary, the Lady said, to distance the one chosen from the immediate horror of the Worm.
    ‘For it must be understood, she said, that others in this world know of the Worm and wish it dead also, and a great circle of power moves according to whether it lives or dies. Therefore we cannot go selfishly north alone, but must go to the House of Rede for the help and companionship that we will find there. And then the H’tebhmellians will provide a ship to take the travellers to the Blue Plane, where they will be told what they must do.’
    Englirion finished a long draught of water and stood up again, adding, ‘So we are not without guidance after all. This is what must be done. One person will sail south, with a few companions to man the ship. The rest of us will stay here and wait, doing what we can to repair the damage.’
    Suddenly Falin jumped to his feet and cried out, ‘Surely one should go who has lost all his family, and has no one left to grieve should he not return?’
    ‘Please sit down, my dear child,’ Englirion replied gravely and sadly, and as Falin did so, Arlena held his arm and bowed her head against his shoulder. The Elder continued. ‘There will be no volunteering. I have the job of choosing who will go. For this purpose the Lady Filitha gave me a device, a lodestone that will point to the one who must go. You must therefore all form a great circle, so I can set up the device in its centre. Anyone who truly does not wish to go may stay outside the circle.’
    ‘We all want to go, and we are all afraid to,’ said someone. But as the circle was formed, the only ones outside it were children. The device was a small, slender gold tripod, with a pointed blue stone hanging under its apex by a thread. Englirion positioned it carefully, then set the stone spinning. It seemed an age before it came to rest, and then the Elder moved round the edge of the circle and peered through a sighting glass for several seconds before nodding solemnly and walking towards Estarinel and his friends.
    Estarinel hardly realised he had been chosen until Arlena exclaimed ‘Oh E'rinel!’ and Englirion was there in front of him, saying, ‘The lodestone pointed to you. Are you willing to go?’
    ‘Yes,’ he said blankly. And he thought of all the malignant evil that the Worm had brought and left behind, Falin’s mother trying to ‘frighten it away’ as if it were a crow, his father’s fever, Sinmiel – and he knew that he had to take action, that he could not remain behind waiting, waiting, waiting for the Worm