Excerpt from Songs of Healing
Uh, huh. And Stralton was renowned for his circumspection and restraint. “What did you want to talk to me about?”
“Show you, rather. Come this way.” He took my arm and pulled me gently but irresistibly through one of the arches into a courtyard even lusher with foliage than the circular room.
I didn’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t this—a giant silver-barked tree with silver-green leaves and fist-sized golden fruit on every bough. The fruit hummed. “What is—”
Stralton pressed a finger against my lips and breathed, “Hush.”
A low fruit in front of me vibrated, its hum higher pitched than the others. It began to quake, and then, with a ring like a clear small bell, it burst open, and from it flew a rainbow-winged, sparkly, bird-like creature.
It flew directly at me. I stepped back, startled, into Stralton, who steadied me gently, causing tingles to go up and down my arms. In my confusion, I lost sight of the bird creature, but another fruit was vibrating. Soon, it too released a rainbow-winged bird. A third fruit vibrated.
The birds zipped off into the sky, over my head. I turned, to watch them alight on the wall behind me. There they sat, gently waving their wings like butterflies. The effect was of light sifted through a hundred prisms onto some bejeweled surface.
I stood, stunned.
“Breathe, darling,” Stralton murmured after a while, and I did, letting my pent-up breath out slowly, so as not to frighten them. I didn’t know how long I stood there transfixed, listening to the ring and hum of the births and watching the celestial quilt pattern of the creatures’ wings on the wall.
At some point, Stralton took hold of my arm again. I was afraid he would take me back inside or begin to talk, but he turned me back toward the tree to watch the equally absorbing explosions of the golden fruit. He did not take his hand away after turning me.
He turned me twice more before the chime of birth grew less and less frequent. At last, there were no more rings, only a soft hum, which I thought came from the birds’ wings.
Motioning me to be quiet, Stralton stepped softly to the tree and plucked one of the now open fruit. He gave it to me.
It hung together at the stem, but otherwise split and twisted in beautiful curves like a flower. The outside was gold, but the inside pearly. It felt cool in my hand, though the day was now warm. “Come inside,” Stralton murmured in my ear. “They should rest.”
Songs of Healing comes out October 22, 2020. If you’d like an advanced review copy, contact R.L.S. Hoff directly at rlshoff@pencilprincessworkshop.com. Or order the book here: