Between Leeli, Janner, and the storm, there’s so much going on in this section. The storm sets my heart thrumming with an old, jubilant song that I love.
Leeli had no song in mind. She reached deep into her soul, the music flowering from the rich soil of a hundred tunes she had sung or played over the years. The bouquet she gathered was simple and warm, glimmering with all the hope her love had planted.
Janner stood behind her with his eyes closed, abandoning all his resentment toward the Maker and praying boldly for the song to speed over the hills to the Field of Finley.
The storm was dark but not malevolent, a joyful blast of thunder and rain, wind and wildness. It scoured the town of every mote of Fang dust, every loose shingle, every fragment of waste. It lifted Leeli’s song like a pebble and sent it skipping across the rolling, spring-green hills and hollows—but the storm also seemed to hammer the song into the ground, where Janner sensed it pulsing eastward, flowing like an underground river.
Janner shut his eyes and struggled to keep his footing as his Durgan cape whipped around him and Leeli both, snapping like a flag in the gale as Leeli gave herself over to the magic of the music, heedless of the stinging rain and crashing thunder.
—From chapter 82, “The Battle Begins.”
What did you love best from your reading this week? Post it in the comments! And then come hang out with us in the forum. Today we have hot berry cider and pie. It’s going to be a party. 🙂
Speaking of parties, here are three things of note:
- The paperback Warden and the Wolf King is finally available for preorder!
- The Rabbit Room is having a huge sale on everything Wingfeather this weekend—and this is your last chance to snatch up a Creaturepedia or a signed hardcover WATWK! There are lots of other great things on sale, too, including Andrew’s music and his brother’s pirate books.
- The epic giveaway over at Into the Book ends tonight at midnight (central time)!
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I’m so grateful to be your librarian and to get to know you. 🙂 See you Monday!
I’m trying to choose carefully because there are SO many spoilers in here. But I love this section, because although Kal has been susceptible to making bad choices based on discouragement and hopelessness before, in this section he is the one standing firm. From Chapter 78- Gnag’s Plan.
Janner leaned his forehead against the door and sniffled. The Maker. Once again, he had failed them. “I thought the Maker would help us, too,” he said quietly. “But it looks like we’re on our own. If he’s real, he doesn’t care.”
“Don’t say that,” Kalmar said.
Janner looked up. “Why not?”
“Because we’re alive. And we’re together. We don’t know for sure what’s happened to Ban Rona, or to Mama and Grandpa. Maybe- maybe there’s still reason to hope.”
“Maybe there’s not.”
“But maybe there IS,” Kalmar said.