only one who can see it, I would ask what that might mean.”
Airy thought about that for a moment. “That sounds easy enough.”
Maeve bent to kiss her. “Try and sleep. It won’t do any good to lie here and fret.”
Airy sighed and snuggled under the covers but her mind was going in many different directions. She’d heard about these supposed powers she might be ‘coming into’ for several years, but what this would mean was mystifying. Her mother could heal with her hands and see into the future as well as move through the ether. What would her special gifts be? What if she didn’t have any? But then she thought of the island that only she could see…
***
When the crane goddess arrived early the next morning Airy was waiting in the living room sipping her morning cup of tea. She jumped up to open the door and then reached to give her a hug.
“I hear you’ve been worried about an island?” Corra asked, following Airy into the house.
“I’m the only one who can see it and I don’t understand why!”
The crane goddess shook out her feathery dress and perched on an upholstered chair. “This island is connected to your future, Airy.” Corra paused, her head cocked to the side, her round orange eyes blinking as she stared into the distance. “There is someone there, a young man, whose future is connected with yours. You share a common destiny.”
“What is the destiny?” Airy asked, feeling nervous.
“The two of you are to be a bridge between two worlds.”
“A bridge? What does that mean?”
Corra shook her head. “I cannot see anything beyond what I’ve told you. You will have to discover this on your own. I must be going,” she said, rising.
“But you just got here and I have questions!”
Corra turned from the open door. “There is nothing more to say. You will find the answers soon enough.” A second later her body began to shrink, her legs turning into spindly crane legs, her feathery dress smoothing into feathered gray wings and tail. By the time Airy reached the porch she had already lifted into the air.
Airy was waving when Maeve appeared from within the house, her surprised gaze following the crane into the sky. “I didn’t get a chance to say hello.”
Airy stared through her mother, her mind on what Corra had told her.
“Airy? What’s wrong? What did Corra say?”
“I have a destiny, Mother. I’m not completely useless after all.”
“Who ever said you were useless?” Maeve placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Any other details about this destiny?”
“Only that I’m linked to someone on that island. Corra thinks it’s a boy—something about us being a bridge for two worlds?”
“A bridge,” Maeve whispered, staring into the distance.
“Do you understand? Because I don’t.”
“No, sweetheart. I don’t know any more than what you just told me.”
But the expression on her mother’s face said something very different.
3
Fell, 2468
After Wolf had gone, Fehin wandered aimlessly through the forest. His brother’s abrupt appearance had shaken him. Far Isle had gone through a terrible time due to Wolf and his evil. Wolf had challenged all the deities with his insatiable need to be in control and thousands had died at his half-brother’s hand. No wonder Loki had ordered his punishment.
When he felt a presence behind him he turned, his gaze meeting the green-gold eyes of the dragon. Aki seemed restless. “Are you trying to tell me it’s time to go?” Fehin grabbed hold of the bony protuberance on the dragon’s back and pulled himself up. But when the dragon took off it was not in the direction of Thule.
When they landed in the bailey of Loki’s castle Fehin wasn’t surprised. Aki’s parents and sister lived here. His glance toward the entrance to the castle revealed a scowling bigger than life god heading quickly toward him. Meanwhile Aki had disappeared and there was the sound of dragons bellowing in the distance.
“Are you aware that Wolf has escaped?” Loki shouted. It took him another long stride to reach Fehin and then he was glowering down on him.
Fehin had lived here with this god from the time he was two until nearly seven years old and was not cowed by the bulging eyes and the wiry red hair that stood away from his head like angry tangled snakes. “I just ran into him in Fell.”
Loki let out a sound between a grunt and a roar. “That exile was supposed to be permanent.”