We slept very well in the hay-loft, close together under the rough blankets. When we woke up our seal was still there! We said our prayers and repaired the holes in our heads — I still couldn’t see what Vurian did but I could see that it worked. “If I’m…

After a couple of days I felt better. At least I didn’t feel sick all the time any more, only when there was a bit more wind than at other times, and when I ate anything and forgot to look at the sea for a while afterwards. Rhinla was high…

After all the hard work we put ashore and made a small fire and sat there eating some more of the pancakes. Not all, so we’d have some left for breakfast, but a lot, because we were all very hungry. Rhinla thought of making fireworks! She took a willow-twig, lit…

We set out on the reed boat as soon as everything was ready. Rhinla had made a special thick piece of boat to hide the purse full of money in! We put Vurian between us and taught him to paddle, but he was too tired to paddle so we wedged…

I slept through most of the feast! But Rhinla (and everybody else) told me I’d been almost dead after I fell off the horse. Or perhaps I fell off the horse because I was almost dead. Someone had hit me inside of my head! I think I woke up a…

We went to Master Jeran’s house to ask him if he’d be lonely on the feast. He was painting something with the blue paint we’d helped him make from the blue stone! “That’s pretty,” I said, and we said some more things like that (“you have to do a lot…

We’ve already been in Turenay for weeks! And I know all my letters now and can write words with them, and even Rhinla knows all her letters because they’re all birds for her. I like her letter-bird drawings! And I’m learning to do sums and to fight with a stick.…

Lesla doesn’t have such an urge to draw but she does want to learn to read All The Books! Rhinla had made such a nice painting of the white dog! It wasn’t really a painting of the white dog, but of everything around the white dog, and its eyes and…

The boss woman gave us a piece of paper each and said that we’d be able to swap those for food in the palace yard, so we went where a lot of other people were going and coming back with food. And yes, we got a bowl of beans and…

We got bored when we weren’t allowed to do anything! So we went to the thankful man and Rhinla asked him for paper and ink to draw and I asked him for a slate and a stick to write on so I could practice letters and numbers. We got a…