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rainstardragon
Book one (Castle and Well) of Selkies' Skins is available in entirety in ebook format as of March 16th, beginning at Smashwords. The print edition is now available on Amazon and Lulu with Samantha Buckley's stunning cover depicting Kirsty and the storm. An audio edition of the first book in the series narrated by Illya Leonov and now available on Amazon, iTunes, and Audible, with other venues pending. He has finished "Book of Seals: Pearls of Sea and Stone" which accompanies and precedes Selkies' Skins: Castle and Well which will be available in full audiobook format soon. (click to hear what he sounds like in past recordings of other projects)
We return to Kirsty and to how she is doing with the effects of time shuttling.
My apologies for the slight delay. This was not quite ready before I had to go do the month's monthly grocery shopping.
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Selkies' Skins 2
Section 2: Temple's LightInstallment 24Chapter 10 part 3
Tangled Fur
Section 2: Temple's Light
Tangled Fur
David stayed by Kirsty as long as he was allowed, as did Thomas and Ally. They would have happily taken dinner by Kirsty, but they did not get that far before first Thomas’ extra classes called them away, then Ally’s extra studies. Laryna shooed the teens on their way with promises to send word as soon as some marked change happened. David, as Laryna expected, was the most difficult to nudge along, and she’d caught him holding Kirsty’s hand more than once when he thought no one was watching. Professor MacLeomhann often sent her office messenger to check through the paintings.
Laryna leaned thoughtfully against the cabinet holding all of the tools of her trade, watching the girl’s sleep and trying to sense what was wrong from far back enough the defenses would not turn her away. She wasn’t certain what constantly came between her and the teen’s spirit, but it was very effective at cloaking whatever injury she still nursed.
All the former nun could come up with was that it was a wound of mind and soul. She knew there was something she could do, but not what, and the information might have been known to her if she had not been pulled away from her Order and time.
“If only I could speak to Father Roanan. He always had answers.” Laryna thought aloud, hoping that if she spoke the name, his ghost might somehow speak.
As always, her hopes didn’t fruit. Instead they withered. Laryna paced the walkway between the beds, pulling up from her belt the pearls and stones of the rosary normally hidden in her folds. One by one they passed through her hands.
“Our Lady of the shifting seas
Hear the notes of my pleas
Grant your children what we seek
Be we brave or be we weak
Lift your waves upon the shore
Take the danger from our shore.”
Over and over the rhyme repeated, until at last she found herself seated on the chair at the foot of Kirsty’s bed, the last prayer fading on the last stone.
“What’ll it be girl? What do you need?” Laryna, still holding the rosary, reached out and rested her hand on the teen’s ankle. “I have to have been placed here for some reason, after all this time and how much trouble you’ve had here ever since coming, is it to help you? If so why?”
Kirsty didn’t stir, but the nun did feel something else stirring, felt the turning of unseen eyes toward her. Laryna knew the feeling, waited, held her breath, listened.
“Guide me. I still belong.” Laryna’s eyes closed. Her inner eyes opened and a roughened hand that she didn’t know turned her head. Kirsty’s spirit lay where the body did, larger than it and glowing weakly, pulsing slowly. Battered and bruised, something seemed to have been tearing at the essence. Strings extended in all directions.
Laryna reached out. The strings reached for her rosary.
“Where is the rest of you then child?”
The strings latched on, wrapped around the beads. Color returned to the face behind the light.
“She needs to hurry.” The voice by Laryna’s ear was not the voice of the goddess she served. It wasn’t even female. “I said it wasn’t a good idea.” Another voice, by her other ear, piped. “There’s not really anything you can do, Healer,” hissed a third. “It’s all up to her, and not getting lost, or not pulling herself apart fixing herself.”
“What do I do then?” She asked.
“Nothing, unless you know where to find a selkie skin for her to borrow for now. Even part of one might help her feel whole until later.” That last voice hissed, smug, snakelike.
The voices left, but there will still eyes. “Hm... I might. I doubt that’s been checked out.” Laryna opened her eyes, looked over the now comfortably sleeping teen. Something was happening, wherever the rest of her was, but at least what was here before her was as comfortable and stable as it could be. “Rest while I go look for it.”
Laryna left the Healer’s Hall, took a deep breath to steady herself as she navigated her way to the library, holding back the memories of when she had brought part Father Ronan’s remains. “I’m not fully ready to see that again though.”
[Unsure if I will include that adventure in this book or if it will be part of Book 3 since it’s a David/Thomas and may touch on the Black Gate’s story. This is a chance for readers to sound off on helping shape the way the tales unfold. Comment below (so I can keep track) which you think is best. 1) Save their exploration and any discovery for in #3. 2) Include their adventure in the current book, #2. 3) In both, having one in truncated form and the other the full form. 4) Another option, reader suggestion.]
Thank you for reading along with the webnovel version of this book. This has gone up on the Web Fiction Guide, so reviews of the current story developing are welcome, as are votes.
