Ширли Мерфи - The Ivory Lyre

“Colewolf sleeps beside Starpounder,” Seastrider told him. “And Kiri and Marshy are curled together, there, between Windcaller’s forefeet. We are all here, Tebriel. Rest now, for soon we search for dragons—baby dragons.”

“Yes. And for Quazelzeg, on the dark continent.”

“Do you remember once, Tebriel, you told me of predictions that the white otter of Nightpool made, the night before you left there?”

“That I would ride the winds of Tirror. We’ve done that, all right. That I would . . . travel to mountains far to the north, and go among wonderful creatures there.”

“And what else?”

“That I would know pain. That there was a street in Sharden’s city narrow and mean, that there is danger there, and it reeks of pain. Thakkur had said, ‘Take care, Tebriel, when you journey into Sharden.”

“Sharden lies at the center of the dark continent, Tebriel. But I am with you now. We are all together now.”

He slept at last, restlessly, dreaming not of the dark continent but of baby dragons, of a cadre of dragons and bards so large and powerful it could drown the dark with its song. He woke at first light to see Kiri standing out on the edge of the cliff staring down at the sea. He went out to her. They stood watching as the four dragons fished far out over the waves, diving with folded wings, then leaping into the sky carrying shark that, this morning, they ate on the wing, their spirits too high even to come ashore. He saw the yearning in Kiri’s face, for a dragon to whom to belong.

“If there is another clutch of dragons,” he said, “your mate could be among them.”

“But how long will it take to find them? I won’t be with you, I won’t know . . .”

“Of course you’ll be with us.”

“But—”

“Do you think we’d leave a bard behind? Do you think your father would leave you?”

“It’s his job, to be where he’s needed.”

“Not without you, not anymore. It’s your job to be with us.”

She didn’t say anything. After a while he turned her chin to him and saw her tears. He wiped them from her cheeks. She looked at him, so deep into his eyes. Then she smiled. They turned together to stare out at the sea. The dragons were returning, sweeping so low to the water that their wind beat the sea into waves.

“We will need harness,” he said.

“There is soft leather among the supplies.” She licked a last tear from her upper lip and turned to race down the cliff.

He found Camery and they went down into the caves to prepare for their journey. He hated good-byes. He wished he would not soon have to say them, that there never had to be a good-bye.

Garit said, “We will move into the castle, Tebriel. We will open the windows and whitewash the walls, take down all that velvet. It can be our garrison, a meeting place for a new Dacian council, a fine stable for young riders, room enough for every child who cares to come. And a room for you, Tebriel, kept for your use alone.”

“Then I have two rooms of my own to come back to, for there is my cave at Nightpool. One day there’ll be a third, when we win back the Palace of Auric.”

“When you win back the Palace of Auric . . . I would like to be with you on that mission.”

“Then so you shall,” he said, and could imagine that palace whole again, clean, filled with color and sunlight, with his mother there and with dragons in Auric’s skies and on the meadows.

It took two days to make harness, sharpen weapons, and prepare themselves. On the morning of the third day they were ready, and all along the shore above Gardel-Cloor and in the city streets folk gathered, cheering as the dragons leaped skyward.

They banked on the wind. The shadows of their wings washed across upturned faces. The war in Dacia was finished, the un-men gone from this island continent. It was time to touch other shores where the dark still ruled. Seastrider climbed straight up with powerful wings. Teb touched the strings of the lyre. Its voice rang out alone, powerful and true. Nothing was impossible; all dreams could be made real if they strove fiercely enough. Seastrider lifted fast into cloud, and Teb saw Kiri and Marshy laughing up at him from between Windcaller’s pale wings. Then the two black dragons sped by him racing, Camery and Colewolf leaning flat to their necks.

High above cloud, the dragons settled to a steady pace and headed northwest toward the wide sea and unfamiliar lands, to search for new young dragons.

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About the Author

Shirley Rousseau Murphy grew up in southern California, riding and showing the horses her father trained. She attended the San Francisco Art institute and later worked as an interior designer while her husband attended USC. “When Pat finished school, I promptly quit my job and began to exhibit paintings and welded metal sculpture in the West Coast juried shows.” Her work could also be seen in many traveling shows in the western States and Mexico. “When we moved to Panama for a four-year tour in Pat’s position with the U.S. Courts, I put away the paints and welding torches, and began to write.” After leaving Panama they lived in Oregon, Atlanta, and northern Georgia before returning to California, where they now live by the sea.

Besides the Dragonbards Trilogy, Murphy wrote sixteen children's books and a young adult fantasy quintet before turning to adult fantasy with The Catsworld Portal and the Joe Grey cat mystery series, which so far includes sixteen novels and for which she is now best known. She is the winner of five Dixie Council of Authors and Journalists Author of the Year awards—two of them for Nightpool and The Ivory Lyre —plus eight Muse Medallion awards from the national Cat Writers Association.

Dragonbards Trilogy, Book 1: Nightpoo l

Dragonbards Trilogy, Book 1. As dark raiders invade the world of Tirror, a singing dragon awakens from her long slumber, searching for the human who can vanquish the forces of evil—Tebriel, son of the murdered king. Teb has found refuge in Nightpool, a colony of talking otters. But a creature of the Dark is also seeking him, and the battle to which he is drawn will decide Tirror’s future.

Dragonbards Trilogy, Book 3: The Dragonbards

Dragonbards Trilogy, Book 3. Only the dragonbards and their singing dragons have the power to unite the people and animals of Tirror into an army that can break the Dark’s hypnotic hold over the world. Before their leader Tebriel can challenge the hordes gathering for the final battle, he must confront the dark lord Quazelzeg face to face in the Castle of Doors, a warp of time and space.

The Shattered Stone

An omnibus containing the first two books of the five originally published as the Children of Ynell series. In most regions of Ere to be a Seer, gifted with telepathic and visionary powers, means death—or does it? For some it may mean an even worse fate: destruction of their minds and enslavement by the dark powers determined to conquer the world. In Ring of Fire , Zephy and the goatherd Thorn are dismayed to discover that they themselves are Seers, but once they know, they are driven to escape from the repressive city of their birth and rescue others, many of them children, who have been captured and imprisoned by its attackers. Only the discovery of one shard of a mysterious runestone offers hope that they can succeed. In The Wolf Bell , set in an earlier time, the child Seer Ramad seeks the runestone itself with the aid of an ancient bell that enables him to control and communicate with the thinking wolves of the mountains, who become his friends. But will they be a match for his enemies, the evil Seers of Pelli, who are determined to control Ramad’s mind and through him, to obtain the stone for their own dark purpose?