Artwork by Eleanor Ansell

The Wishing Map is a full-length fantasy that is being posted episodically at this site. To read the previous episode, click here. To read the entire novel, begin here.

Waking up alone (and with a hangover) at the Inn in Kellansend, Gina learned that her brother Zack was missing. She could only conclude that the fisher folk Maerith and Shelcor had taken him.

The moment they arrived, Gina demanded to know where Zack was.

“We’ve not taken your lee brother,” Shelcor vowed.

“Well, if you didn’t, who did?” said Gina.

Maerith put an arm around her.

Shelcor said, “I’ve a notion, but nay way ter know certain without a long journey inland ter prove it, a journey I cannot take.”

“But why? If you know where he is, why can’t you—?”

“Yer’ve nay understanding of our ways,” Maerith replied.

“I can pay you!” said Gina, her pitch rising with her sense of dread. “I don’t have any money now, but I can get it, I swear!”

“We’d ne’er take your bimmies, chelding,” Shelcor told her. “But it’s a full night’s journey ter Naimian and I cannot—”

“I can,” said Maerith.

“Nay, yer shall not!”

“Yer know I can.” Maerith took her husband’s hand in hers. “And yer know I must.”

Then Shelcor did something odd: he tenderly stroked his wife’s tummy.

“Holy…! You’re pregnant!” said Gina.

Maerith smiled. “It’s early on. I can still travel afoot.”

“But the change!” Shelcor insisted.

“’Twill not hurt me, I think. I once knew the Rainbowwood Forest as well as I now know the sea. I’m the one as should take her.” She caressed her husband’s cheek. “Your yet-born pup an’ I will return safe, my heart. Traith.”

“What change?” asked Gina.

They left half an hour later with two roughspun sacks and a fishskin bottle. It was early in the time of Wisdom, Ismara’s counterpart to winter. As they walked, Gina pulled her arms inside the sleeves of the hooded woolen cloak the innkeeper’s daughter had given her; it was too large for her, and she was grateful for that.

They were at the outskirts of cozy cobbled Kellansend within minutes. Gina took a long last look at the snug little town, and wondered if she’d ever see it again. Still, she had no choice: she had to find her brother—and the Revealer. She moved closer to Maerith, who was carrying a lantern shaped like a Kellansendish door-lamp. The woods quickly swallowed its coppery light. A rumble of fear ran through her. Portent of full-blown panic to come?

“So, um, were you born into a fisher family?” Gina asked. Fill the darkness with your voice! Make yourself forget that your brother is lost and that you’re walking in the woods a trillion miles from home!

“Nay. I was born on a flax farm near Skullybracken.”

“So, then, how did you and Shelcor meet?”

Maerith smiled. Joy and sorrow intermingled as she told her story…

One Gina would never forget.

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Thoughts: While danger and uncertainty can’t always be avoided, stories can provide the mettle to face them.

To read the next episode, click here.