Read Online Between the Sea and Sky by Jaclyn Dolamore - Free Book Online

ships, but she was too young to go there, and books had no value as salvage. She thought he was using it as a shield against the sun, but she could see him turning the pages and wondered what they were.
    It wasn’t long before she gathered the courage to approach him. She didn’t change her tail into legs. She was just shy of her ninth birthday and far from adept at walking. She crawled forward in the sand and he looked up and asked who she was.
    The very first thing she asked, after they had exchanged names, was what he was holding, and the very first thing he had done was to explain to her about books and writing. He told her that even her name could be written down, and he wrote it in the sand with a stick. After he was gone, she tried to copy it over and over, mesmerized by the idea that a vast story could be quietly contained, permanent and unchanging. Alan had read some of the book to her, so she knew the story in the book could be told aloud, just like her grandmother’s stories, but it could also be a private story, read quietly to oneself. Esmerine had private stories in her head sometimes, but if she forgot them before a night of songs and theatricals, or if there was no time that night for her story, it was gone forever.
    “Is this real?” she asked the older man now, pointing at a picture of odd spotted beasts.
    “Those are giraffes. Yes. They’re real. We don’t have them in Sormesen, of course. I believe there is one in the menagerie in Torna.”
    Esmerine nodded, satisfied enough that such funny creatures truly existed.
    The door opened again. For a moment, she saw wings and a hat and thought Alan had returned, but the man was silver haired, wearing spectacles and a collar stiff enough to touch his cheeks. A woman came just behind him, in a fine cape pinned with a jeweled brooch, probably to cover the shirt and britches that humans would undoubtedly consider immodest.
    “Where is Alan?” the man demanded.
    “He’ll be back at half past,” Esmerine said. For people with regular access to books, everyone in Sormesen certainly had trouble reading.
    “Well, where is he? Don’t tell me he’s off gallivanting in coffee shops now?”
    “Uh—”
    “Who are you? A relative of Belawyn’s?”
    “Um—”
    “Why are you here?”
    Esmerine had an instinctive sense that it wouldn’t be wise to tell the truth. “I’m just an acquaintance passing through, minding the shop for a moment.”
    “Well, I don’t have time to dither around and wait for him. I’ve got appointments to keep. Tell him I was here and I’ll certainly be back.”
    “It isn’t long until half past,” the woman said.
    “Long enough! No, I’ve got better things to do. Anyway, when he learns I was here he’ll know what I want to talk about and will have time enough to mull it over, or better yet, come straight home.”
    The winged boy from the square walked in then, his wings folded around the Hauzdeen pamphlets, but he looked like he wanted to step right back out when he saw the older couple.
    “Say, boy, have you seen Alander?”
    “I have a name,” the boy said, moving past him and dumping the pamphlets on the counter.
    “Oh, Swift? Some sort of carnival name? It’s rather shameful.” As the man spoke, the woman sucked air through her teeth like she wished he would quiet down.
    “Well, it’s the only name I’ve got,” Swift said, now stacking the pamphlets, more as a distraction than anything, it seemed. “And I haven’t seen Alander, but I assume he’ll be back at half past .”
    “The manners of an urchin,” the winged man muttered, heading for the door. He looked at Esmerine one last time. “You’ll tell him I was here?”
    “I will.”
    The man and woman left. Esmerine glanced at Swift, but he was already asking the other man if he needed anything. Swift took the man’s money for the history book and made a note in the accounts. “Good day, sir,” he said, back to his cheerful salesboy