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She sled a little, and Abhorsen felt a s, he turned, and began the long wade back up the river, to the gate that would return the flesh
The baby wailed a scant second before Abhorsen opened his eyes, so that thefire, ready to pick her up Frost crackled on the ground and icicles hung from Abhorsen’s nose He wiped them off with a sleeve and leaned over the child, much as any anxious father does after a birth
“How is the babe?” he asked, and the ly, for the dead child was now loudly alive and as deathly white as he
“As you hear, lord,” she answered “She is very well It is perhaps a little cold for her—”
He gestured at the fire and spoke a word, and it roared into life, the frostinto steam
“That will do till ,” said Abhorsen “Then I shall take her to my house I shall have need of a nurse Will you come?”
The e, who still lingered on the far side of the fire He refused to irl bawling in her arms
“You areyou are” whispered the midwife
“A necromancer?” said Abhorsen “Only of a sort I loved the woman who lies here She would have lived if she had loved another, but she did not Sabriel is our child Can you not see the kinship?”
The midwife looked at hi her on his chest The baby quietened and, in a few seconds, was asleep
“Yes,” said the midwife “I shall come with you, and look after Sabriel But you must find a wet-nurse”
“And I daresay much else besides,” mused Abhorsen “But my house is not a place for—”
The Charter Mage cleared his throat, and moved around the fire
“If you seek a man who knows a little of the Charter,” he said hesitantly, “I should wish to serve, for I have seen its work in you, lord, though I am loath to leave my felloanderers”
“Perhaps you will not have to,” replied Abhorsen, sht “I wonder if your leader will object to ther band For dom that has not felt the imprint of my feet”
“Your work?” asked the er cold
“Yes,” said Abhorsen “I am a necromancer, but not of the common kind Where others of the art raise the dead, I lay them back to rest And those that will not rest, I bind—or try to I am Abhorsen”
He looked at the baby again, and added, almost with a note of surprise, “Father of Sabriel”
chapter i
The rabbit had been run over lazed and blood stained its clean white fur Unnaturally clean fur, for it had just escaped from a bath It still smelt faintly of lavender water
A tall, curiously pale young woht-black hair, fashionably bobbed, was hanging slightly over her face She wore no e pinned to her regulation navy blazer That, coupled with her long skirt, stockings and sensible shoes, identified her as a schoolgirl A nae read “Sabriel” and the Roilt crown proclaimed her to be both a member of the Sixth Form and a prefect
The rabbit was, unquestionably, dead Sabriel looked up fro the bricked drive that left the road and curved up to an iate, in gilt letters of ates to Wyverley College Smaller letters added that the school was “Established in 1652 for Young Ladies of Quality”
A s the spikes that were supposed to stop such activities She dropped the last few feet and started running, her pigtails flying, shoes clacking on the bricks Her head was down to gainspeed was established, she looked up, saw Sabriel and the dead rabbit, and screamed
“Bunny!”
Sabriel flinched as the girl screamed, hesitated for a moment, then bent down by the rabbit’s side and reached out with one pale hand to touch it between its long ears Her eyes closed and her face set as if she had suddenly turned to stone A faint whistling sound cahtly parted lips, like the wind heard froertips and rimed the asphalt beneath her feet and knees
The other girl, running, saw her suddenly tip forward over the rabbit, and topple towards the road, but at the last ht herself A second later, she had regained her balance and was using both hands to restrain the rabbit—a rabbit now inexplicably lively again, its eyes bright and shiny, as eager to be off as when it escaped from its bath
“Bunny!” shrieked the younger girl again, as Sabriel stood up, holding the rabbit by the scruff of its neck “Oh, thank you, Sabriel! When I heard the car skidding I thought”
She faltered as Sabriel handed the rabbit over and blood stained her expectant hands
“He’ll be fine, Jacinth,” Sabriel
replied wearily “A scratch It’s already closed up”
Jacinth exainnings of a wriggling fear showing at the back of her eyes
“There isn’t anything under the blood,” stammered Jacinth “What did you”
“I didn’t,” snapped Sabriel “But perhaps you can tellout of bounds?”
“Chasing Bunny,” replied Jacinth, her eyes clearing as life reverted to a more normal situation “You see”
“No excuses,” recited Sabriel “Remember what Mrs Umbrade said at Assembly on Monday”
“It’s not an excuse,” insisted Jacinth “It’s a reason”
“You can explain it to Mrs Umbrade then”
“Oh, Sabriel! You wouldn’t! You knoas only chasing Bunny I’d never have come out—”
Sabriel held up her hands in ates
“If you’re back inside within three ate this tio back inside”
Jacinth s, whirled around and sped back up the drive, Bunny clutched against her neck Sabriel watched till she had gone through the gate, then let the tre with cold A moment of weakness and she had broken the promise she had made both to herself and her father It was only a rabbit and Jacinth did love it so reat step fro back a person
Worse, it had been so easy She had caught the spirit right at the wellspring of the river, and had returned it with barely a gesture of power, patching the body with simple Charter symbols as they stepped from death to life She hadn’t even needed bells, or the other apparatus of a necromancer Only a whistle and her will
Death and what careat mystery to Sabriel She just wished it was
It was Sabriel’s last terraduated already, colish, equal first in Music, third in Mathe Arts and fourth in Etiquette She had also been a runaway first in Magic, but that wasn’t printed on the certificate Magic only worked in those regions of Ancelstierre close to the Wall which dom Farther away, it was considered to be quite beyond the pale, if it existed at all, and persons of repute did not e was only forty ht Magic to those students who could obtain special permission from their parents