He knows they're going the right way when a faint, sweet-smelling breeze drifts through the branches by his head – a breeze that smells like spring and almost sounds like a voice whispering in the fall-bared trees. He urges Kiseki to go a little faster, and the gelding complies, as anxious as his rider to find his mistress.
When they reach the edge of the garden, he thinks for a shocked, horrified moment that he must have been wrong after all, because he can't see her anywhere. Caspian dismounts and leaves Kiseki to graze in the spring-sweet grass, then ventures into the garden.
It's a few moments more before his attention is caught by the slowly waving arms of the birch-woman. She's moving sleepily, but there's determination in her beckoning branches. As he comes nearer, he sees a small form huddled near her roots and hears the birch-woman's gentle voice. There, there, little sapling. No need to water the ground so. You are not alone.
He stops a few paces away, the sound of Susan's sobs tearing at his heart, then comes close and sinks to his knees near her, his hands gentle on her shoulders. "Oh, Su."
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When they reach the edge of the garden, he thinks for a shocked, horrified moment that he must have been wrong after all, because he can't see her anywhere. Caspian dismounts and leaves Kiseki to graze in the spring-sweet grass, then ventures into the garden.
It's a few moments more before his attention is caught by the slowly waving arms of the birch-woman. She's moving sleepily, but there's determination in her beckoning branches. As he comes nearer, he sees a small form huddled near her roots and hears the birch-woman's gentle voice. There, there, little sapling. No need to water the ground so. You are not alone.
He stops a few paces away, the sound of Susan's sobs tearing at his heart, then comes close and sinks to his knees near her, his hands gentle on her shoulders. "Oh, Su."