Blogpost 6 The Riddle

The Riddle
Alison Croggon
Fantasy
59 pages 481/481

Report Section
Maerad has managed to sneak out of the Winterking's castle but the biggest obstetrical it yet to come. She has to pass a high iron arch placed between the two mountains. It radiates the power of the Winterking and it is obvious that she cannot pass. she sits there for a while panicking until the same strange white wolf appears on the side of on mountain. And in the speech it tells her to become a wolf. Maerad does not understand what the wolf means, it tells her that the Winterking cannot recognize her if she was a free wolf and that she could easily pass ass a wolf. It takes a while but soon Maerad looks deep inside of her until she has become completely blank of what she is, then she imagines a wolf. First she is chocked with the pain that left as fast as it came and then suddenly she is overwhelmed by all the new scenes. Maerad easily passes through the arch and in moments she finds herself running though the vast snow covered landscape with the strange white wolf. Maerad somehow gets the feeling that she knows that the white wolf is her Elemental ancestor. They run very far as the Winterking finds out and summons a huge storm. They reach a forest but they are not safe yet, the storm breaks down trees and Stormdogs howl from everywhere. The white wolf leads Maerad through a hole in the hill, they emerge into a big cave where a pack of wolves are resting. The white wolf tells that these wolves will help her to the Osidh Elanor mountain pass. Maerad is happy to travel with the pack, she is finally free and not all alone anymore, though this was not the whole pack. The pack had only brought it's strongest wolves to help Maerad because she is the One. After five days of constant travel they reach the Osidh Elanor pass, Maerad is forced to part with the wolf pack because it is dangerous for wolves to travel in Annar and they had already traveled far enough from the other part of the pack. Maerad travels through the mountain pass feeling empty and alone again, already missing the presence of the other wolves. As she exits the mountains she plans on traveling through Annar to find her brother Hem in Turbansk. She finds herself in a landscape that is strangely familiar to her. As she continues to travel abandoned houses and ruins start to come up more and more often and soon Maerad realizes that she must be in the moors near Pellinor (the school shes from that was destroyed when she was really young). She quickens her pace as she is scared yet eager to see the ruins of The School of Pellinor where she was born. She soon approaches it, though everything is in ruins, overgrown with vegetation and everything was crumbling.  She wanders through the ruins of the school as she suddenly scents the smell of meat. She sneaks around the corner to see a man in a cloak sitting by a fire with his horse his hood over his face so she could not see who it was. Maerad watches the man for a while until he notices her, as he turns around Maerad sees that it is Cadvan. Somehow he survived the mountain slide and was here. Though he cannot recognize her since she was in a wolf form. She transforms back into a human and they both greet each other happily and Maerad starts to cry. They tell about what happened to each other after they split up and they make up their minds about what they are going to do next. They plan to find Hem which means they have to travel to Turbansk. That night Maerad has a strange dream about being in a beautiful garden full of apple trees that where blossoming beautiful flowers, there was a big house with beautiful carvings. She knows that this house used to be her house in Pellinor. She rushes inside looking in every room on the first floor... but there was no one there... she gets stressed and looks upstairs for something that she in not quiet sure what it is. With tears in her eyes she rushes outside to find her brother Hem sitting under one of the apple trees eating an apple... at ths=is moment Maerad knows he is home. 

Response Section

What do you think about what you have read?

I really like what I have read because it is (sadly) the end of the book but it does not end properly, it leaves an opening for the third book which I have and I am really exited to read.
Has your recent reading fulfilled your expectations?

Yes, in these last chapters Cadvan has finally come back revealing that he was not dead just as i predicted.
What do you expect for your continued reading?

I expect tat in the next book they will have too take the other half of the Tree Song from the Nameless One and that they will find Hem somehow.
How satisfied are you with what you have read?

Well I did not read a lot since I was so close to the ed of the book but I am happy that I finished the book in time.

Passage Section
"And then she saw Hem among the apple trees, a half-eaten apple in is hand. He waved and started running towards her, his face radiant with joy. He was coming home" (481p Croggon)  

This was the last sentence of the book and it was special because I wonder what Maerad mean with "coming home" when they have no home. I fear that she might mean that he is dead or will die as she has had many signs of that before.