Caught in Crystal: A Lyra Novel (43 page)

“We’ll do it together,” Glyndon promised. “After fifteen years of wandering, I don’t think I could settle permanently on Varna even if I wanted to. It’ll be nice to go home, though. Now, answer the question: Will you marry me?”

“If I don’t want to set a bad example for the children, I’m going to have to.” Kayl tried to make her tone serious, but she could not keep a straight face. Her mouth insisted in stretching out into what felt like a remarkably foolish grin.

Glyndon laughed and started to kiss her again. He was interrupted by a muffled cheer from a nearby clump of bushes. Startled, he and Kayl looked at each other; then Kayl shook her head and stepped away from him. “We heard that,” she called in the sternest voice she could manage. “So come out here, right now.”

With a series of rustling noises, punctuated by crashes, the eavesdroppers made their appearance: first Mark, then Dara, then Xaya. Mark looked somewhat downcast but pleased; Dara and Xaya were trying hard to appear properly repentant in spite of their excitement. “I thought I’d taught you better than to listen to other people’s conversations,” Kayl said, but she was too happy to put her heart into the scolding.

“Well, but it was important to us, too,” Dara said. “And oh, Mother, I’m glad!”

“So am I,” Glyndon confided.

“Don’t encourage them, Glyndon,” Kayl warned. He gave her a smile that made her head swim, and she forced herself to look back at the children. “Whose idea was this, anyway?”

“Mine,” three voices said promptly.

Kayl rolled her eyes. “All right, then, back to camp with the three of you. I’ll figure out what to do with you later. Go on!”

The children went. As they disappeared among the trees, a breath of wind brought Dara’s satisfied voice back to Kayl and Glyndon: “I
told
you she was going to marry him. She just takes a long time to
say
so, that’s all.”

“Huh,” was Mark’s comment, and the children were gone.

Glyndon looked at Kayl, his eyes dancing. “I can see that being a stepfather is going to be an enlightening experience. I wonder if I ought to ask Dara what you really think, the next time I’m not sure?”

“You do and I’ll put salt in your ale for a week,” Kayl threatened.

“Your wish is my command,” Glyndon replied. He reached for her with his good arm. “Now, where were we?”

For more than twenty years, Patricia Collins Wrede (b. 1953) has expanded the boundaries of fantasy writing. Born in Chicago to a large, literary family, Wrede spent her childhood immersed in the Chronicles of Narnia, classic fairy tales, and L. Frank Baum’s Land of Oz—a foundation in imagined worlds that paved the way for her future career.

After receiving a degree in biology from Carleton College in 1974, Wrede completed an MBA at the University of Minnesota, and began working as a financial analyst in the late 1970s. In her spare time, Wrede wrote fantasy stories in the vein of the classic novels she read as a child. Her love of fantasy even fueled an interest in tabletop role-playing games: Lyra, the first gaming world that Wrede invented, was based on the unpublished work-in-progress that would become
Shadow
Magic. In 1980 she became a founding member of a group of Minneapolis-based, fantasy-fiction authors known as the Interstate Writers’ Workshop, or Scribblies, with whom she later worked on the critically acclaimed Liavek shared-world anthology series.

That same year, Wrede sold her first novel,
Shadow Magic
, which was published in 1982. It was the public debut of Lyra, a magical world shared by four races whose cultural differences see them constantly at odds. Wrede used Lyra as the setting for four more novels:
Daughter of Witches
(1984),
The Harp of Imach Thyssel
(1985),
Caught in Crystal
(1987), and
The Raven Ring
(1994). Wrede’s strong prose, sense of humor, and powerful female leads drew special attention to her early novels. Her quick success allowed her to begin writing fulltime.

Though the Lyra novels found popularity with audiences of all ages, Wrede aims her more recent work at young-adult readers, beginning with her four-book Enchanted Forest Chronicles, which follow the adventures of a young princess who becomes apprenticed to a dragon. Her other fantasy series include the Cecelia and Kate novels, cowritten with Caroline Stevermer and set in Regency England; the Mairelon books, which also take place in Regency England; and the Frontier Magic trilogy, based on Old West pioneers.

Wrede lives and works in Minnesota.