Mara Quell

Written for the Saltreach hall's book of runners by Dov Aster, sled mechanic, at the clerk's request. The clerk asked for the facts and "a few lines on what she's like". Some of this is the facts.

The facts, for the book

• Name. Mara Quell.
• Born. Saltreach, 23 AS.
• Sled. Kestrel. Orange sail, white bird.
• First solo run. At fourteen. You'll have heard about it. Most of what you heard is true, and the parts that aren't were made up by Mara.
• Mother. Sela Quell, runner of this hall, lost in the Dunmarrow storm of 32 AS. Mara was nine.

The runner

She is fast. Not fast for her age, or fast for Saltreach. Fast. She reads the wind off the salt the way other people read signs, and she reads it before it arrives. I have watched her set Kestrel's sail for a gust that hadn't happened yet, and then watched it happen.

She has raced Jory Venn across the Glass Sea and will tell you about it whether or not you ask.

She runs Dunmarrow when the job needs it, and she doesn't take the long way round. I have never been sure whether that is bravery or an argument with something. Maybe both. She doesn't talk about her mother much. When she does, it is usually to tell me something her mother said about sails, and she is usually right.

What she's like

Stubborn. I am told the clerk will want a better word than that. There is not one. Once Mara has decided where she is going, the only useful question left is what she will need when she gets there. I have learned to pack for it.

Funny, especially when she shouldn't be. Two years ago we were clamped down in a storm outside Windbreak for nineteen hours, face down on the hull with sand coming through our scarves, and she spent most of it giving a commentary on the storm as if it were a race, with the dunes as runners. The dune on the left won. I am still not sure how she decided.

Loyal, in a way that doesn't announce itself. She has never once told me she's grateful for anything. She has also never once let anyone in Saltreach say a word against me in her hearing, and I have only found that out from other people.

The palm thing

People ask about this, so it may as well go in the book.

When she clamps down, she puts her palm flat on the ribbon. Every time. Before a run, after a run, in a storm, at a stop. She says the ribbon hums differently before weather, and that if you keep your hand on it long enough you can hear what's coming.

Old runners at the hall say her mother did the same.

I have put my hand where she puts hers, more than once. It feels like ribbon. She says that is because I listen with my head. She is right about the weather more often than the Authority's forecast, which is not saying much, and more often than me, which is.

Lately she has been doing it for longer.

How to recognise her

You won't need this. But: navy-black hair, short and never once combed into obedience, with one tuft at the crown that will not lie down and that she claims is a weather vane. Teal eyes. A burnt-orange runner's jacket you can see across the salt, a brown satchel across her chest with nothing useful in it, and a pair of brass goggles round her neck. She says they are lucky. She won't say why, and she wears them over her eyes about as often as you'd expect from someone who thinks they're lucky round her neck.

Kestrel

Kestrel came out of the Gantry scrap market as a hull and a promise. Since then it has had more parts replaced than it has kept, most of them by me, and two of them by Mara with a hammer, which I would like noted. Its sail mark is hers. She painted the bird herself, freehand, in one go, and refused to let me straighten the left wing. It is still crooked. It is the best-known mark on the Glass Sea.

For the record

She is the better runner. People who have watched us both read a map say I am the better navigator. I would rather that went in the book than not.

If you are reading this because you want to hire her: she will get there. She will get there faster than you were told was possible, and she will have an opinion about your cargo. Pay her what she asks.

Clerk's note: Runner Quell has asked for the word "stubborn" to be struck from this entry. The clerk has declined.