The Sisters

Over the years, Marta had sent many warm and friendly messages to Elana, inviting her to visit Flora and assuring her that she'd always be welcome. But her prodigal sister never replied. From time to time, however, traders brought news that Elana's marriage to Lyako had been blessed with two sets of twins, that Lyako had succeeded his father as ruler of the Kingdom of Horses, and that their marriage was a stormy one.

For a long time, there was no further news until one day, a traveler told Queen Marta that Lyako had been thrown by a wild horse and had broken his back, that Elana had lost both her beauty and her mind and, after shouting night and day that the Kingdom of Wild Horses was an accursed one, she had escaped from keepers. "They searched high and low for her, but she had vanished without a trace," the traveler said, shaking his head sadly.

The Queen immediately summoned Leha and ordered her to send search parties to all of the countries bordering the Kingdom of Wild Horses. "Go to the ends of the earth if you have to, but bring my sister back to Flora. Whoever finds her will be amply rewarded," Queen Marta said to the trackers, traders, and interpreters whom Leha had recruited.

But after years of futile searching, the search parties returned one by one and reported that they had found no trace of Elana. "It's as if your sister has vanished from the face of the earth," Leha said. "I hear you," Queen Marta said, "and yet I feel in my bones that she's still alive."

Leha had led one of the search parties, and when she returned, her hair was streaked with gray, and age had mapped her rough-hewn face with lines as delicate as spider webs.

The first time that Leha stepped into the Audience Room to report about her travels to distant places in search of Elana, she was both surprised and pleased to see how Queen Marta had aged. When their eyes met, the smiling Leha said to herself, "It's as if her face had beaten very gently against the years," for she could see quite clearly how time had changed what was once an ugly countenance into a beautiful one.

When a shaft of sunlight touched the cloud of white hair on the Queen's head, it became luminous, and a welcoming smile lighting up her dark face lifted Leha's spirits and made her heart sing. And somehow, all the hardships she had endured traveling across parched savannahs, through densely wooded valleys, over mountains, and down turbulent rivers, were forgotten.

1. The style of writing in this extract can BEST be described as:
a) factual
b) narrative
c) descriptive
d) argumentative

2. What do the words, "their marriage was a stormy one" (line 4-5) imply?
a) They married on a stormy day
b) There were happy times in the marriage
c) The couple was not sure of the marriage
d) The marriage was filled with disagreement