[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
fastening it with a spiral
WIND FROM THE ABYSS
123
clip of silver at my throat, at the gift my father had left within me for the
dharen. I ascertained, reviewing my assessment, that he had not himself tried
to extract any knowledge from me at that time. He had only watched, while his
council tried their skills upon me. Rethinking it, I saw that they, in those
moments, had also been assessed by their master. I giggled, a bit
hysterically. He had either known I would give the sequences up to him, or
made me do so. He had been in no hurry. I wished him better luck with those
skills than I had had. They were not meant to be wielded in the domain of
space and time. I had learned them upon Mi'ysten. I had paid dearly for them.
Even upon the dharen, I would not wish such as had come to me, when I used
them against Raet. I sighed, taking up the comb of carved bone he had allowed
me. I needed it. There was a time I might simply have nested my hair smooth
and shining. I stepped from the wardrobe, intending to avail myself of the
alcove's midday sun.
He was standing there, his hair water-sparkled. He must have just come from
the baths.
"Have you been here long?" I asked, nonplussed.
"I do not need to be near you, to hear you if I choose," he said quietly,
brushing past me into his storeroom. He took a circlet tunic of dark, soft
tas, and buckled it about him. Then he clipped a cloak, upon which the
Shaper's seal blazed brightly, to his shoulders. It might have been the one
Estrazi had given me, or its double. I did not ask. He did not volunteer the
information.
I tucked the white and silver silk beneath my chald, set the hip clip tighter,
conscientiously driving each question from my mind as it appeared. He slid
shut the panel which enclosed the wardrobe, leaned against the night-dark
wood. I stood still and straight under his scrutiny, aware that he might take
exception to the colors I had chosen, or
124
Janet E. Morris the way I had fastened the silk at my throat, obscuring my
band of restraint.
"You look lovely. I question the ease with which you have taken to your new
perspective."
"I look reasonably well. I could do with a circle partner; daily work upon my
body must soon commence. Also, with your permission, I would be allowed an
enth, say at sun's set, for dhara-san. As for perspective, I have not enough
information to have one currently." I heard my own voice, soft and sure,
Page 60
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
poised. I smiled to myself. I had me much more than Khys's Estri had ever
had.
"I will find someone," he granted. "A man, most likely. We do not have a woman
in training for the Slayer's chain, here at the lake."
"You do not wholly approve?" I licked my lips, widened my eyes at him.
"On the contrary, I think it wise of you to find some way to vent your
frustrations. Just do not kill any of my arrars," he said, mocking, fiercely.
"I promise." I grinned genuinely. "I will not. It would much ease me if you
allow me a less sedentary life."
"As trustworthy as you prove yourself, that much more freedom will I allow
you. Are you hungry?"
"Desperately."
He inclined his head, ran his fingers through his still-damp hair. "That is
the first time you have ever, since I have known you, expressed any interest
in food." One of his brows drew down. He extended his hand to me.
"You have not known me, Khys," I murmured, taking it, "only in battle shock,
and then that shadow child you made me."
The claok he wore, with the Shaper's seal upon it, brushed my arm. My hip, as
he walked beside me, rubbed against his thigh. He did not bother to lock his
keep, but left the doors ajar.
I examined the passage, the tapestries and art-
WlND FROM THE ABYSS
125
work displayed upon its walls, with an eye that could appreciate them. He
allowed me stop before the hution tapestry. Long I gazed upon it. Only in
Nemar had I seen its equal. Tenager, First Weaver of the Nemarsi, had attained
near the skill of the artist who had worked those hulions upon the grid. So
real were they that their eyes, as one shifted, took deep glow and seemed to
follow, so real that it could not be said for certain that those tufted tails,
one black, one red, had not just twitched as one looked above their bloody
heads at the krits that jabbered soundlessly, ever-leaping from branch to
branch above their pointed ears.
He touched me lightly, his palm at the small of my back, led me toward the
stairs.
"I would see Santh," I whispered, unsteady, leaning against his arm.
His glance, sidelong, was ruminative. The tendons in his neck corded. I was
about to withdraw my request, my foot descending the second stair.
"After the meal, we will see to it," he said. I almost stumbled. Still were
the effects of uris on me, I thought as I caught myself. And that brought
another thought to mind.
"It was not uris, was it?" I ventured. It had not been uris that had stripped
me of skill and self-knowledge.
"It was uris that so weakened you that I could take you. It was uris that
caused the scarring you yourself have seen. But it was not any one thing,
unless one might call the Weathers to account. Or Shapers. It was my will, but
if I could have done it some kinder way, I would have." He glanced at me
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]