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on his feet. He felt her hands touch his face, and he looked down into her
worry-filled eyes.
"What is it?" she asked. "What's wrong?"
Sorrow washed over him in a wave, and then anger. A white face with sunken
eyes and cheeks glowed in the dark of his mind's eye. Then it snuffed out and
vanished. He found himself staring out over the tops of buildings to the
forest and skyline in the northeast.
"Parko's dead," he said in a hissing whisper, too shocked to speak loudly,
too angered to voice it clearly.
Teesha's smooth brow wrinkled in confusion. "But how do you know this?"
He shook his head slightly."Perhaps because he was once my brother."
"You've never felt such a strong connection to him, even before he left us
for the Feral Path."
Rashed lowered his eyes to hers, anger taking hold above all other
sensations.
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"I felt it. Someone cut his head off and& something wet& running water."
She stared at him, frozen in the moment, and through her hands he could feel
the shudder run through her small frame. She quickly pulled her hands from his
face, as if repulsed by what he'd described, then leaned her forehead against
his chest.
"No. Oh, Rashed, I'm sorry."
His eyes lifted again toward the northeastern skyline, and a chill like cold
water over living flesh washed through him again. It was unsettling in a
forgotten way, as it had been decades since he'd felt anything akin to cold.
"We have to find out who did this. Where is Edwan?"
"He's nearby." Teesha closed her eyes for a moment. "My husband says he is
sorry, too."
Rashed ignored the sympathies.
"Send him out. Tell him to find whoever did this and bring me a name. Tell
him to look northeast." He raised his gaze inland again. "Tell him to hurry."
A soft glimmer wavered in the air near the two, almost nothing more than the
light cast from a lantern's cracked shutter. Teesha's face turned in its
direction and her lips moved as if speaking, but not a word was heard. The
light vanished.
Chapter Three
"We'll have to stop soon," Magiere said tiredly, running a hand across her
face. "It's getting dark."
The sun was setting over the ocean off the coastal road of Belaski,
illuminating the land with a dusky orange glow that made it appear less gloomy
and hopeless than in full daylight. Leesil always liked dusk, and he stopped
for a moment to watch the fading light over the water. The coastal road they
followed south from Bela, the country's capital city, was reasonably fast and
clear, much easier traveling than the five days' trek west out of Stravina.
It had been twelve days since the death of the mad villager, and Leesil had
yet to ask any hard questions about what had really taken place that night on
the shore of theVudraskRiver . Magiere had provided scant details about what
had happened to her and Chap. There still remained the puzzles of why Chap had
attacked without orders, and why Magiere appeared so enraged and shaken. It
was something beyond the killing of the villager. Neither of them broached the
subject, even when they stopped at a village to purchase a donkey and cart to
carry Chap which should have raised questions about the reason for the dog's
injuries. His wounds appeared mostly healed by then, but Magiere insisted he
needed rest.
"Let's make camp," Magiere said.
Leesil nodded and strolled off the road. He watched Magiere run her hand
across her forehead again, trying to push a few strands of hair dulled with
road dust off her face. He knew she hated being dirty.
"Maybe we should slip down to the shore," he said. "Seawater's not the best
bath in the world, but it'll do in a pinch. Though it's no good for washing
out clothes, unless you like wearing salt crust."
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She turned a suspicious glare on him. "Since when did you care about clean
clothes?"
"Since always."
"Stop trying to humor me." She let out a short, sarcastic laugh. "I know what
you want, and you'd better forget about it. We're not going to swindle even
one more village. I'm through." She started to follow him off the road, then
paused and looked back.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"I'm not sure." She shook her head. "Since dusk, I've had an odd feeling that
someone is& " She trailed off.
"Someone is what?"
"Nothing. I'm just tired." She shrugged.. "Don't put us too far from the
road. It's too hard to get the cart through the brush."
Leesil's own cloak was beginning to feel thin in the rapidly cooling air, and
he quickly chose a clearing in the trees. Magiere unpacked a dented cooking
pot, loose tea, dried meat, and apples, while he cleared a space of ground and
got a small fire going.
Despite his outer calm, his thoughts were still troubled. Once again, they
had fallen into simple routine, going through daily motions without really
talking, and there were several subjects beyond tonight's dinner that he
wished to discuss.
"Do you need help getting Chap?" Magiere asked suddenly.
"No, he can walk on his own."
Leesil went to the cart and wrapped his slender, tan arms around the dog's
neck. "Hey, there. Time to wake up and eat something."
"How is he?" Magiere called.
Chap's eyes opened instantly, and he whined before lifting his silver-gray
muzzle to lick Leesil's face. He pulled free of Leesil's arms and hopped out
of the cart, heading toward the cooking fire.
"See for yourself," Leesil answered. "And I think he's about as bored as he
could get with riding in the cart."
Leesil always found her attitude toward Chap a bit odd. She never petted the
dog and rarely spoke to him, but always made sure he ate and was well cared
for with what little comforts could be offered. Leesil, on the other hand,
enjoyed the dog's companionship immensely. But in the days before Magiere,
Chap had often hunted up his own supper because his master simply forgot.
Leesil unhooked the donkey and tied it in an area with sufficient grass, then
returned to the fire.
"We passed a side road half a league back," he said absently, taking a
waterskin off the ground and pouring water into the cooking pot for tea.
"Might lead off to a village."
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"If you wanted to stop, you should have said something," Magiere answered [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]