Part 36 (1/2)
”Yes, we start again-but we take with us what will be most helpful in beginning life anew.”
Lile took a deep breath, as if she meant to start bundling crates to the harbor at once. What an unusual woman, thought Charis. But I am glad I told her. I could not do this alone.
As if reading Charis' thoughts, Lile turned to her and said, ”You are not alone now, Charis. I will help you all I can. Where do we start?”
”I have been thinking about that,” answered Charis, and they began walking back to the palace. ”Clothing, tools, food-those are all important. But I think we start in my mother's library. There are books there that should be saved.”
”I agree. Knowledge will serve us better where we are going” She broke off with a strange smile.
”What is it?”
”How can we begin preparing for the doom of our race if we have no idea where we are going?”
”West, I think,” replied Charis. ”There are lands there much like these, I am told, and little inhabited. We will be able to make a life there much like the one we know here.”
”Or better,” said Lile, and Charis noticed the set of her jaw as she said it.
”Tell me,” said Charis. ”Do you believe me-about Throm's prophecy?”
”Of course,” replied Lile. ”Should I not?”
”No one else does.”
”Then they deserve their fate,” muttered Lile darkly. Her expression was fleeting but unmistakably fierce. Cold hatred gleamed in the dark depths of Lile's eyes.
Was this the beast that watched from the shadows? wondered Charis. Have I made a mistake telling her?
But Lile smiled and the beast, if it was there, withdrew to the shadows once more. ”You ask why I Believe you? I will tell you. All my life I have known that this would happen. I have carried the knowledge within me” She raised a hand to touch her heart. ”I did not dare hope that I would see it, but I knew it. I felt it. Even when I was very small, I looked out on the world and knew that I looked at a world that could not last. When you told me just now, I knew that it was true, for your words merely confirmed what I already guessed.”
”This will be the trial you asked for then,” said Charis. ”Everything I value in life, I have placed in your hands.”
”No, not everything.” Lile touched her gently on the side. Charis winced. ”Trust me to help you, Charis. I can heal your injury. You will need your full strength in the days to come. I can give it to you much sooner.”
Charis hesitated, then relented. ”What you say is true. You have your way, Lile.”
”I will not fail you, Charis. Believe me.”
”I will try,” promised Charis. ”Believe me.”
Charis' trust was rewarded and Lile proved true to her word and to her skill, for the chirurgia was flawlessly successful and Charis recovered rapidly. A few days after the bandages were removed, Annubi found Charis sitting cross-legged among a pile of vellum scrolls, her chin in her palm, scanning studiously the unrolled doc.u.ment before her. He watched her for a moment and then entered the disheveled library.
She glanced up as he approached. ”Oh, Annubi, what word? Something from Belyn?”
”No.” He shook his head.
”About the stars?”
”No, nothing yet.”
”What then?”
”About you, Charis.”
”About me?”
”You told Lile about the cataclysm.”
”Yes, I did. Why?”
The seer sighed, dragged a chair across the littered floor, and collapsed onto it.
”Why?” insisted Charis. ”Have I done something wrong?”
He shook his head wearily and pa.s.sed a hand over his eyes. ”I cannot see anymore.” This admission came so casually that at first Charis did not realize the import of his words.
”Why was it wrong? I thought it best to” She stopped. Annubi sat as if his chest had collapsed; his shoulders slumped and his long fingers twitched in his lap. ”Annubi, what has happened?”
”I cannot see anymore,” he said, spitting each bitter word. ”The Lia Fail is dark to me. There is no light anymore.”
”You are overtired,” offered Charis, setting aside the ma.n.u.script. ”I have pushed you too hard-asked too much. You will rest and it will come back.”
”No,” he groaned. ”I know it will not.” He paused and then lifted his shoulders in a gesture of hopelessness. ”But that is not why I came.”
”You said I should not have told Lile. Why? What has she done?”
”I found her in my room-with the Lia Fail. I was angry. I shoved her... I wanted... to kill her...” He shook his head in disBelief. ”I did this. I, Annubi! I have never lifted a hand against another living being in all my life.”
”What did she do?”
”She laughed at me,” he muttered, his eyes squeezed shut. ”She laughed and told me I had lost.”
”Lost the sight?”
”Lost you.” you.”
Charis' stomach tightened. ”What then?”
”She left. I could hear her laughing in the corridor.” He put his hands to his head as if to stop the sound.
”Oh, Annubi, I am sorry. I would never have told her if I had known.” Charis pitied her old friend, but even as her heart went out to him in his misery she could not help asking, ”Is there any way you could possibly be mistaken?”
”Mistaken!” The king's advisor reared up; the chair clattered backwards. ”She has has won you! Curse the day I ever saw her!” won you! Curse the day I ever saw her!”
”Annubi, please, I only meant that perhaps there might be some other explanation.”
”I have lost the sight and my mind as well, eh?”