Part 29 (1/2)

Faelia looked stricken. ”Have I ruined it?”

”Nay, child. He is 'Fa' to you, after all. So say that twice more and then his name three times.”

Faelia obeyed, crawling forward on hands and knees to stare into the bowl. The water gave a small s.h.i.+ver and subsided.

”Faelia's blood link to Darak is not as strong as yours to Keirith,” Lisula whispered. ”Give it time.”

Instead of swirling in a circle, the water rose into tiny crests, lapping like miniature waves against one side of the bowl. Griane's gaze kept darting from the bowl to Muina's face. Two lines formed between her brows and her lips were pressed together as if in pain.

Please, G.o.ds, let him be there. Please let him be all right.

She pictured Darak's eyes in her mind-soft as twilight when he was happy, dark as storm clouds when angered. She willed them to appear in the water, to blink open as Keirith's had. And then the mouth would curve up in that lopsided smile and the deep voice would a.s.sure he that he was fine.

”Stop fussing.”

For a fleeting moment, she thought Muina was speaking Darak's words. Then Griane looked up and found her leaning against Bethia. When she looked down at the bowl again, the water was still.

”Is he dead?” Her voice sounded utterly calm. How was that possible?

”Nay!” Faelia's cry seemed torn from her throat. ”I did something wrong. Please, can we try again?”

”Hush, child.” Muina's voice was little more than a whisper. Lines of strain creased her forehead. ”Darak lives.”

Griane heard a strangled moan, but only when Lisula's arms went around her did she realize it came from her. Her hand reached out blindly for Faelia who seized it with icy fingers.

”Darak lives. But he's sick.”

”Darak's never sick. He survived the plague. He's never even had a fever, save for the one after he escaped from Chaos.” When Muina remained silent, Griane added, ”You all know how strong he is.”

”Strong as a boar,” Lisula said, patting her hand.

”Stop coddling her.” Muina's voice was sharp. ”That she can get from any woman. She came to us to learn the truth. Do you want to hear it or not?” When Griane nodded, her stern features relaxed. ”His body was aching and exhausted. But his stomach troubles him more.”

”His stomach?” She stopped herself from saying that Darak could eat anything.

”It felt . . . raw. And his throat. As if he'd been retching.”

Darak was too wise in the ways of the forest to eat something poisonous. A flux of some kind?

”Is he dying?” Faelia's voice sounded so scared that Griane squeezed her hand hard.

”Nay, child. He's taken some food recently and likely the illness will pa.s.s. But he's not as young as he once was.”

Strong as a boar-and stubborn as a rock. In his anxiety to reach Keirith, he would drive himself hard.

”Do you know where he is?” she asked.

”I sensed stone and turf around him, so he must be in a hut. There were others sleeping there, too.”

The village healer could give him something for his stomach, but short of tying him down, Griane doubted anyone-or any ailment-could keep him from his quest. Urkiat was too much in awe to try. That was the trouble with strangers; they knew the Spirit-Hunter, not the man.

”Darak's not a fool,” Muina said. ”He knows he must conserve his strength to search for Keirith. That alone will make him take care of himself.”

But he hadn't done that during the quest for Tinnean. He'd gone hunting when he was injured and exhausted, and when the hunting was bad, he'd gone without so those who were weaker could eat. He'd been shouldering a man's responsibilities since he was eleven. If he'd learned to trust others over the years, that early self-reliance was too deeply ingrained to be forgotten.

”Isn't there anything else we can do?” Faelia asked.

”Not tonight. But rest easy. You did everything right. Searching for Keirith wearied me, else I'd have seen more of your father.” Muina's mouth twisted in a bitter smile. ”The magic needs a woman past her moon flow, but I'm getting too old for it.”

”Thank you,” Griane said. ”Lisula and Bethia, I thank you as well.”

She kissed all three priestesses and left the hut. As soon as they were outside, Faelia said, ”At least they're all right. That's something.”

”Aye. Keirith-wherever he is-is safe. Your father is wise enough to know the limits of his strength.”

And Faelia was young enough to be comforted by the words. But long after the children had fallen asleep, Griane lay awake, her fingers digging helplessly into the wolfskins.

Men went off to be tested for courage: at their vision quests, on their hunting trips, into a strange land or into the heart of Chaos itself. Women were tested for endurance: for their ability to bear the pain of childbirth, the anxiety of sitting up with a sick child, or the bone-deep ache of loneliness while they waited and worried and watched for a loved one's return.

Men were lucky.

Her mind formed the prayer she repeated every night before she slept: Maker, keep them safe. Maker, bring them home. Maker, give me the strength to endure. Maker, keep them safe. Maker, bring them home. Maker, give me the strength to endure.

Chapter 23.

BY THE TIME THEY reached Ailmin's village, Darak was so weak from seasickness that he had to rest for two days. The chief was a hard-faced man about his age, the third the tribal elders had chosen in ten years; the raiders had killed his predecessors.

When he asked for the loan of a currach, Ailmin frowned. ”There's a deserted village three days south of here. My men will take you that far. After that, you'll have to go on foot. You don't have the skills or stamina to manage a currach on your own.”

Urkiat bristled at his dismissive tone, but Darak knew Ailmin was right. Still, the truth stung as did the realization that the hospitality so prized among the northern tribes was given grudgingly here, even to the man who had rescued the Oak-Lord. In the north, strangers were welcomed for the news and gossip they brought. Here, they were suspect. The raiders were killing more than the children of the Oak and Holly; they were destroying a way of life.

Ailmin's men beached their currachs in the deserted village and remained only long enough for the supplies to be unloaded before launching them again. There were no farewells, no earnest blessings for their safe journey, just sullen faces as closed and hard as their chief's.

”They had no right to treat you like that,” Urkiat fumed. ”They owe their lives to you.”

”Ailmin gave us food and transport. And a map.” Darak patted his belly, where the sc.r.a.p of hide lay safely nestled under his tunic. Crudely drawn with a charred twig, it gave them the location of every village-inhabited or deserted-along the coast.

”All the same, it was an insult. If I ever see them again, I-”

”Let it be, Urkiat. Our enemies are the Zherosi.”

They made little progress the first day; scaling a gentle slope was enough to leave him panting and exhausted. But he slowly regained his strength and his appet.i.te, thanks in large part to Urkiat. When he wasn't scolding him for going beyond the limits of his endurance, Urkiat ranged through the forest to bring down squirrels, set snares at night to trap rabbits, and crouched over the fire pit stirring Jirra's restorative herbs into a hot brew to ease Darak's stomach. Although the insistent fussing made him feel like a useless old man, Darak knew he would never have managed alone. One night, after batting Urkiat's hands away as they tucked his mantle under his chin, he told him he was worse than Griane with his fussing and scolding. But he smiled when he said it, and Urkiat blushed like a boy.

He missed Griane, as much for her common sense and good instincts as for the presence of her body nestled next to his at night. And he had no opportunities to seek out Wolf; if he so much as walked away from the fire to p.i.s.s, he found Urkiat sitting bolt upright, waiting anxiously for his return.