Part 17 (2/2)

”He speaks well for me,” someone whose face Pavek couldn't see, whose voice he didn't recognize, announced to the others.

Murmured harmony rippled through the hut, around and behind him, but not in front of him, where neither Telhami nor Akas.h.i.+a appeared pleased.

”You speak well, indeed,” the old woman said with a nod, her cold voice confirming what his eyes had seen. ”But your Zvain is not an ordinary citizen of Urik. We cannot enrich the future of Athas if we worry now about the fates of orphans who live beneath the city's streets, scrounging food and succ.u.mbing to temptations.”

”Zvain-” Pavek began haltingly, seeking words that would explain how ordinary the boy was in the brutal world of Urik, so different from Quraite.

”Is doomed,” Telhami concluded, and it seemed, from the set of her spine and the bright intensity of her eyes, that the guardian flowed with her, now. ”There's nothing anyone can do for him. We must think about those who will survive. They're the future. We will not burn our zarneeka bushes for their sakes. We will not cower here, hiding from enemies we have not measured for ourselves. We will return to Urik. We will study this poison, Laq, and this High Templar and his minions. And we will thwart his ambitions without-”

Suddenly, Telhami fell, clutching her gut and nearly tumbling from her platform. Akas.h.i.+a was right there, panic in her face and voice, but not in the commands she shouted, ”Clear a path! Let the air in! Fetch water!” nor was it in her arms as she cradled the woman she revered as Grandmother.

Pavek retreated with the others, making room for the breezes and for the druid dashed for the well with a bowl in his hands. He crowded against Yohan, whose brawny arm s.h.i.+vered against his back. It seemed clear, if ominous, to a templar: Quraite's guardian did not approve of Telhami's plan and Quraite's guardian was was more powerful than any living druid. Perhaps, as Yohan claimed, the guardian had ignored the community's prior disobedience, as Hamanu tolerated an occasional curse against his name and as slaveowners endured their living property's sullen insolence; but it wasn't ignoring disobedience this time. more powerful than any living druid. Perhaps, as Yohan claimed, the guardian had ignored the community's prior disobedience, as Hamanu tolerated an occasional curse against his name and as slaveowners endured their living property's sullen insolence; but it wasn't ignoring disobedience this time.

Before the water arrived, a flickering light began to radiate across Telhami's body. Swiftly, the soft yellow light thickened until Akas.h.i.+a's arms could not be seen through the dazzle.

She's dying, Pavek thought. Pavek thought. Quraite's claiming her, as it claimed the bones in her grove. Quraite's claiming her, as it claimed the bones in her grove. For a heartbeat he wondered if the guardian's appet.i.te would be sated with the old woman, or if it would feed on additional disobedience, Akas.h.i.+a's disobedience. Then the radiance collapsed, and coherent thought fled his mind. For a heartbeat he wondered if the guardian's appet.i.te would be sated with the old woman, or if it would feed on additional disobedience, Akas.h.i.+a's disobedience. Then the radiance collapsed, and coherent thought fled his mind.

Dazed and blinking, but otherwise unharmed, Akas.h.i.+a sat empty-handed in the dusty sunlight of an Athasian day.

”She's gone,” someone whispered, a farmer by the look of her.

”Gone,” echoed from the other side of the room, more frantic as the instant of disbelief yielded to grief and unbearable emptiness.

”Grandmother's gone!” erupted from several mouths, several hearts-bereavement no longer limited to the farmers.

The unimaginable had happened. The unthinkable demanded immediate attention. Akas.h.i.+a stood up, pale and shaken, but apparently aware of her responsibilities. Pavek felt himself grow calmer, felt his feet root themselves in the dirt again as she raised her hands to summon the guardian and read its essence. In the company of so many druids, in such extraordinary circ.u.mstances, he felt it, too, though he lacked the wisdom and experience to interpret the message, whipping through his body and his mind.

”Not gone,” gone,” Akas.h.i.+a announced after a moment, emphasizing finality and rejecting it at the same time. ”She's gone to the stowaway. The stowaway's attacked. The stowaway's breached! She seeks. She finds...” Akas.h.i.+a announced after a moment, emphasizing finality and rejecting it at the same time. ”She's gone to the stowaway. The stowaway's attacked. The stowaway's breached! She seeks. She finds...”

With her voice trailing off into a sob, Akas.h.i.+a fled the hut. The rest followed, farmer and druid alike, her words having evidently had more meaning to them than they'd had to him. He guessed, but did not know.

He caught Yohan's arm. ”What stowaway?” he asked as dwarf asked: ”Who breached it?”

They glowered, each waiting for the other to answer first, and listening as alarm raced through the village. Quraiters who had not been included in the meeting ran past the open door, all headed for the southeast path: the path by which Pavek had entered Quraite and that he had not explored since, because the salt plain encroached closest there.

”Who?” Yohan demanded, breaking loose from Pavek's grip.

”No idea,” Pavek insisted with a shrug.

He'd felt something, and that was more than Yohan had possibly done, but that was all, and that was completely gone now. He stood in the doorway. Only a few weanling children remained in the common, tended by a few adults whose southeasterly pointing faces proclaimed that they'd rather be somewhere else.

”What's the stowaway? If I knew that-maybe-”

Yohan pressed behind him in the doorway. ”Where they store the zarneeka seeds to ripen and age under the ground.” He shouldered past and started walking.

There was no one left to give him an order, so he fell in step a few paces behind. The s.h.i.+mmering white expanse of the salt wastes was visible from the far side of the tree ring around the village. A few clumps of rock and scraggly bushes dotted the wilderness. No druid could nurture a grove this close to the Sun's Fist. But Yohan kept going, following Quraiters strung out in a spa.r.s.e line until they were indistinguishable from the wilderness itself.

They gathered in a place without trees or water, where the salt flats seemed a bit closer and the village behind them was reduced to a line of half-sized trees. Pavek, at the rear of the gathering, was as ignorant as he'd been at the hut. But the crowd parted for him-or it parted for Yohan-and he was able to flow to the center in the dwarfs wake.

Telhami sat on an unremarkable stone beside a shallow, round, and apparently empty hole. She sifted gritty dirt through the fingers of one hand into the palm of the other. Her neck was bent deeply: Pavek remembered that sunlight hurt her eyes, and remembered her broad-brimmed, veiled hat hanging in its place by the door. He wished he'd thought to bring it with him; a foolish, sentimental wish since, when he left the hut, he hadn't known where he was going.

The sifted grit's color, yellow-like the thin cloud of dust over the hole-and its bitter-turning-numb taste as it invaded his nose and mouth, answered all the other questions bubbling in Pavek's mind.

A downcast Akas.h.i.+a approached them. ”Ruari,” she whispered to Yohan, loudly enough for Pavek to hear. The dwarf spat into the yellow-flecked ground.

”Can't be,” he countered. ”That doesn't square with Telhami collapsing right when she did. The moment was too perfect. You were going to take zarneeka to Urik; now you can't. Ruari couldn't be eavesdropping and undermining at the same time. Don't blame the half-wit sc.u.m just because your guardian got the upper hand.”

Akas.h.i.+a gave him a sharp-edged glower. ”He was sitting here, here, in the ruins, waiting for Grandmother when she arrived. He confessed everything. He'd talked to the elves; he knew everything we knew. He was afraid you'd persuade us to take the zarneeka to Urik, or steal it yourself, if you couldn't. He decided to take matters into his own hands. He hates you, Pavek. Hates you with a pa.s.sion that blinds him to everything else. He thought he was the only one who could stop you.” in the ruins, waiting for Grandmother when she arrived. He confessed everything. He'd talked to the elves; he knew everything we knew. He was afraid you'd persuade us to take the zarneeka to Urik, or steal it yourself, if you couldn't. He decided to take matters into his own hands. He hates you, Pavek. Hates you with a pa.s.sion that blinds him to everything else. He thought he was the only one who could stop you.”

”But he stopped you instead,” Pavek snorted with irony and earned himself another bitter look.

”We're right, Pavek, and you're wrong. You're all wrong: both of you and Ruari, as well.”

”The guardian disagrees.”

”This was Ruari's doing: his hate, his blindness.”

”Where is he? This time I do do want to talk to him.” want to talk to him.”

”I don't know.” Akas.h.i.+a flinched toward Telhami as she turned away.

Pavek had learned the language of guilt and anxiety before he left the orphanage. It was an early, essential part of a templar's education. Instructors made certain their students learned to read the truth on the faces around them, and-if they were wise or clever-to hide their own emotions behind an enigmatic, intimidating sneer. Pavek wore a templar sneer when he cast a shadow over Telhami and called her name.

The instructors had never claimed he was wise or clever. They'd repeatedly said he was a fool who didn't know when to keep his big mouth shut.

”Where'd you send Ruari?” he demanded.

She opened her hands. The yellow-stained dirt streamed to the ground. ”I didn't send him anywhere. He's hiding in his grove.”

”Where's his grove?”

”I can't tell you,” her voice was faint and listless. ”He wished for privacy, Just-Plain Pavek. I grant it to him. He wants to be alone for a while. I told him what you said. He needs needs to be alone.” to be alone.”

”The guardian wouldn't suck his bones into the ground, for you?” He could hear the foolishness in his voice. He wished he could swallow his tongue, but recklessness was another old habit, impossible to resist when righteousness fanned its flames. ”He wished for privacy, instead, and you granted his wish. For how long, Telhami? How long does Ruari need need to be alone in his grove. Until he starves?” to be alone in his grove. Until he starves?”

”A druid can't starve in his grove,” Yohan said from behind. ”Mind yourself. Ruari's safe enough in his grove, if mat's where he is.”

Recklessness, it seemed, was catching.

He spread his feet to shoulder width and propped his fists atop his hips. ”Where is the sc.u.m? I want to tell him he's done the right thing. I need need to tell him. How can I find him?” to tell him. How can I find him?”

”You can't!” can't!” Akas.h.i.+a sprang, shouting, to her feet. She smashed her fist sincerely, but ineffectively, against his chest. ”Ruari's gone to his grove and pulled it in around him. He's cut himself off. He doesn't want to be found. He doesn't want anything to do with anyone, ever again.” Akas.h.i.+a sprang, shouting, to her feet. She smashed her fist sincerely, but ineffectively, against his chest. ”Ruari's gone to his grove and pulled it in around him. He's cut himself off. He doesn't want to be found. He doesn't want anything to do with anyone, ever again.”

”I'm not interested in what the sc.u.m wants. Point me toward his grove. I'll walk until I find the little beggar.”

”Knowing where Ruari's grove is-was-won't help you. He's hiding, Pavek,” Telhami said in a soft voice that, nonetheless, captured his attention. ”There's nothing any of us can do, you least of all. Ruari's Ruari's hiding. His choice-a druid's choice-not mine. Ruari hasn't stopped anything. Zarneeka will go to Urik as it always has; that's hiding. His choice-a druid's choice-not mine. Ruari hasn't stopped anything. Zarneeka will go to Urik as it always has; that's my my choice. He couldn't accept that. I couldn't let him leave Quraite, not as full of spite and vengeance as he was. He chose to hide forever and a day. Forever's a long time, Just-Plain Pavek, but a day or a week will do him good. But the choice to hide was his, and the choice to return will be his. And mine. This is not a quarrel between him and you, Pavek. Ruari is a druid, and this is the way it must be, Pavek. Do you understand?” choice. He couldn't accept that. I couldn't let him leave Quraite, not as full of spite and vengeance as he was. He chose to hide forever and a day. Forever's a long time, Just-Plain Pavek, but a day or a week will do him good. But the choice to hide was his, and the choice to return will be his. And mine. This is not a quarrel between him and you, Pavek. Ruari is a druid, and this is the way it must be, Pavek. Do you understand?”

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