Part 23 (1/2)
The cramped chamber looked like the inside of a wicker basket, dark and sh without fire In the chilly diht the hovel deserted Then he noticed a white glow illuh brush, and feared the owner had died, it was so cold in here
”M-Milady Brookdweller?”
”Eh?” the old elf woman cracked, startled from sleep ”Who is there? Ah, I see Coed to a tiny fire pit Without flint or steel, she struck a fire in a handful of twigs There was barely enough tinder to fill a pipe, yet it instantly warmed the hut
Somehow, the shaman sensed, this ancient elven priestess drew ht to life scents of exotic herbs
”A human,” croaked the priestess ”I don't see many of those And a creature of our blood Nice to have company I am so old, I spend more time in the next world than this one So 'tis well to coave their names, added that the queen's chancellor, Taht of Brookdweller's wisdorandchild One of many,” the elder ra cross-legged, Sunbright ducked his head under the brush roof He offered his hand, but found it was Knucklebones the priestess addressed The s under a mop of tousled black curls-hair as wild and free as these elves'
”Who are your people, dear?” The priestess spread Knucklebones's hand in both her own as if reading a book
”I-I don't know,” stammered the part-elf ”I was born, or will be born, in the city of Karsus I was hurled into the gutter, grew up in the sewers, never knew my mother”
”Father”
”Eh?” Knucklebones was so startled she jerked back her hand
Carefully, Brookdweller took it again, saying, ”Your father was an Old One Your mother a New One”
”My father was elven, and ht she'd pass out ”I-I always thought it the other way around I don't knohy”
”Of the High Forest,” Brookdweller continued She closed her sunken eyes as she stroked the thief's hand ”Not a Moon Elf, not Illefarni, not of the forestEaerlanni, most ancient of the Shadow FolkA sad folk, beaten and blaBut, but”
Hu, as the priestess hissed,” But also Moon Elf, also Illefarni! The signs are ju to one river, and the river running backward Blood creating blood, and flowing through timeI-I-” She stopped as Knucklebones yanked her hand free The small thief shi+vered and rubbed the lis to the fire, though the first ones had barely burned
”I understand, dear Second sight is a frightening power Many who possess it wish they did not, eh?”
The last was addressed to Sunbright, and he nodded ”Visions are a blessing, and a curse, my mother told me It was years before I understood why”
The old wo her back, she asked, ”And what do you seek, northman?”
”An elf A-a friend One Greenho was lost, killed ”
Quickly, Sunbright told of Sysquemalyn's pocket hell How, as the floor cruht to safety How the barbarian had turned to find only a gaping chas with hellfire ”Her death,” he finished, ”if she's truly dead, haunts me And if dead, I fear her soul is trapped in those awful depths, unable to escape I've searched for years, byCan you-”
”She is dead” Seeing the pronouncement jolt the human, the priestess explained, ”We People of the Woods are charged with ed ater Yet no elf could survive hellfire No living thing can So the question is to Green's soul And that is no question, for souls have no bounds They cohosts dah they deny it Nothing can trap a soul; Green has indeed walked on”
”Where?” Sunbright blurted ”Do you knohere?”
The priestess closed her eyes, pondering, but snapped them open when Knucklebones added, ”Yes, please! Tell us where! I ht stared at his small lover ”Why should you-”
”Because I' about Green!” she blurted Sudden tears spilled down the thief's cheek fro to look weak ”I' in her shadow! These Moon Elves are beautiful and slender and tall and graceful Not short and homely and scarred and starved and one-eyed likebut a louse, a bastard half-breed pitched in the gutter to die because ht of ht, and want you to myself I can't compete with a noble half-Goddess who's dead, so I can't even confront her!”
The s her face Stunned by her outburst, Sunbright touched her shoulder, but she shook him off In the meantime, Brookdweller had closed her eyes to rock back and forth, crooning aione mad? the shaled for words ”I love you Please don't think otherwise And I don't compare you to Green She eet and lovely, true, but so are you
You've a kind heart and gentle core that I adins Mine are no better And despite your hard life, you've kept your heart pure-Wait!”
He grabbed, but the thief slipped away like an eel, slithered out of the brush hut, and vanished down the trail Fuddled as a haed his head on brush and fetched up Harvester's pommel, almost tore the hut down
At that moment, Brookdweller broke from her dream ”It clears! I see the links!” the old woone!”
Far down the trail, sobbing for breath, blinded by tears, Knucklebones ran helter-skelter past fork after fork, not caring where she ended up The part-elf stumbled far off the beaten trail, reached the end of a path, and kept going, bulling into rushes in a swamp Dimly she perceived her feet splashed in brackish water, but she didn't care If she drowned, her sorroould end For no ht, nor how deeply she loved with all her heart, he'd always compare her to the slender, beautiful Green, and Knucklebones couldn't live as his second-best love And without Sunbright, with no links to the past and her future lost, she had nothing and had nowhere to go Any place was as bad as the next, and death no worse than life
And too, she felt so queer lately, her guts churning all the ti hot and cold, as if she were two people fighting for control She'd never felt this way, and couldn't explain it And right now, she didn't care Saw grass tore at her hands, cut her red cheeks, stabbed her clothing The water to her knees slowed her And her breath tore for crying Soon, part of her ht would claiged her throat, but it snapped shut like a mink trap and cut off her wind
Suddenly Knucklebones didn't want to die
Lashi+ng out, her fists struck stone, not wood Gasping for wind, she forced open her one eye, swollen fro
And beheld a monster
Inches from her face leered a bald head of stone No eyelids, no ears, no hair Bulging blue eyes shot with red bored into her face A gash of a mouth hissed like a volcano pit
Knucklebones was hoicked from the sater Her neck popped and creaked at the strain, her vision died her toes on a stony body Punching scraped skin like a rasp Slapping her belt, the thief whipped up her dark elven knife, jabbed at the bulging eyes, the stony mouth and skin The knife tip didn't even scratch the stone hide A claw flicked the knife away
The helpless thief writhed like a rat in a trap
”You,” hissed Sysquemalyn, ”I can use”
”Where the in the nine hells can she be?”
Sunbright was disheveled, sweaty, and pale He and Blessedseed had tracked Knucklebones's flight through the forest and into the swamp, and found where her footprints disappeared in churnedand clawed, marked the spot Elves had joined the search, and turned up her dark elven knife, but no other trace Old Brookdweller closed her eyes and stated that the thief was vanished froht had run to his mother's hut in the valley, asked outriders on the prairie, and finally bolted to Drigor's forge The old dwarf had seen everything