The Rebellion (65 page)

It is my fault she is like this
, I thought bleakly. Yet another occasion on which the lethal killing power of my mind, even muted, had shown its malignancy.

I looked into her pale, still face and fought a blur of tears, resting my head on her hand.

“Elspeth?”

I sat up to find Kella gazing down at me concernedly, the owlet perched on her shoulder.

“I started to fall asleep,” I muttered, surreptitiously brushing tears from my cheeks.

Kella gazed down at Dragon. “I sit with her a lot,” she murmured. “I can’t bear to see her lying here alone. I’m glad Maruman has taken to keeping her company.”

I looked at the old cat, wondering uneasily what had brought him to her bed. Dragon had no ability at all to communicate with beasts, though they were drawn to her and
had given her a name of their own—
mornir
, which meant “brightmane.”

“Kader said you had to move her.”

“Any healing is difficult with her near,” the healer said. “When you begin to focus on your mind and shape a probe, she … well, her mind pulls at you. Like an undercurrent in a river. You feel yourself being tugged toward her.” She shrugged. “It is easy enough to resist, of course, but it’s impossible at the same time to focus properly on healing. It’s like having someone shouting numbers at you when you are trying to add up.”

“Is she getting worse?”

“I don’t know,” Kella said. “She could be getting worse, or maybe this is a prelude to her getting better.”

Hope must have shown in my eyes, for she went on. “You should not make too much of it, Elspeth, because she has been like this before. There is a strong pull, and then her mind just suddenly goes passive again. I think she gets like this when she is close to resolving her memories, but something goes wrong and she has to start all over again.”

I noticed Maruman beginning to twitch.

“Chasing mice in his dreams, I suppose,” Kella said fondly. “No doubt he is faster in them than in real life these days. He’s not supposed to kill anything within the grounds, but I know he hunts mice when he thinks no one notices. I do not think he catches many, though.”

But in his dreams, Maruman is not slow nor old nor even really a cat
, I thought. I shaped a probe to dip into his dreaming mind, but there was a muted cry of pain from the other end of the hall.

“The child is failing,” Kella murmured. “I fear we are losing him.”

“Poor little baby,” I said, and sat back down.

Kella sat beside me. “Sometimes it seems that life is nothing but struggle and sorrow, and yet we spend our time remembering moments in which we experienced joy and believing they are what life is meant to be.”

“You are thinking of Domick,” I said, giving up any attempt at subtlety, since I was so bad at it.

“I never
stop
thinking of him,” Kella admitted dully. “I accept he no longer wants or needs me as a woman. When I was with him, I thought that meant I had become unlovable. But you were right in bringing me away, for I now see his loss of love is no true judgment on me—it is a symptom of his sickening spirit. Because I loved him, I failed him as a healer. But I would not fail now. I have been thinking of it more and more, and I might as well tell you I have spoken to Roland about going to Sutrium again.”

I wanted to argue, but I could not. Would I be any different if Rushton were in trouble? Kella smiled a little. “Now you look exactly as Roland did when I told him.”

I stiffened as Ceirwan farsent me to say that the pass watch warned of riders headed for Obernewtyn at a fast gallop. At least two riders were Sadorian by their attire.

“What is it?” Kella asked.

“I have to go. Ceirwan sends that riders are coming up the pass.” Kella looked frightened, and I laughed. “Don’t worry. Ceirwan says some of them are Sadorians.”

Kella’s eyes blazed with delight. “Dameon must be home!”

5

F
ORTUNATELY
, C
EIRWAN HAD
shielded his farseeking, otherwise the steps of Obernewtyn would have been crowded with people longing to welcome the Empath guildmaster home. As it was, only Gevan, Kella, Ceirwan, and I were at the front doors to greet him and his escort.

Because it was a moonless night, it took some moments to discern the Sadorian tribeswoman Jakoby and her daughter, Bruna. They dismounted and bowed low, palms against their chests, while the teknoguilder Fian leapt from his mount and hurried across, beaming with pleasure.

“It is good to see ye all. My only regret is that it’s too dark to see th’ mountains. Ye have no idea how often I have missed them these last months.”

“I am glad to see you again, Elspeth Gordie,” Jakoby said warmly.

“And I you,” I said. I had forgotten how tall she was. “I did not imagine you would accompany Dameon home yourself.”

“Where is he?” Kella asked, squinting into the darkness, where two other riders dismounted.

“Dameon did not come,” the tribeswoman answered. “I will let Fian explain, but it is Dameon’s own choosing. Is there somewhere we can water and feed the horses before we talk further?”

Gevan looked somewhat embarrassed. “Lady, I am sorry to
say this, but here we do not think of horses as belonging to people; in fact, if they desire it, we must offer your beasts asylum.”

She burst out laughing. “I think you will find them willing to return to Sador.” She turned to me. “Dameon will have let you know that I am hoping to bring back a beastspeaker with us when we return to the desert lands—one who knows the fingerspeech better than the asura. There have been changes in Sador that he will not have had time to relate.”

“Asura?” Ceirwan echoed.

“That’s what they call Dameon in Sador, an’ it’s partly why he’s nowt here,” Fian offered.

“Wait,” I said. “This is not a story for a drafty front step. You have ridden far, and as you say, the beasts must be shown to the farms, where they can find food and water.”

“I will take them,” Ceirwan offered.

Jakoby thanked him and turned to the other riders, two Sadorian men. “Harad, you and Straaka will go with the horses.” She turned back to me, the beaded strands of her midnight hair clinking together.

“There is no need to send your men. The Beastspeaking guild will take good care of the beasts,” Gevan said.

“I send them only because it would pain them not to go. I will tell you more of these matters inside. I dare say we need a wash, but I would be glad to drink and eat first if you can tolerate our travel sweat.”

I said heating water for a bath would take some time in any case. “We had best go somewhere quiet, and I’ll have something brought to us. In the dining halls, one look at Fian and we would have no peace until all knew why Dameon had not come.”

“I will go and organize some food,” Kella said. “But it will not be long before the rumor is out.”

“We will have a little respite, at least, while rumor pursues fact,” I said.

Gevan and I led Fian, Bruna, and her mother through the central hall and down a passage to a small room where once I had waited to see Madam Vega after my arrival at Obernewtyn. That was now only a shadowy memory overlaid with many others.

“You said Dameon chose not to come?” I said the moment Jakoby had laid aside her dusty travel coat. I was unable to ignore the prompting of my heart any longer.

“He wrote ye a letter, Elspeth,” Fian said. “I have it for ye. But I can guess th’ gist of it is that th’ Sadorians are makin’ him an honorary tribesman, an’ he can’t come until th’ ceremonies are complete.”

“It is rarely done,” Jakoby said, suddenly sounding grave.

I did not know what to say. Apart from the honor of it, it would cement our alliance with the Sadorians. But I was bitterly disappointed.

“The ceremonies and celebrations last a month,” Jakoby said gently.

Fian rummaged in his pockets and withdrew a rolled sheet of paper. “There are two letters. One for ye, an’ t’other fer Miky an’ Angina. Have ye sent for Rushton?”

I took the letter and thrust it into my pocket with the same resolution as I pushed my disappointment to the back of my mind. “Rushton has gone to Sutrium. Brydda sent a message asking him to meet with the rebels,” I said.

The teknoguilder blinked at me in bemusement. “With th’ rebels? Why?”

“That is what I would like to know.”

“Perhaps I can guess,” Jakoby said. “There was much discussion about your people after you left, for the rebels were
beginning to realize very clearly what sort of leader they would have if Malik took charge of the rebellion. No one said it aloud, but it was clear few liked the idea of being ruled by him after the war. Your offer, along with your superior behavior, became increasingly attractive. And Malik knew it. He may have defeated you, but maybe he showed his nature a little too explicitly, and that has gone against him.”

I never doubted that the rebels would succeed in their struggle to overthrow the Council, having witnessed firsthand the raw ferocity and single-minded drive of Malik and his followers. I had not needed the Battlegames verdict, delivered by the Sadorians, to know the rebels were gifted warriors—if the ability to wage war could ever truly be called a gift. They surely did not need us to win, but in accepting our aid, they would have gained victory more swiftly and gently.

But men like Malik did not want a gentle victory.

“We will learn soon enough what transpires with these rebels,” Bruna said firmly.

Jakoby’s eyes rested enigmatically on her daughter. “Bruna felt she must accompany me to Sutrium.”

Bruna lifted her chin a little but said nothing.

“The tribes still mean to take part in the rebellion?” I asked.

“We promised aid and broke bread with the rebels over it, and so we must aid them if they desire it, although now that the Council has lost interest in possessing Sador, we no longer have any real need to involve ourselves. The Council’s new indifference is Dameon’s doing, and that is partly why he is to be made a tribesman.” Jakoby’s golden eyes were more catlike than ever when she smiled. “It never occurred to us to allow Landfolk to see how difficult it is to harvest spice, for we did not understand that much of their desire to control
Sador lay in a greed to increase its production. Dameon also told us that the Council believed there were great fertile valleys that we were concealing beyond the desert.”

Dameon had told me some of this in a letter, but not all. “What did you do?”

“We took them on a kar-avan tour,” Jakoby said, grinning. “Within days of their return, they took ship for the Land. I do not think they will be back.”

“Tell her about th’ horses,” Fian urged.

Jakoby nodded and smiled again. “Dameon will have told you that he taught us what he could of the fingerspeech, but being blind, he could not tell us how to understand beasts. That was Fian’s task, though he warned us he was not very good. Nevertheless, we were able for the first time to communicate with beasts. We had thought them less than humans, but quickly we understood that most are easily equal to humans in intelligence. Our previous treatment of beasts seemed base and terrible in the light of this, and our community changed almost overnight. Ownership of animals is now called slavery in Sador, and I am sure Dameon has told you enough of our past for you to understand our hatred of that trade. Henceforth, horses and their riders are comrades and allies, as equal as man and woman.”

“What about horses who don’t want to be ridden?”

“They need not. But life is difficult in Sador for human and beast alike, and we survive only by our unity. Seeing this, most horses are content to remain among us, as long as they are free to come and go as they please. Even so, some do not choose a rider and have formed a wild pack to defend themselves from the giant cats that prowl the desert.”

“Do they regard the tame horses as traitors?”

Jakoby shrugged. “I do not know enough animal speech to
ask such a question, but the wild herd leader has just proposed that all horses run with the herd as foals, then submit themselves to a period of learning with humans, after which they may either choose a rider or return to the herd. We decided we would no longer buy horses from the Land, but the herd leader has asked that, in repayment for the occasional labor of horses, a certain number of enslaved beasts be brought from the greenlands and freed in Sador each season.