The Storm Witch (47 page)

Parno caught Dhulyn’s eye and waited until she was close enough to hear the nightwatch voice. She listened, and inclined her head once.

“Remm Shalyn,” she said quietly. “Better you should stand guard outside,” she said. “We may want warning if someone comes, more warning than you could give us if you stay within.”

He touched his forehead with a cheerful smile and let himself out.

“I find it disconcerting to be saluted in that manner by people who are not Brothers,” Parno said.

“It has something to do with the Sleeping God, whom they call the Slain God here. As Paledyns, we’re considered Hands of the God.”

“That’s convenient.”

“My thoughts exactly.” She gave him the smile she saved only for him, and Parno, smiling himself, lifted his right hand and touched her cheek with the backs of his fingers.

Suddenly they were surrounded by dancing white women.

“Come, Brother, come now, quickly.”

“Now how can I be your brother?” Parno said, tweaking the long braid of the twin nearest him. She must be Amaia, he thought, seeing the fleck of gold in her eye that Dhulyn had told him about. Now she took his hand and brought him, skipping, to the other side of the room. A jumble of toys lay on the floor, a tiny walled enclosure with a blocky tower made of—yes, those were vera tiles. A moat had been drawn around it with blue chalk.

“Dhulyn is our sister,” Amaia said.

“And you are her brother,” Keria added.

“So you must be our brother, too,” Amaia concluded.

The twin sisters laughed at this, and began singing the words over and over, to a tune Parno knew very well, though to hear it now made the hairs on his arms and the back of his neck stand up. This was the same children’s song he often played for Dhulyn, and though not many people knew it, it had a special meaning for the Sleeping God, and for the Marked.

“They sing this song to begin their trance,” Ellis Healer said. “Though, truly, they often sing it at other times as well.”

“Is there an instrument here I can use? A chanter, or even a small harp?”

Ellis beckoned the attendant over and repeated Parno’s request. Smiling, she did what Parno certainly had never expected her to do. She asked the White Twins.

“Girls,” she said. “My darlings, can your brother see your instruments, my dear ones? He’d love to accompany your song with music of his own.”

At once the twins stopped singing and ran to a table to the right of the door, in darkness now since the lamps there were not lit. Almost immediately Keria came back to him with an instrument more like a syrinx than the chanter that he would attach to his air pipes.

“It’s been a while since I played one of these,” he said. He raised the instrument to his lips and gave an experimental blow, satisfying himself that he had not forgotten how.

“Will the Crayx hear you?” The sisters were standing in front of him, shoulder to shoulder, staring at him with their huge red eyes.

“I don’t know,” he said.

“I hope they do,” said the one on the left. Keria, he thought, but with the light at this angle he could not tell which one had the gold fleck in her eye.

“Parno, my heart,” Dhulyn said. “The Finder and I are ready.”

“Do you know what to do?”

“We know, we know, we know,” the sisters sang.

“I think that means ‘yes,’ ” Dhulyn said, smiling.

Javen Finder was standing, her lower lip between her teeth, between her fellow Marked. Parno had never seen anyone who looked less like she wanted to be where she was. But when Dhulyn nodded to her, Javen stepped forward right away, giving a wan smile to the Mender, Rascon, who squeezed her shoulder as she went. Ellis Healer held out a canvas bag and Javen took a small blue bowl out of it. It was plain white on the inside, and Parno recognized it as a Finder’s tool.

“Stand right here,” Keria said.

“Right here,” Amaia agreed, shifting from foot to foot in her excitement. Both of them put their hands on Javen Finder and pulled and prodded until they were satisfied that she was standing in exactly the right spot. Giggling, they waved Dhulyn over to them, twirling their hands at the wrists like flags fluttering in the breeze. When Dhulyn was close enough, each of them took one of her hands, and then linked hands themselves, standing in a circle around the blinking Finder. Javen licked her lips, held the bowl at chest height and looked into it.

“Play now, Brother,” Amaia said.

“You know the tune,” Keria added, already humming.

Dhulyn caught his eye, and mouthed the words he would have expected from her. “And in Death,” he mouthed back, before lifting the syrinx to his lips and beginning to play. He played softly at first, and then with more power, as he renewed his familiarity with the instrument. Dhulyn winked at him, and began to sing, her rough silk voice somehow serving as a fitting accompaniment to the lighter, smoother voices of the White Twins.

As they sang, the sisters’ voices grew firmer, more mature, and their faces were suddenly the faces of women his own age. At that moment all three stopped, eyes closed, still with hands linked. The Finder, too, was standing perfectly still, eyes shut tight, eyebrows working as though she was in deep thought. All four of them, Parno saw, the Finder, and the three Seers, were breathing as one.

Parno let the music die away, and lowered the syrinx from his lips. This was like watching his Partner use her tiles, she had the same serene look of calm concentration on her face. He’d thought he’d never see that look again. Never see her again. He loosened his grip on the syrinx before he broke it. All was well. A good wind and a fair current, as Darlara and her brother would say. After a moment he smiled, as he noticed that he, too, was breathing in the same rhythm as the others.

#Interest# #Excitement#

Parno was almost knocked from his feet by the force of the Crayx’ thoughts. *What is it, what’s happening* He had stopped himself from speaking aloud just in time.

#We can feel her# #Not her thoughts# #No, not her thoughts# #But we can feel her# #Giddyness# #Fascination#

For the first time, Parno had the sense that there were a great many Crayx, all communicating, all participating at once. *Who* *What are you talking about*

#Through your link, we can feel her# #Never felt before# #Euphoria# #She has no Pod sense# #But she is there, we feel her#

“Demons and perverts,” Parno said aloud. Quickly he held up his hand, palm out, signaling to Ellis Healer and Rascon Mender that all was well.

#How# A blooded good question, Parno thought, as he heard it echoed back and forth.

#Lionsmane is linked to her, blood to blood, bone to bone, heart to heart#

Parno gave a silent whistle. Those were the very words of the Partnership ceremony.

#Why not before, on the Wavetreader# #Too many with Pod sense# #Link too delicate# Parno could tell these were questions.

#Astonishment# #She is with the child# #Your Partner is with the child#

*You know of the child*

#We know of this child# #We sensed her fear#

*She’s Pod-sensed* Parno stood openmouthed. No words did justice to how he felt. Part of him wanted to laugh out loud. The little girl Dhulyn was trying to save, to restore to her own body—the Tarxin’s daughter—was Pod-sensed.

#When she became ill, and frightened# #Lost# #We cared for her soul# #Helped her find a place to feel safe#

*Is she in a forest thicket*

#No, a sandy beach# #Trees come down to the water# #But only where the stream is# #Ah# #Of course# #Each finds the safe harbor they seek# #For your Partner a forest glade# #For the child herself an empty beach, a stream trickling down through a screen of trees#

*And you see both places*

#No# #YES# #Amusement# #Through the link we know what others know, see what others see#

*And you feel my Partner there, with the child*

#Amused joy#

“T
HEN I HAVE KILLED MY FATHER for nothing.” Xerwin sat at the worktable in the Tarxin’s study, documents and scrolls spread out in front of him. His glance at them was automatic, but Dhulyn was sure he did not see them.

“Hardly for nothing,” Parno said. “You’re now the Tarxin.”

Xerwin looked up, little marks of white showing around his pinched nostrils.

Dhulyn looked at Parno, and when he shrugged, she spoke. “You likely would have had to kill him anyway,” she said, in her most matter-of-fact voice. “He would have started a war with the Nomads and the Crayx, a war which would have cost Mortaxa a great deal, more perhaps than you know.”

Xerwin looked at her, clearly wanting to ask whether this was something she’d Seen, and just as clearly unsure what courtesy required at this moment. “But Xendra
was
Found.”

“She was.” Dhulyn took a deep breath, trying to ignore her feeling of impatience. Since leaving the Sanctuary of the Marked, they’d been aware of the rising noises of the storm—wind, rain, and in the distance, thunder. She raised her voice to be heard over the noise of the wind rattling the balcony doors. The explanation given by the White Twins was the only one likely to make any sense to Xerwin. “This world, and the place of Visions are two different, separate places. Javen Finder cannot Find your sister from this world, and cannot Find your sister’s body, nor the Storm Witch, from the place of Visions. Somehow the two must be brought together.”