A Gathering Of Stones

5

The next morning, a bright clear cool morning with air that bubbled in the blood like wine, Brann stood beside one of the few coldsprings in Tak WakKerrcarr’s watergarden at Mun Gapur. She held Massulit out away from her. “I don’t want it, Tik-tok. I don’t want it anywhere round me. It makes me nervous. It reminds me… She swallowed, the pain suddenly back, the loss raw in her.

“It goes where it will, Thomlet and that’s not me. You want to lay a curse on me even I couldn’t handle, try giving it to me.” His mouth twitched in a smile part rueful, part calculating. “You might give it to Amortis.”

Brann snorted, then she smiled too, a small reluctant lift of her mouth corners. “I will never ever forget that scene. I hope Slya sets her hair on fire.” The smile went away. “And melts him into slag.”

“Ah, m’ dear.”‘

“Hunh!” She contemplated Massulit a moment longer then tossed it into the spring and watched it sink through the clear cold water. It shone briefly but intensely blue, then settled dark and anonymous among the stones at the bottom of the pool. “There. I give it to nobody.” She turned away, brushing her hands as if she brushed away the whole of the painful time just past. “This is a fire mountain,” she said.

“True. Why?”

“Build me a kiln, Tik-tok.”

“You need to rest a while, Thornlet, Relax.”

She moved her shoulders, ran a hand through her long white hair. “I can’t, luv. Not for a while yet. Do you understand? I need to be busy. I need to do something with my body, my hands, my mind. Something with meaning to me. When I was last in Kukurul I saw newware from Arth Slya. It gave me_, idea I want to try. Any clay deposits round here?”

“I don’t know. I’ll see what I can find out. You’re sure?”

“They were my children, Tik-tok. I have to grieve for them a while. But only a while. We have time, luv. If nothing else, we do have time.