A Gathering Of Stones

3

Korimenei stepped from her trousers and kicked them across the narrow cabin; she sat on the bunk and began working a boot off her foot; the boots fit close to her legs and took some maneuvering to put on and take off. “Aili my Liki, I’ve got myself into something and I don’t know how it’s going to turn out.” She dropped that boot, started on the other. “Consequences, he said. He meant pregnant, but there’s a lot more to think about, isn’t there, Lili. Every act has consequences and most of them surprise the hell out of you. Back at school they kept hammering that into us: Be careful what you do; the more powerful the act, the more unpredictable the outcome. Don’t do what you can’t live with. Undo is a word without real meaning. They didn’t have to tell me any of that, I knew it already, especially the last. Look at Maksim, look at where he is now, look where I am. Tre and I summoned the Drinker of Souls because we thought we could get the soldiers out of the Vales and things would go back the way they were before Amortis got greedy; we thought she’d cancel what Maksim was doing to us. Undo it. They’re right, they’re right, they’re right, you can’t undo anything.” She dropped the second boot, dug under the blankets for the pillow and tossed it against the headwall. “I want to do this, Lill. My body screams do it.” She swung her feet up and half sat, half lay, staring at the scraped and oiled calfhide stretched across the porthole. “What if I don’t want to stop when I get to Yuntipek? Gods, the minute I saw him, I wanted him. He’s got kids, a wife. A life he likes, no, loves. I’m a kind of trophy, aren’t I, Lili. No, maybe not. But he does like power. Probably never had a sorceror before.” She giggled, snapped her fingers. Ailiki jumped from the seat beside the porthole and landed on her stomach, driving a grunt out of her. Stroking her hand down and down and again down the mahsar’s small firm body, she went on talking to herself. “Most of them are men, you know. I wonder if you do know, I wonder what you are, my Aili, my Liki. No men for our Karoumang. He’s single-minded that way, you can smell it on him. I lay with a god of sorts and got you out of it, Lili. I’ve never been with a man. I wonder if I’m spoiled for mortal sex. I’ll know by tomorrow morning, won’t I. Oh Gods.”

Ailiki purred like the cat she wasn’t, her body vibrating and warm.

“Words. All words. No illusions and scared to my toenails, but I’m going to do it.” She lifted Ailiki, held her so the mahsar’s body dangled and they were looking eye to eye. “Lili my love, you watch my back, hmm?” She laughed, set the mahsar on her stomach and lay stroking her and watching the light change.

Night followed day and day followed night; the world turned on the spindle of time. It was a curious time for Korimenei, a happy time. A respite.

Nights she spent in the Captain’s bed. Days she sat on the forehang and watched the land flow past, the little villages with their mud walls carved and decorated with the local totems, their wharves and storetowers; she watched horses run in clover fields, cattle and sheep graze in sun-yellowed pastures; she watched serfs and small farmers finish up the fall harvest and line up at flour mills and slaughter grounds; she watched the creaking wheels that were set thicker than trees on both banks send water and power to the fields and the two and three family manufacturies in the villages. She watched the day passengers going from village to village, carrying things they wanted to sell, or visiting relatives; one time a wedding party came on board and celebrated the whole distance with music and wine and dancing; one time a band of acrobats came on board and earned their way with leaps and ladders. These sights were endlessly interesting, partly because it was a place she hadn’t seen before, a people she didn’t know; partly because it reminded her of the life she’d left behind when Maksim discovered her Talent and flung her two thousand miles away from everything she knew.

Life was on hold for her, as if responsibilities and dangers were standing back and waiting for the trip to finish. Even TM’s eidolon stayed away. She called him once, curious about his absence, but he didn’t answer. She was annoyed for about five minutes, then she shrugged off her irritation. She didn’t really want him around. The thought of him watching her with Karoumang made her itch all over.

She was enjoying her bi-nightly lessons as much as she thought she might. Karoumang was a man of wide and varied experience and it was a matter of pride with him that she got as much pleasure from their coupling as he did. He could be maddening at times, especially when he treated her like some brain-damaged infant, but he liked her. He really liked her. Part of that was because he simply liked women, all women. Part of it belonged to her. She stopped worrying about what was going to happen at Kapi Yuntipek. Her infatuation was settling into something less exciting but a lot more lasting.

Twelve days after the Miyachungay left Jade Halimm, she came to the hill country and passed through the first series of locks; there were three more sets she’d have to negotiate before she reached the high desert plateau of Ambijan and the run for Kapi Yuntipek.