A Gathering Of Stones

4

Jaril moved impatiently about the cell as Brann unpacked the supper basket she’d brought from the big island longhouse that sold food to the pilgrims. “I’m going back tonight,” he said suddenly. “It has to be in one of those giftrooms, don’t you think, Bramble?”

“No has-to-be, Jay. But you’re probably right.” Brann pulled up the three-legged stool and sat down to eat. She wanted to tell him he was a fool to take the chance, but she knew he wouldn’t listen and she didn’t want to irritate him into a greater recklessness. “How you going?”

“Wings, then four-feet. I’ll be careful, Bramble. I won’t go till late and I won’t touch it if I find it. All right?”

“Thanks, Jay.”

“I been thinking…” He dropped onto the pallet, lay watching hereat. “We need something to keep it in, Bram-ble. To hide it from her.”

“I know. I can’t see any way we can do it. I’m afraid we’ll have to fight our way to Waragapur and count on Tak WakKerrcarr to hold her off his Truceground.”

“We might still have to, but I’ve thought of something. I can make a pocket inside myself and insulate the talisman from everything outside.”

“Even from the god?”

“I think so.”

“That helps. We’ve got seven days here, Jay. I think we ought to stay in character, leave with who we came with. Can you wait that long? It’s six more days if you find the thing tonight.”

“I can, once I know. I said it before and it’s true. It’s not knowing that eats at me, Bramble. But I don’t think we ought to wait to take the talisman on the last night before we leave. If she notices it’s gone, she’ll hit the outgoers hard.”

“And the stayers just as hard, be sure of that.”

“Well…” He turned onto his back, lay staring up at the cobwebs under the roof. “Damned if we do, damned if we don’t. Maybe we should just toss a coin and let old Tungjii decide. Heads, early. Tails, late.”

“Why not. Now?”

“No. Wait till I find the thing, Bramble. Till I know.”

Brann sat on the bed, a blanket wrapped about her, chasing biters away from her face and arms with a reed whisk; the Wounded Moon was down, but the darkness was broken by stars glittering diamond-hard diamond-bright through the thin, high-desert air. She shivered and pulled the blankets tighter; that air was chill and dank here in the marsh; a curdled mist clung to the reed clumps and the floorposts of the cell; tendrils of mist drifted through the windowholes and melted in the heat from the banked peat fire in the mud stove. Outside, the big orange grasshoppers the marshfolk called jaspars had already begun their predawn creakings and a sleepy mashimurgh was practicing its song. There was almost no wind; the stillness was eerie, frightening, as if the marsh and the Rock and even the air were waiting with her for something to happen, something terrible. What an anticlimax, she thought, if Jay comes sliding in and says he hasn’t found the thing. I don’t know how I could get through another night of waiting. Slya! I hate feeling so helpless. It should be me in there, not my baby, my nursling. She contemplated herself and laughed silently at what she saw. She was nervous about Jaril, but mostly she was irritated because she had no part to play in this, she was baggage. It was harder than she’d thought to reconcile herself to being baggage.

A large horned owl came through a windowhole, snapped out its wings and landed neatly on the reed mat. As soon as its talons touched, it changed to Jaril. He dropped onto the second cot and grinned at her.

“Well?” Brann scowled at him. “Did you or didn’t you?”

“Did.”

“Giftroom?”

“No, I was wrong about that. It was in a storeroom, the kind where they throw broken things and whatever they don’t think has much value.”

“A Great Talisman in a junk room?”

“What it looks like, Bramble. Dust everywhere, broken everything, cheap trinkets, the kind your sailor friends bought their whores when they hit port. Wornout mats rolled up, cushions with the stuffing leaking out. And the old frog looking right at home sitting up on a shelf smothered in gray dust. Maybe it’s been there since the Sihbaraburj was built.” He crossed his legs, rubbed his thumb over and over his ankle. “Funny, I’d ‘ve never gone in there, but a Servant came along the corridor I was in and I thought I’d better duck. There was a door handy; it was locked so I oozed in and while I was waiting I_, took a look round. I was being firesphere so I wouldn’t leave footprints or other marks in case someone came in there hunting something. I about went nova when I saw the thing way up on the top shelf, pushed into a corner and like I said covered with dust. I managed to ride the blow out, I don’t know how. 1 nosed about some more, there was no sign Amortis was around and I’ve got pretty good at spotting gods. I guess we sit it out the next six days.”

“Can you?”

“Oh yes. Um, I should get all the sun I can.”

“Morning be enough?”

“Unless it’s raining.”

“We’ve got to go to the Temple. Hmm. We went up mid-afternoon today, I suppose that could be enough precedent. You need to be outside?”

“No. Your bed gets the morning sun, enough anyway, we can trade and if anyone comes snooping I just pull a blanket over me and pretend to be asleep.”

“Good enough.” Brann yawned. “Let’s switch blankets.” She yawned again. “Just as well we’re not going up in the morning. I need sleep.”