A Gathering Of Stones

5

The fire crackled vigorously, hissing now and then as the heat from it loosened a fall of snow from the branches high overhead. “Settsimaksimin decided I had Talent so he flipped me over to Silili, sponsored me at a school and made sure I stayed put until I Passed Out.” Korimenei pulled the blanket closer about her, sipped at the cooling tea in her mug. “Why I’m here, now, I’m going home. You?”

“Things happen, I get booted about.” He was using her spare mug; he cradled it between his hands, frowned down at the inch of cooling tea it held. “Why not.” He lifted his head. “Remember Ahzurdan?” You met him at the Blue Seamaid when you went to see the Drinker of Souls.”

She stared at him. Inky shadows cast by the fire emphasized the jut of his nose, his high angular cheekbones. His face changed and changed again with every shift of shadow. It was like looking at one of those trick drawings where background and foreground continually shift, where a vase-becomes two profiles then a vase again. “I remember,” she murmured. “Who are you?”

“Daniel Akamarino. Ahzurdan. Both and neither. Call me Danny Blue.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Like I said, it’s a long story.”

“Well, what have we got but time?”

“All right. Chained God… remember him?”

“How could I forget?”

“Right. He wanted a weapon to aim at Settsimaksimin. He made one. He took a sorceror and a starman and hammered the two men into one. Me. You might call Daniel and Ahzurdan my sires. In a way.”

“That’s not long, just weird.” She wrapped her hand in the blanket, took the kettle from the coals at the edge of the fire and filled her mug. “Want more?”

“Better not if I intend to sleep tonight.”

She sipped at the tea and thought about what he’d just told her. No wonder Tre was frightened of the god and wanted Frunzacoache to protect him. Does he know about this? She sneaked a look at Danny Blue. This abomination? He didn’t say anything, but then he wouldn’t, not where the god could hear him. She clung to a moment’s hope, maybe her brother wasn’t the way he sounded, maybe… no, don’t be a fool, woman. She took too sudden a mouthful, spat it out, her tongue felt singed, “Did you know you were rotten with poison?”

“I know.” He lifted a brow. “The past tense is the proper tense, I hope?”

“Very proper. I can’t abide a half-done job. Blackmail?”

“Mmm-hmm. Bring us the talisman Klukesharna and we give you the antidote, that’s what they said.”

She looked quickly at him, looked away. Another Great One being snatched. She slid her hand inside her shirt, touched Frunzacoache. It felt warm, it seemed to seek her fingers as if it wanted to be stroked. I wonder, she thought Kushundallian told us They get restless sometimes, They go through a period of dormancy, then They start moving, going from hand to hand until They feel like settling down again. Hmm. “You don’t have Klukesharna.”

“Not now.”

“I see. Hence the feathering.”

“You got it.”

“You can’t have been lying there more than an hour before I found you, you’d be dead otherwise. You could go after whoever took it. Will you?”

“No. That’s trouble I don’t need. Or want.”

“Hmm.” She looked down; she’d been playing with Frunzacoache all this time without noticing what she was doing. Either he wasn’t the chosen or the person who took it had enough gnom to overpower a fresh link. She thought about asking, decided better not. “Have you decided what you’re going to do now?”

He didn’t answer for several minutes; finally, he tossed down the rest of his tea, set the mug by his foot. “She left my coin, all she took was Klukesharna. I need a horse and winter gear. Where’s the nearest settlement?”

She, Korimenei thought. He knows who shot him. I suppose that’s his business. “There’s a Gsany village a day’s ride south of here.”

“You said you’re for Cheonea?”

“The Vales. My Vale. Owlyn Vale.” She spoke slowly, tasting the words, finding pleasure in the feel of them in her mouth. I’m going home, she thought. Home.

Danny Blue yawned, went back to brooding at the fire. His face was drawn and weary. Khorimenei watched him a while, wondering what he was thinking about; it wasn’t pleasant if she read him rightly. His eyelids fluttered; he forced them up again, but he said nothing. She smiled. No doubt he thought he was being courteous, letting her state the conditions of their cohabitation, because cohabitation it was going to be. She had no intention of forgoing the comforts, such as they were, of her tent and her blankets and he certainly wasn’t strong enough yet to survive the night outside even with a fire. Gods, it’s one of those tales Frit was always reading, twisting and turning to get the hero innocently into bed with the heroine and give him a chance to show just how heroic he was. How noble. Put a sword between them and grit the teeth. Silly. He was in no shape to… damn, she didn’t want him thinking he had to… how do you say… hah! just say it. In a while. Not now.

She pushed the blanket off her shoulders and got to her feet, checked the pot, she’d washed after supper and hung upside down over the top of one of the young conifers huddled in an arc around the rim of the glade, an adequate windbreak if the wind kept coming from the north as it had the past several days. The pot was dry enough to put away. She moved busily around the camp space, collecting items scattered about and stowing them in the pouches; when she was finished she took a last tour of the camp, came back to the fire.

“We’d best turn in now, I want to get started with first light.” She picked up the blanket she’d been wearing, shook it out and draped it over her arm. “We’ll be sharing tent and blankets, Danny Blue. You’re tired. I’m tired. I’m sure neither of us is interested in dalliance.”

“Kori my Thine, Amortis her very self couldn’t get a rise out of me tonight.” He stood, staggering a little as he unfolded.

“I like to have things clear,” she said. “You go in first, I’ll follow.”