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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] of cleansing and rebirth come upon Silistra, indeed upon all the universe. And it is concerned with the instruments of that cleansing. And there is a sword, and a scabbard, and a hand to bear it. There are two men and a woman. And there are labors the extent of which have these thousands of years relegated the prophecy to the pertinence of epic drama. Some thought it fulfilled by the destruction of the surface cities, Chayin said at last, uneasily shifting in his seat, as a brist might ramp back and forth at the smell of men. Would that I could believe that, said Sereth. If we make this journey, we will know for certain. Page 144 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html If? I said, pushing away. I found my dry mouth in need of kifra. I raised hand to the girl. Sereth slid down lower upon his spine. He took his knife and with the blade cleaned his nails. The knife was all stra, hilt and blade both. Its butt caught the firelight. If we do not return from that land, we cannot be they. A log burst, snarling sparks. Chayin rubbed his left bicep, upon which, under the supple tas, was inscribed the slitsa wound about a recurved blade. His hand trailed to his shoulder, stayed long at his neck. A very small part of that prophecy I knew we had fulfilled. Great harm had come upon Silistra from out of the south. We had come. We had been, the three of us, responsible for more deaths by violence than are normally written upon the Day-Keepers Roll in twenty Silistran years. And we had done it in little more than five. And the dying was not over. Those who tried the helsars a good number of them would die. Perhaps as many as had died at the Lake of Horns. I hoped not. Over two thousand Parsets invested the Lake of Horns. They killed close to their own number. More than a hundred of those corpses were children. I had not been at the burning. There had been too many to bury. The corpses, piled high, had been fired. A number of the restrained had thrown themselves, alive, onto those pyres. None moved to stop them. It had been Chayin s order that those who were in lifelong restraint not be interfered with in any way. For those still living, there can be but little comfort. Carth, said Chayin, led the ceremony himself. Supported by two of his arrars, for he could not stand alone, he led the lake-born in prayer. He had turned to Sereth, smiling. I think you were right about him. Another log burst. Chayin s recollection of the pyres blazed bright before me. I hope so, said Sereth, who had laid the dharen s chald into Carth s hands, along with his life and the Lake of Horns. Certain terms had Sereth and Chayin dictated to Carth, highest living of the dharen s council. Those terms, Carth almost gratefully accepted. He ruled in regency for Sereth. The focus of his efforts was to be not the reconstruction of empire, but the fortification of the law within. As Khys, in his youth and brilliance, had envisioned it before ego and power and hardship stripped him of his objectivity Sereth would have it become. Sereth asked no alteration from Carth in the teachings of his master only that those teachings be put truly into practice. Before Miccah, the high chalder, oaths had been sworn. And Sereth had taken up an arrar s chald for himself, and one for me, and instructed Miccah as to their alteration. And Carth had shaken his dark head, from which great clumps of hair had been singed away, and his demeanor had turned darker, but he had not spoken. He lived, spared by their mercy. That had been made clear to him. And yet he seemed to me not servile. Sereth, toying with arrar s chald, had regarded him questioningly. Have you something to say? Carth, lying propped up against the austere wall of his own small keep, said, Am I to exercise your authority as I see fit, or as I might conjecture that you would see fit? Sereth looked at him in that very chill countenance of his, Chayin shook his head as if his ears deluded him, that such impertinence and impropriety could come from a man who by all rights should have burned with his brothers. What I want, said Sereth very quietly and at length, is no more than minimally difficult to understand. Since it is unacceptable to everyone but me that there be no dharen upon Silistra, and since I have no intention of staying here and being dharen, it falls to you. I can kill you, and it will fall to someone else. I would rather not. Be dharen not as I might see fit or you might see fit, but as best serves Silistra. Keep a light hand upon her. Aid as best you can the helsar children; school them, counsel them, but above all keep cognizant of them. Teach restraint. Let the time go its own way awhile, that owkahen will settle ... He broke off, unwound one hand from his chald, Page 145 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html brushed hair from his eyes with it. The wound upon his skull was nearly healed. He frowned briefly at Carth, If I thought you really did not know what was needed, he said softly, as if disappointed, I would use another. How we regard each other matters little at this time. You may think what you will of me, as long as it does not impair your judgment in my behalf. If you need me, send word. I will receive it. He rose up. And recollect this well: it is to the south you must send in your need. Then, only, will you suffer any northerner to set foot there. Should there be any reprisals, we will in truth tear these buildings down, stone from off of stone, and Silistra will live beneath the beneficent hand of the chosen son of Tar-Kesa. Carth had turned away, though movement was costly to his bandage-swathed body, humped but hardly hidden beneath the couch clothes. It was to Miccah he twisted. The white-haired high chalder, his seamed face distraught, hurried to his side. They whispered together. A cloud begrudged us [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |