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sighed. "I can give her something to put her to sleep." The image of Ainna, bloody and limp in Tyrol's arms, was still with her. Ovousibas, she whispered silently. A dream, Healer, A bad dream that brings an ancient wrath. Dion looked down at the wolf and smiled crookedly. What would you know of Ovousibas, Hishn? Of a myth eight hundred years old? The yellow eyes blinked once, twice, and then Dion's mind filled with an image: steamy brains . . . screams that echo in the past. . . an agony that burns the blood and sanity till all that's left is a gray wisp that cries out through the centuries . . . the healers, the Gray Ones . . . Gone . . . all gone . . . broken bones lying brittle in the dust of years, and only echoes, echoes calling for home . . . WOLFWALKER 173 "Gods, Hishn," she whispered raggedly. "What do you mean?" Ovousibas, the wolf snarled softly, a deeper pain remembered from ancestors long silent in her mind. Ovousibas is death. Death to us all in time. Dion stared long into the yellow eyes, but Hishn did not repeat the thoughts. Racial memories, she acknowledged. But the Gray One rarely called them up. That the dim images spoke of myths, she knew, but not what in the myths was truth, and that was what was most frustrating of all. Those who tried internal healing died, and died a hard death, but Dion was not thinking of that. She was thinking about the framed page on Mankarr's wall and Ainna's limp body bleeding sluggishly in the dirt by a mercenary's dnu. "Dion," Shilia said again, "can't you do something for her?" The healer started and flushed slowly. "I'm sorry, Shilia. I wasn't listening." Aranur's sister looked down at her feet, then met Dion's gaze with troubled eyes. "She hasn't eaten or drunk anything since we left Red Harbor. She wouldn't even have come in from the rain to get a coat if Aranur hadn't bodily carried her inside.'' Dion closed her eyes helplessly. "Namina's in shock, Shilia. Being kidnapped, slaved, watching her sister die she's young to face it all at once, and she's not as strong as you or a a T T n n s s F F f f o o D D r r P P m m Y Y e e Y Y r r B B 2 2 . . B B A A Click here to buy Click here to buy w w m m w w o o w w c c . . . . A A Y Y B B Y Y B B r r Tyrel. Even so," she said quietly. "Even so, she has to face it by herself. No, I don't mean alone, I mean by herself. We can support her, but the strength to go on must come from within, not without, or it crushes instead of building up the heart. Can you understand that?" The other girl's lips trembled, and Dion said softly, "Your strength is not enough for two, Shilia. Only Namina can give herself the courage she needs." A wet nose nudged her hand, and the healer tugged on the Gray One's ear, ignoring the silent admonishing comment that Dion's own strength was not enough for two, either. Ovousibas . . . The younger girl nodded slowly. A healer's wisdom was always law, no matter how young it was learned. She looked toward the gray bank that closed in on the small boat from the horizon and changed the subject. "Did you hear what Mannoa said about storms? I didn't catch it in the wind." "Something about hurricanes," Dion returned, relieved to 174 TaraK. Harper be talking of something else. "I thought he said they circle west might drive us into Ramaj Bilocctar, Zentsis's lands." Shilia frowned. "But that could be trouble." "Why? Lloroi Zentsis isn't involved in this." "Aranur said that Zentsis has been making deals with the raiders lately, and Mankarr said I overheard him when he was talking to that raider captain, Salmi, at the slave sale that even Clintner was starting to ally himself with the Lloroi of Bilocctar." "Zentsis must pay well," the wolfwalker said with a snort of disgust. As she paused in her scratching, the gray wolf butted her demandingly, thrusting her nose under the woman's hand and lifting it with a soft whine. "I don't know which I'd prefer," Shilia said slowly, "Zentsis or the raiders. At least with the raiders, I'd know where I stood. Indentured slavery isn't my idea of living well, but at least it's living. They say that Lloroi Zentsis likes to use his prisoners for sport." "Not the women, surely?" The twins had not heard much about Zentsis except the occasional rumor, news that had to travel the hundreds of kilometers to Randonnen was often discounted as exaggeration. Still, Dion could not believe that anyone would actually use people for sport in a public fighting ring. But the brown-haired girl shook her head. "I don't know for sure I don't know if anyone really does but thereVe been stories about women and even children being put in the rings as prizes, if they weren't righting themselves. And it's said that Zentsis likes the fights to go to the death.'" a a T T n n s s F F f f o o D D r r P P m m Y Y e e Y Y r r B B 2 2 . . B B A A Click here to buy Click here to buy w w m m w w o o w w c c . . . . A A Y Y B B Y Y B B r r "That's disgusting. It's one thing for fighters to play war games for practice and learning, but it's something else to pit people against each other in life and death battles just so some bloodthirsty warmonger can get his jollies watching people get hurt." Wolfwalker, I have an itch, Gray Hishn reminded her again, leaning against Dion's legs and throwing her off balance on the slippery deck. The wolfwalker flicked Hishn's ear but dropped her hand obediendy to the gray scruff. "They say he's more violent every year," Shilia continued. "Some say it's because he wants more and more power, but lately they're saying that he's only got a couple years to live and he's growing desperate for a son to take over the ruling from WOLFWALKER 175 him. He must have a dozen daughters now, but he's never gotten a son." Dion absently wiped dirty water from the rail. "The justice of the moons. There's nothing so capricious as truth." "I wish the moons would shine through these clouds," Shilia said, looking up at the darkening sky. "I hate rain." ' 'If rain could wash the heart as it does the skin.'' The healer thought of Ainna and her sudden, raider-spawned death, and of Namina sitting huddled and broken in the cabin while the dark clouds pulled more tightly together, thickening the way they did on the peaks in Randonnen. "I don't mind the rain," she said wistfully. ' 'At home, Rhom and I used to go into the mountains during die storms and climb the canyons. When the waters built up and ran off, the waterfalls thundered as if the whole ocean was hiding in the hills and coming down on the rocks." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |