[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

last night; I left before dawn." Briefly, he frowned. "Did you think I
would miss your wedding?"
^Proxy wedding." I fought my way through layers of gossamer gauze and stood up
beside the bed. Spring or no, it was cold; Torvald's absence meant an absence
of heat as well, since lan had not tended braziers or fire-
place. I squinted toward the nearest narrow casement.
"Dawn, just. Time enough for food and clothing before this ceremony."
"You will eat at the wedding breakfast, not before."
lan laughed as I swore beneath my breath. "Fasting might improve your temper."
44
"As much as Tasha unproved my face." I glared sourly at the mountain cat
sitting silently near the door. Amber eyes were slitted; the tip of her tail
twitched once. "Your idea, rujhoT^
"Tasha is fond of you." lan, considering that explana-
Page 28
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
tion enough, sat down on the nearest of my storage chests, leaning against the
tapestried wall, and brushed at a smudge upon an otherwise spotless boot toe.
Wedding finery: he wore supple doeskin jerkin and leggings dyed a soft honey
yellow. The boots he tended matched, worked with copper-colored thread.
Tassles trembled as he worked at the smudge. Bare-armed, the fir-gold shone-
Looking at him, I saw what I was not; what I could never be. Ah gods, I wish
you would give me the right to claim a lir and wear the gold on my arms and in
my ear.
But I did not say it aloud. Instead, I answered lan's comment.
"Fond of me," I echoed dryly. "If she loved me, would she use her teeth
instead?"
"And plenty of claw, as well." 'Iloughtfully, lan looked at an old scar on the
underside of one wrist.
Even as I started to move toward my clothing chests, I
stopped. Swung back- "Ask her," I said tersely. "Ask
Tasha why I have no lir."
I had never asked it of him before. The bond he and
Tasha shared was intensely private, and even another warrior knows better than
to ask of private things better left between human Hr and animal. And yet I
could not put off the request a moment longer. Something drove me to it.
file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/...ack%20Of%20The%20White%20Wolf%2
0(v%20UC).txt (35 of 315) [2/2/2004 2:41:48 AM]
file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/Desktop/Roberson,%...CLES%2004%20-
%20Track%20Of%20The%20White%20Wolf%20(v%20UC).txt
If lan was surprised, he bid it well. At first, I saw only a new rigidity in
the line of his shoulders. He sat upright on the trunk, no longer leaning
against the tapestry. And as he spread fingers against the wood of the trunk
in a silent and subtle plea for strength from someone other than me (the gods,
perhaps?) I saw the tension in his hands.
"I have," he said tonelessly. "Repeatedly. Did you think I would not try?"
"And her answer?" Consumed, for the moment, with discovering Tasha*s response,
I ignored the faint under-
tone of pain in lan's voice. I had wounded him somehow, but I thought his cut
lacked the infection of my own.
45
lan looked away. Plainly troubled, he stared at the floor. The uncarpeted
stone beneath his boots was red, rose-red, as were the walls of Homana-Mujhar.
A shaft of light working its way through a blue panel of stained glass in the
casement painted the rose a deeper red, until the shade was nearly purple.
I stood barefooted on the Caledonese carpet by my bed and waited, naked, for
my answer.
"I have asked," lan said again. I saw how the muscles jumped once beneath the
firm flesh of his beardless jaw.
Sharp as a blade, the bone beneath the flesh. And aye, beardless. Because the
Cheysuli cannot grow them.
But I had to shave each morning, or look more like
Carillon than ever. "And the answer?"
When he could, he met my eyes and shook his head.
"I have no answer for you."
"Not from you," I said roughly, "from her." I jerked my head in Tasha's
direction. "She is Ur. The Hr have all the answers. They know much more than
any warrior can ever know. Ask her again for an answer!"
lan drew in a deep breath. "No." Flatly said, with no room for urging or
argument-
1 opened my mouth to urge, to argue, to plead. And closed it again, because I
saw there was no point. AH the anger spilled away as I looked at my older
brother. Aye, he had asked. More than once. But saying nothing to me, until
now, because to tell me was to hurt me.
Page 29
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Liege man. RujhoUi. And more. Ah gods, I thank you for my brother.
"Niall." He stood up and faced me. I was taller, heav-
ier, fairer two puppies sired on different mothers, but sharing kinship ties
stronger than full-blooded brothers.
"Rujho, I swear I would take the pain from you if I had the arts to do it."
"I know." I could not look at him. His pain reflected
file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/...ack%20Of%20The%20White%20Wolf%2
0(v%20UC).txt (36 of 315) [2/2/2004 2:41:48 AM]
file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/Desktop/Roberson,%...CLES%2004%20-
%20Track%20Of%20The%20White%20Wolf%20(v%20UC).txt my own, and that I could not
bear. "I do not mean to berate you."
"Nor should you berate yourself." He did not smile.
"Do you think I do not see it? 3 know the nights you cannot sleep, cannot eat.
I know when you drink too much. I know when you look to a woman to ease the
pain. I am your rujholli, aye, and liege man as well, but I
am not always with you. And yet I can tell. I can see
46
the marks on your bade though the whip be invisible."
He reached out and caught my arms above the elbows, where the ^r-bands ought
to be. "It does not make you less a man to me."
The emphasis was eloquent, though he did not mean it to be. To him, I was a
man. But to the warriors in the dan, I was merely a Homanan, I looked at him
directly. "What did Ceinn wish to say to you?"
He had not expected it. His fingers tightened in reflex before he could
release my arms. "Ceinn?" I saw the brief loathing in his eyes. "Ceinn is
a fool.*' He wanted to say more; he did not.
"It had to do with me."
"More to do with me." He shook his head. "No good would come of it. Rujho, let
it go."
"And if I do not?"
He tried to smile, but it came out less than amused.
"When have you ever been able to make me speak when
I have decided against it?"
True enough. Glumly, I gestured toward one of the brass-bound clothing chests
that lined fully two of my chamber walls. "What do I wear for this, rufho?
What finery do I put on?"
lan's look was level. "It depends," he said calmly, "on what man you choose to
be.
I stared. "What man?"
"Cheysuli," he said, "or Homanan."
lan and I were directed to one of the smaller audience chambers. Somehow I bad
expected the ceremony to take place in the Great Hall, so full of ambience and
history. But the Mujhar, we were told, had selected the smaller hall, to
promote intimacy rather than intimidation.
"Possibly a mistake," lan said in a low voice as we entered the audience
chamber. "I know little enough of statecraft, but I think the Atvians may
require what intimidation we can offer."
"They shall face Cheysuli," I said lightly. "That should [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]