[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.He saw the Sudden Valley long before he arrived at it, looking down from the mountainside he could seethe tents, the smoke from their fires rising to the sky.It would be several days journey to get down to it,unless he went straight down, which, warrior though he was, he was doubtful he would survive.And so hebegan the slow, circuitous decent.He was still a half day from his destination when a sound caught his attention and he stopped, waited.Itcame again, not so much a sound as a feeling, a tendril of.something calling to him.It was not comingfrom the tribe below him, but from his left.He began to pick his way in the direction the sensation camefrom.The mountains here were riddled with caves animals and spirits undoubtedly hiding within, good anddangerous, and Sebak did not give into temptation and peer inside the ones he crossed.They all looked much the same, except for one.The cave mouth was covered by a huge stone, the mosson the face of the mountain scraped away, the dirt trampled.It would have intrigued him in any case, butwhen that sound that wasn't quite a sound came again, stronger, more certain, he had to investigate.Leaving Sal'ina by a gnarled tree, hand on his rahat, he approached the cave cautiously.The stone was large, but not so large it could not be moved.The scent of food was faint, along with thestrange mingling of hope and horror, sorrow, too.He looked around the edges of the stone, jumping backwith a growl when long, pale fingers slid out, scaring him badly.What manner of spirit was this? Some cave sprite locked within the walls of the mountain? A ghost somepoor soul unwelcome in the Land of Summer?He growled softly again, taking his rahat from its sheath on his thigh and stepping forward one step andthen another.The wind had picked up, strong suddenly, gusting and blowing his braids about."Oh.Oh.Forgive me.I.I thought.But you aren't.He was smaller.I just have prayed and prayed andthought, but no.No.You aren't.Are you? The fingers disappeared, the little singsong voice fading. Rebak! Ki'ita! Please.you forgot and left me behind."Oh, how sad! To be left behind while one's ki'ita went into the Land of Summer! But who had left this manhere to mourn all on his own, trapped inside the mountain? How could a man survive not only without hiski'ita but also without the touch of the sun and the wind?Sebak put one shoulder against the rock and shoved, pushing it slowly from the mouth of the cave.He peered in, blinking at the darkness. Hello? Diben Sur."A thin, pale man, dressed in bare rags, pitch black hair matted and wide eyes blinked at him, moving awayfrom the mouth of the cave, back into the darkness."It's a new man.A new man who doesn't feel new.Leave the food at the mouth.It's a cursed place here.A place for the forgotten, you see? My name is no longer spoken."Food? He had no food.He stood, hesitant.Curses were not to be trifled with.He had seen many greatwarriors who could be beaten by no man find themselves felled by curses.It would be best to just go, tocontinue his journey away from this strange being.But he could not.He could not leave a man alone, defenseless, without even food, locked in this cave.Butno, it was not that.It was that he could not leave this man alone, defenseless, without even food, locked inthis cave.That scared him."Oh.Oh, you look so like him. The strange little man stepped forward, then back. Such strength."Then the man looked toward the cave mouth, grey eyes filled with tears. I danced in the moonlight withhim once.And in the sun.He swore to me that I was safe, but the winds made him lie."Sebak stood proudly.Yes.Yes, he was strong. We cannot fight the winds, we can only serve them."And this man was so sad, Sebak could feel the sadness pouring from him, and Sebak could not help butthink that a man would go mad from that sadness.He took a step forward, hand reaching to comfortwithout even realizing what it was he did."You mustn't.Cursed.Yes.Cursed to live and wait for my ki'ita to find me and lead me from this place.The little man moved farther into the cave, calling out Rebak. Ki'ita.Please, my hi'icha.You forgot yourOne.""Will you share your shelter with me for the night? he asked, unable to just leave this man."I. The man stopped, looked at him. Yes.Yes, if you wish.Come in.Come see.I live here."He was led down a tunnel into a large room, a pool crystalline and clear in the center.The stone wallswere covered in cloths with stories worked into their threads.A face, younger than his own, but similar,echoed again and again."You are a weaver, he said. A great weaver.These are amazing."Sebak stood, looking at the man in the cloths. It looks like me.""A great cat jumped from a tree and pulled his insides out.He was Rebak, son of Serena the Healer andArbak the Deserter."He rounded his head at the names.His father's name was Arbak, the mother he searched for was Serena. I am Sebak he said.Son of Arbak the Abandoned.I am searching for my mother or her people.Hername, too was Serena. He looked again at the man represented in the cloth.Could he be a sibling?"She lived in the Sudden Valley.The winds called her away Rebak said her lover, her Arbak called hername in the winter, over and over and she had no choice but to go. The soft singsong voice was gentle,one hand touching a cloth showing a silver-haired woman, frozen by a pond.It had to be his mother and this Rebak his brother.Oh, the winds were cruel, to have offered him this andsnatched it from him before he even touched it."Did she have more sons? he asked.Wondering if there could be another face like his own, and the one inthe cloth.The little man nodded, moving to curl into a pile of furs. She has a son and three daughters who havesons.They called my Rebak uncle.My poor ki'ita whose blood painted the rocks and the trees.My Rebak."Drawn by the sadness and pain of the man, he went and sat on his haunches, fingers sliding along onearm, petting awkwardly.He was a warrior, a guardian, not a healer or a.gentle person, but he could notlet this man's pain go uncomforted.Eyes as soft and grey as winter morning stared at him. Who are you? Who are you? You cannot be myki'ita come back for me.""I think he was my brother. He kept up his awkward petting.Such pretty eyes, he had never seen theirlike."Oh.Oh, you are.She spoke of you.We mourned for you on the season of your birth.The wind is cruel.Stole you.Stole my ki'ita.Stole Serena. Another soft sob sounded. My ki'ita left me behind.""Oh, little man, I'm sorry you have been left alone. He felt the urge to gather the slender body into hisarms."You. Those eyes met him, suddenly bright, sharp. Yes.Yes.I am sorry, too.I ache inside.I hurt and Iam alone and my family and my tribe and my ki'ita and my home and my things and my gift and the sunand.All of it.All of it is gone
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]