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'No Ihlini " I stopped. Looked more closely at him: white-haired, blue-eyed,
exceedingly fair of face.
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Ancient in the eyes, young in his demeanor. Anger spilled away, replaced with
realization. "You are
Taliesin." Heat crept into my face as shame stung my breasts. "Oh, gods, of
course you are . . . they told me what you were like. Brennan, Hart, Corin
. . . even our jehan."
Distractedly, I took my hand from the knife hilt. "I am Keely, Niall's
daughter . . .
I apologize for my rudeness."
"I know very well who you are, regardless of your lir-shape though that, I
agree, is eloquent proof of
identity." Taliesin smiled. "You are very much like
Corin in ways other than coloring ... he has a tongue in his mouth, and wit
enough to wag it. You, I see, do also, if in a prettier mouth."
I twisted my pretty mouth. "Harper born and bred, regardless of race . . .
your own tongue is much too glib."
He laughed. Once the harper of Tynstar himself, until he chose otherwise.
Until Strahan ruined his hands. "Aye, well, there is little occasion for me to
flatter a woman, meaning it or not. In your case, I
mean it; you have a reputation." His eyes were amused, though his tone
inoffensive. "As for this thing of rudeness, I think it is certainly
pardonable in view of the circumstances. The fall might have killed you. For
that, I apologize."
I disavowed it quickly with a dismissive wave of my hand. "You are welcome
among us," I told him, echoing the ritual greeting of a clan-leader.
"Jehan will be glad to see you. He has always wished you could come." I
grinned. "Ihlini or no, you have done our House many services. Even the Lion
is grateful."
Memories crowded close; I could see it in his eyes.
So many services, for so many of my House. First my father, who had lost an
eye to Strahan's hawk . . .
then to Brennan, Hart, Corin, as they escaped from
Valgaard. Fleeing Strahan himself, and his noxious god. Asar-Suti, Ihlini call
him: the god of the nether-
world. The Seker, who made and dwells in darkness.
I swallowed painfully, recalling how each of my brothers had come home from
that god, and what had been done to change them from the boys I knew into men.
Especially Corin, who had left the woman he loved to go back to Atvia. I had
not seen him again.
Taliesin sighed. "The Lion," he said obscurely, "knows me as well as you." And
then he was smiling, if sadly, stroking a wisp of hair from his eyes with a
twisted, knotted hand. "I know Hart and Corin are gone, but I will be glad to
see Brennan. The news I
have concerns him as well as Niall. And you as well as them; all of the House
of Homana"
A chill slid down my spine. "Why are you come?" I
asked. "Not for pleasure, then it is far more seri-
ous." I wet my lips as he nodded. "What news, Taliesin, that brings you down
from Solinde? That brings you down alone, without Caro to be your hands?" I
took a step closer to the horse, catching one of the reins to hold him in
place; realization turned my spine's chill to ice. "You are alone, Taliesin
.. . but you are never alone. What has become of
Caro?"
"Caro is dead," he said. "Strahan is loose on the land."
Six
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My father is not an emotional man. Perhaps he was once, in his youth Ian had
said as much but he had changed. For as long as I have known him, he has
hidden much of what he thinks. Out of habit, if not inclination; a Mujhar can
say little without put-
ting much thought to it, or suffer the consequences.
I was beginning to learn that even kings are bound by expectations, as much as
the folk who serve them.
When I brought Taliesin to my father in Deirdre's sunny solar, I expected some
measure of joy. Some reflection of happiness. But he knew. He knew at once.
And quietly bade Taliesin to give him the whole of it.
The Ihlini harper stood quietly in the solar, refus-
ing the wine Deirdre offered, the chair Ian did. His crippled hands he thrust
within the sleeves of his belted blue robe, putting them out of sight. And yet
the words he said banished hiding places.
"I was wrong," he said. "I thought he would not look so hard for us, nor so
close; we have been safe in the cottage for years. Under his very nose . . ."
Taliesin sighed, dismissing it consciously. "He came, with others, to our
cottage. He said he had grown weary of my interference, of my service to the
House of Homana in place of the House of Darkness."
Something twisted his face briefly. "That is what he called it: the House of
Darkness. Ruled by Asar-Suti, with Strahan as his regent."
"Or his heir?" My father rubbed the flesh of his
brow beneath the leather strap. "My sons believe
Strahan fully expects to trade humanity for god-
hood, That he serves not so much out of a genuine conviction, but out of
greed, out of ambition . . . out of perverse intent to assume a place of his [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]