Alara Unbroken - Doug Beyer [49]
The horizons took the most getting used to. There were no large mountains, and hardly any trees to interrupt the view, so the world seemed to go on and on. The sky was an overwhelming dome of relentless blue, rarely obscured by foliage. And he never failed to be dazzled by the luminous sea. Buildings soared, more shrines to winged women than they were residences, so vertical as to be seemingly weightless. He expected there to be graffiti along the bases of them, or at least creeping vines running up their steep sides, like the human-made buildings in his native jungles. There weren’t. Everything looked pristine. Ajani had frequent childish urges to smear mud on things, just to mess them up a little.
The human Elspeth pushed him the most. She wanted him to walk again, so that he could see all the things that enthralled her about Bant. She was a planeswalker, like he was himself and like Sarkhan had been, but seemed committed never to leave the world she had come upon.
“Do the others know that there are other worlds?” he asked her one day.
“No,” said Elspeth. “That I will never tell them. I only hope they don’t find out on their own.”
“How would they do that? I didn’t know myself, until a short time ago.”
“Well, you’re a bad precedent, for example.”
“But I’m a traveler from … the nation of ‘Jhess,’ wasn’t it?”
“A poor lie on my part. Jhessian refugees travel here frequently, and they look nothing like you.” “You could have just killed me.”
“That’s not what we do here. Although I think some of my knights were tempted. And anyway, even dead, you would still have been hard to explain. If you’re going to be evidence of something strange, you might as well be alive to prove you’re nothing to worry about.”
“How could you be sure I wouldn’t tear everybody’s throats out?”
She chuckled, looking over all of his bandages. “I’ve been meaning to thank you for that.”
Ajani frowned. “I’m still a threat. Maybe not with my claws. But a threat to what your people think and believe.”
“It’s true. That’s why you haven’t gone far without me. And I hand-picked the clerics who’ve been taking care of you, did you know that? They’re all people I trust, people who I know won’t take your wild tales too seriously, or spread them around, should you tell any.”
“I haven’t.”
“Thank you. I’m happy you’ve been so comfortable here.”
“Who says I’ve been comfortable here?”
“Well, aren’t you? The clerics say you’ve been an agreeable patient. They’re excited to treat you, even—you should hear the way they talk about you. I’d say you were doing some magic on them, if they weren’t apparently made so happy by it.”
“They’re good people, for humans. It’s no magic. But I’m only here because I can barely move, and because there’s no better help back on my own world. I’ve told you—I don’t intend to stay. When my wounds disappear, so will I.”
“And I’ve told you—you need to stay away from that world. You’ll just be inviting whatever happened to you there to happen again. Stay. I could always use another knight.”
He had to admit, it was nice to be part of a family. He wasn’t treated as a freak on Bant, white fur or no. And at least the humans didn’t seem inclined to hunt him. But as far as he could tell, he was the only nacatl. Jazal’s voice hadn’t spoken to him at all since his planeswalk, which put him on edge. He had to go back.
“I can’t stay,” said Ajani.
“You know, your torturing yourself won’t fix anything,” said Elspeth. “It’ll just cause your gifts to be wasted.” “You don’t understand. There are things I need to do.”
“Oh, I understand. You’re an idiot. You’re anxious to be away, to throw away all you’ve lucked into.” “Elspeth, wait.”
In his bandages, Ajani couldn’t stop her. She walked away.
A rhox monk led the chant. A circle of human clerics repeated after him. Ajani just lay still in the center. Their benevolence was embarrassing, but the healing was necessary.
“When the world’s body shakes, the hand of Asha is steady,” intoned the monk in a