Dragonspell - Donita K. Paul [36]
“But what good does that do us?” Kale’s voice came out strident, loud, and impatient.
“Us?” Dar shook his head and reached for his pack. “Kale, in your mind you’ve made us the center of what is happening. Wulder is the center.”
Kale’s head pounded.
“Wulder knows what happened.” Dar put tea leaves in the kettle and took it from the small fire. “We need to wait, Kale. Paladin, no doubt, has a plan, but we don’t know it. We wait. In his time he will show us the way.”
“We have to wait here?” Kale looked around the empty bower. Leetu’s book lay open near the place where she was attacked. Her packs waited for her to pick them up to resume their journey. “I don’t want to wait here.”
Dar came to her, holding two heavy ceramic mugs. Spirals of steam drifted up from the dark liquid within. “I put lots of sugar in it.” Dar smiled, not his usual face-splitting grin, but a tight smile. He handed her a cup. He then sat down beside her to sip from his own mug.
“Waiting is a state of mind,” he said. “The point isn’t whether we are moving or not, but whether we have made our own plans with insufficient information. Sometimes people make plans just to be doing something.”
“I’ve never been in charge of making plans,” said Kale.
“Good.” Dar winked at her. “It’s a bad habit.”
She didn’t think the village council would agree. They spent hours making plans, unmaking previous plans, remaking plans.
A small smile lifted the corner of her mouth. She felt a little better. She tipped the mug to her lips. The hot, sweet tea felt good in her mouth.
“Dar, why did you tell me to cut off the mordakleeps’ tails? Why did that kill them?”
“Mordakleeps have hundreds of gills on the tips of their tails. A foot or so from the tip are their lungs. Mordakleeps must keep the end of their tails in water all the time, or they suffocate. Fortunately for them, they have very long tails that stretch even longer. Unfortunately for them, if the tail is severed from the body, they die instantly.”
“How did you learn all these things?”
“I like to learn. I listen. And I figure any bit of information that comes my way is not by accident. Paladin has a way of giving his servants what they need.”
“He teaches you?”
“Oh, yes.” Dar drank from his cup and smacked his lips. Kale knew Leetu would have frowned at him. She didn’t want to think about Leetu.
“I thought you had to go to The Hall,” she said.
“To learn?” Dar looked genuinely surprised. “No, Kale, Wulder is everywhere, therefore His lessons are everywhere.”
“I know Wulder made all things, and Pretender tries to copy His work. But I didn’t know Wulder is everywhere. How could that be?”
“You’re thinking of Wulder as having a body and moving from place to place.” Dar stood and pivoted in a circle with his arms outstretched.
“Wulder is everywhere. You can see His power by recognizing His work. When a flower opens, that’s His work. When the stars twinkle at night, that’s His work.”
He paused, facing her. He let his arms fall to his sides. “Look at me, Kale. Right now, I am standing with Wulder all around me. I’m under His protection, within His will, standing on His pledge. And Wulder is, at the very same moment, in me.”
“Me, too?” asked Kale.
“Yes.” Dar knelt in front of her, his earnest face only inches away.
She looked into his dark brown eyes and saw strength and peace. She wondered at his patience with her. Often her marione masters gruffly explained things they thought she should already understand.
Dar winked before he continued, his funny face serious and yet cheerful at imparting what must be old knowledge to him. “So many people don’t know who Wulder is or what He’s capable of doing. Their ignorance doesn’t make Wulder less of a being; it makes them less. Until they know, they can’t be whole.”
He leaned back and sighed, spread his arms out in a gesture of explanation, and continued, “It’s so simple, Kale. Everything hinges on His willingness to be involved with our world. When a mountain stands instead of tumbling down, He’s holding it there. If He were to leave…” Dar shook his head.