Kushiel's Avatar - Jacqueline Carey [280]
No wonder, I thought, meeting his golden stare across the waters. Ah, Elua, no wonder so many have seen the face of god in such a beast!
"They are lazy," Nkuku offered, grinning. "In his heart of hearts, he is glad we are on the other side of the river. It is the women who do the work, yes?"
After that, the rains began again and we spoke no more, trudging through the endless mud and clambering once more into the green mountains, following the river's gorge. Tifari's mount contracted thrush, a disease of the vulnerable frog of the hoof, and we were laid up a day while Najja brewed a foul poultice of roots he swore would draw out the infection. Our tents leaked, the blood-flies came in clouds and tempers grew surly. What else is there to say? It was a miserable journey.
And like all journeys, it had an end.
I failed to recognize the spreading eucalyptus trees as we descended from the highlands onto another expanse of plains. It was afternoon, and raining, clouds piled in thunderheads as far as the eye could see. We made camp that night and dined on strips of half-smoked gazelle meat from a kill two days old.
And on the morrow, we reached a place where a solidly built village of mud huts stood alongside the swollen Tabara River.
"Debeho," said Tifari Amu, smiling faintly.
It goes without saying that our welcome was a joyous one.
It was a damp one, to be sure; no place is immune from the rains in Jebe-Barkal. But the village turned out as if we were its own. Shoanete herself came out to meet us, hobbling on her sticks. And Kaneka! She looked like a veritable queen, with water streaming down her Akkadian finery. I flung both arms around her, glad of her tall strength, glad beyond words to see her.
"Ah, little one." Her voice rumbled in her chest, and she held me off to look at me. "You found it, didn't you?"
"Yes." I wanted to laugh and cry at once. "I did."
"Well." Her teeth gleamed in a smile as one hand rose to clasp the leather pouch at her throat. "My dice always speak true. I knew you were special. You will have stories to tell my grandmother, yes? I have a vested interest in such matters, now."
"We have stories, Fedabin." I gripped her forearms, smiling. "Oh, yes, you may be sure of it! We have stories."
And we told them, all that day and night, while the folk of Debeho feasted us and the rains drummed on the tight-woven thatch of their central hall, an unwalled building plastered with sun-baked mud. Beneath the roof, it was nearly dry. While communal dishes of spicy stews passed with spongy bread for the dipping, we ate with our fingers and told of the Melehakim, and what had passed in the land of Saba. And old Shoanete listened and nodded her head in approval, watching from the corner of her yellowed eye as Tifari Amu sat modestly beside her tall granddaughter. I made much of his bravery. Kaneka snorted, appearing to be unimpressed, but I saw how she eyed him consideringly.
Love as thou wilt, I whispered, the Name of God throbbing on my tongue.
Imriel resumed old friendships with ease, greeting his playmates in the village. He was half-clad like the rest of them before the night was over, stripped to his breeches and spatchcocked in color, with his face and arms tanned by the sun—although he'd peeled like a snake while he healed, his sunburn had faded—and his torso milk-white. They darted in and out of the unwalled structure, splashing one another, playing some children's game of tag with the veils of water dripping from the eaves, the older taunting the younger, boys baiting the girls. And it was good—ah, Elua, it was good!—to see Imriel de la Courcel at child's play, shouting with laughter like any other boy his age.
"Would that it could remain thus," Joscelin murmured to me.
"I know," I said, leaning into his arm to kiss him. "I know, love."
Kaneka leaned over, hearing us. "He looks well, the boy," she said shrewdly. "Your company suits him, little one. Who would have thought it, when he spat in your face? I myself had wagered he would not withstand the next round of the Mahrkagir's attention."