On Fire's Wings - Christie Golden [129]
She did so, not looking up at him. “My lord, last night….” She twisted her hands together, clearly at a loss as to how to proceed.
Handing the reins to an attendant, Tahmu told her, “Walk with me.” She followed him dutifully, sniffing and gulping as if fighting back tears.
“No one will hear,” he said, not unkindly. “Speak…Tiah, is it not?”
“Yes, lord. Lord…last night…last night Kevla came to me!”
His eyes widened. “Kevla? You are certain this was not a dream?”
Now she did look up at him and shook her head vigorously. “No, my lord. I was returning from—” Her cheeks reddened.
He almost laughed at her consternation. Such things were so unimportant to him now. “Yeshi might have cared if you took a lover, Tiah,” he said, thinking that Yeshi was a consummate hypocrite. “I don’t. Tell me the truth.”
“Yes, lord. I was coming back from—from a meeting, as you say.” She continued to blush, but thankfully also continued to speak. “I have been having dreams, my lord. Strange dreams of an approaching Shadow, that covers and destroys everything.”
Gooseflesh prickled Tahmu’s arms as a chill shivered over him. The words Jashemi had spoken so long ago came back to him: We stood watching a darkness hovering on the horizon, a darkness that was about to completely swallow us. She told me that it might all fall to me, that I must not forget.
If only he had listened! If only…but it was too late for Jashemi. It might not be too late for this girl, for Kevla. “I have heard of these dreams,” he said quietly. “My son had them. I did not listen to him. I will listen to you.”
Relieved, she rewarded him with a smile and continued. “Kevla told me that these dreams are actually visions and memories. She said I am something called a Lorekeeper, and that the young lord had been one, too. She wants all the clans to meet in three weeks at the base of Mount Bari, so that we can work together to stand against the Emperor from over the mountain. She also said—”
The frightened look descended on Tiah’s round face again. He had bent to her with an attentiveness that clearly alarmed her, and gentled his expression.
“Don’t fear, child. Speak what Kevla told you to say.”
“She said to say thank-you for sparing her life.”
Tahmu smiled sadly. “That might have been the wisest decision I ever made,” he told her. “Thank you for coming to me, Tiah. If Kevla comes to you again, tell her that she may count on the support of the Clan of Four Waters.”
She bowed low and scurried off. He watched her go and for the first time since he had ordered Kevla’s death by fire, he felt a lightening in his heart.
As he had told his daughter, that bitter night when she had saved his life for the second time, it seemed to him that he had made the wrong choice at every turn. He married Yeshi instead of Keishla, and that had ended with treachery. He did not acknowledge Kevla openly as his child and permit her and Jashemi to play together as siblings ought, and that had perhaps forced them into a relationship that was as forbidden as it was powerful. He had exposed the innocent child that was his blood-marked daughter, fueling Yeshi’s hatred and condemning a baby. He decreed a terrible punishment on his illegitimate daughter and discredited his legitimate son.
But despite these mistakes, Kevla yet lived, with powers that Jashemi was convinced were sent to heal. She wanted the same thing Tahmu and his son had: a union of the clans.
There were decisions ahead. He hoped he would be able, this time, to make the right ones.
He would not ride to the rivers today. If Kevla wanted the Clan at the foot of Mount Bari in so short a time, he would have to prepare right away.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Two weeks and four days later, as the sky turned orange and purple and the sun sank beneath the horizon, Tahmu and every able-bodied man in his Clan reached the foot of Mount Bari.
They were not the first clan to arrive, and Dumah, Tahmu’s new Second, looked uneasily around at the dozens of campfires that were just starting to be kindled at the approach of night.