On Fire's Wings - Christie Golden [130]
“So many,” he said. “My lord, what if this is a trap? What if Kevla is not the woman she pretended to be? Her powers—”
“Are frightening,” Tahmu agreed. He was pleased that the reticent Dumah was learning to speak openly with him. “But think, Dumah. With all those powers, she could have killed me or anyone else by simply pointing a finger. Even when she wounded Yeshi, it was an accident.”
“So she told you, lord,” Dumah said.
“So she told me,” he agreed mildly, “and so I believe. I should have believed my son when he first came to me speaking of powers; I won’t make that mistake again. Besides, there is sense in what she is trying to do.”
“Who knows what she told the others,” Dumah said nervously, still looking at the vast number of clanspeople who had at one time or another been the enemies of the Clan of Four Waters.
“Perhaps you had best send someone to find out,” Tahmu said, and grinned at Dumah’s expression.
Dumah did as he was told. While the rest of the Clan began setting up tents and lighting their own campfires, Dumah rounded up several men to act as representatives to each of the other clans assembled. Tiah and the other Lorekeeper from the Clan of Four Waters, an old beggar, accompanied the representatives. They met with the other Lorekeepers, and when Tiah returned to report to Tahmu well into the night, her eyes shone and she stood straighter than he had ever seen her.
He brought her and Dumah into his tent and bade them be seated. He called for eusho, and when the servant left to prepare it, he asked quietly, “Tell me what you have learned.”
“The stories are exactly the same,” Melaan said to Terku as they drank eusho together in the khashim’s tent. “We have had the same visions and memories. Each of us knows something a little different, and I believe it would be wise for us to have a meeting of all the Lorekeepers and write down as complete a history as we can manage.”
Terku raised a bushy white eyebrow. “A history,” he repeated, “of four other lives you have lived. Four other worlds that were created. Two of which were destroyed, two of which survived. Do I have it right?”
Melaan felt the blood come to his face. “I know how it sounds, but…Yes, my lord.”
Terku sighed and put the cup down. “Melaan,” he said, “You have been my trusted Second for almost twenty years. If you told me that I would fly if I leaped off the peak of Mount Bari, I would jump.”
Melaan’s lips curved at the image. “I would not ask you to do such a thing, my lord.”
“And yet you have me come to this place, with my finest warriors, to hear what someone who claims to be the embodiment of fire has to tell you. A woman, no less. You stretch the limits of my patience, my old friend.”
Melaan regarded him intently. “I know what I know,” he said. “Jashemi knew it. Fully twenty-and-two others scattered throughout all the clans know it. The stories are the same. The woman Kevla has demonstrated powerful magic, magic that seems to be limited to controlling fire and heat. I can’t believe this is all a trick. Who could do such a thing?”
“A dreadful enemy,” replied his khashim.
“We are already facing a dreadful enemy,” Melaan replied somewhat shortly. “He flies the flag of the ki-lyn, another image with which all the Lorekeepers are familiar. I would rather face a foe I know to be my enemy than turn a possible friend into one.”
Terku did not reply at once. Finally, he sighed in resignation. “I hope you are right,” Terku said, “for all our sakes.”
“Do you think he’s right?” asked Jalik, Second of the Star Clan.
“He’s always been a good leader,” said Yumar as they walked together under the stars for which their clan had been named.
“That’s not an answer.”
“I know.” Yumar shot his friend a quick grin, then grew sober. “There are some who say that this is a trick. That this fire-woman has gulled us here with tales of a foe who threatens us all, when really she wants us to fight each other. Maybe this so-called great battle will be between all the clans.”
Jalik snorted. “To what end?”
“I don’t know. She’s a fire-woman, who knows what