The White Road - Lynn Flewelling [150]
"Perhaps he still will be," said Micum, but he sounded less than convinced.
CHAPTER 32
Curious Allies
RIESER had left Nowen in charge. It should have been easy duty, watching Sebrahn and looking out for anyone traveling this way.
The last of the Tir magic had worn off; Sebrahn was as pale as Hazadrien, with the same silver-white hair, neatly cut and braided now. She'd shaken her head over the ignorance of the ya'shel, to feed him every day. He was a beautiful little thing, but for the lack of wings, and seemingly devoted to Hazadrien, as the older tayan'gil was to him. The two were inseparable. It was not uncommon for tayan'gils to flock together, but this one called Sebrahn was almost childlike in his manner. He climbed into Hazadrien's lap whenever he sat down, and curled up next to him with his head in Hazadrien's lap at night, saying "Sleeping," in his strange raspy voice. If anyone tried to make him leave the tayan'gil's side, he said, very distinctly, "No." It sent a shiver up Nowen's back every time he spoke.
Tayan'gils were--apart. Or they should be. Back home she seldom saw them, and when she did they were little more than a curiosity unless a healing was needed. The Hazadrielfaie valued them deeply for that ability, knowing the price. Every one of the creatures had been born of suffering and servitude, and no Hazad liked being reminded of that. The fact that Sebrahn acted more like a real living being only made this more obvious.
But she had other, more troubling concerns right now.
"Did you see any of them?" she asked Rane and Sona, who'd just come back from a hunting expedition.
"Yes, and there are more today."
Day by day, the answer was the same. Nowen had never had any bad experience with the Retha'noi; they kept mostly to their peaks, and when they did descend to trade and barter, they were usually friendly and bothered no one. Turmay and Naba had been instrumental in their success so far, enlisting the aid of a local clan to fell those trees. But something had changed since Rieser left; Nowen was too experienced a tracker not to know when she was being tracked herself.
Naba had remained with them after the capture, and so had those he'd summoned. Now others were appearing on the heights. The smoke from their cooking fires rose against the sky by day, and the light of watch fires sparkled along the ridges through the night. Day and night they could hear the distant sounds of oo'lus; many oo'lus.
What could they possibly want? The Hazad didn't carry more than they absolutely needed, which left little worth stealing, except for the horses, and these southern Retha'noi didn't seem to have any use for those.
Turmay came and went between the two camps freely and kept assuring her that they were in no danger, so long as they stayed down here by the waterfall.
"What do they want?" Nowen asked.
"They distrust outsiders and they want us to be gone. That's why they helped you, so that you would go away sooner."
"But they accept you."
"I am Retha'noi."
Turmay went to his southern brothers each night and played the oo'lu in the great circle while the witch women danced their magic around the fires. He made love to their women under the moon to put babies with northern blood into their bellies and shared his food and his healings with all who asked. Their two peoples might have been parted for more years than they could count, but the ways of hospitality still held strong.
The Mother spoke to them when they played and danced, repeating what she had told Turmay of the small tayan'gil and Alec Two Lives, of life and death and the immutable gate between the two.
Retha'noi had come from many miles away, answering the oo'lus' messages, and they came for their own reasons, as well. There were at nearly forty men now, and five of them witch men. They met around the fire and talked of the