'No-' Amber forestalled her, as Topaz started for the staircase. 'No, I don't think her room is going to be warm enough, and besides, I don't want her alone. We'll put her on the couch in my rooms.'
'Ah,' was all that Topaz said; Amber led the way into her office, then did-something-with the wall, or an ornament on the wall. Whatever, a panel in the wall opened, and Topaz carried her into a small parlor, like Rose had in the private quarters back at the Hungry Bear. But this was nothing like Rose's parlor-it was lit with many lanterns, the air was sweet with the smell of dried herbs, the honey-scent of beeswax, and a faint hint of incense.
But that was when things stopped making sense, for Topaz turned into Boony, and the couch she was put on was on the top of Skull Hill, and she was going to have to play for the Ghost, only Tonno was in the Ghost's robes- she tried to explain that she'd done her best to help him, but he only glared at her and motioned for her to play. She picked up her fiddle and tried to play for him, but her fingers wouldn't work, and she started to cry; the wind blew leaves into her face so she couldn't see, and she couldn't hear, either-
And she was so very, very cold.
She began to cry, and couldn't stop.
Someone was singing, very near at hand. She opened gritty, sore eyes in an aching head to see who it was, for the song was so strange, less like a song than a chant, and yet it held elements of both. It was nothing she recognized, and yet she thought she heard something familiar in the wailing cadences.
There was a tall, strong-looking old woman sitting beside her, a woman wearing what could only be a Gypsy costume, but far more elaborate than anything Rune had ever seen the Gypsies wear. Besides her voluminous, multicolored skirts and bright blouse, the woman had a shawl embroidered with figures that seemed to move and dance every time she breathed, and a vast set of necklaces loaded with charms carved of every conceivable substance. They all seemed to represent animals and birds; Rune saw mother-of-pearl sparrows, obsidian bears, carnelian fish, turquoise foxes, all strung on row after row of tiny shell beads. The woman looked down at her and nodded, but did not stop her chanting for a moment.
Everything hurt; head, joints, throat-she was alternately freezing and burning. She closed her eyes to rest them, and opened them again when she felt a cold hand on her forehead. Amber was looking down at her with an expression of deep concern on her face. She tried to say something, but she couldn't get her mouth to work, and the mere effort was exhausting. She closed her eyes again.
She felt herself floating, away from the pain, and she let it happen. When her aching body was just a distant memory, she opened her eyes, to find that she was somewhere up above her body, looking down at it.
Amber was gone, but the strange Gypsy woman was back again, sitting in the corner, chanting quietly. Rune realized then that she
Diamond kept glancing at the Gypsy out of the corner of her eye. 'That's not one of the Guild Herb-women,' she said finally to Pearl, as she moved a little away.
'No,' Pearl confirmed. 'No, this is someone Amber knows. How?' Pearl shrugged expressively. 'Amber has many friends. Often strange. Look at us!'
Diamond didn't echo Pearl's little chuckle. 'Ruby says she's elf-touched,' the young woman said with a shiver. 'Ruby says she's a witch, and elf-touched.'
Pearl shook her head. 'She may be, for all I know. The Gypsies, the musicians, they know many strange creatures.'
'Not like this,' Diamond objected. 'Not elf-touched! That's perilous close to heresy where I come from.' She shuddered. 'Have you ever seen what the Church does to heretics, and those who shelter them? I have. And I don't ever want to see it again.'
Pearl cocked her head to one side, as if amused by Diamond's fear. 'We-my people-we have old women and old men like her; they serve the villages in many ways, as healers of the sick, as speakers-to-the-Others, and as magicians to keep away the dark things that swim to the surface of the sea at the full moon. She deserves respect, I would say, but not fear.'
'If you say so,' Diamond said dubiously. 'Is she-I mean, is Rune-' She cast a glance at the couch where Rune lay wrapped in a cocoon of blankets, her face as pale as the snow outside, with the same fever-spots of bright red that Tonno had on his cheeks.
'Yes,' Pearl replied with absolute certainty. 'She has told Amber that the girl will live, and if she makes such a pledge, she will keep it. Such as she is cannot lie-'
Rune would have liked to listen to more-in fact, she would have liked to see if she couldn't float off into another room and see what was going on there-but at that moment the old woman seemed to notice that she was up there. The tone of her chant took on a new sharpness, and the words changed, and Rune found herself being pulled back down into the body on the couch. She tried resisting, but it was no use.
Once back in her body, all she could think of was Tonno, and once again she began crying, feebly, for all the things she had not done.
Her head hurt, horribly, and her joints still ached, but she wasn't so awfully cold, and she didn't feel as if she was floating around anymore. She felt very solidly anchored inside her body, actually. She opened her eyes experimentally.
Maddie was sitting in the chair where the old woman had been sitting, working on her mending. Rune coughed; Maddie looked up, and grinned when she saw that Rune was awake.
'Well! Are you back with us again?' the girl said cheerfully.
Rune tested her throat, found it still sore, and just nodded.
'Hang on a moment,' Maddie told her, and put her mending away. She went over to the hearth, where there was a kettle on the hob beside the steaming bowl of herbs-herbs that smelled very like the ones Brother Anders had used for Tonno. That-it seemed as if it had happened years ago-
