''I want fabulous food! Carpets! Hot bathhouses and decent shops!
Beautiful women to make a fool of me in my old age! Servants to pamper me outrageously, and merchants to suck up to me when I'm in the mood to buy something!'
' Skif chuckled; Elspeth did an excellent imitation when she was in a good mood-and from the sound of it, she had shaken her foul humor.
I have the feeling I'm going to like Kero's uncle as much as I do her.
'I think I'm going to like the old man,' she said, echoing his thought.
'Quenten also said that there were two reasons Jendar didn't retire in Great Harsey, even though the school and the village begged him to.
The first was that Great Harsey is a real backwater, too far for a man his age to travel to get to Petras, even if it is less than a day's ride away.
The other is that he said that if he stayed, the new head would never be a head, he'd always be 'consulting' with Jendar and never making any decisions for himself. He thought that would be a pretty stupid arrangement.' Her voice shifted again. ''Let the youngster make his own mistakes, the way I did. You certainly haven't been hanging on my coattails, Quenten, and you're doing just fine.'
' She paused again, and said, significantly, 'Jendar obviously believes in letting people grow up.'
'I get the point,' Skif muttered. 'I get the point.'
It wasn't far now to the turnoff, but Elspeth was beginning to wonder if she'd make it that far. And she wondered also what happened to a Herald who murdered his Companion... Once in a while, she wished there was such a thing as repudiation by the Herald, and this was one of those times. The summer heat was bad down here; it was worse, without trees to give some shade. The Pelagiris Forest lay somewhere to their right, but there wasn't a sign of it along this road way, except for the occasional faint, fugitive hint of pine.
'Well, you're certainly smug today,' Elspeth finally said to Gwena, when, for the fourth time, a sensation as of someone humming invaded the back of her mind. She pushed her hat up on her forehead and wiped away the sweat that kept trickling into her eyes.
'what?' Gwena replied, her ears flicking backwards. 'What on earth do you mean?'
'You were humming to yourself,' Elspeth told her crossly. 'If you were human, you'd have been whistling. Tunelessly, might I add. It's damned annoying when someone is humming in your head; it's not something a person can just ignore, you know.'
'I'm just feeling very good,' Gwena replied defensively, picking up her pace a little, to the surprise of Cymry, who hurried to match her, hooves kicking up little clouds of dust. 'Is there anything wrong with that? It's a lovely summer day.' Oh, really? 'A candlemark ago you were complaining about the heat.'
'Well, maybe I'm getting used to it.' Gwena tossed her head, her mane lashing Elspeth's wrist, and added, 'Maybe it's you. Maybe you're just being testy.' Her mind-voice took on a conciliating tone. 'Is it the wrong moon- time, dear?'
'No it's not, as you very well know. Besides, that has nothing to do with it.' Elspeth snapped, without thinking. 'Skif is being a pain in the tail..
'Skif is falling in love with you,' Gwena replied, dropping the conciliating tone. 'You could do worse.'
'I know he is, and I couldn't do worse,' she said, conscious only of her annoyance. 'I'm not talking about differences in rank or background, either.
And don't you start playing matchmaker. He's a very nice young man, and I'm not the least interested in him, all right?' All right, all right,' Gwena said, sounding surprised at her vehemence.
'Forget I said anything.' Gwena closed her mind to her Chosen, and Elspeth sighed. It wasn't just Skif and his problem that was bothering her-or even primarily Skif.
It was something else entirely.
It was a feeling. One that had been increasing, every step she rode toward Lythecare. The feeling that she was being herded toward something, some destiny, like a complacent cow to the altar of sacrifice.
As if she were doing what she 'should' be doing.
And she didn't like it, not one tiny bit.
