'No, child, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I think your emotions are quite healthy. I think it's just as well that you feel this way, especially since he's out here looking for you.' She held quite still, rigid with surprise. What?
Nyara had never experienced such mixed emotions in her life, all of them painfully intense. Elation and fear. joy and dismay. She hugged her furs to herself and trembled.
'I rather imagined you'd react this way.' The sword all but sighed, but there was an undercurrent of satisfied humor. 'I suppose I have seen true love often enough to recognize it when it smacks me between the quillions.
From at least a dozen of my bearers. And lately-first that sorceress who went into repopulating the Plains all by herself, then that Kerowyn child, and now you. I am beginning to feel like a matchmaker. Perhaps I should give up my current calling and set up as a marriage broker. Very well.' Nyara fought all of her emotions down enough to get some kind of answer out. 'Very well, what?' she asked.
'We know what you want. So. Now we get you ready for it. that young man needs and wants a partner, youngster-not a little girl, not just a bedmate, not someone he has to drag about like an anchor and rescue at regular intervals. So, we'd better start building you in that direction. If,' the sword finished, with a hint of dry sarcasm, 'that suits you.' She sat up straighter. A partner. Someone who could stand alone, but chose to stay with another. Someone who just might come rescue him once in a while.
'Yes,' she said, quietly, calmly, with her chin up. 'That suits me very well.'
*Chapter twelve - Tre'valen
Tre'valen closed his eyes and narrowed his consciousness, pulling his concentration within himself until he was aware of nothing but himself.
A moment only, he paused, finding his balance and center, and from deep within-he stepped out. Onto the Moonpaths, into the spirit realms.
By virtue of their close bond with the Star-Eyed, any Shin'a'in could walk the Moonpaths; provided that it was at night, under the full moon, and he sought the place with unselfish intent and enough concentration.
Any Swordsworn could walk the Moonpaths on any night; and call and be answered by the leshya Kal'enedral, the spirit-warriors sworn to the martial aspect of the Goddess.
A shaman could walk the Moonpaths into the spirit world at any time he chose, and call and be answered by any spirit that lingered there, if the spirit he sought was willing...That knowledge brought no comfort, only doubt and trepidation. And that is the question, indeed. Is Dawnfire willing?
Dawnfire. Of Tale'edras, but called by the Shin'a'in Aspect of the Goddess, to serve in a form a Shin'a'in would recognize-the emblem of one of the four First Clans. He had called and spoken with her on several occasions now, but each time he called, it was with questioning and fear deep in his heart. Fear that this time she would not answer.
Questioning his own motives.
Kra'heera had ordered him to remain at k'sheyna Vale to learn the Star-Eyed's motive and purpose in creating a Shin'a'in Avatar out of one of the Hawkbrothers. Never had She created an Avatar before, much less one from a child of the Sundered Kin, the magic-users. If Kra'heera had speculations, he kept them to himself. Tre'valen had no guesses at all.
He had learned nothing of Her motivation in all the time he had dwelt here. He had, however, learned far too much of his own heart, a heart that ached with loss, and yearned for one that he could not touch. Ironic that he should discover the love of his life and his soulmate only after she was-technically at least-dead. But was that not like the Goddess, to create such ironies for Her shaman?
Keep to the journey, traveler. the Moonpaths are peril enough without your wandering off them. He walked the Moonpaths, dream-hunting in the spirit world; keeping safely on the trails meant for the living, and sending his call out into the golden mist beyond where lingering spirits lived. Golden mist, for he hunted by daylight; at night, the mist would be silver. This was not wearisome for a shaman, though one who was not so trained returned to his body weary and drained if he dared to venture here. And as a shaman, he knew that time meant very little in this realm, so he walked onward with patience, waiting for the sign that would tell him that Dawnfire was coming-or not.
One moment he was alone; then she was there, before him, in her hawk-form, hovering above the pathway on sun-bright wings. A great vorcel-hawk, glowing with a fierce inner light, so full of energy that the mist about her crackled.
But this time, instead of coming to rest upon the path as she always had before, she spoke one word into his mind.
'Follow.' Then she was gone, diving out of the spirit realm with speed he could not match-but leaving behind a glowing trail that he followed back, back, back to his body, to the material world. He sank into himself; feeling crept back to arms and legs, he put on the shell of himself as a comfortable garment.
He took a deep breath, then opened his eyes to find the Hawk that was Dawnfire poised before him. She watched him; before he could blink his eyes twice, the Hawk shimmered, a trembling like a heat haze passing over her, intensifying the glow of her inner fire. Soon she glowed like a tiny sun, as she had when she first transformed.
He looked away for a moment, his eyes watering with the brightness.
When he looked back, the Hawk no longer perched there.
In its place was the transparent and radiant form of the woman. He had never seen her this way in the real world, only in the spirit realm.
A woman made of glowing, liquid glass...He took a deep breath of surprise, as she examined her hands and a smile crossed her lips. He rose from his cross-legged pose, and approached her; not certain that he should, but unable to keep at a distance.' I was not certain that I could do this, though my teachers assured me it is no great accomplishment for me now,' she said, a little shyly.
'I was never a mage; I am not really certain how I accomplish the half of what I do.' This was true speech,
