My brother is a remarkable man and has his own burdens he might be pleased to reveal. That would be a good thing as well.' She gave him a glance filled with hope and speculation. 'Do you think so? He's been so-I don't know. Before, he was always eager for the next adventure. Now it seems as if adventure has soured for him, and all he's looking for is peace. And I think that Nyara just might be able to ease some of what is hurting him. If she doesn't hurt him further.'
'A good point. I do not think that she would do so a-purpose,' he said, raising a dripping hand from the water to rub his temple. 'She has been both cause and receiver of too much harm to wish to work further such, I think.' Nyara... oh, there was a potential to become the lash of a whip if not carefully dealt with. 'But there is pain waiting for him, with that one, be she ever so well-intentioned.' Elspeth nodded. 'You're thinking what I'm thinking. If he-no, when he finds her, if she is not in love with him, he's going to be hurt.'
'Would it were only as simple as that. You know that if she does love him and ran to save him before for that reason, he is destined for even greater hurt.' Darkwind raised himself a little higher in the water, rested his arms on the ledge around the pool, and propped his head on one hand. 'You must know that, Elspeth. Think on it. Suppose she loves him truly. Suppose she accepts his love. My people would have trouble in accepting a Changechild as the lover of one of their kin. But yours?
To them, will she not seem a monster?' She groaned, and rubbed her eyes. 'I wish I could tell you no, but I can't. Gods, Darkwind, the Shin'a'in are looked at askance when a rare one comes to Valdemar. The Hawkbrothers are legends only. They'd try to put her in a menagerie!' She shook her head. 'No matter what we did, how we tried to disguise her, I doubt it would hold for long.'
'Soon or late, any disguise is unmade, any illusion is broken,' he agreed. 'Nor is that the only problem with Nyara. She is utterly, totally foreign. Her ways could never be yours. Gods of my fathers, her ways are utterly alien to my people! Among yours, she would be like unto a plains-cat given a collar and called a pet!' Elspeth groaned. 'And that-that aura of sexuality she has-that isn't going to win her any converts, I can tell you that. Havens, she even made me annoyed, sometimes, and there was nothing for me to be irritated with her over!'
'Except that every male eye must ever be on her,' he said ruefully.
'Be he ever so faithful to his lover, he still must react to her like a male beast in season! Even I-well, I entertained fantasies, and I knew well the danger she implied. You say that Skif seems to seek only peace.
Well, he will not find it with that one on his arm! Every male with no manners will be trying to have her for himself. Every female will react as you-or more strongly.'
'And she can't help herself. ' Elspeth's mouth quirked in a half smile at his confession, but she quickly sobered. 'Darkwind, what should I do?
'Should you do anything?' he countered. 'Can you do anything? Is there even any advice that you could give him that he would heed?' She shook her head sadly. 'Probably not. I guess there's only one thing I can do-to be ready for whatever decision he and she make.'
'That is all that a friend can do, Elspeth,' he agreed. 'And I think perhaps that is all that a friend should do. But you know, there is another course that he might take that you do not seem to have considered. What would you and your people think if he should choose to stay here-with her?'
'If he-' She stared at him now as if the very idea were so alien that she couldn't quite grasp it. 'But he's a Herald!'
'He is also a human-and a man. And he is very much in love.' Darkwind had a fleeting feeling of disorientation, as if he were not talking only about the Herald Skif. 'Would your people make him choose between his love and his land? Would this cause his Companion to abandon him?'
'I don't know,' she said helplessly. 'The subject has never come up.'
'Interesting.' He leaned back into the water again. 'Perhaps you and Gwena should discuss this at length. I have the feeling that it may be important.'
' So do I,' she replied, slowly.' So do I .
The Adept from k'treva did not appear by nightfall, at which point Darkwind felt that he had most probably taken the wise course of finding a secure place to rest for the night. When he and Elspeth sought out Iceshadow just after dusk, the Elder said words to that same effect.
'I do not think our Clansbrother is likely to arrive on our doorstep until the morning,' Iceshadow predicted, as the three of them strolled back to the Elder's ekele. 'Were I he, I would find a tervardi and share his shelter for the night. I have sensed nothing amiss, and I think if he were in trouble, we would certainly know it.' Darkwind nodded. Very few Tayledras traveled by night by choice.
Even fewer did so in unknown and possibly dangerous territory. 'He knows that our borders are shrunken, and that the land within them is not certain. The heavy snows of the past few days have probably slowed him down. I doubt the one who replied took the difficulties of winter riding into account when he sent the message and told you the Adept would arrive in half a day. Even on dyheli I would not undertake to go anywhere in this snow in half a day.' They reached Iceshadow's home at that moment; the Elder stretched, and paused with one hand on the railing. 'I would not worry, were I you. I am not concerned. We will see this marvel when he arrives and not before, and the matter of one or two days more is not going to make a great deal of difference to our situation. True?' When they agreed, he chuckled, and bid them a pleasant evening, a certain twinkle in his eyes as he looked from Elspeth to Darkwind and back.
Not that Darkwind minded the delay. Once the Healing Adept arrived, he and Elspeth would start on a round of magic-use that would leave them quite exhausted at day's end. He knew that from experience.
Sadly, heavy magic-use tended to leave one too weary for dalliance.
They would have one more night together, at least-Or so he hoped.
This time, since they were so near, she had invited him to her ekele for supper, while the hertasi turned them both into limp yarn dolls. At the time he had thought he saw Faras, the one working on her back, smile a little when she made the invitation. He said nothing, though, then or now; she knew that the lizard-folk used Mindspeech as easily as humans used their voices. Though what she might not know was the way the little folk like to play at matchmaking...They took a second soak in the pool, then slipped into a pair of thick robes that the hertasi had left there for them, leaving the pool when dusk was only a memory and full darkness shrouded the Vale. Darkwind was not certain how Elspeth felt, but he had not been so relaxed or content for a very long time. He followed her up to her ekele, pretty well certain of what he would find there.
He was not disappointed. The robe of amber silk, clean again, was waiting for her-and his favorite, of deep blue, lay beside it across the cushions. And on the table there waited another intimate supper for two.
