'Has someone helped you who didn't hurt you first?'
'Yes, when my clan was killed, a spear pinned me to the ground. I would have remained there for the rest of my life without help. If Dolana pierces a Mujar, we're unable to command it. I was too weak to pull it out, so I sent a raven with a message, and a Trueman saved me. I gave gratitude and granted a Wish, just as I did for you.'
Talsy snorted. 'So you'll accept help, but you won't give it.'
'Not true. I'm helping you, and the Trueman who saved me.'
'Because we earned it.'
'Yes.' He paused. 'And now you despise me too.'
She glanced at him. 'No. I could never despise you. You're different, and I don't understand you, that's all.'
Chanter smiled. 'There are many things I don't understand about my kind. Why are Mujar different? Where do we come from? Why do we long for comforts we don't need? I don't know.'
Talsy served the stew, her mind abuzz with questions now that he seemed willing to answer them. 'Will you tell me about the Powers?'
'They are the four elements. Dolana, the Earthpower, is the reason I can't lie on the ground for too long. It's a cold Power, and it fills me up, pushing out Crayash, the Power of Fire. Truemen use it to trap Mujar. When filled with Dolana, Mujar can't wield another Power, and it makes us weak if we have too much in us. Dolana's an unfriendly Power. Crayash is the best and easiest to use. It keeps us warm. Ashmar is the Power of Air, and Shissar is the Power of Water.'
'You use Shissar to heal.'
'Yes, but it has many uses. Too many to tell you all of them.'
'So you can control anything you want?' she asked.
'Yes.'
'The weather?'
Chanter nodded. 'Ashmar.'
'The trees?'
'Dolana.'
'The animals?'
Chanter set aside his empty bowl. 'Everything. Animals are controlled by the Power in which they dwell, Dolana for beasts, Ashmar for birds and Shissar for fish.'
'What about Crayash?'
'No animal dwells in fire.'
'You could do anything then?' Talsy asked. 'Make the mountains explode, the oceans run over, the earth open and swallow cities.'
Chanter nodded, his eyes twinkling. 'If I wanted to.'
'That makes you… a god.'
The Mujar threw back his head and laughed so hard he fell off the rock and sprawled in the snow. Talsy grinned, infected by his mirth, which he made no attempt to control. He said, 'I knew that was coming.'
'But it does!' she asserted. 'You could rule the world!'
Chanter laughed even harder. 'I don't want to rule the world!'
'Why not?'
'Why would I?'
She shook her head. 'For power, for glory! To right all the wrongs and make it a better place.'
'That's impossible.'
'Why?'
'No one can eradicate all wrong doings, nor bend every person to his will, except a god, which I'm not.'
Talsy thumped the snow. 'You could! If they didn't obey you, you just make the earth swallow them.'
'Oh yes, that would make me very popular.' He chuckled. 'And soon there'd be no one left.' His gaiety died, and he sat up. 'How can a sweet girl like you be so bloodthirsty?'
'I'm not,' she protested, then frowned. 'It would be for their own good, to stop all the silly wars and crime. Like the Black Riders. You could wipe them out.'
The Mujar sighed. 'It wouldn't work.'
'Why not?'
'Because I'm not a god, and I can't kill.'
'Can't or won't?' she demanded.
'Both. Death is the province of Marrana, Lady of Death, and I don't control it. You see, she really is a goddess, as is Antanar, Lord of Life.'
Talsy snorted. 'They don't exist. There's only one god.'
'That's your god, who dwells wherever you come from,' he said. 'But these are mine. I've seen Marrana.'
'How can you see a god?'
He smiled. 'If you believe your deductions, you're sitting next to one.'
She ignored his teasing. 'When did you see her?'
'On my clan's killing fields.'
'What did she look like?'
'A mist, a face… Three faces, actually.'
Talsy considered that, struck by the strangeness of the Mujar's earlier statement. 'Why did you say, 'wherever I come from'?'
Chanter's brows rose. 'You don't come from this world. Don't you know that?'
'Then where do we come from?'
He shrugged. 'I don't know.'
'Then how do you know we don't belong here?'
'Because you're different.'
'How?'
'You don't fit in.' He looked pensive. 'How can I explain? Every living thing of this world relates to it, see? Every creature feels the Powers and can use them, but you don't, and nor do your animals. Your people don't belong here.'
She stared at him. 'How long have we been here?'
'I don't know.'
'How did we get here?'
'You came in a wingless silver bird that fell from the sky, and my gods remade you and your beasts.'
Talsy shook her head in confusion. 'But you saw your Goddess of Death on your clan's killing fields. What was she doing?'
'Gathering souls.'
'The souls of my people, who don't belong here.'
He nodded. 'What choice does she have?'
'She could leave them here.'
'That would probably cause problems.'
'What does she do with them?'
'They go to the Lake of Dreams.' He paused, eyeing her, then added, 'The silver bird brought five hundred and thirty-seven Trueman souls here, as well as several less evolved souls. The gods could have destroyed them, but they decided to give them a chance and recreated the forms in which they lived, putting many of them into animals, which they learnt about from the souls' memories. Souls multiply when they leave their corporeal bodies, sloughing off sparks that then start new lives as simple animals. They rest in the Lake of Dreams until they're reborn.'
'A paradise?'
'Something like that.'
Talsy stared into space for several minutes while she pondered this.
Chanter waited, studying her, then broke into her reverie. 'Have I answered all your questions?'
She shook her head. 'You don't have all the answers.'
