'Ah.' He poked her in the ribs. 'I'll tell you when you get off me.'
She obliged, and he sat up with a sigh of relief. 'That was getting uncomfortable.' He brushed the sand from his hair, and she prodded him.
'Talk.'
'Okay, okay. You've been chosen as worthy, which means you're not like the rest of your race. You're not selfish, cruel or greedy. That changes the fate of the world, because now all who are good, though they may not be as worthy as you, must be saved. It's one of the laws of retribution.'
Talsy considered. 'From the Hashon Jahar?'
'Yes.'
'What are they?'
'I only know what I already told you.'
She sighed. 'So what did the tests mean?'
He plucked another blade of grass from the sparse growth on the dunes. 'First you'll have to tell me what happened.'
She recounted each test in detail, and he pondered them when she had finished.
'The first,' he explained, 'was of loyalty. They wanted to know whether you would help all Mujar, or just me. The second was of objectivity, to see if you would condemn your own people for their sins. You could have saved them all.'
'But they didn't deserve it. What about the third?'
'That's a tricky one. I think they wanted to see how well you understood the situation, why your race is being destroyed. They wanted to hear you argue against your own kind.'
'I see. So what happens now?'
He shrugged. 'Beats me, I'm not a god. When I find out, I'll tell you.'
'How will you find out?'
'They'll tell me.'
'The gods?'
He nodded.
She said, 'There's still so much I don't understand. I wish I knew all of it.'
'So do I.'
Talsy rose to her feet, brushing sand from her trousers. 'I'm hungry.'
Back at the cave, Talsy put some vegetables and shellfish in a pot and placed it on the fire. While the stew bubbled, she pondered what he had told her and the possible ramifications of her new status.
She indicated the mark on her forehead. 'Does this give me any powers?'
He laughed and shook his head, then his mirth died. 'Well, in a way it does. It protects you, first of all, though not from Truemen, of course. But you can ask souls for help, which means that, in a way, you control what they do. The trees, the sea, the earth, fire and the wind. But then, you won't need to do that unless something happens to me.'
'Like if you decide to break clan bond,' she suggested, surprised when he raised his head to stare at her.
'The clan bond between us is broken. It was the moment I marked you. What we have now can never be broken.'
'How can that be?' She frowned. 'That means you've lost your freedom.'
He smiled and shook his head. 'No, it means you've gained yours.'
'Explain.'
'You're Mujar marked. You don't need protection from animals or souls, so you don't need me.'
She stared at him, horrified. 'You're going to leave?'
'No.' He hesitated. 'Not now. Not completely. I may leave if I wish, but I'll always return.'
Talsy sagged with relief, his words bringing a warm rush of joy that banished her lingering doubts. His declaration filled the aching void that had always existed within her, a longing for love and security that her father's possessive affection had never completely filled. She blinked away the warm sting of tears.
Chanter stirred the pot. 'One day you may want me to go, and then I shall.'
'Never!' she said. 'Why would I?'
'You belong with your people, and one day you'll meet a man with whom you wish to stay. I doubt he'll want me around.'
'I want to stay with you.'
He shook his head, gazing into the pot. 'I'm Mujar. I can never give you what you want.'
'You don't know what I want.'
'I do. Love. Marriage. A family.'
'No. I'd rather have you.'
He smiled. 'You're still young. Your feelings will change, and I can't give you what you'll want then.'
'You're not Trueman, and you don't understand us as well as you think you do.'
'Don't I?' He looked away. 'Time will tell.'
Chapter Fourteen
For the next three weeks, they lived a simple, peaceful existence Talsy would have happily continued. The day after Chanter marked her, she discovered the difference it made. The strange, beautiful creatures no longer fled her approach, but treated her with the same fearlessness they accorded Chanter. Delighted, Talsy stroked their velvet skins and the strange leaf-like fronds that grew on them like feathers. Up close, she discovered they had a delicious smell that made her mouth water. Chanter came to stand beside her, plucked a frond from the creature she was stroking and ate it.
'What are you doing?' she demanded, surprised when the beast merely glanced at Chanter.
He plucked another frond and held it out. 'Try it.'
She took it with an uncertain frown. 'Doesn't it hurt them?'
'No.'
Talsy nibbled the frond, which tasted as delicious as it smelt. Chanter smiled and plucked another for her, eating one himself.
'What are they?' she asked.
'Creatures of this world. The ones that were here before Truemen came.'
'Where have they been?'
He shrugged. 'Around. Living where there are no Truemen.' He plucked another frond. 'This one is a food beast. It lives on the earth, like a tree. You see that its legs are in the soil?'
She nodded. It was one of the stilt-legged species that pushed its legs into the ground and stood there all day.
Chanter explained, 'It takes goodness from the earth, like a plant.' He pointed at a beast that basked in the sun. 'That one lives on the light, also like trees, and eats soil.' He indicated a long, multi-coloured beast with a snake-like head. 'That one is a predator. It eats the food beasts' fronds.'
'It doesn't kill them?'
'No beast of this world kills other creatures.'
'Except the Hashon Jahar,' she said.
'Yes.'
'But surely, without predators to control their numbers, there would be too many of them?'
'No, because they breed slowly.'
The creature they ate hooted, and Chanter went over to another to continue the feast. Talsy gazed around at the peaceful vista, entranced. Food beasts absorbed goodness from the soil or sun, while predators wandered amongst them, plucking fronds. This was, she realised, a world without killing, bloodshed and pain. A perfect world. The frond she ate tasted like a sweet fruit. Different types of food beasts had different flavours, she discovered, and their fronds were bloodless.
