'But you are not sure—'
'Is anyone,' I burst out then, 'to be sure of anything in any world under any sun?'
'Except death.'
'Is death then a surety for you off-worlders? Do you believe that is just an end and not a beginning?'
'Who can tell?' he made answer. 'Perhaps we can not demand any unqualified reply to any question we are moved to ask. So, you offer me a body more akin to my lost one. You say, take and go to Yrjar, tell your story, and ask for the return of that which is yours. Yet it would seem that we must deal not only with our own affairs, but with, a war lying between us and Yrjar.'
'Think, Krip Vorlund, have I ever promised you that this would be an easy thing?'
'No,' he agreed. 'Nor can you either promise me a body—if those we trail now have used the Valley as they used Yim-Sin.'
'The Valley has safeguards the village did not. It is able to protect those who dwell there, and it may be there is a good defense against these raiders as well. I have offered you the best I can, Krip Vorlund. No one, man or Thassa, can do more than that.'
'Agreed, What will you do with this child?'
'If the Valley is still intact, Umphra will care for her. If not, she goes with us.'
For the first time, he appeared to note the loss of the rest of our company, for he asked:
'Where are the animals?'
'I have sent them to where I hope my people will find them. If not, they will be free to roam as they choose.'
Fora while he was silent, and then he said, 'Both our lives have been changed by that walk we took together in the fair of Yrjar. I would not believe this story had I not lived it.'
'Stuff for the weaving of a legend,' I agreed. 'I have heard it said that if you dig far enough into any old tale you will unwrap at least one small kernel of one-time fact.'
'Maelen, what was Maquad to you?'
I was off-guard and perhaps he had sensed that. The sudden shot brought the truth from me.
'He was the life companion of my sister by birth, Merlay. When—when he went from us, I thought she might follow. She still turns her face from the fullness of life.'
'Tell me, would that alliance be again in effect did Maquad return?' His second demand was as sharp as the first.
'No. You would wear Maquad's body, but you are not Maquad. Looking upon you, however, she might be moved to accept the truth and awake once more from dark to light.' There it was, my poor frayed wish spoken into words at last.
'But would your people know I was not as I seemed?' He appeared not to have heard the ending of my speech.
I smiled wryly. 'Do not think you can hide your true identity from any Thassa, Krip Vorlund. They would know you at meeting. And, I must tell you this also, they will not approve of what we would do. I defy all our Standing Words when I give to you Maquad's dwelling, even for a short space of time. They cannot prevent that act, but it is one I must answer for in time to come.'
'Then why—?'
'Why must I do it? Need you ask that, off-worlder?This tangle is of my snarling, mine must be the unraveling. I am pledged by the strongest oath of my people to see that you have all aid within my power. I cannot tell why this has been so set upon me. But one bears the burdens sent by Molaster, one does not question them.'
He asked me no more, and I was glad that he meditated upon his own thoughts. For I was busy in my own mind. I had told him the exact truth. He would wear Maquad's body and he would not be Maquad. But just as the beast influences a little the human in-dweller, so would the shell of Maquad influence him. And this off-worlder was sensitive with esper power.
Maquad had been a singer of the second degree. He had been searching for knowledge to lead him higher when he was slain in four-footed guise. The animal of his exchange had been young, not used before, and so it lapsed after a period of violence into a cataleptic state which no mind-send could reach. But the beast portion had not, could not, reach all of the human brain, just as the human could not entirely possess the animal. There was a residue left in Maquad, if not the same Maquad of his memories, of more—Even the Old Ones do not know the full extent of changes so wrought. In all our history there was never a case of a human's return to a human or Thassa body not his own. Suppose, just suppose, that in Maquad's body that residue would awake and influence— I could not be sure, but even a part-Maquad might brighten Merlay's days for a space, draw her back to us again!
I stared out past the kasi and the road, and saw neither animals nor way but only her face and the change which might come to it were Maquad—or part-Maquad—to walk with her for a time! Although if what I longed for did not come, still I would abide by my oath—we would ride to Yrjar and try to change what might be unchangeable.
Also I thought of the Valley and what might be happening there this day. By all signs those who had finished Yim-Sin must have reached there by now, and the time space between us lengthened as we climbed so slowly. We passed the sections where sentries had once stood to ask the business of wayfarers. There were no sentries and I did not pause to seek them. I was not minded to hurry our ascent, to arrive while a battle might still be in progress. The Valley safeguards would make no distinction between friend or foe. And who knew—perhaps some measure of sanity would return to the raiders aloft.
The child slept and perhaps Krip Vorlund did' also, for he lay quiet, his head pillowed on a forepaw. Nor did he speak to me again. We made a nooning in the wilderness where only the road broke the land. There water bubbled in a mountain stream and I loosed the kasi to graze and rest.
'No sign yet?' The off-worlder asked when I brought him a bowl of water.
