royal decree. Let everybody know it.' Corinn began to protest, but Mena calmed her with a somber change in her tone. 'We've started this from the wrong end. Sit with me. Let me explain it all from the beginning, and then come and meet her with me. Properly, I mean, not with all the confusion of last night.'
To Mena's relief, Corinn only held her pressed-lip expression for a few more seconds. Then she called for a pot of tea and sat across from her sister as a servant entered with it. When the servant left them with steaming cups, Mena began her tale.
She told it all just as she remembered. Corinn had heard reports of their progress with the foulthings at every stage, but reports were dry things with no emotion to them. The emotion was what Mena wanted Corinn to understand. She wanted her to know how hard it was for her, seeking out monsters and seeing all their foulness and killing them one by one. She may have been marvelously skilled at it. She may have taken risks and planted fatal blows when others would readily have done so in her place, but none of that meant it was easy, satisfying, enjoyable, thrilling, or any such nonsense. Just the opposite. The fact that she had a natural gift for slaughter was a great burden to her.
'We all have burdens,' Corinn said. 'You don't doubt the rightness of what you did?'
No, Mena did not. She described the bloated vultures and the foraging creatures, the lion with the eyes down its back, the snakes on legs, the monstrosity that had once been a fish but became a ravening mouth. The tenten beast, she said, had stared at her with malevolence different from a mere animal's. It had been changed not just in size and shape but inside its mind as well.
'The Giver's tongue is a foulness,' she said. 'All traces of it have to be wiped out.'
'You're mistaken,' Corinn said. 'It's not the Giver's tongue that's foul; it's the corruptions of the Santoth. They were banished for a reason, Mena, and the years in exile have done nothing but make them dangerous ogres. If they made the foulthings, it's because they are foul themselves. Remember, though, if there is truth in any of the Giver's story, it begins with him creating the entire earth and all the many good things in it.'
Mena eyed her as she sipped her tea. 'You seem surer of this than you were before.'
'I know more than I did before. You've been away, but I trust you've heard rumors of the work I performed in Talay.'
'I heard tales about you bringing water from the ground wherever you pleased. I didn't know what to make of it.'
'Make of it that I've been learning ancient wisdom. Sorcery, if you must call it something, although it's not so exciting as that may sound.'
'How? Who is teaching you?'
'I'm teaching myself from some old texts. Don't look so frightened, Mena. I haven't gone mad any more than you have. Nor is it dangerous. Just think of it as-as if I were studying medicine or music. I'm learning things that expand my knowledge in useful ways.'
'But to make water come out of-'
'Water comes out of the ground all the time. There's nothing more natural. I just help direct it. But go on with your tale. It's more amusing than my study of ancient spells.'
Though she was not sure that was true, Mena did want to get to Elya. She had not said the things she wanted to yet. She described the day she had crept up to the lip of the hill and looked down into that orchard and first seen that reptilian head. Some part of her had known that here was something different, but her mind had not grasped it in time. She told of how they had hunted it, shot it through with crossbow bolts, and tried to weigh it to the ground. They had torn shreds in its marvelous wings. None of it was easy to relive: neither her flight clutching its tail nor the battering she took landing nor the sight of what she thought to be the dead creature when she had climbed down to look upon it.
'I can't believe how close I came to killing her,' Mena said. 'I ordered her shot at when she had never done anything to anybody. That shames me now.'
What joy, then, to learn that the creature was not dead after all! Joy in watching her heal so quickly, in observing her tenderness and her comic ways. Joy in coming to feel a bond with her. That was why Elya was so important. Not only had this creature of such beauty and gentleness chosen her as a friend-her, Mena, the killer of Maeben and so many other creatures. Not only that, but being with her infused Mena with the creature's goodness. She felt that goodness inside her body. She became part of it, and everything about the world seemed better.
'You don't know how much that means to me,' Mena said. 'You didn't see those foulthings, didn't look them in the eyes the way I had to. For so long I thought of them, of what they were, worrying about what they might become. Corinn, some of them had such raging hatred in them. The tenten beast wasn't just an animal. It hated as only humans can.'
'Which is why it was an abomination,' Corinn said.
'The abomination is that Santoth sorcery did that to them.'
Corinn ignored this statement. 'Your creature cannot be trusted. It may change into-'
'No! No, she won't.' Mena said this with all the conviction she could muster. She believed it completely, of course, but it was not all she felt. She had dreamed that Elya turned toward her with bloodshot eyes, with that terrible, malevolent intelligence in them. But these were only nightmares, she now believed, the lingering traces of having seen so much in her battles. Nothing more. She meant it when she said, 'Elya is what she is, and that's wonderful. She makes me feel good. I haven't felt good in such a long time. I don't remember when I last felt… just joyful. Do you?'
She was surprised by the question, making it a full stop instead of only a part of her discourse. She looked at her sister even more deeply, realizing that Corinn had likely been dissatisfied more than she, for longer, in even more ways. She had never quite realized it, but now she was sure.
Corinn did not answer the question directly. 'It's preposterous.'
Mena smiled. At least Corinn had not said it with malice. 'Perhaps, but, if so, I like things preposterous.' She leaned back into the comfort of her chair. 'What aspect of our lives hasn't been preposterous?'
'What do you intend to do with it?'
'She'll stay with me. As long as she wants to, at least. She's no burden or danger. She eats fruit. Just fruit. Her feet are as light on the ground as a bird's. She'll soon be loved by everyone.'
'I don't know that I can allow that,' Corinn said. She set down her teacup. 'Here in the palace, I mean. There might be an incident. I know you favor this thing, but you should have ended it. Be done with these foulthings forever.'
Mena looked at the bowl of apricots on the table beside her and plucked one. That was a topic she did not want to discuss. In truth, she had begun to suspect that Elya might be pregnant. Nothing definite gave it away, just a feeling of other pulses of life within her. She might be wrong. How could Elya be pregnant if she was the only one of her kind? In any event it was better to keep the possibility to herself for the time being.
'It won't be for long,' she said. 'I'll fly on her the next time I go to Vumu.' She bit into the apricot and managed to speak as she chewed. 'I've decided that's what I want to do next: go to Vumu for a time. I'd like to be the priestess again. This time, however, I'll show them Maeben at peace. I'll ask them to look up at the sky without fear. They'll look up and see Elya, and they'll feel safe for once. I'd like to give them that gift, for they gave me so much during my time there. The people will love it; the priests will hate it. Perfect.'
'Perfect? Hardly. You may fancy your pet, but remember it's a foulthing. It's distorted. Who knows what-'
'Please, Corinn. She's not foul. I'm the one who hunted down monster after monster. I know foul. Elya has not a drop of bad blood in her. She's beauty, Corinn. Gentleness and humor and beauty. Come. Come right now and see her.'
Corinn lagged behind Mena when they entered her quarters. She craned her neck around, clearly nervous. She did not stay that way long, though. Elya-fierce winged creature that sent nobles running and caused guards to fumble for their swords-was marching around the far side of the entrance court under the direction of a child. Aaden sat in the saddle of her shoulders, waving a wooden sword and encouraging the creature to attack. Elya did so, although her attack was rather careful, maneuvering through the chairs and tables of a sitting area. Her neck craned about to make sure she did not brush anything, and her tail carved elaborate circles, occasionally touching objects as if to steady them.
Two maids stood nervously nearby, as did one of the prince's tutors. Clearly, they had been beseeching the boy to come away, but now stood about, curious and worried at the same time.
