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its song. He wanted to tell Teseach Ruaim and Metau Chachil to shut their
yammering mouths and listen to the song he could make with her and Melech.
He didn t, of course. The relationship between Ard and Dumel was a
prickly one, oversweet reverence with a backtaste of resentment. If it
weren t for the sweet bouncy flesh of Fior girls, he d stop at a Dumel only
when he needed to shelter from a storm. He caught here and there furtive
glances from ordu girls on the benches and some that boldly challenged him. An
Ard baby brought honor to a family and there seemed several here who d like to
try for one.
He looked up as Lebesair lost patience and stabbed a call for attention into
the babble below xe, then he waited for an announcement that would match the
imperious demand for hearing.
Into the silence that followed Ruaim s song, Mer--Eolt Lebesair launched a
great mourning bellow that battered at the court. Concentrated sorrow. Keening
for the dead.
FIRE leaping to the sun an Eolt dies sport for mesuch
killing with light
FIRE dropping like rain death DEATH
CURSE the killers SOULless MONSTERS
FIRE mourn for the dead Mourn MOURN!
After the echoes of the final word had died, the Eolt shifted mode to
simple-speech.
 Every day on Melitoëh Eolt and Denchok die, hunted like beasts by the mesuch.
Others are driven from their Dumels and their fields. Fior males are killed or
made slaves, Fior women are killed in terrible ways or live as slaves. A
Sleeping Ground was burned a week ago and news has come that mesuch have gone
back and ripped the husks from the few Sleepers still in life. This I
leave for you to think on.
Remember the Shape Wars. Remember the sorrows a thousand and a thousand years
ago.
Maorgan shuddered. The old songs had been leached of their anger and pain
by the passing of
cen-turies, but if that time was coming again, there were horrors waiting that
put a chill in his soul. He
thought about what the Scholar said you can do worse than the Yaraka. He
didn t like these mesuch thieves what else were they but thieves, taking what
didn t belong to them but the contrast between the reports from Melitoëh and
the way the Yaraka had treated Glois and Utelel and the rest told him she was
right.
 The Meruus of Eolt and Fior are called to a Special Meeting. Tomorrow is Chel
Dé s day. The
Meruus cry out to you to make it a day of meditation and prayer. Especially
pray for the success of this meeting.
4
Aslan listened to Shadith s translation with fascina-tion, distress and
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anger. She tucked away the name
Shape Wars as something to investigate and steamed as she thought of all the
omissions in the
Yaraka Rep s report. She was also angry at the Goës; though he did try to
persuade her to live inside the
Fence, he hadn t given her any reasons or said word one about these
killings. Sniping between two
Companies was one thing, this other business could lead to ... well, she
didn t want to think where it would lead.
If Id known, she thought, would I even be here? Is this going to turn
into another
Styernna?
Waves of chill ran through her.
Shadith s hand closed round hers, warm and reassuring.
Her breathing steadied.
I need to think about this. It changes things.
The Chave were killing sentients for sport. If they didn t know
that now, they would soon enough maybe as soon as she sent out her first
reports since the Ykkuval probably had bought out one or more of the Goës
staff. Once University heard about this, they d work to get Chandava
Minerals blacklisted on Helvetia. The Ykkuval responsible would likely
be called home and stripped of his standing and the min-ute he realized
that, this side-glance war would go real.
Have to talk to the Goës as soon as I get loose. Do I call this off now? Have
to talk to Shadow and Duncan, see what they say.
She kept her listening mask firmly in place, but slipped in a quick glance or
two at the benches. She didn t know Keteng expressions yet, but the Fior were
still Cousins enough that she could feel their fear and a rising anger.
 Ignorance is death, the Scholar said, and that is true. Sioll Maorgan has
reported that the mesuch have a way of transferring understanding of strange
speech. Strange and frightening as those devices are, the Mer-uus ask that
some among you who are closest to the mesuch show the courage to undergo this,
transfer. The Béluchar must know what the Scholar knows and hear what the
mesuch say.
5
Shadith sighed as she passed on that last bit. Having to do all this
translating made her feel caged, as if she were a machine bolted to the floor.
I m not a Scholar, she thought.
Won t ever be. I haven t got that kind of patience. The body has some age on
it now and I can look even older if I have to. Hm.
Digby keeps after me to work for him. Maybe when this is over ....
She glanced at Aslan. A muscle jumped at the cor-ner of the Scholar s eye;
sweat beaded on her forehead and her mouth had a stiff look as if her lips
were trying to tremble and she willed them quiet.
She s been scared half to death since that Eolt starting speaking.
 This is important because the Meruus think of call-ing the Scholar s Harper
to the Klobach so that she may contribute to the deliberations. They have
asked this Mer to discover if such a notion would be wise. Harper, heed me.
Sing for us. Not our songs, but yours. Show us your heart. Teach us who you
are.
Shadith looked up, startled, then reached for the harpcase.  Happy to, she
said.  And if you have a wish to join in at any time, honored Eolt, feel
free. She smiled at Maorgan.  And you, Ard Maorgan.
She bent over the small harp Swardheld had made for her, touching
the strings lightly as she
considered what she should play. Play your heart, the Eolt said. Which heart?
She smiled as she thought that.
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Something stirred in her a need she hadn t fed since she took Kikun home.
I wonder ... no, can t think of him now.
She closed her eyes.
Dance for me, sisters. Let me have Shayalin again. You have to come alone this
time, no Kikun to power you, no dream pol-len to make you real again.
Shayalin was raided again and again to make slaves of the Weavers of Dreams.
What the Eolt had said about the killings hit her; before this, she d been
de-tached, not really listening to the sense, letting her Gift change the
words for her and pass them on to Aslan. Now ....
The raiders came down on Shayalin, killing the Shallana males and the makers
like her who were the fertile ones, the  tween generation born single, not
six. Carrying away the Weavers to dance dreams for men who had no
understanding of what they really saw. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]