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longer mourned, extended her hand to him. As he took it, a sound like shining
attracted his attention to a door he had not before seen. Their hands met.
Sereth stepped from my view.
i
Khys lay crumpled small upon the mat, deflated, his body fluids a red pool all
about. From out of the Shaper's seal, Sereth drew the dharen's sword, around
which his life still bubbled forth in lesser and lesser spurts.
- [
His eyes were closed.
" ---->
"
I bit Chayin's hand, grieving. ^ ^
Sereth paused a moment, tton retreated. And again advanced. To $ though his
next stroke merciful.
Estrazi manifested incontestable, his Not since my coi among Silistrans, sand
years.
Sereth retreated and dropped his b my father's feet. Hi» into fists.
in-flesh lock, been fit and and is chest. ; Shaper come :vfortwo.thou-
he halted, Sd's, before i* curled
WIND FROM THE ABYSS
297
Estrazi surveyed us, and Khys upon the mat. "I will take him," said my father,
his cauldron eyes compassionate. He gathered Khys up in his arms. The dharen's
blood roiled down Shaper flesh. Like some child, Estrazi held him, his hand
covering the seal he had put upon Khys's chest, and the wound it hosted.
Khys's limbs dangled, swaying gently, his form limp and unknowing.
"He has left you no easy legacy, flesh son," spoke Estrazi to Sereth. The
flame tongues over his dark form seemed to thicken, to envelop Khys. "You have
in- the past well served me." So did Estrazi acknowledge Sereth, who had not
moved.
"If again you use me," said Sereth in his most quiet voice, "I would
appreciate being informed beforehand."
"Then," allowed Estrazi, his form engulfed in the crucible of creation, "I
will inform you." The wave of his words hung in the air. He was gone. He had
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left without word to me, his daughter.
IX.
The Law Within
"For the Lake of Horns," whispered Sereth, half to himself. Upon the mat where
Khys had been lay dark stains. Among them, gleaming wetly, lay the dharen's
chald.
He walked there, his stride slow and deliberate. Before it, he squatted down,
a hand out to steady his weight. He took up the chald and ran,it through his
fists. He said a thing, too low for us to hear, and tossed his head.
He brought it with him, to where we still knelt, and sat himself down.
"Find work to do, or I will assign you some/' called Chayin, his head twisted
around. Only then did I turn and see the silent jiasks crowding the hole where
the doors had been.
The cahndor rubbed his neck. He regarded Sereth and the chald a time.
"Witnesses have heard it." He bespoke it as last.
"Think you it was still his to give?"
"In deed and truth, it was his, And a gift he made of it to you."
Sereth, for the first time, raised his head tp us. I saw two things
unexpected; tears and anger. "I want no rule over men. All my life, men have
sought to rule me. The law within is enough bondage for any man," _
'
"It is your chaldra,"
WIND FROM THE ABYSS
299
He looked down at the great chald of Silistra and back at Chayin. The wound on
his chest rolled one last tear of blood.
"You know what I wanted. You stalked it for me. What there is left of that
dream, I will take. And I would get out with her, out of the lands of men."
"What will you do?" asked Chayin gruffly.
"Hunt, perhaps. I know not." The grief that shrouded Sereth then made me rock
back and forth upon my knees. Barely could I withstand the impulse to keen.
His eyes went over me, in great detail, as if finally he could fill his hunger
replete. When his gaze met mine, I could not name the emotion there, for it
was spawned of owkahen, and what it had done to us.
"It is my father's sign," I offered, very low, not wavering.
"It is not the marking of the flesh but the marking of the spirit that
concerns me." He rose up. Glowering, he snapped his fingers. I did for him
what he required, as I had for Khys so many times.
"She is truly crell," said Chayin. I saw nothing but the hair fallen around my
face.
"It is not that. It is that she learned it at another's hand, and to a
different taste. Rise up."
I did so, woodenly. He was grinning. He pulled me close. It seemed he touched
every part of me, reacquainting himself. I protested.
Abruptly he spun me toward the cahndor.
"See for yourself," said Sereth to Chayin.
I endured the cahndor's probing, until I could not. Then I struck out with
mind violence, all I could command. Without even a hesitation in what else he
did, he parried the blow. "Do not ... No longer can you hold that above us. At
my convenience, I will take reparation from you upon this account." His dark
eyes had no hint of film.
He pushed me from him. I stumbled, caught
300
Janet E. Morris myself, straightened, halfway between them. I saw Sereth's
eyes, hard and resentful. But I had seen what else lurked there. I tore my
hair from my face, squared my shoulders under his scrutiny.
"She called Khys's name when he and I faced each other," Sereth said to
Chayin.
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"Crells and owners thus it often is with them. If she had been less to him,
she would be less to you," opined the cahndor. I heard jiasks, sharp laughter
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