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that
you be left in ignorance, lest you do something disastrous. But now it seems
that you have done something disastrous because of your ignorance.ö
ôNames of the gods! What have I done?ö
ôI canÆt tell youùthatÆs NorinaÆs business. But I think I will point out to
her
that to continue to leave you in ignorance seems, at best, ill-advised,ö
Karis
said. ôAnd to treat you like a servant seems ridiculous, since you will
notùcannotùact like oneùexcept as a kind of play-acting. And to send you away
has proven impossible since no matter how far you go I continue to hold onto
you
in spite of all advice and common sense. Norina insists that I must
notùcannotùsimply call you my friend. I am a smoke addict, and she is a
Truthken. Only an idiot would trust my judgment over hers. So tell me what I
am
to do, Zanja, for I am at a loss.ö
Zanja said, ôWhy donÆt you seek the advice of a seer? It just happens that I
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know one, andùö
She had to stop, because Karis had begun to howl with laughter. Nonplused,
she
waited for Karis to recover from her mirth, which had a certain bitter edge
to
it, for she seemed almost to be sobbing by the end, and had to wipe her tears
on
the tail of her shirt. ôYou have no ideaùö she gasped.
ôNo idea at all,ö Zanja agreed.
ôIÆm sorry,ö Karis said. ôTell me about your seer. Tell me how you met.ö
ôI met Medric on Fire Night,ö Zanja began. ôEmil had sent me to find Annis,
who
had gone rogue after the Sainnites torched her familyÆs farmstead, and my
search
brought me to Wilton, where I found her. But along the way, something began
to
happen to me, and I began to do things that made no sense . . .ö
But at least one thing she had done did make sense. She opened the pouch that
held her glyph cards, and shook out from the bottom, where she had nearly
forgotten it, the pendant of green stone and silver wire. ôThat day I bought
this for you, though I had no reason to even imagine that I would see you
again.
I thought I had lost my mind. I was starting to remember things in a way that
seemed insane. But perhaps it was, after all, a kind of prescience. When the
veil between present and past tore apart, so also did the veil between
present
and future. I hadnÆt lost my mind; I merely knew something I had no business
knowing.ö
She put the pendant into KarisÆs hand. ôYou see, now I have given you the
pendant. I look forward to someday understanding how everything I did that
day
makes as much sense as buying this pendant did.ö
Karis seemed dumbfounded, and said not a word as Zanja resumed her tale, but
lay
back in the grass with the pendant in her fist, resting against her breast,
until Zanja had described her last sight of Emil standing in the middle of
the
road, and then fell silent.
Then Karis said, ôName of Shaftal, it does make sense. Norina has been
wrongùwrong from the first moment I sensed your presence in Shaftal. Zanjaùö
She
swallowed. She was breathing as though she had run a race. ôYes, I do want to
speak to Medric, very badly.ö
ôI can bring him to you. Unless IÆve sorely misjudged him, he would make
himself
easy for me to find. He wants nothing more than to do some good in Shaftal.
It
doesnÆt bother you that heÆs half Sainnite?ö
As Zanja talked, Karis had gotten to her feet. Now, she gazed down at Zanja,
and
her face seemed very far away, and shadowed suddenly as her height blocked
out
the sun. ôWhat is it exactly that you think I am?ö she asked.
Zanja stared up at her. The people of the Juras tribe were yellow-haired,
blue-eyed, extremely strong giants. But KarisÆs Juras mother had been a
Lalali
whore. ôYour father would have been a very big man,ö she said.
ôAnd a Sainnite.ö
ôNo doubt. I suppose that would matter to some people.ö
ôTo some people, it is the most important thing about me.ö
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ôWell, Karis, you know some tremendous idiots.ö
Karis leaned over, and took hold of Zanja with both her hands, and set her on
her feet. ôSo long as youÆre not one of them,ö she said, and Zanja saw that
she
was smiling.
Beyond the inn-yard and the inn, behind the kitchen, grew an undisciplined
garden where climbing roses and fragrant herbs tangled into a blooming
thicket,
over which bees operated in a hum of industry. The beehives stood at the
gardenÆs edge, nearly half a dozen of them. Bees bumped into Zanja and Karis
as
they walked across the flight path, their feet crunching in the dried bee
corpses that littered the ground. Zanja followed Karis into the tangle of
roses,
and Karis in turn followed a path to a lathe house overgrown with rich, green
vines. The door had fallen off its hinges. Within, Norina lay upon a bench in
a
mossy shade garden planted beside a spring. The bubbling pond was filled with
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