Product

 

Contact Us

With Ulashtu's band came a prisoner. Vigor, the urrish tinker who befriended Sara back at Dolo, only to spring a trap, leading to captivity by Dedinger's fanatics and the reborn Urunthai. Now their roles were reversed. Sara noted Vigor's triplet eyes staring in dismay at the astonishing oa- sis. How the Urunthai would hate this place! Their predeces- sors seized our horses to destroy them all. Urrish sages later apologized, after Drake the Elder broke the Urunthai. But how can you undo death?caran dache pencils You cannot. But it is possible to cheat extinction. Watch- ing fillies and colts gambol after their mares below a bright rocky overhang, Sara felt almost happy for a time. This oasis might even remain unseen by omniscient spy eyes of alien star lords, confused by the enclosing land of illusion. Perhaps Xi would survive when the rest of the Slope was made void of sapient life. She saw Uigor ushered to a pen near the desert prophet, Dedinger. The two did not speak. caran dache pencils Beyond the women splashing in the pool and the graz- ing herds, Sara had only to lift her eyes in order to brush a glittering landscape where each ripple and knoll pretended 206 David B r i n to be a thousand impossible things. The country of lies was a name for the Spectral Flow. No doubt a person got used to it, blanking out irritating chimeras that never proved useful or informative. Or else, perhaps the Illias had no need of dreams, since they lived each day awash in Jijo's fantasies. The scientist in Sara wondered why it equally affected allcaran dache pencils races, or how such a marvel could arise naturally. There's no mention of anything like it in Biblos. But humans only had a sprinkling of Galactic reference material when the Tabernacle left Earth. Perhaps this is a common phenome- non, found on many worlds. But how much more wonderful ifJijo had made some- thing unique! She stared at the horizon, letting her mind free-associate shapes out of the shimmering colors, until a mellow femalecaran dache pencils voice broke in. "You have your mother's eyes, Sara." She blinked, drawing back to find two humans nearby, dressed in the leather garments of Illias. The one who had spoken was the first elderly woman Sara had seen here. The other was a man. Sara stood up, blinking in recognition. "F-Fallon?"caran dache pencils He had aged since serving as Dwer's tutor in the wilder- ness arts. Still, the former chief scout seemed robust, and smiled broadly. A little tactlessly, she blurted, "But I thought you were dead!" He shrugged. "People assume what they like. I never said I'd died." A Zen koan if she ever heard one. But then Sara recalledcaran dache pencils what the other person said. Though shaded against the desert's glow, the old woman seemed to partake of the hues of the Spectral Flow. "My name is Foruni," she told Sara. "I am senior rider." "You knew my mother?" The older woman took Sara's hand. Her manner re- minded Sara of Ariana Foo. "Melina was my cousin. I've missed her, these many yearsthough infrequent letters told us of her remarkable children. You three validate her choice, though exile mustcaran dache pencils Infinirii's Shore 207 not have been easy. Our horses and shadows are hard to leave behind." "Did Mother leave because of Lark?" "We have ways of making it likely to bear girls. When a boy is born we foster him to discreet friends on the Slope, taking a female child in trade." Sara nodded. Exchange fostering was a common prac- tice, helping cement alliances between villages or clans. caran dache pencils "But Mother wouldn't give Lark up." "Just so. In any event, we need agents out there, and Melina was dependable. So it was done, and the decision proved right . . . although we mourned, on hearing of her loss." Sara accepted this with a nod. "What I don't understand is why only women?" The elder had deep lines at the corners of her eyes, from a lifetime of squinting. "It was required in the pact, when the aunties ofcaran dache pencils Urchachkin tribe offered some humans and horses shelter in their most secret place, to preserve them against the Urunthai. In those early days, urs found our menfolk dis- quietingso strong and boisterous, unlike their own husbands. It seemed simpler to arrange things on a female- to-female basis. "Also, a certain fraction of boys tend to shrug off social constraints during adolescence,' no matter how carefully they are raised. Eventually, some young man would have burst from the Illias realm without adequate preparation and all it would take is one. In his need to preen and make a name, he might spill our secret to the Commons at large." "Girls act that way, too, sometimes," Sara pointed outcaran dache pencils "Yes, but our odds were better this way. Ponder the young men you know, Sara. Imagine how they would have behaved." She pictured her brothers, growing up in this narrow oasis. Lark would have been sober and reliable. But Dwer, at fifteen, was very different than he became at twenty. "And yet, I see you aren't all women. ..." The senior rider grinned. "Nor are we celibates. From time to time we bring in mature malesoften chief scouts, sages, or explosersmen who already know our secret, caran dache pencils 208 David B ri n and are of an age to be calm, sensible companions . . . yet still retain vigor in their step." Fallen laughed to cover brief embarrassment. "My step is no longer my best feature." Foruni squeezed his arm. "You'll do for a while yet." Sara nodded. "An urrish-sounding solution." Sometimes a group of young urs, lacking the means to support indi-caran dache pencils vidual husbands, would share one, passing him from pouch to pouch. The senior rider nodded, expressing subtleties of irony with languid motions of her neck. "After many generations, we may have become more than a bit urrish ourselves." Sara glanced toward Kurt the Exploser, sitting on a smooth rock studying carefully guarded texts, with both Jomah and Prity lounging nearby. "Then you sent the expedition to fetch Kurt because youcaran dache pencils want another" "Ifni, no! Kurt is much too old for such duties, and when we do bring in new partners it is with quiet discretion. Hasn't Kurt explained to you what this is all about? His role in the present crisis? The reason why we gambled so much to fetch you all?" When Sara shook her head, Poruni's nostrils flared and she hissed like an urrish auntie, perplexed by foolish ju- niors.caran dache pencils "Well, that's his affair. All I know is that we must escort you the rest of the way as soon as possible. You'll rest with us tonight, my niece. But alas, family reminiscence must wait till the emergency passes ... or once it overwhelms us all." Sara nodded, resigned to more hard riding. "From here . . . can we see?" Fallen nodded, a gentle smile on his creased features.caran dache pencils "I'll show you, Sara. It's not far." She took his arm as Foruni bade them return soon for a feast. Already Sara's nose filled with scents from the cook- fire. But soon her thoughts were on the path as they crossed narrow,' miraculous meadows, then scrublands where simlas grazed, and beyond to a steepening pass wedged between two hills. Sunlight was fading rapidly, I n f i n I r u ' s Shore 209 and soon the smallest moon, Passen, could be seen gleam- ing near the far west horizon. She heard music before they crested the pass. The famil-caran dache pencils iar sound of Emerson's dulcimer, pinging softly ahead. Sara was loath to interrupt, yet the glow drew hera shimmer- ing lambency rising from Jijo, filling a vista beyond the sheltered oasis.