Shadow Gate: Book Two of Crossroads by Kate Elliott

Author:Kate Elliott [Elliott, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780765349316
Publisher: Tor Books
Published: 2008-04-15T06:00:00+00:00

PART FIVE: MIRRORS

28

IN THE HUNDRED, in the season of the Flower Rains, the rains bloomed and withered in erratic patterns that depended on the topography and how far west or north or east or south you stood. If you knew your geography, you could anticipate the weather. In the Barrens, a person could lie in a stupor out in the open for days, and still not get wet.

When at last the girl roused, she stared at the envoy of Ilu with a changed look. Sometimes a person knows who they are and wishes they did not. Ignoring his tentative greeting, she saddled Seeing and rode away without saddling Telling in turn.

“The hells!” By the time he got Telling saddled, she’d flown out of sight into the wispy clouds crowding the mountains.

He flew in sweeps, even near enough to survey the campsite where outlanders and local hirelings were digging a ditch and berm around a pair of hills. He searched but did not find her. Long after the light failed, he returned to the altar. With fumbling hands, he cared for the horse and released it. He collected firewood to augment an old stack piled here by another reeve, possibly himself. Disturbed by this activity, rodents and spiders fled.

He had failed her. He sank onto the sitting stone beneath the overhang and stared as the red coals faded to ashes.

SHE WOKE HIM by touching his hand. As he started into awareness, she pressed an irregular oval object into his palm.

“Here, Uncle. It’s sweet.”

He studied the fruit. The morning light described its lumps and hollows, the way its smooth skin gave slightly. Delighted, he laughed. “I haven’t tasted a sunfruit for years! My favorite! Where did you find it? They don’t grow in the Barrens.”

She gestured further into the foothills. “There’s a valley with many trees, and water. Someone was hiding there, but all I saw were threads like silk blown in the wind. The fruit is good. Try it.”

The sweetness cooled his dry mouth, and an odd expression creased her face: She was trying to smile, to show she was pleased that she had pleased him.

“What is your name, lass?”

She backed away, unsaddled Seeing, and busied herself grooming. Ox-footed fool! He had shouldered in too quickly. He finished the fruit, wiped his hands and, because he had to do something lest he start jabbering again, began whittling.

After a while, still brushing the horses, she said in a low voice, “What is the twisting path? When we walked on it, I saw other places.”

He kept up his stroke with the knife. “There are a hundred and one altars spread across the land. Any Guardian, at one altar, can speak to any Guardian at another altar at the crossroads where our paths meet. You and I must beware, because the others who are like us wish to do us harm.”

She paused to look at him. “The horses have wings.”

“Yes.”

“We are demons, aren’t we?”

“No. Ghosts of a kind, perhaps. But alive in our own way.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.