The Moon and the Face by Patricia A McKillip

Author:Patricia A McKillip
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-09-18T16:00:00+00:00

9

TERJE SAT on a rock in the dark, watching moonlight shiver into fragments across the water. It was very late; the Healer had been asleep for hours. The moon was beginning to set behind the Face. Regny hadn’t returned from the Outstation yet. If he didn’t come soon, Terje thought, the moon would disappear and they would miss each other in the dark.

The moon. His eyes were dragged to it. Its light seemed to melt against the black line of cliff as it sank, turning the Falls a milky white. He saw the Moon-Flash in his mind, the lick of fire that had awed him as a child. It made the Healer’s dream seem even more perplexing.

“How?” he wondered aloud to the murmuring River, “can I chant to a supply ship?”

He stirred restlessly, wishing Regny would come. Regny would expect him to be asleep; he wasn’t sleepy. He was wide awake, his veins full of night, his brain running like a squirrel with unanswered questions. Kyreol. The Healer’s dream. What he, Terje, was going to do. Dreams. Were they sometimes more hope than truth? How much longer would the Healer live? How much did Nara know of what had happened to Kyreol? Where was Regny?

He picked a broken seedpod out of a crevice in the rock and plopped it in the water. A hand came down on his shoulder.

His skin jumped. “Regny—”

“I am so tired,” Regny said. “I wish I could turn into something else.” His voice sounded heavy, ragged, though his breathing was steady. “What are you doing awake? Is the Healer—Did he—”

“He’s sleeping,” Terje said. The last glowing bit of moon sank; Regny’s face became little more than a solid patch of darkness. He tried to see it anyway. “Did you talk to Nara?”

“Yes.”

“Well, what?” Terje said, numbed by his silence. “What did she say?”

“The ship to Xtal never made it. But—” He was gripping Terje’s wrist, talking quickly, and Terje realized slowly that he himself had moved, had spoken. He was halfway down the rock. “Whatever happened, happened fast, but they managed to send a distress signal just before they vanished. I told Nara about the Healer’s dreams of Kyreol. She cried. She said if the Healer dreamed Kyreol was alive, she is alive. She said perhaps the ship crashed on one of Niade’s moons; the signal was so brief no one could tell for sure, but they were in that area. The Dome had been thinking the ship might have destructed in flight, or fallen toward Niade and burned itself up in the atmosphere. Even so, they sent out a couple of search and rescue ships, but they weren’t sure where to look. Now they’ve got something to go on—” He had let go of Terje’s wrist; his hand was between Terje’s shoulders. It was a long time before Terje could speak. The River blurred and blurred again under his eyes; his fingers were trying to knead implacable stone.

“She’s all right,” Regny said gently. “She must be.

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