Book 1 - The Brazen Gambit by Lynn Abbey

Author:Lynn Abbey [Abbey, Lynn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Dark Sun, Fiction
ISBN: 9781560768722
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Published: 1994-07-15T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

A summons slid into Akashia’s dream some twenty nights after her return from Urik: a twinge of pain in a deep muscle, the unfocused scent of anxiety, the wind-borne words Laq, templar, and Pavek-all woven through a mindsent image. Striding out of her solitary hut before she was completely awake and without the night-cloak folded beside the door, she was shivering by the time she reached the doorway of Telhami’s hut.

A fist-sized oil lamp hanging from a crossbeam cast shadowy light through the single room. Telhami sat on a wicker bench, her eyes closed. She’d slumped, precariously pressed against the bark-covered center pole. Her head had fallen forward at an odd angle. For one horrifying moment, Akashia thought her friend and mentor had died.

“Grandmother?” Akashia couldn’t make herself cross the threshold. “Grandmother…”

Telhami awakened with a shudder. Her eyes opened, and she stared at the doorway.

“Kashi? Kashi, what are you doing here in the middle of the night? Is something wrong?”

“You summoned me,” Akashia whispered. “You were dreaming, Grandmother. You summoned me from your own dreams.” Her voice grew louder, steadier as the situation became clearer.

Telhami shook her head, but her face grew thoughtful.

Akashia became convinced she saw things correctly: “You’re worried about Pavek and Laq, aren’t you, Grandmother? Confide in me, Grandmother. Tell me what troubles you. I brought him and his problems to Quraite. Let me help you deal with them.”

“No.” Telhami continued to shake her head. “It’s nothing that serious, Kashi. Certainly nothing for you to worry about. Pavek strives hard, but learns slowly. It’s frustrating for both of us, no worse than that. And Laq is a problem that will solve itself.”

“How?”

“I don’t know—yet.”

Bracing herself against the bench and the center pole, Telhami pushed herself upright. She took an unsteady step, releasing the bench but keeping her other hand’s fingertips curled firmly on the rough bark for balance.

“But I will, Kashi. I will. It’s a matter of time and memory. A little more of each, and I’ll have the answer.”

“Not if you wear yourself out first.” She accepted the fundamental truth of Telhami’s assertion. Where Quraite’s guardian and Quraite’s history were concerned, she hadn’t learned much-she wasn’t ready to learn. But Pavek was another matter. “If the templar has told the truth about Laq, then Laq is the more serious problem. The templar himself is insignificant Surely he didn’t learn anything in the Don’s archive that is more important than what the Lion’s minions are doing with our zarneeka. Let me teach Pavek in my grove for a few days, at least until you’ve found what you’re searching for. I’ve led the children through their catechism. I enjoy it, and you’d be free to do what only you can do.”

Telhami removed her hand from the pole. She stood straighter, and her eyes, when she turned around, were clear and bright. “Pavek is not a child, Kashi. Pavek is a man, a young man with a mind and strong thoughts of his own.”

“Grandmother, I’m not blind. I know exactly what Pavek is.

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