Stonewiser: The Lament of the Stone by Dora Machado

Author:Dora Machado [Machado, Dora]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Mermaid Press
Published: 2013-12-08T05:00:00+00:00

Twenty-seven

KAEL WAS TOO shocked to speak. Riel’s sad face hid behind a curtain of untamed locks hanging limply like wintered ivy. Rork’s pupils expanded, filling the yellow eyes, holding Sariah’s stare without a hint of emotion. She tried to glimpse the boy sharing the cat’s body. She couldn’t tell them apart.

“It was you,” she said. “Wasn’t it? Your human form. Your baby’s body.”

“Is it true?” Kael said.

“Rork?” Riel asked. “Aye, he was the strongest in the womb. While I concentrated on learning from her, he fought the Prism and took the brunt of the damage. By birthing time, he knew we couldn’t all survive. Eli and I, we tried to convince him, but Rork wouldn’t listen. He realized I was going to need all the strength for the next stage of the fight.”

A fight. That’s how Sariah’s children saw their lives.

“We had decided Eli should be the one—”

“The one?” Kael said.

“The one to survive. The one who would carry on our blood, the name of Ars, which means so much to you and her, the one who would go on to build demesnes and heal the land and maybe even continue the line by having his own children.”

Kael didn’t say a word. Perhaps he too had a sob stuck in his throat and was afraid to speak for fear of wailing instead.

“One to fight in the womb, one to fight outside the womb and one to survive the fight,” Riel said. “That’s what we decided. Eli gave me some of his strength, but we wouldn’t let him do more, because he had to survive. He turned out good.” Riel tucked the blanket around the baby. “Although he’s rather useless at the moment, prone to fits, belly aches and all kind of difficulties, and a mute to top it all.”

“Mute?” Kael turned the spit over the fire. “You mean he can’t hear us and he can’t talk?”

“His hearing is fine,” Riel said. “He startles at sound and he loves listening to songs. But he doesn’t make any noises.”

“Maybe he’s too little yet,” Sariah said.

“He should be cooing and crying at least.”

“His mind is also mute,” Riel said. “He can’t talk to us like he did in the womb. He might not want to talk to us anymore. I mean, I’m pretty dull and Rork is, well, a lynx, but we also think he might have lost his voice and his link to us during the fight against the Prism.

“It’s not so bad.” Riel misread the shock on their faces. “I only miss the link when he throws one of his silent fits. On the other hand, Rork gave everything he had left as he bolted down the birth canal to make way for us. It was pretty brutal. By the time he came out, he was all blue and bruised and the woman said he was a weakling and he’d be no good to her.”

Sariah hugged the creature in her lap, hoping her hands could do what her voice couldn’t. She pressed her palms against the cat’s lush fur and issued a stream of pure affection.

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