The Dragonbone Chair: Book One of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams

Author:Tad Williams [Williams, Tad]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy
Amazon: B00316UMPS
Publisher: DAW
Published: 2021-02-28T18:00:00+00:00

26

In the House of Geloë

The figure that stood framed in the warm light of the doorway did not move or speak as the companions mounted the long board-bridge that slanted from the doorstep to the lake’s edge. As Simon followed Binabik up, carefully cradling the child Leleth, he could not help wondering why this Geloé woman did not have an entranceway of a more permanent nature, something at least with a rope handrail. His weary feet were having trouble keeping to the narrow bridge.

I suppose she doesn’t get many visitors, for one thing, he thought, looking out across the rapidly darkening forest.

Binabik pulled up short of the front step and bowed, almost bumping Simon off into the still waters.

“Valada Geloë,” he announced, “Binbines Mintahoqis requests your aid. I bring travelers.”

The figure in the doorway stepped back, leaving the way open.

“Spare me the Nabbanai constructions, Binabik.” It was a harshly musical voice, heavily and strangely accented, but unmistakably a woman’s. “I knew it was you. Qantaqa has been here an hour.” At the shore end of the ramp the wolf pricked her ears forward. “Of course you are welcome. Do you think I would deny you?”

Binabik entered the house. Simon, a step behind, spoke up.

“Where shall I put the little girl?” He ducked through the door, getting a quick impression of a high roof and long, fluttering shadows cast by the flames of many candles, then Geloë stepped in front of him.

She was dressed in a rough robe of dun cloth, clumsily tied with a belt. Her height was somewhere between Simon’s and the troll’s, her face wide and sunbrowned, seamed with wrinkles at both the eyes and mouth. Her dark hair was shot all through with gray and cut short, so that she looked almost like a priest. But it was her eyes that caught him—round, heavy-lidded yellow eyes with large, jet-black pupils. They were old, knowing eyes, as though they belonged to some ancient bird of the heights, and there was a power behind them that fixed him in his tracks. She seemed to measure him completely, to turn him inside out and shake him like a sack, all in a moment. When her gaze at last flicked down to the injured girl, he felt drained like an empty wineskin.

“This child is hurt.” It was not a question.

Simon helplessly let her take Leleth from his arms as Binabik came forward.

“She has been attacked by dogs,” the troll said. “Dogs with the brand of Stormspike.”

If he expected a look of surprise or fear, he was disappointed. Geloë pushed briskly past to a straw pallet on the floor, where she laid the girl down. “Find food if you are hungry,” she said. “I must work now. Were you followed?”

Binabik was hurriedly telling her of the most recent events, Geloe all the while undressing the unresponsive body of the child, when Malachias finally entered. He squatted down near the pallet, hovering as Geloë cleaned Leleth’s wounds. When Malachias leaned too close, blocking her movements, the valada gently touched the boy’s shoulder with a sun-freckled hand.

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