The Gathering by S E Fanetti

Author:S E Fanetti [Fanetti, S E]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-05-30T22:00:00+00:00

15. MYA

While Xian and the Rider stabled their mounts, Mya and Callyn stood outside, on the edge of a little town. This part of the world was like the drawings in her books come to life—green and blue and fresh. There were dainty white flowers growing in a riot along the riverbank, and Mya could not remember having seen a living flower before. The water in the river rushed noisily, and iridescent animals called fish leapt from the current and dived back to the water as if dancing with the joy of freedom.

The town was more lovely than she’d known could be real as well. Buildings made of wood rose on stilts high enough that she could walk under them. Each one seemed a different color, colors vivid and vibrant and more than her eyes could contain. They were like gemstones, and their glass windows glinted in the lowering sun like facets.

As in Haresh, the shop signs bore two kinds of languages, but unlike in Haresh, Mya could read only one. The words on the bottom of the signs were in Frentung. The words above were nothing but mysterious shapes to her, but lovely, with winding tails and curling serifs. This was Maerland, so the shapes were Maerlish, she supposed.

The people were different, too. The people in Haresh had worn drab linens in slouching layers. Most had covered their heads in linens as well, but those who hadn’t, men and women alike, had kept their hair stubby-short or their heads entirely shaved. The people here in Dibea wore soft leathers like those Xian wore, and that he and the Rider had bought for her, or crisp, heavy cottons, in an array of colors not so bright as the buildings but cheerier than she’d seen anyone wear but Ukarra. Who was Tantaren.

Still, it was the river that drew her most strongly. The roaring rush of fresh water, of life itself, the way the air seemed more cool and clean around it, the way the grasses and flowers—those lovely flowers, delicate and strong at the same time—rustled gently along its banks.

This was what Xian had meant, that there were wonders in the world worth the price of suffering.

A soft tap on her shoulder turned her attention from the river, and she saw that she’d walked away from the stable, back toward the ferry station, where the ferryman seemed to be ending his work for the day.

Callyn stood at her side, still tucked deeply into their cloak, concealing the oddness of their features. We should not wander, young one. It is not yet our time for wandering.

Sometimes, Callyn signed words Mya didn’t know at all. Often, as now, they signed words she knew but seemed mysterious nonetheless, both profound and meaningless at the same time, floating above reality. But Mya’s reality shifted daily now, expanding and contracting in ways that awed and frightened her. Perhaps Callyn’s words were wise, and she was not yet ready to understand them.

Looking out again over the cool

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