by Unknown
‘I need no instruction on what’s acceptable,’ said Kira, annoyed by Kest’s and Caledon’s attempts to take charge of her.
‘As Leader of the Warens, I’m of course aware of the message you sent to the Clancouncil with Healer Tresen,’ said Kest smoothly. ‘But the leadership of the Bough has always been held by the best Healer in Allogrenia, and even bearing in mind how the fighting has changed things, to remain in Allogrenia as our best Healer, but not be Leader, would contradict everything Kasheron fought for.’
Kira came to a stop. ‘So, Protector Commander Kest, you’re telling me that I have no right to live in Allogrenia if I renounce the leadership?’
‘It wasn’t my intention to suggest that, and if it seemed that way I beg your pardon, Tremen Leader. I was merely encouraging the best Healer Allogrenia has ever birthed not to take her healing gifts elsewhere.’
They continued in silence, Kest contemplating this latest turn of events. The northern Leader had sent two patrols to guard his sister and yet his bondmate arrived almost unprotected, with a man who – given their history together – must surely be a rival for her affections. The only explanation was that Kira had broken her bond. This seemed to be confirmed by Caledon’s terse description of how he’d come to find her.
On the whole, Kest thought this a pleasing development, for while his relationship with Tresen had improved, he would still rather work with Kira as Leader. For all her impetuousness, Kira didn’t hold grudges. She also had a greater understanding of northern ways than Tresen, and given that the northern Leader had opened his lands to the Tremen and would expect reciprocation, such understanding would be vital.
Kest needed to meet with the northern Leader but he hadn’t deigned to visit, despite escorting his sister all the way to the edge of the trees. Kest wondered what sort of man he was. Certainly Tresen’s dislike of him was plain, although he hid it most of the time for the sake of his bondmate. But in an unguarded moment in the Warens, when he’d consumed one too many ales in an attempt to ease the pain he carried, he’d called the northern Feailner ‘arrogant’ and ‘controlling’.
Not the most flattering of descriptions, thought Kest as he walked, but if true it would explain why Kira was now back in Allogrenia – without her bondmate.
43
The small party was almost to the Arborean when Terak patrolmen suddenly sprang from the trees, making Kira start violently. Although dressed as Protectors, they were taller and more muscular than Tremen, and exuded a sense of barely restrained aggression. She had grown used to them in Sarnia, but they seemed glaringly out of place under the trees. Kira didn’t recognise any of them, but they certainly recognised her, bowing to her before acknowledging Kest.
Kest ordered them back to their guarding and they withdrew.
The trees began to thin and Kira stopped on the edge of the clearing, Kest and Caledon stopping behind her. For a while no one spoke. The Bough sat starkly in its empty circle, the wood ungentled by age, the shingles bare of mottlecrest. The old Bough had been beautiful, and so too was this building, but it looked as raw as Kira felt. She’d wanted to go straight to Miken and Tenerini in the Kashclan longhouse, to have their reassurance and the comfort of her clan-kin before she must face the others, but Caledon and Kest had ensured she came here.
Having her wishes over-ridden added to the frustrations of the journey through Renclan. There were things Kira needed to say to Caledon, and things she might have shared with Kest – had she been alone with either one. But in the end, her conversations with both men had been limited to the mundane. In contrast, Kest and Caledon seemed to have developed an accord, sitting and speaking together long into each night.
The only good thing that had come out of the journey was that the churning nausea had at last gone.
‘We made the hall bigger,’ said Kest behind her, ‘so that Turning and Thanking would be less crowded.’
They’d be less crowded in any case because so many young men had either been killed or had chosen to stay in the north, thought Kira.
Then the large double doors swung open and Laryia and Tresen appeared. They didn’t come forward, but positioned themselves on either side of the steps.
‘The Bough waits to welcome home Tremen Leader Feailner Kiraon of Kashclan,’ said Kest softly.
Tresen watched as Kira, followed by Caledon and Kest, made her way across the Arborean towards them, then he glanced at Laryia’s tense face. For the first time in all their moons together, he and Laryia had argued. And it had been over Kira.
When the scouts had reported that Kira had returned to Allogrenia, both he and Laryia had been delighted. But then it had emerged that Kira journeyed without an escort and with the Lord Caledon.
‘Tierken would never have allowed Kira to travel without a patrol,’ Laryia had said. ‘She must have gone without his knowing. And with that man of all people.’
‘The Lord Caledon is a good fighter and has kept her safe. And he has affection for her,’ Tresen had replied thoughtlessly.
‘She’s bonded to my brother!’
Laryia loved her brother dearly, Tresen knew, but her refusal to see what was obvious dismayed him. Laryia was usually clear-headed, even with unpleasant things.
‘It’s likely Kira’s broken the bond,’ he’d said more gently. ‘You know it was hard for her in the north.’
‘And you think it’s easy for me here?’ Laryia had cried, turning on him. ‘To leave Tierken and Eris, Thalli, Jafiel, Leos, the sweet valleys of Kessom, Chime, my life in Sarnia? But I haven’t run back there because everything here isn’t to my liking!’
He’d tried to soothe her, upset by her distress and anxious she’d harm herself or their babe, but she’d shrugged him off.
‘You see what this means, don’t you?’ she’d demanded. ‘If Kira’s left Tierken, we’ll have to return north.’
‘What?’ he’d exclaimed in confusion.
Laryia had calmed then, her anger replaced with sadness. ‘Tierken became Feailner because our uncle Darid, the last Feailner, had no heir. It was apparent for many seasons that Seren would bear him no children, but even after she died, Darid remained alone. He was a man who loved only once.
‘Tierken’s like Darid in that way. When he brought Kira to Sarnia, I guessed she was the one. If Kira’s left him, then Tierken will also live out his life alone, and it will be a child of ours – the first to be born a boy – who will be the next Feailner. And he must be trained as Tierken was – in the north.’
Tresen dragged his attention back to Kira, noting her set face and the fact that it was only when she took in Laryia’s bulging belly that she showed any emotion at all. And then, oddly, it was distress rather than joy.
He bowed low as she approached and would have kissed her formally on each cheek had she not flung her arms around him. He could feel that she was all bones through her clothing – which wasn’t a good sign, he knew, recalling her failure to eat after Kandor’s death.
Thankfully Laryia’s expression had softened and she hugged Kira as well, though her greeting of the Lord Caledon was cool. Tresen knew that none of it was Caledon’s fault, though. Kira’s leaving of the northern Feailner had been inevitable – given his bullying. The only thing that remained unknown was what Kira intended to do next.
Laryia had linked her arm through Kira’s, and Kira allowed herself to be led through a hall that was both familiar and utterly strange.
‘Tresen tells me that much of this new building is the same as the old,’ said Laryia, coming to a halt. ‘Which means this door opens into your room.’
They went in and Kira stopped in astonishment. It looked almost the same, the only things missing the chimes that had hung in the window.
‘Tresen wanted to put things back as they were,’ said Laryia, closing the door. ‘He spent a long time instructing the wood-wrights. Did he succeed?’
‘Yes,’ said Kira, stunned by the similarity.
She eased herself down on the b
ed and stared about. This was the room she’d paced like a prison, plotting her escape to Enogren. And when she’d managed to evade her father, she’d climbed to the tree’s very top and stared out over the canopy, yearning to fly away like the mira kiraon. Well, she’d flown away, and it had cost her nearly everything.
‘You don’t look very happy,’ said Laryia, settling beside her and patting her hand.
‘They weren’t always happy times.’
There was a strained silence, and Kira glanced down at Laryia’s belly. If she’d stayed with Tierken, then perhaps one day she would have carried. But carrying would have meant not being free to avert future fighting.
‘Did you know you carried a child when you left the north?’ she asked Laryia.
‘Of course!’
‘Yet still you left Eris, and Thalli, and the others you love there to have your child here, among strangers?’
‘They’re not strangers anymore,’ said Laryia. ‘The hardest thing was leaving Tierken. But when you find a man you love, you build a life with him, wherever that love takes you.’
Kira refused to meet Laryia’s eyes, knowing what she’d see there.
Instead she said, ‘On the way here, we came across a Shargh woman with a sick child.’
‘Close to the forests?’ asked Laryia in alarm.
‘A little out. She’d risked everything to find healing for him. There’s a sickness in the Shargh lands and many of their children die.’
‘It was they who started the fighting,’ said Laryia. ‘You didn’t tend the child, did you?’
‘I’m a Healer, Laryia.’
‘But they’re Shargh! They murdered your family, and countless other Tremen, Terak and Tain. That child could even grow up to murder my child!’
‘I’m a Healer.’
‘Yes. You were fond of saying that in the north. Yet you inflicted many wounds. Tierken . . .’ Laryia stopped, and bit her lip. ‘I beg your pardon, Kira.’
‘You’ve a right to be angry, Laryia,’ acknowledged Kira. ‘Bonding with him was one of the many mistakes I’ve made. And he was right not to trust me. I have proved to be faithless, as he believed. It’s better that he’s free of me.’
‘I don’t believe you’re faithless,’ said Laryia slowly, taking Kira’s hand in hers. ‘But I promised Tresen not to ask you why you left the north – at least until the morrow,’ she said, dredging up a smile.
‘The morrow will make no difference to anything, nor the next day.’
‘Are you intending to make your life here again?’
‘I don’t know,’ admitted Kira.
‘Well, are you intending to go with the Lord Caledon to his lands?’
‘I might,’ said Kira with a shrug. ‘Or I might go back to my lovers in Sarnia. There’s Farid, and perhaps Mouras, and maybe Ryn, for I spent time alone with him too.’
‘Is that what Tierken accused you of? Is that why you left?’
‘Caledon told me many moons ago that the breach between the Tremen and Terak was too great for me to mend. I found out he was right, that’s all.’
‘The Lord Caledon says that because he desires you,’ said Laryia. ‘Tresen and I are happy together!’ Her grip on Kira’s hand tightened. ‘You and Tierken could be happy too, given time.’
‘It brings me great joy to see your happiness, Laryia,’ said Kira, ‘and that you carry Tresen’s child. I want your child to be safe – for all the babes now enclosed in the warmth of their mother’s bellies to be safe. I want an end to the fighting.’
‘But it has ended,’ said Laryia in bewilderment. ‘There are a few Shargh who still roam intent on revenge, which is why Tierken has sent patrols here, and why I won’t be able to visit the north for a little. But it’s finished, over with.’
Kira rose and wandered up and down the room. ‘In the fighting that led to the Sundering, do you know why the Terak treatied with the Ashmiri but not the rest of the Shargh?’ she asked, wondering if such a treaty might, even now, avert future fighting.
‘I . . . I’m not sure,’ said Laryia. ‘Why do you ask?’
‘The Ashmiri are free to share the Terak grazing lands, and the Tain’s, while the Shargh are treated as enemies and confined.’
‘The Shargh are enemies,’ retorted Laryia. ‘They would gladly murder every Terak, every Tremen and, I’ve no doubt, every Tain. They were like that before Terak and Kasheron’s time, and they’re like that now. It’s never going to change.’
Kira started to protest and stopped. Laryia simply echoed what most people believed, and in doing so ensured that the violence would continue.
There was a knock at the door. ‘Come and eat,’ sounded Tresen’s voice.
Caledon and Kest were already eating at the massive table, and Tresen selected from the platters of nutbread, sweetfish, roasted blacknuts and riddleberry spread for Laryia and Kira.
‘You should sit at the head of the table,’ said Kest to Kira, as Tresen filled cups with thornyflower tea.
‘I’ve no wish to emulate Maxen,’ said Kira.
Kest and Tresen exchanged surprised glances. It was the first time Kira had publicly criticised her father.
‘Did I manage to get your room right?’ asked Tresen, changing the subject.
‘Yes, and I thank you for your thoughtfulness. All that is missing are the chimes my mother hung for me. But those, like her, can’t be replaced.’
Tresen’s surprise deepened. Kira had never spoken openly of the loss of her mother either.
‘At which longhouse will the next Clancouncil be held?’ asked Kira.
‘Most likely it will be held here, now the Bough is complete,’ said Tresen. ‘Since the fighting they’ve been held only when there has been a need, and mostly in the southern octads, where the Shargh are less likely to penetrate.’
‘Can you call one for the next few days? I need to renounce the leadership.’
‘I’ll ask Miken,’ said Tresen. ‘He will know when the clan-leaders can come together.’
‘I think you should wait and give yourself time to think things through,’ said Kest.
‘I’ve been gone from Allogrenia over a season, Protector Commander. I was seventeen when I fled and no more than a terrified girl. Childish, I remember you calling me on more than one occasion. Since then I’ve killed, healed in strange lands, bonded and . . . broken my bond. I’m no longer that girl, Protector Commander, and I’ve had more than enough time to think things through.’
‘The Tremen are ruled by their best Healer,’ persisted Kest, despite the silence that had settled over the table. ‘It’s your duty to retain the leadership.’
‘I know where my duty lies, Protector Commander, and the traditions Kasheron established. After the Clancouncil, Tresen will be the Tremen’s best Healer and it’s right he’s recognised as such.’
‘So you are going to betray Tierken and go to Talliel,’ said Laryia.
‘Laryia!’ exclaimed Tresen.
Kira pushed her plate away. ‘At this moment, I’m going to bed,’ she said, rising. ‘And on the morrow I’m going to Kashclan where I’ll remain until the council. I bid you all a good night.’
44
Kira’s door clicked shut behind her and, after a few moments of brittle silence, Laryia rose too.
‘I might bid you a good night as well,’ she murmured, avoiding Caledon’s eyes. ‘I’m feeling a little tired.’
Tresen watched her go, then cleared his throat. ‘I must beg your pardon on behalf of my bondmate,’ he said to Caledon. ‘Since Laryia’s been carrying the babe, she’s easily upset. And of course she’s close to her brother.’
Caledon inclined his head. ‘I’ve taken no offence. I understand how the circumstances of their growing have bound them together. I understand her feelings.’
Tresen reached for the ale jug, but Kest’s next words almost made him drop it.
‘So, Kira’s undertaken to bond with you, Lord Caledon?’ said the Protector Commander.
&n
bsp; ‘Kira’s given me no undertakings at all. She needs time, and I’m prepared to grant it – unlike others.’
‘Circumstances in the past were less kind in granting anything, time included,’ observed Kest.
‘You’re quite right, Protector Commander. Some star-times are less propitious than others, and those we’ve just passed through have been testing indeed. But after struggle comes healing and rest.’ Caledon smiled and gazed up at the beams. ‘And I can think of no more beautiful place for both.’
Tresen watched him. Caledon was skilled at smoothing over arguments and building understanding between peoples, he thought, and he’d seen ample evidence of it in the north. But now Tresen pondered what Caledon’s plans were for Allogrenia. That Caledon wanted Kira was plain, but Tresen suddenly wondered what else he wanted.
They sat together for a little longer, drinking ale and speaking of the Bough’s rebuilding and the carving skills of Morclan, before Caledon bade Kest a polite goodnight and Tresen showed the Tallien to his room. When Tresen came back to the table, Kest refilled his cup, wasting no more time on small talk.
‘You know Kira better than anyone living, either here or in the north, Healer Tresen,’ he said. ‘Do you think she’ll bond with the Lord Caledon and go to Talliel with him?’
‘No.’
Kest’s eyebrows shot up. ‘You seem very certain.’
‘Does she look like a woman in love, Protector Commander?’
‘No. She looks almost as miserable as when the Bough was burned,’ said Kest. ‘But perhaps after she’s been here a while she will heal, as the Lord Caledon suggests.’
‘Kira’s healed by people, not by time,’ said Tresen, gulping down his ale.
‘The northern Feailner?’
Tresen shrugged and refilled his cup.
‘What’s he like?’ asked Kest curiously.
‘In some ways he’s like Kira, but with none of her sweetness. They’re both single-minded about the way things should be done. And from what I saw, and from what Laryia’s told me, it was the same with their bonding – sunshine or storm, with nothing in between.’
