He’ll know I’m lying.
The knock made her jump even though she was expecting it. Swallowing hard, she made herself walk to the door. She took hold of the handle, drew in a deep breath, and pulled.
He moved into the room like a gust of warm air. The smell of him enveloped her senses. He moved close and warm hands pressed against the sides of her jaw. She stared at his face, unable to believe this intense expression of desire was directed at her.
“I...” she began.
A frown of concern creased his forehead. “What is it?” he asked gently.
“I... haven’t done this before,” she said weakly.
He smiled. “Then it’s about time you did,” he said. “I can think of no better teacher than the former Head Servant of the Temple of Hrun.”
With those words echoing in her head, she could not gather her thoughts enough to protest any more. She did manage to laugh when he picked her up, just like in the silly romantic tales some women liked to read, and carried her into the bedroom.
I’m going to regret this, she thought as he shrugged off his robes and she hesitantly slipped off her nightdress. Then a little while later, as his lips and tongue descended to her nipples and his fingers trailed down over her belly, she began to change her mind.
No, I’m not going to regret this at all. Not one bit.
10
Emerahl watched Auraya’s face as they stepped out from behind the waterfall into the sunlight. The former White’s frown disappeared and she stopped to take a deep, appreciative breath of fresh air. Catching Emerahl watching her, she smiled.
“It’s good to be outside again,” she said. She stepped up onto a boulder and stretched. “I feel like I haven’t flown for months.”
“You enjoy it, then?”
Auraya grinned. “Yes. It’s so... unrestrained. I feel unbound. Free.”
As the younger woman jumped back down again, Emerahl chuckled. “That’s how sailing feels. Just me and a boat, and nothing to worry about but the weather.”
“Ah. Yes. The weather. It’s best to avoid flying in storms. There’s not just the cold and rain, but the risk you’ll be struck by lightning or fly into a mountain hidden in the clouds.”
“Sounds just as dangerous as sailing in a storm,” Emerahl noted wryly.
Auraya looked thoughtful, and nodded. “How shall we start these flying lessons, then?”
“I have no idea. You’re the one teaching, this time.”
“So I am.” Auraya looked around, then started toward a flat, clear area a little downstream. “And I have no idea how to teach this. The other White couldn’t do it, but I don’t know if that was because they were incapable or I’m a bad teacher.”
“I’d suggest you teach it by putting your pupil in the same situation you were in, except Mirar told me you discovered the Gift after falling off a cliff.”
Auraya looked back at Emerahl, her face serious. “We could do that.”
Emerahl gave her a level look. “Let’s consider it a method of last resort.”
“It wouldn’t be as dangerous as it sounds,” Auraya continued. “We’d need higher cliffs than those around us, though. You need time in the fall for the initial shock to pass, then to figure it out, then to apply magic to—”
“Actually, let’s consider it out of the question.”
“I’d catch you if it didn’t work. You’d be quite safe.”
Emerahl decided not to respond to that. She wasn’t sure she trusted Auraya that much. “How did you go about trying to teach the White? Did they throw themselves off the Tower?”
“No, they tried to lift themselves off the ground.” Auraya stopped as they reached the flat area.
“Then that’s what I’ll do.” Emerahl turned to face her. “Tell me what to do.”
“Can you sense the magic around you?”
“Of course.” Emerahl let her senses touch the energy all around them.
“Can you sense the world around you? It’s a similar feeling.”
“The world?”
“Yes. I find it easier when I’m moving. Then my position is changing in relation to it. That’s why falling was so useful. The world was rushing past me, or I past it, so I noticed the change in my position.”
Emerahl took a few steps while searching for a sense of her surroundings other than what she could see and hear. She paced around Auraya in a circle.
“I don’t sense anything.”
“It’s similar to sensing the magic around you.”
Circling Auraya again, Emerahl felt nothing like what Auraya had described. She shook her head.
Auraya frowned and looked around them. “Perhaps you’re not moving far or fast enough. If you jump off a boulder you’d move faster. The fall is short, so you’ll have to be concentrating.”
“I’ll give it a try.”
They moved toward the stream. Choosing a boulder as high as her shoulder, Emerahl clambered up. From the top it seemed higher than it had from the ground.
Auraya stepped back, giving Emerahl plenty of room.
“Concentrate,” she said.
Taking a deep breath, Emerahl made herself jump down to the ground. She landed off balance and staggered forward. Auraya caught her shoulders and steadied her.
“Sense anything?”
Emerahl shook her head. “Too busy thinking about how hard the ground was going to be.”
“Try again. Maybe if you do it often enough, you’ll forget about the ground.”
Forget to be scared, you mean, Emerahl thought wryly. She climbed up and forced herself to jump again. Before Auraya could ask anything, she turned and climbed the boulder once more.
After twenty jumps, Emerahl could land with practiced grace. She could even manage to remember to concentrate on “the world around her” as she fell. But she still sensed nothing.
“What happens next?” she asked, more for the opportunity to rest than any confidence in her readiness to move on.
Auraya’s eyes brightened. “You change your position in relation to the world. Using magic.”
Emerahl stared at Auraya, knowing her face expressed utter incomprehension but not caring. The woman’s expression changed to disappointment.
“The cliff might be the only way. It might just take rapid motion for a certain length of time in order for the mind to com—”
“I’ll keep trying,” Emerahl told her.
A while later Emerahl stopped. Her knees and ankles were hurting. Her body told her that hours had passed, but the world she was failing to sense somehow kept up the illusion of it still being early morning.
“This isn’t working,” she muttered to herself. “There’s got to be another way.”
“Maybe if we found a steep slope, we could carve out a gully for you to slide down,” Auraya suggested. “That would be almost like a fall.”
A fall? Emerahl felt her skin tingle with sudden excitement as an idea came to her. Turning, she regarded the waterfall. The pool was deep beneath the cascade. As a child she had loved to dive into the ocean...
“It’ll be cold,” Auraya warned, guessing Emerahl’s intentions.
“If I can stand the ocean in winter, I can put up with this chilly puddle,” Emerahl told her.
She retrieved a rope from the cave. The climb up to the top of the fall was not easy. Moisture had encouraged moss to form in cracks, which made handholds slippery. At the top, Emerahl secured the rope to a tree, then tied loops along the length for hand- and footholds.
Moving to the edge of the stream, she stepped out into the water. The flow pulled at her legs, trying to tug her off balance. At the edge of the fall the force of the water was insistent, working hard to convince her there was no way to go but over the edge.
This first time I’ll just concentrate on getting the dive right - and not knocking myself senseless on the bottom of the pool.
She closed her eyes and sent her mind back to a time when she was younger - much younger - and the imagin
ed monsters living in the dark corners of her home had been more frightening than throwing herself off a cliff into the churning ocean.
Opening her eyes, she bent her knees, let herself fall forward, and sprang out into the spray-filled air.
The pool rushed up and slapped her with shocking cold. As the chill water surrounded her she instinctively curved her body forward and upward to shorten her dive. Her knees knocked against the pool floor.
Then she was swimming up to the surface. Sodden sandals dragged at her feet as she waded out. She drew magic and directed it to heat the air about her.
Auraya was sitting on top of a boulder nearby. She smiled and raised an eyebrow.
“Didn’t even try,” Emerahl told her. “Wanted to get the dive right first.”
Auraya looked at the rope hanging down the cliff. She opened her mouth, then closed it again and shrugged.
Feeling warmer and not a little exhilarated by her dive, Emerahl kicked off her sandals and started toward her makeshift ladder.
If I have to jump off cliffs to learn this, she thought, I may as well have some fun at the same time.
Danjin opened the door and hesitated. The hair and clothes of the two Dreamweavers glistened with droplets of rain, and water was beginning to puddle around their boots. Raeli followed his gaze and smiled faintly.
A warm breeze touched Danjin’s skin. The Dreamweavers’ clothes began to steam. In a moment both were dry.
“We are here at Ellareen the White’s request,” Raeli said. “This is Dreamweaver Kyn, Dreamweaver Fareeh’s replacement.”
“Welcome,” he said. “Ellareen of the White is waiting for you.”
Danjin ushered the Dreamweavers in. Ella was standing beside the table, a few steps from what she had affectionately dubbed her “spying chair.” For a moment he saw her as these Dreamweavers must: a young Circlian healer they had once known and worked with, transformed by undecorated white robes, elegantly arranged hair and the gods’ favor into an imposing, powerful woman.
“Dreamweaver Adviser to the White, Raeli,” Danjin said by way of introduction. “And Dreamweaver Kyn. This is Ellareen of the White.”
Ella smiled at the pair. “Thank you for coming here. I apologize for the humble surroundings. Be seated, if you wish.”
As the pair settled into the chairs, Ella sat down on her seat beside the window. The room contained no other seats so Danjin remained standing.
The Dreamweavers looked calm and relaxed. He hadn’t seen Raeli much since Auraya’s resignation, not even in passing at the Tower. The male Dreamweaver with her was middle-aged, thin-faced and wore a short beard. He reminded Danjin a little of Leiard.
“What can we help you with, Ellareen of the White?” Raeli asked.
Ella smiled. “I was hoping I might be able to help you. A few weeks ago I was given the task of finding a way to end the violence against Dreamweavers and the hospice.” If this news pleased the pair, Danjin noted, they showed no sign of it. “At the advice of my adviser, Danjin Spear, I have been examining the reasons people might wish you and the hospice harm. That is why I have been using this room.” She glanced at the window. “To watch the thoughts of those passing the hospice.”
The eyebrows of the two Dreamweavers rose.
“Did you discover anything of use?” Raeli asked.
“I did. I don’t need to point out to you that some people of this city have an irrational dislike of Dreamweavers.” Ella’s expression was serious now. “That has been so for a long time and doesn’t explain the recent attacks. I suspected that something happened a few months ago that changed people’s opinion.” She paused, looking from one Dreamweaver to the other. “I believe the cause was the news that Mirar is alive.”
Raeli’s gaze sharpened. “A rumor,” she said. “That is all.”
Ella nodded. “A rumor some believe enough to start killing Dreamweavers.”
“You want us to deny the rumor?” Kyn asked. “They won’t believe us.”
“No,” Ella agreed. “Some people will never believe anything but what they want to. Most, however, are simply followers, as easily led astray into lawlessness as back to lawfulness. We must find the leaders, but also woo back their followers. To do so...” Ella paused and glanced at the window. She frowned and turned her attention back to the Dreamweavers. “To do that, we must assuage their fears. What they fear, I have learned, is what will happen if Mirar begins to influence the Dreamweavers again. They fear he will make Dreamweavers dangerous.”
Raeli pursed her lips as she considered Ella’s words. She looked at Kyn, who was frowning.
“You want us to assure people otherwise?” he asked. “They won’t believe that either.”
Danjin expected Ella to deny that, but she did not speak. He looked at her and found she was staring out the window again. When she turned back she wore a distracted expression. It quickly disappeared.
“No,” she said, meeting Kyn’s eyes. “I want you to declare that you won’t have anything to do with Mirar. That the Dreamweavers have got along without him for a hundred years and will continue to do so.” She turned to Raeli, who had opened her mouth to protest. “Have you found that missing Dreamweaver student yet?”
Raeli closed her mouth, then shook her head. “We believe he is dead.”
Ella grimaced. “Poor Ranaan.” She sighed. “I know my suggestion angers you, but I ask you: what is more important, the lives of your people or your loyalty to a man who abandoned you for a hundred years and now cannot be here to help you fight the violence his return has... Excuse me a moment.” Her eyes widened and she rose and turned to the window in one movement, then whirled about, strode to the door and left the room.
The two Dreamweavers looked at Danjin questioningly. He shrugged to indicate he hadn’t any idea what she was up to, then hurried after her.
She was already at the base of the stairs. As he started down she paused and looked up at him.
“Stay here, Danjin.”
Then she was gone. He returned to the room reluctantly. Raeli had moved to the window and was peering down at the street.
“I see nothing unusual,” she said.
As Danjin moved to her side she glanced at him and stepped away. Looking outside, he drew in a quick breath. Ella had emerged on the street. People were stopping and staring at her in surprise, but she ignored them. She walked up to a bread-seller lounging against his cart. As he realized she was approaching him he straightened and glanced to either side as if looking for an escape. Then he turned to face her, keeping his eyes to the ground.
Whatever she said to him brought a look of terror to his face. She turned and walked away. The young man hesitated, again glancing around. Ella looked over her shoulder and spoke again. The bread-seller’s shoulders slumped and he shuffled after her.
As the pair moved out of sight, Danjin stepped back. She must have caught some of his thoughts and seen in them something important. Something very important. Nothing else would make her risk revealing that she has been secretly spying on people outside the hospice.
The silence in the room was rapidly growing awkward. Danjin began to make polite enquiries of the two Dreamweavers. How had Raeli been since the war? Where was Kyn born? The male Dreamweaver was from Dunway, as his name suggested, but his mother was Genrian. It was an unusual heritage, and Danjin guessed that becoming a Dreamweaver had earned the man an acceptance and respect that his half-breed status would never have in Dunway or Genria.
When the sound of a door closing echoed through the house, Danjin paused to listen. He heard distant voices but could not discern what was said. Then a single set of footsteps drew closer.
The door opened and Ella stepped inside.
“Please excuse my abrupt departure,” she said. “I just found someone I’ve been looking for and couldn’t risk that he might move on before I had a chance to talk to him.” She sat down and adjusted her circ. “Now... well, I asked you to come here so I could tell you the results of my r
esearch.” Her expression became earnest. “I hope you’ll take my advice, but I’ll understand if you don’t. It is no easy thing to do. You can contact Mirar, if you choose to take my advice, and explain that it is necessary - and temporary.”
She smiled and regarded the two Dreamweavers expectantly. The pair glanced at each other, then Raeli looked at Ella.
“Thank you for giving us this information. It is reassuring to know the White are so concerned for our welfare. I will communicate your advice to Dreamweaver Elder Arleej and let you know what she decides.”
Ella nodded. She stood up. “Let me know if you need anything from us.”
The Dreamweavers rose and Danjin ushered them out. When he returned, Ella was standing at the top of the stairs.
“Someone you were looking for?” he prompted.
She smiled grimly. “Yes.” Crossing her arms, she drummed her fingers against her sleeve. “In a moment our guests will be out of the alley... there they go. Come on, Danjin. We’re going back to the White Tower.”
He followed her down the stairs and out into the alley, to the tired old covered platten they always arrived in. As she reached out to the door flap she paused and held a finger to his lips, before gesturing for him to enter.
Someone was in there, he realized. Two people. He climbed in slowly and cautiously. One of the men was the driver. The other was the bread-seller, bound, gagged, and looking terrified.
There was something disturbing about that. Danjin found himself imagining what had happened after Ella and the bread-seller had moved out of sight. Had she forced the man into the platten? Had she bound him? No, the driver must have done that for her.
Ella climbed in after Danjin. Her expression was grim as she regarded the prisoner. She gave the driver a nod, and he got out. The platten swayed as he stepped up onto the driver’s seat and urged the arem into motion.
“Bagem here has been paid to watch the hospice,” Ella told Danjin. “He was to note the movements of Dreamweavers in particular, and follow them if he could.”
And kill them? Danjin thought, giving the young man a speculative look. Though the bread-seller looked completely intimidated, that might simply be because he’d been caught by one of the White.
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