Sheri Tepper
Page 23
"Marianne's half brother," she whispered in explanation. "It was a great tragedy. In fact, I sometimes cannot understand
Marianne still being so fond of horses."
"Paralyzed?" asked Makr Avehl. The shrouded figure made no movement except that Makr Avehl saw the eyes shift toward him, as though the person there had recognized his voice.
Stunned, he looked full into that immobile face. He knew that face, knew it as well as he knew his own. Harvey Zahmani, who had tried so hard to kill Marianne. Who had killed the couple standing beside him-in another world, in another time.
"Completely paralyzed," the woman whispered. "He had just returned from a visit to your part of the world-the trip was a graduation gift from his father. He had visited an aunt in your neighboring country, Lubovosk. His mother came from there. He had been home less than a day when he and Marianne went out riding..."
"Marianne told us it was a pack of wild dogs," said
Haurvatat Zahmani. "No one had ever seen them before. No one ever saw them after. They came out of nowhere. The first we knew was when Marianne came riding in. Her horse was all lathered, but she was steady as a rock even though she was only twelve at the time. Told us what had happened, where to find him. Thrown. His head and back must have hit a stone.
He never walked again. Never spoke again." The man sighed deeply, reliving an old tragedy.
Makr Avehl did not answer. His eyes were utterly fixed upon the woman riding to the stairs he stood upon, fixed upon
Marianne, his Marianne. His hungry, predatory soul reached for her in glad possession, his sagacious, ruminative self eager to learn of her, rejoice in her....
She looked up at him, smiling slightly, welcoming, as though she had expected him, something lightening in her eyes as if a shadow raised, a lusty gladness showing there which brought the blood to his cheeks.
Behind her on the lawn he could see what had been Harvey S. Zahmani in the wheelchair, motionless, powerless, unable to do any harm, to anyone... ever.
Deep inside, Snake whispered an unheeded warning.
The End