Jolted out of her reverie, the Healer stared at him, openly reading his posture and expression. “Are you sure the tracks returning to The Valley were made at the same time as the others?” When he nodded, she suddenly appeared smaller, sagging under the weight of her age and disappointments. “How long ago?”
“Ten to fourteen hours,” Dov answered.
The other Alleshi turned to the Healer questioningly. “Yes,” she sighed. “That’s the probable timing.”
With a chill, Dov realized they were talking about that woman’s death, and the timing made them think it was murder.
“But it still doesn’t mean—” the Healer protested.
Le’a glared at her. “What will it take to convince you?”
“Facts. That’s what it will take. Unambiguous facts, not coincidences.”
Le’a closed her eyes and took two deep breaths. When she spoke again, it was with less agitation but no less adamance. “Well, you’re not going to get any closer to the truth standing here.”
“On that, we are agreed,” the Healer conceded, then turned to the small woman with the ponies. “But you have a boy in Season. We’ll need someone else to tend the animals.”
“You can’t mean you plan to trek through these mountains in this weather.” Dov gauged the Healer’s weight and probable lack of fitness and became even more determined to stop these women. “Four people with four small ponies following others on horseback with a half-day head start and a load of guns! It’s ridiculous.”
“I’d match my sure-footed ponies against spindly-legged horses in these mountains any time,” the diminutive Allesha said with pride.
“And when the snow reaches your ponies’ bellies?” Dov couldn’t believe how poorly they had thought this out. Damn, these were Alleshi; they should know better. “Even if you catch up to them, do you really think you’ll be able to stop them? How will you be armed?”
“They wouldn’t shoot us—” the Healer started to say, then stopped herself and shook her head.
Dov turned to Tayar. “Be sure to add several sacks of food and water for the animals to that cart. At least we’ll have a Healer to treat frostbite and broken limbs if someone slips or the snow shifts.”
“They made it through. I’m sure they expect to get out again, even loaded down as they are.” Le’a said.
Dov studied Le’a and saw for the first time in months how old she was, as though something had defeated her so thoroughly she could no longer maintain her pose of strength. “If they make it out, it’ll be because they had time to plan. They probably have stashes of supplies and spare horses along the way, and other men waiting for them in camps that are already set up. I’ve no doubt at least one of them is a master mountaineer, trained for winters.” He looked from woman to woman. “Are any of you expert at surviving that kind of terrain in a blizzard?”
They stared blankly in response.
“I’m definitely not. But I know enough not to go into something I can’t handle.”
“We’ve no choice,” Le’a still insisted, though with less confidence. “We can’t let them get away.”
Dov walked over to her and gently put his hands on her shoulders. “They already have.”
“He’s right,” Tayar said. “We’d just be killing ourselves, with little hope of success.” With the same determination that had driven her to accumulate the supplies on the cart, she started to put them back on the shelves.
“But what do we do now?” the small Allesha asked.
“Get word to our Allemen,” Le’a said.
The small one nodded. “I’ve already told the Northwest Battai to inform the others to let us know immediately when the first Allemen springtime runners arrive.”
“In the meantime, we must prepare.” With a deep sigh, the Healer began ordering their priorities, counting them off on her fingers. “First, I’ll finish my examination of our sister’s body; we must determine how she died before we convene the Council.” She turned to Tayar, who was still dutifully reshelving the cart full of supplies. “Leave that for now. You’ve a boy in Season; it’s best that the two of you return to your responsibilities.”
Tayar stared at the jar in her hands as though she were surprised to see it there. “But who will do it now?”
The Healer gently took the jar from Tayar. “We’ll re-shelve this stuff. Who will take over as caretaker is another matter the Council will need to decide.”
Tayar nodded, but in such a manner that Dov felt she was already thinking of something else. She absentmindedly gestured to Dov that it was time for them to leave.
As Dov followed Tayar, he could hear the Healer continue, “Confirming who’s involved is crucial, though that will require more than one day to unravel. In the meantime, Peren should search the library. Somewhere buried in that mountain are answers. What, in heaven’s name, did they unearth, how did they find it, and what’s the key to opening that damn wall? But, I’m concerned about the stress on Peren’s heart. We must make sure Elnor assists her in looking for the lost archives. Elnor’s so used to crawling about the library for Peren, she won’t ask inconvenient questions…” Her voice soon faded as Dov and Tayar walked toward the nearest door, putting more and more of the incredible volume of goods between them and the other Alleshi.
Chapter 70
Tayar was silent for their entire walk home; she didn’t even appear to notice that Dov was beside her. After removing her boots and outer clothes in the vestibule, she was about to disappear into her bedroom when Dov touched her shoulder. “We need to talk,” he said.
She turned and nodded. But when she collapsed into a corner of the sofa, she sat staring at the space in front of her and said nothing.
“Tayar, please! Talk to me. I don’t know what to think about all this.”
How pale she was, as though even her blood had retreated inward. Yet her eyes were red, almost feverish. “Yes, it is difficult.”
“What is?”
“Caith.” The name sent a shiver through her body.
“The dead woman?”
Tayar pulled her knees tightly to her chest. “Yes.”
“Was she murdered?”
“I don’t know. Possibly. Probably.”
“Why?”
“Maybe because of me.”
Dov hated that she was being so vague, walled up behind that intractable will of hers. “You? You mean you and me?”
“I don’t know. But maybe.”
“Because I’m Mwertik?”
“No, I don’t think that’s part of it. If it were… Oh hell!” Tayar turned toward him, locking her eyes onto his face in horror.
“We’d be dead, too. That’s what you’re thinking, isn’t it?”
She considered it for a few moments. “No, that’s not the right direction. It’s about Caith and another… not you.”
“Who?”
“Yes, that’s the problem,” she said.
“But you have someone in mind.”
“The Allesha who found you that time you went wandering.”
“Her?” Dov would never forget that woman’s sharp face and cold, searing eyes. “You think she killed Caith?”
“No! It’s not possible.”
“Over the guns that were stolen?”
“That’s how it appears. We just don’t know enough.”
“What do they plan to do with the guns?”
“Kill Mwertik.” Tayar said it flatly, refusing to allow even a tinge of emotion to escape.
Dov considered the implications. Killing Mwertik had always seemed like a good idea before. Kill them before they get us. But who is us? he wondered. Who am I?
“And it’s an Allesha behind all this?” he asked. “How is that possible?”
“We mustn’t accuse her without the facts.”
“But if it’s true…?”
“If it’s true, then your life just became even more complicated — and much more dangerous.” Suddenly, the dam broke within Tayar, and t
ears poured down her cheeks unchecked. “Oh, Dov, I’m so sorry. So terribly sorry.”
All it took was a slight nudge on her shoulder for Tayar to fall into his chest, sobbing. He wrapped his arms around her and gently stroked her hair. She burrowed her face into the curve of his neck, her body twitching with convulsive sobs. Eventually, her weeping subsided to softer, less explosive tears, though they continued to flow soundlessly, insistently, even as sleep overtook her.
Dov held her, stroking her hair, needing to find some way to give her comfort. Her body became less rigid, but he didn’t know if it were in response to him or to the deadening of sleep. After a while, Tayar slid off Dov and crawled into the crook of the sofa’s arm. He covered her with a blanket, and she snuggled deeper, pulling the protective cover closer.
Though the room was warm, Dov felt chilled. He knew only one thing for certain: it all depended on him now. He could rely on nothing other than his wits and abilities. Somehow, he had to protect Tayar while finding out the truth about these Alleshi — and about himself.
Chapter 71
Pursued by jagged arrows, circles and spirals, Jinet ran through a black landscape with no ground or horizon. The geometric shapes herded her, blocking her in every direction but one. When she tried to backtrack to reach Jared, who became Caith, then Dov, the spinning, pummeling shapes formed an impenetrable flesh-searing barrier between her and everyone she had ever loved, cutting and burning them until nothing remained but the black emptiness and the flaying shapes. Her children cried out to her in pain, but she couldn’t see them, couldn’t fathom which way to run to find them. If she could sit down and rest for a moment, she’d be able to think more clearly, understand what the shapes were trying to tell her. But she knew if she stopped, they’d devour her.
Suddenly, her feet, then her legs were mired in something she couldn’t see; the shapes were gaining on her. The more she kicked and struggled, the deeper she sank — to her hips, waist, chest. Just as the vanguard of the shapes was about to fall on her, she reached down, grabbing handfuls of the ropey mass that entangled her. The familiar texture of the blanket pulled her out of the nightmare, but so gradually that she wasn’t certain when the Mwertik emblems dispersed and the horrors of reality descended.
The greeting room was dark, with no light except the thin line of warmth framing the closed kitchen door. Still groggy, Tayar drifted forward, opened the door and was momentarily blinded by the brightness of the kitchen.
“You’re awake just in time,” Dov said from across the room. “I’ve warmed yesterday’s soup, and it’s ready.”
She closed her eyes to adjust to the light, then opened them, seeking to make contact with her Winter Boy. “I owe you an apology, Dov.”
“Sit and eat. We can talk over our food.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“That’s not possible. You’re always hungry.”
“Please, Dov, I need to talk with you.”
“Then talk, but you need to eat, too. It’ll do you good.” He reached into the icebox and pulled out the cold cooked chicken. “Do you realize how late it is? It’s long past supper time.”
Tayar sat at the table, watching her Winter Boy move with such sure, calm energy about her kitchen — setting the table, slicing bread and chicken, putting out the butter and cider, and ladling the soup into two bowls. How comforting it was to be cared for by a boy who once considered such work beneath his inflated dignity. But Dov was no longer a boy, as he had demonstrated to her and the others in the storehouse. He was a man. Her first Alleman — perhaps her last.
After taking his seat, Dov put pieces of bread soaked in broth in their offering saucer, filled his spoon with soup and lifted it to his lips, all the while staring at her. When he saw she wasn’t going to eat, he put down his spoon.
“Please accept my apology, Dov. My behavior was unacceptable.”
“Sure.” He shrugged in dismissal. “But I’m not sure I know which behavior you’re referring to.”
“Collapsing like that, losing my control.”
“Oh, that. You were just being human.”
Dov started eating, but his pose was imperfect, artificial. What had he expected her to say? “Did you think I was apologizing for something else?”
“There’s a lot, don’t you think?” Dov put down his spoon and pushed the half-full bowl away. “First of all, you were really planning to go after them. Not just you, but other Alleshi, too. It was stupid.”
“As you wisely pointed out.”
“But I shouldn’t have had to.” He leaned forward, his forearms crossed on the table. “You’re Alleshi.”
Alleshi. The word used to evoke such calm and confidence, but her blind faith in the Alleshi was as dead as Jared. Somehow, she had to rebuild her life, relying only on solid knowledge hewn out of this mess by her questions and doubts. For Dov’s sake and for her children, whose nightmare cries still echoed in her mind, she couldn’t stop now. “What bothers you the most about our reaction, Dov?”
He stared at her, evidently surprised she had to ask him. “That it was just that: reactive. Explain to me how four Alleshi could have been so far off the mark? Going against all your own teachings?”
“I can’t speak for the others. I was probably in shock.”
“But isn’t that what this is about? This Season? This Valley? Not falling into that trap. None of you even paused to think. You plowed ahead. It would have been a disaster.”
Tayar was uncertain how to respond. Would they have gone ahead, up into a mountain blizzard? Or would common sense have intervened? What are the true limits of the Alleshi? Did they diminish when they acted alone or in small groups? “Dov, I was proud of the way you handled things earlier.”
“You’re changing the subject.”
“Not really. Just trying to look at it from another direction.”
“Now, you’re turning this into a lesson on strategy and tactics. It’s more than that.”
“Yes, on both counts. It is, by its nature, a lesson. And much more.”
Dov studied her in silence, at first seriously. Gradually, his mouth parted into a small smile. “You’re confused, too, aren’t you?”
Tayar’s first instinct was to deny it. But she’d taught him too well; he’d see through any dissembling she might attempt, especially now, when she was feeling so off kilter. Besides, perhaps the time for deception was at an end. The problem was balancing her need for honesty with his right to a full, rich, productive Alleshine Season. Did one preclude the other? “Tell me, what would you have us learn from today?”
Dov didn’t answer right away. When he spoke, he weighed each word before he said it. “I think what disturbs me most is that we’ve covered this before. But when confronted with something real, it fell apart.” He shook his head. “Is it all lies, then? The lessons and everything?”
“No, Dov, I honestly don’t believe the lessons are false. It’s because of all you’ve learned that, when you spoke today, four Alleshi listened.”
“Alleshi,” he said the word so softly as to be almost mouthing it, feeling the shape of the sound and tasting the bitter flavor of his disappointment. “So, what will the Alleshi do now?”
“They’ll have a Council tomorrow. But you heard them as well as I did.”
“Yes, but what will they do?”
“I’m not sure. As far as I know, nothing like this has ever happened. Somehow, they must come up with a way to stop the thieves.”
“If they don’t stop them, would it be so horrible? Don’t look so shocked, Tayar. Forget for a few moments about my birth. Are we so sure it would be wrong to go after the Mwertik with overwhelming force?”
“It’s not the Alleshine way. It goes against everything we’ve ever fought for and believed in… the very foundation of our Peace. To be the aggressor… it’s wrong.”
“Why?”
“Have you learned so little?”
“No, I’m simply trying to look at this from another d
irection, as you like to say. The Mwertik aren’t the kind to stand still and listen. How do you expect to get their attention long enough to be able to perform your Alleshine magic on them?”
“Magic? It’s not—”
“I know.” Dov voice rose in irritation, which he abruptly curtailed. “How can you influence a people who will kill you on sight?” He didn’t wait for her answer. “Maybe the Mwertik prefer killing as a way of life. Or their hate is so overpowering that they’ll never be anything other than what they are.”
“That’s terrible! I can’t believe any people could be so… so….”
“Whether you believe it or not doesn’t change reality, if that’s the way it is,” Dov asserted. “Then again, there’s another possibility. What if they’re the kind of people who won’t respect you until you can prove you can fight as well as they? They kill us because they can, because they think we won’t fight back. But if we kill a few of them, maybe we’ll win their respect, be recognized as worthy opponents.”
Tayar shook her head, not in denial, but in surrender.
“Don’t you see?” Dov continued. “The people who stole those guns might have been wrong in how they did what they did, but maybe they could see no other way to stop the Mwertik. And they might be right.”
“You’ve been thinking about this.”
“How could I not?”
“What conclusions have you reached?”
“Conclusions? It’s all guesses and questions and throwing stones at clouds. I know so little.” He studied her face as though he were seeing it fully for the first time. “Tell me about the Alleshi.”
“What do you want to hear?”
“How can I say what I don’t know? Today, in the storehouse, I saw undercurrents and conflicts I’d never imagined. There’s much more to the Alleshi than I had considered. Tell me about it.”
“I don’t know where to start.”
“How about starting with the sharp one, the Allesha you think stole the guns? Whether or not she did, the fact that you and the others think she’s capable of it — and maybe even of murdering another Allesha — that’s what I want to try to understand first.”
The Winter Boy Page 44