Dagger's Point (Shadow series)

by Logston, Anne

  “Strangers?” Jael flushed again, this time with anger. “Those strangers were good enough to help you when you came to them, weren’t they? And Mother wasn’t too much of a stranger for a night’s tumble, was she?”

  “Enough.” Farryn guided Jael through another small alley, and suddenly they were standing at the edge of a cliff.

  Jael gasped in wonder at the sight. She’d expected more of the gray stone of the mountain, solid but bleak. Instead, she stood on the edge of one of two cliffs that formed a sort of gateway to a vast green and fertile valley, with a crystal-blue river running between the cliffs and bisecting the lush growth at the valley floor. Jael could see figures moving against the grass of the valley floor, and to her surprise there seemed to be more conventional dwellings there, hutlike structures built of wood instead of stone.

  Jael turned around and looked behind her. The dome-shaped stone structures she’d seen literally covered the mountainside, clinging to the stone like the barnacles she’d seen encrusting the hulls of ships who came up the Brightwater to Allanmere from the coast. A few steep, narrow paths wound down the mountainside to the valley floor, and farther along the cliff was an odd arrangement of baskets and boulders hung on thick metal chains, apparently to transport people or goods up and down the mountainside. At the base of the mountain was a larger stone structure projecting slightly from the mountainside, the entire outer surface heavily covered with the carvings Jael had hitherto seen only on the inside of the shelter she’d been in.

  “The entrance to our temple,” Farryn said, following Jael’s gaze to the larger structure. “Our Enlightened Ones dwell there.”

  “Who lives in the valley?” Jael asked. “I can see people down there.”

  “I do,” Farryn told her. “And my mate and my children. Many of the Wind Dancing Clan live there, and all of the Silent Singers as well. The Stone Brothers, what few there are, prefer the mountainside, and I and my family spend our summers here, as it is much like the place where we lived far to the east. But we all go back and forth between the clans as we please. Only the Enlightened Ones live between and apart. I spoke to them on your behalf and acknowledged you of my blood. They examined you, healed you, and returned to the temple without giving an answer to my request.” He sat down on the stone of the cliff’s edge, gesturing to Jael to sit beside him.

  Reluctantly Jael sat down.

  “The Enlightened Ones, they’re your priests, aren’t they, or mages?” Jael asked. “But why won’t they help me? It’s not my fault I was born in another place with nobody to train me the way they want me trained. It’s not my fault I’m a half-blood, either, or that I was born missing part of my soul.”

  “It’s not a matter of fault,” Farryn said gently. “No one knows if what you ask is even possible. Give the Enlightened Ones time. Likely they returned to the temple to commune with Adraon and seek an answer.”

  Or they’d simply avoided the uncomfortable issue by making a quick escape, in which case Jael could be sitting on a cliff waiting for a good long time.

  “Well, what are Tanis and I supposed to do while we’re wait-ing?” Jael asked. She grimaced. “It’s pretty plain your mate doesn’t want us around, and I’m sure she’s not the only one.” “There are empty houses aplenty on the mountain, such as the one you were inside,” Farryn told her, indicating the thick cluster of dome-shaped structures clinging to the hillside. “We haven’t been a populous folk since before our peoples divided, and those of us who traveled east dwindled severely. I’ll see that you’re made comfortable. No one will treat you unkindly. You and Tanis can hunt with us. I’ll welcome the chance to know you and to hear how you and the lady Donya—High Lady Donya— have fared in the years since I met her.”

  Jael grimaced but said nothing. What was there to say or, for that matter, to do? She and Tanis had journeyed to the other side of the world to find these people, the only ones who could give her a whole soul, and she’d found them. She’d asked for help. What more could she do?

  Farryn took her hand, and Jael could feel the iron strength in his fingers. She gazed at their joined hands, so like and yet unlike, his six-fingered hand and her more slender five-fingered one, both with the same dark tanned skin and wiry muscles. The solidity of stone beneath her was a comforting presence, sweetly familiar, but in her mind echoed the ponies’ discontent with their hard stone shelter, and some part of her longed for green leaves and the scent of moonflowers and moss on the wind. She’d balanced miserably on the dagger’s edge between elf and human for years; how much longer could she teeter precariously on the dagger’s point between the world she’d known and a very part of herself she could almost, but not quite, touch? Gods, how much better it would have been if she’d never tasted Bluebright or found the amulet in the dragon’s nest, never felt that wonderful, heady wholeness.

  Still, she was closer to her goal than she had ever come in her life—well, other than when she’d worn the soul keeper she’d found in the dragon’s nest. And she’d waited over twenty years; what harm could a few more days do? And what choice did she have, in any event?

  “I’ll wait,” Jael said reluctantly. “But not for long.”

  “If the Enlightened Ones don’t answer soon, I will approach them again,” Farryn promised. “Come, you’ll wish to eat and”—he sniffed slightly, then grinned apologetically—“bathe. It’s as well for my people that you do not go about smelling of the plains folk. I’ll see that your belongings are returned to you as well. No warrior should be without her weapons.”

  He guided her back through the lanes between the buildings, and Jael marveled again that they met no one for some time. Farryn had spoken, though, of the numbers of dwellings that sat empty; likely the Kresh grouped together in one section of the cluster and whole areas went uninhabited. This time it seemed to Jael, although she couldn’t be sure, that Farryn took her on a different route through the dwellings. This time, too, Jael saw a few Kresh here and there, standing in front of dwellings or going about their business through the alleys. Each one stopped to stare at her, and although Jael saw no hostility on any of the faces, neither could she read welcome or friendliness there.

  Though the structures appeared identical but for their size, Farryn led her unerringly to one particular dwelling. A few skins hung drying on frames outside the door flap, and two children, a tall boy a few years younger than Jael and a slender, long-boned girl of about Mera’s age, sat outside, too, both painstakingly carving designs into polished bones. They stood when Farryn stepped into view, saying nothing, but staring intently at Jael all the while.

  “Jaellyn, I make known to you my son Lainan and my daughter Savela,” Farryn said. “Lainan, Savela, I make known to you my daughter Jaellyn.”

  “I greet you, my sister,” Savela said almost eagerly, her eyes flickering back and forth from Jael’s pointed ears to her narrow hands. Like Lidaya, Savela did not extend her hand; Jael forced her own hand back down to her side. It didn’t seem to be a Kresh custom.

  “I greet you, my sister,” Lainan said, but his voice was cold and hard as stone.

  A little stung by Lainan’s hostility—what harm had she ever done him?—Jael stood a little straighter. She turned to Savela first, and, much to the younger girl’s surprise, embraced her.

  “I’m proud to meet you, my sister,” Jael said, although technically, by matrilineal elven standards, her sire’s children by another woman were only considered cousins. Savela stiffened for just a moment, then awkwardly returned the embrace.

  Jael stifled a grin as she turned to Lainan. Pride forced him to endure her embrace, although he did not return it, nor did he acknowledge Jael’s greeting. As soon as Jael released him, Lainan stepped back, holding aside the tent flap and waiting mutely for Jael and Farryn to enter. Savela followed Jael and Farryn inside, but Lainan only dropped the door flap closed behind them, remaining outside.

  Farryn’s dwelling was half again as large as the structure Jael had awakened in, and
brightly lit by fat lamps set into niches in the round walls. The stone floor of the dwelling was warmly strewn with furs, and a large rock in the firepit radiated both light and heat so that the dwelling was cozily warm. Besides the ornate carvings on the interior of the stone dome, there were other decorations: small statuettes of carved stone, bone, and horn; a dragon’s skull, carefully polished; clay bowls filled with sparkling stones, possibly gems. Storage baskets almost encircled the dwelling at the base of the walls. There were several sleeping pits instead of one, and in one of them, an infant of indeterminate sex was cuddled companionably with a wolf pup.

  Tanis was there, curled up in one of the sleeping pits and apparently asleep. Lidaya was adding what looked like a handful of herbs to the pot hanging from a tripod over the glowing stone; she looked up only briefly as Jael and Farryn entered, but when Jael sat down she silently handed her a bowl of what turned out to be a thick, spicy stew. Savela sat down beside Jael, although she had apparently already eaten, as she shook her head when Lidaya gestured at the pot of stew.

  “My youngest son, Dellan,” Farryn said proudly, picking up both the baby and the wolf cub. Farryn sat down beside Jael, miraculously managing both the infant and cub plus the bowl of stew he accepted from the still-silent Lidaya.

  “Let me take him for you,” Jael offered, surprised when Farryn handed her the baby, much to Lidaya’s silent but nonetheless obvious disapproval. Dellan roused, gazed up at the stranger holding him, screwed up his tiny face as if unsure whether to make a fuss or not, then sighed and nestled comfortably into Jael’s lap, gazing at her curiously.

  My brother, Jael thought. Dellan was an amiable baby, allowing Jael to examine his tiny six-fingered hands and six-toed feet without protest, only squirming a little when she traced the smooth, round tops of his ears. Jael, however, found him fascinating. She’d seldom seen babies; her friends at the Guild of Thieves, of course, never brought their children to the Guildhouse, and among the elves barrenness was common, and births rare.

  Before she realized what she was doing, Jael took a well-chewed piece of meat from her mouth and fed it to the baby, who gurgled delightedly. Jael glanced up at Lidaya guiltily but was surprised to see the woman’s expression soften, a faint smile pulling at the corners of her lips. Lidaya met Jael’s eyes and gave her the briefest of nods, then returned to stirring the stew.

  “Tell us about the land you come from,” Savela begged. “Father says it’s all green like the valley, full of trees and land where the earth is so full of water that you sink into it.”

  Jael was no born storyteller like Shadow, but she could describe Allanmere and the land around it—the Dim Reaches, filled with foul-smelling mud and old magic rotting in the soil, where strange creatures lived and where Farryn’s ancestors had once made their home; the wide, rich plains dappled with farms; and of course the Heartwood, where the trees grew so thick that the sky could only be seen in clearings and where the sunlight trickled down like golden syrup between the leaves, where elves rode on the great spiral-horned deer and wove their homes in trees, and where some elves could speak to the beasts and fly through the wood in the minds of the birds.

  Tanis woke partway through her stories and joined the circle around the glowing firepit, adding his tales of other lands, larger cities. It wasn’t long before a strange Kresh male peered in at the door flap, and Lidaya beckoned him to join them; by evening there were at least ten others crowded into the dwelling, listening raptly to Tanis’s stories and waiting patiently for Farryn to translate when Jael spoke. Sometimes the listeners looked so plainly disbelieving that Jael was half-inclined to tell them to go elsewhere to listen if they thought she was a liar; Farryn, however, remembered enough from his journey to Allanmere to substantiate some of what Jael told them, and Tanis staunchly supported Jael’s accounts of the elves and the Heartwood.

  By the time Jael and Tanis had talked their voices into a hoarse rasp, it was far into the night and they were reeling with exhaustion. As if at some signal, although Jael had seen none, the Kresh visitors rose as one and left as silently as they had come. When Jael and Tanis returned to their own shelter, guided by Farryn, they were surprised to find that someone—who?—had brought their packs to the shelter, strewn warm furs over the floor, and filled the sleeping pit with more furs and fur covers.

  Jael and Tanis were far too tired, however, to wonder at the unexpected generosity.

  Jael took time, however, to squat down beside the firepit and examine her leg and Tanis’s side. Apparently the Kresh’s Enlightened Ones were healers of formidable skill; there was not even a scar left on her leg, and although Tanis had a jagged furrow in his side to mark his far more serious wound, the scar was as white and firm as on a wound years healed. There was no sign of the grayish discoloration on her skin or Tanis’s.

  Tanis took the precaution of removing the bracelet from his wrist and storing it in his pack before he joined Jael in the sleeping pit. In this unfamiliar place, where even her kinfolk found her an inconvenience, it was good to have a friend to keep her warm at night. She almost jumped in surprise, however, when Tanis slid his hand over her bare hip in a manner that indicated anything but weariness.

  “Oh, please,” Jael groaned. “I’m exhausted.”

  Tanis sighed and wrapped his arm around Jael’s waist, pulling her close.

  “It’s not just being tired, is it?” he asked gently.

  Jael sighed, too.

  “Since they took away that soul keeper I found,” she said miserably, “it feels like I’m right back where I started. The ponies have been griping at me all day, and then my bracelet—it’s like we came so far for nothing.”

  “Not for nothing,” Tanis corrected. “You’re here with the people who can help you. And there’s no reason why they shouldn’t want to help you.”

  “There may be,” Jael sighed. She told Tanis what Farryn had told her about the preparation of Kresh children to receive their souls. “They may have decided I’m not worth helping.”

  “Then we’ll just have to change their minds,” Tanis said firmly. “The next time we tell them stories, I think it’s time they heard something of Lady Jaellyn’s great adventures. Demons and dragons and shifters should impress just about anybody. Now go to sleep and try not to worry. Anyway, it’s been more fun than sword practice with the High Lady every day, hasn’t it?”

  Jael smiled and turned over to pillow her head on Tanis’s shoulder.

  “I can’t argue with that,” she admitted. “Dragons, shifters, and all.”

  In the morning, Jael and Tanis were pleasantly surprised when Lidaya, bringing Dellan with her, led them to a large structure that contained several hot-spring baths like those in Allanmere. Jael learned they had been constructed similarly, the Stone Brothers creating channels for the hot subterranean water to reach the surface much as Allanmere’s mages had magically drilled their shafts. Jael had always disliked the sulfurous smell of Allanmere’s water, but now she found the odor comforting in its familiarity.

  Apparently the Kresh, like the elves, had no objection to nudity and considered bathing something of a social occasion, for Jael and Tanis found several of the pools occupied by groups of Kresh sipping cold water and talking comfortably. There were a few abruptly terminated conversations and more than a few curious glances when Jael and Tanis followed Lidaya in, but as soon as Jael and Tanis had stripped and entered the water, the conversations recommenced and the watchers turned back to their companions. Jael realized with a tinge of amusement that most of them had probably been waiting for Jael and Tanis to take off their clothes, to see just how different the strangers were!

  The rest of the day, however, proved to be less pleasant. Tanis joined a hunting party at Farryn’s invitation; Jael, however, decided that since they’d be gone all day, she’d best stay in the village where the Enlightened Ones could find her if they wished. Besides, she again had no control over her beast-speaking, and hunting would, for her, likely only prove h
umiliating.

  Savela and Lainan disappeared early in the day; Lidaya explained that Lainan would face his trials of adulthood in only a few months, and both children therefore spent their days learning from a number of different teachers. Lidaya herself was taking Dellan to the valley where she planned to visit some kinfolk; although the Kresh woman had thawed to Jael somewhat, she did not invite Jael to join her. With no one to translate for her or guide her through the confusing maze of dwellings, Jael was effectively confined to Farryn and Lidaya’s house for the day; she wasn’t even certain she could find her way back to the house where she and Tanis slept.

  By midday, however, Jael could bear it no longer. She grabbed a warm fur from the sleeping pit and wrapped it around her, wishing she’d thought to bring her warm fur outer clothing to the bathhouse with her that morning, and set out to look around. By following the slope of the mountain downward, she could probably have located the cliff where she’d talked with Farryn the day before, but there was no point in going there; besides, that was in the uninhabited part of the village and there would be no one to help her find her way back in any event. She headed up the mountain instead; the bathing house was uphill, and with any luck, one of these Enlightened Ones might have come up for a bath.

  Within a hundred paces she was completely lost in the bewildering maze of seemingly identical stone houses and narrow alleys between them. Jael fought down the utterly elven impulse to scramble up to the top of one of the houses to get her bearings; but then, since all the houses looked alike, what would that tell her?

  The cold mountain air did not bother Jael as much as it troubled Tanis, but after an hour of wandering in the cold with nothing but a sleeping fur, Jael was shivering and numb-fingered. She saw several Kresh, and discomfort finally won over pride; as soon as she encountered someone whose expression showed no overt hostility, she did her best to convey with gestures that she was looking for the house where she and Tanis had slept. The elderly male finally nodded his understanding and guided her back downhill, abandoning her at the door flap of a structure that seemed too large; when Jael raised the door flap, the warm, moist rush of air told her that she had been led to the bathhouse instead.