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to lope down the unseen trail. His wide paws whispered through the underbrush
that encroached on the fringes of the path. "I find you difficult to
understand, but I am trying. Some of our elders will be intrigued by your
philosophy."
His voice held a puzzled tone. "Tell me again how the Cyclops's death
will help your friend. Do you believe your friend will absorb the Cyclops's
life force if you kill the monster?"
Vailret blinked. "No -- don't be ridiculous."
"Then how can the killing the Cyclops help your friend in any way?"
"I'm not just talking about Delrael! What if other travelers come
through here? They'll be attacked, too."
"But if no other travelers pass through the gorge, then we would have
killed him for naught."
"Haven't you ever heard of preventing disasters before they happen?"
The khelebar shrugged. "The Cyclops is our nemesis, yes, but I have
never considered killing him just to be rid of the nuisance." Ydaim was silent
again for a long time, managing to keep a good speed along the path with out
losing his breath. "We believe the only way to get the Outsiders to stop
inflicting these senseless adventures upon us is to face them with complete
indifference. One day they will see that we no longer wish to Play, and they
will leave us alone."
Vailret swallowed in his dry throat. "That won't work." Bryl stumbled
along beside them, silent. The khelebar did not know what was about to happen
to Gamearth -- and the khelebar were on the eastern side of the Barrier River,
the wrong side.
The panther-man ignored Vailret's comment. "You have strange but valid
points. It is not for me to decide. I will take it up with the khelebar
council and allow you to speak. But our first priority is to see that your
companion is taken to the healers in Ledaygen."
Thinking he had been rebuked, Vailret silenced himself. The afternoon
sun fell toward night. Each time Delrael made a sound, Vailret clenched his
fists.
Ydaim brought them across a low grassy rise, and they reached another,
more verdant forest, isolated in the depths of the mountains. The khelebar
surged forward with new energy.
"Ledaygen! Can you feel the _dayid_'s presence?" He let out a
high-pitched sound and plunged into the forest, bearing Delrael with him.
Though exhausted, Vailret and Bryl rushed to follow him.
An enveloping presence folded over Vailret, and a quiet eeriness
penetrated even his sense of urgency. He had spent much of his life in the
forest, thinking and walking among the trees and seeing the precise details of
how the Gamearth wilderness was constructed. Yet, Ledaygen was somehow
different.
Overall, the cleanliness amazed him. No lichens or shelf-mushrooms
clung to the trees, no dead and rotting branches lay strewn about the forest
floor. The trees, almost entirely oak and pine, were tall and straight,
healthy, without crippled branches. The forest floor had been covered with an
even blanket of dry leaves and mulch, interspersed with frequent and exactly
positioned flowers and plants. Vailret saw no choking underbrush, no thick
brambles or tangled vines. He drew in a deep breath of the loamy air.
Delrael groaned again. He looked even weaker now, and his skin seemed
translucent with pain. Only a hair's breadth separated him from death.
"Almost there!" Ydaim Trailwalker called in a strong and hopeful voice.
The trees of Ledaygen broke away from them like parting curtains. Ydaim
entered a wide, grassy clearing that overlooked a stunning panorama of the
Spectre Mountains. Vailret realized they had taken the short way across the
forested-hill terrain and had already arrived at the hex-line.
In one of Gamearth's rare flukes of nature, the line of forested-hill
terrain did not exactly match up with the adjoining hex of mountain terrain.
The hills rose upward and the slope of the Spectre Mountains plunged downward,
resulting in a yawning, mismatched cliff that dropped nearly a thousand feet
to the roots of the mountains. One tall, ancient pine stood alone on the verge
of the cliff, straight and powerful, with boughs sweeping upward and outward
to watch over Ledaygen.
Ydaim looked around the clearing and shouted into the air, "Thilane
Healer!" The birds instantly fell silent, and it seemed that the trees carried
his words, spreading them throughout the forest. Vailret saw other khelebar
emerge from the surrounding trees, responding to the summons. The
panther-people stared in horror at the injured man on Ydaim's back.
"See what your Cyclops has done?" Vailret said, intending to shout, but
the forest muffled his words.
The panther-people parted to let a bare-breasted female khelebar come
forward. Gray-streaked blond hair cascaded down her naked back in two long
braids. Tiny yellow and white flowers had been woven into her hair and draped
in a sweet-smelling garland along her neck. Her panther body was a dusty gray,
and lines of strain and weariness etched her face.
"Thilane -- " Ydaim Trailwalker began, but she motioned him to silence.
She flowed forward to inspect Delrael before anyone else could speak. She bent
down, reaching out with her fingers but hesitant to touch. Thilane inspected
Delrael's bruised and scraped face, his mangled leg. She brushed a fingertip
against a protruding shard of bone and drew her hand away, looking at the
blood clinging to her finger.
"Can you heal him?" Bryl whispered, speaking after a long silence. "Do
you have that kind of magic?"
The Healer ignored the question and frowned as she continued to inspect
Dalrael's leg, then felt his forehead. "He will live. That is all I promise."
The harshness in her voice startled Vailret. She turned to Ydaim. "I must set
to work at once. Give him to me."
Vailret and three of the khelebar lifted the man's broken body onto her
dusty gray back. She winced as Delrael's blood flowed down to mat her fur.
Without another word, Thilane bounded into the thick greenness of
Ledaygen, where the trees swallowed her up. Vailret set off after her, but
Ydaim Trailwalker blocked his way. "She must work alone."
"I need to be with him," Vailret insisted.
Ydaim turned to the other khelebar in the clearing. "I will take these
two where they may eat and wash and rest. Tell Fiolin Tribeleader that this
human, Vailret Traveler, wishes to call a meeting of the council this night!"
Confusion. Throbbing pain. Anger.
The Cyclops stood, felt the smoldering bruise on his forehead. The rock
wall. He remembered. Pain. He grew angrier. The clouds had cleared around his
head.
He turned in slow circles. Remembered the humans. He had thrown rocks.
Hit one of them. Something else. One of the man-animals. The man-animal had
shouted, warned the humans. The man-animal had hurt him. The man-animals.
Pain. Fire. Death. Revenge. Pain.
Vague ideas, not real thoughts -- but they were good ideas. He knew
where the panther-people lived. By the trees. He didn't like the trees. He
preferred rocks, caves, shadows. The trees didn't like him either. He would
burn them all. Fire. It would make a very bright light.
He scraped his flint claws against the stone of the canyon wall. Sparks
flew.
Pain. Fire. Bright fire.
--------
* * * *
Khelebar
"Trees and hills and water and sky. What do the Outsiders know of all
this? They have created more than they realize."
-- Jorig Falselimb of the khelebar
Thilane Healer followed a path only she could see, gliding among the
trees until she reached a room fashioned from the living forest. Trunks and [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]