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Suddenly, Goldani was at the doorway. "Kati? There's someone here to see you.
May we come in?"
"Yes!" Kati squeezed Mengmoshu's arm, a shiver running through her.
Goldani held the doorflap aside, and a young man ducked his head to enter the
room. He was tall and square-shouldered, wearing riding leathers, hair tied
into a tail reaching below the nape of his neck. He came at Goldani's side to
stand before Kati, a frown on his face, hands clenched at his sides.
Kati looked into brown eyes set in a square, chiseled face, and the sight
brought tears to her eyes.
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"Baber," she said softly. "You look just like Da. Do you recognize me after
such a long time?"
Baber swallowed hard, and pointed to her necklaces. "I remember those."
"From Festival, when I got Sushua, and you rode back with Da on Kaidu. You
were so proud!"
"Kati? We we thought you were dead, and buried, or burned up. Father looked
everywhere, and "
"I'm here, and alive! Oh, Baber
!" Kati grabbed him in a fierce hug, her face against his chest, for he was
even taller than she. "I've missed you so much, and Da, too. Please take me to
him! We have two days to talk about what has happened to us, and I don't want
to waste a minute of it!"
Baber's hands rested lightly on her back, and his mind was a blank to her.
"It's not far. Will the Searcher come with us?"
"Yes. This is Mengmoshu. He's been my teacher for many years."
Like a father to me, in many ways.
Baber nodded to Mengmoshu. "Follow me, then."
They left the building, and walked south away from the concentric circles of
the ordu
, past the stares of women and children, and out onto a sandy plain ending at
shear cliffs dropping to the sea. Kati looked around, and saw no gert s beyond
the ordu
. "You said it was near?" she asked.
"A little way further," said Baber.
Something was wrong. There were no dwellings out here, not even a horse or a
goat, only sand and wind and the pounding of the sea below them.
They came to a wide shelf jutting out from the cliff face, and someone had
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built a commemorative cairn of stones there, a small altar placed on a
rectangular bed of pebbles. Baber went to it, took a green stone from his
pocket, and placed it on the altar. He took out another green stone, and
handed it to Kati.
"Ma is buried here," he said solemnly. "Some of the survivors of the Emperor's
attack risked their lives to go back for her and bring her here."
Sea air beating at her face did not dry the tears that came. Kati choked back
a sob, fingered the stone, then placed it on the altar beside Baber's
offering. "It's a beautiful place," she said. "You can see to the horizon. Ma
would have loved the view."
"Yes. I remember her wanting to see the ocean up close," said Baber.
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Kati knelt on the bed of colorful pebbles around the altar, Baber and
Mengmoshu standing behind her.
Her sadness was tempered by the memory of her mother's face. She shared it
mentally again with
Mengmoshu, then ran the palm of her hand over the smooth stones.
"This place has been kept neatly. Does Da come here often to see her?"
Baber made a choking sound, and then his mind was open to her, and she knew
the horrible truth before his words came.
"He's there with her, Kati, and Kaidu is buried beneath where I stand."
Oh, Kati, I'm sorry. We didn't know.
She was stunned for a moment, kneeling there with her hands at her side. She
wanted to disbelieve, but couldn't, for she saw the truth in Baber's mind.
She'd waited twelve years for this day, a day of joyful reunion, and suddenly
all those dreams were shattered. Her breath seemed to have left her, and she
gasped.
"When? How did it happen?" The horror of loss made a knot in her stomach,
tendrils reaching upwards towards her chest, and into the heart.
"Only two months after Ma was killed; it was before the fences went up. When
they brought Ma back, he went a little crazy. You hadn't been found. Nobody
saw them take you away, and they set fire to everything. When he went back to
the ordu there were only piles of ashes. I remember him saying how clever you
were, that you'd probably escaped and were hiding somewhere. He spent weeks
searching for you, with Kuchlug, but it was very dangerous. The flyers were
everywhere, and there were patrols all over the plateau. Then, one morning, he
went out alone, and didn't come back. After a day, Kuchlug and three men went
looking for him. They found him high on the slopes of Three Peaks. His neck
was broken, and he was dead. Kaidu's legs were broken, and Kuchlug ended his
misery. We buried them together."
"He knew my place on the summit of Three Peaks," said Kati. "If I'd escaped, I
would have gone there.
Oh, Da!" The horror had reached her throat. She bent over, forehead touching
the pebbles, and her body shook.
"It was bad for me, Kati. I'd lost everyone, including you. Manlee took me in
for a few years, but then she got sick. Goldani has raised me since I was
nine. She's been good to me."
Kati wept without restraint, and Mengmoshu joined her without words.
Don't let me go. Let me feel it with you, Kati. You're not alone. Not now. I
never guessed your dreams would end this way. I should have checked things out
and prepared you for it. I'm sorry.
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Baber's hand was on her shoulder, and he was kneeling beside her. "I thought
I'd lost everyone, but I
hadn't. My sister is still alive, Kati. We still have each other."
Kati embraced him, clinging hard, and sobbing into his shoulder. She looked up
at Mengmoshu, and he was standing there with glistening eyes. She had felt his
grief for her, but suddenly his mind was as dark as a cave. She wiped her eyes
with a hand, and stood up with her brother. They looked at the grave in
silence for a moment, arms around each other's waists, then walked back to the
ordu
, Mengmoshu following them.
She made no effort to hide her tears from the Tumatsin, for they had already
known what she now knew, and they watched her sorrowfully as she passed by
them, clinging to her brother. They went directly to the log building and
Mengmoshu left them there alone to talk. They sat by the hearth in gloom, and
Kati told Baber every detail of what had happened to her during their
separation, all the things she'd seen and learned and the tasks that Mandughai
had called upon her to do.
Baber shared his simple but mostly happy life as the orphaned child of an
honored woman. Manlee had been like a grandmother, and then Goldani,
childless, a husband drowned in a storm at sea. He was learning the life of a
fisherman, working the nets on the outrigger boats and cultivating the
shellfish in the shallows. Riding was not so important here, but he had a
horse named Shuel, presented to him by the ordu at Festival when he was
twelve. There was a girl named Chilan who'd captured his affections. Kati
asked if he'd kissed her, and he said yes, and she laughed. His guard was
down, and she'd seen that they did more than kiss.
It was late when Mengmoshu returned, followed by two women with food for them.
They ate together, then Baber excused himself, for he arose early to work the
nets three days a week.
"I'll be back late tomorrow. Will you be here?" he asked anxiously.
"One more night, then we must leave," said Kati. "We can talk more tomorrow
night."
Baber smiled, and left the room. Mengmoshu looked at her, concerned.
"Are you feeling better?"
"Yes. He's had a good life. At least I still have my brother. I wanted so much
to see Da again, to let him know what's happened to me."
"I know," said Mengmoshu softly. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]