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Chayin and Dellin had laughed. M tras had not, but only placed the ijiyr again
in its case.
Then did Sereth and Chayin give to them the threx they had appropriated.
Sereth had spent some time searching a gentle beast for M tras. Such are not
too common among tiasks and jiasks.
M tras looked upon the beast warily. He clicked and muttered something in his
own language. The stars were only rising above the lake. The fattened moon,
just clearing the trees, was smeared with blood.
M tras uncertainty had been a palpable taste to us all. How strange and
terrible and crude we seemed to him, great bloodthirsty animals riding upon
their like.
Just assert yourself, Dellin advised, mounting his own beast. When he had it
settled, he took M tras threx by the head stall.
Sereth helped M tras mount. We watched them as they departed. Dellin, anxious
to be off, still held M tras beast when the dark consumed them. They went
gladly to the Liaison First s upon the plain of Astria. The last we sensed of
them was their relief, floating back like scent upon the breeze.
Though Sereth knew of Khys s hest and their intention, he did not speak to
them of helsars.
He had spoken to them of the Silistrans trapped upon the space worlds,
orphaned by Khys s barrier. I had given little thought to them the wellwomen,
the telepaths, the teachers, and the dharen s agents. Dellin and M tras and
Sereth and Chayin had long discussed them.
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It was then that it came to me, while I strove to separate Sereth s silhouette
from the lakeside night as he stared longingly after Dellin and M tras. I
caught taste of him then; that shield for a splintered heartbeat of time
crumbled by his need. How greatly he envied them, unbound and free, off upon
whatever errands they chose. And I saw his life as he perceived it and I saw
that although in a sense he had won his freedom, he considered it putative.
Sereth, child of owkahen, had served his master well, that he might win
surcease, and had become even further bound. I shared my thought in a moment
of privacy with Chayin, and he upheld me.
It has been before us all along, he agreed, lying amid the cushions, his
membranes attesting to the strength of his conviction. We saw, but we did not
realize. Both of us, who love him, failed to see. And what we had
overlooked that he was in a sense Estrazi s hest that all the fathers had long
sought, all that Khys so long obstructed most discomfited us.
He is hase-enor: of all flesh. In my research, during my early pregnancy, I
had not neglected him. Sereth, who bears every bloodline upon Silistra, had
been of use to me in my criticism of Khys s genetic policies. It is Sereth who
is first-come to time and space, presage of what the future might hold, should
all be free on Silistra to mix their blood.
Chayin and I are both catalysts forced upon the time. Sereth is natural to it.
He is owkahen s son. To sons, fathers have been known to set tasks, and
ultimately to show favor. Should the son prove worthy, it is often so, between
fathers and sons.
Upon that determination, I knew what I must do. I showed him Khys s most
secret charts and papers. He was unconcerned with them. He had, he said, just
come from seeing Carth. Carth, he assured me, would live. His eyes were far
indrawn. He had been long among the wounded and maligned.
It was then that he adjudged us both lacking in compassion, and I sensed in
him the distance the time had put between us. Before, he had not met my
father. It seemed to me, hearing his words, that we might never span the gulf
of our divergent heritages. All of Khys s knowing words came back to me. I
rubbed the seal upon my left breast and let my eyes drink of him, for that
drink would have to last me long.
He watched me, sidelong, but made no attempt to aid me up from out of that
particularly female pit of self-abasement into which I had fallen. And Chayin,
angered, rose up and left, growling that he must see to his child. I had seen
the child, in the arms of that well-woman who bore Sereth s seed. Sereth
seemed to barely recollect her. I had asked of her disposition and been told
that she was destined for Nemar, crell to the cahndor.
The threx stumbled, his forefoot caught momentarily in an exposed root. I
patted him reassuringly, and urged him forward. His shoulder, under my hand,
twitched and quivered, but he quickened his pace.
The hulion s roar stopped the threx so suddenly I grabbed his neck for
support. I cautioned him to silence, slipping off his back.
The hulion, roaring repeatedly, appeared between the trees. The threx,
affrighted beyond sanity, waited no longer. Even as those gold-gleaming eyes
fixed upon it, it reared screaming upon its hind feet. The reins, jerked from
my hand, flapped wildly. I made one abortive jump for them. A steel-shod hoof
creased my skull. My vision became particles of light. I felt no pain.
When I felt again, it was a great rough tongue scraping my arm.
When I saw at last, I saw a face. That face loomed against darkness. I put my
fingers to my right temple, encountered another s there.
I tried to raise my head. The hand would not allow it. The scraping of that
dry abrasive tongue upon my flesh ceased. I peered at the circle of light that
seemed to belong to the hands. After a time, it coalesced into a familiar
pattern of tone and feature, behind which the blackness undulated queerly. I
continued to peer. Then I knew what I saw, and closed my eyes to the blur.
I heard an entwining of sound.
Little one, look at me. It was a number of times he said it, before I could
disentangle his words from Santh s plaintive mutterings.
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I opened my eyes. The new day s light, bounding and rebounding off the
thinning foliage, played upon them like running water. Santh sat with his
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