“So it seems,” Tak WakKerrcarr murmured in her ear. “Do you mind?”
“Yes,” she said fiercely, then she shook her head. “It’s futile, but I mind. Look what we’ve loosed on this miserable world. I’d like to…”
‘It’s god-business, Thornlet. We’re out of it now and lucky to be alive. Let’s stay that way. You coming back with me?”
She leaned against him and looked at Maksim. He was over with Korimenei and a stocky red-haired man she didn’t know; she saw him touch the man’s face with the affection and tenderness he’d saved for her till now. I’ve lost him too, she thought, but I never had him, did I. He looks well. And happy. What kind of jealous bitch am I that I resent it? She smiled. Just your average sort of jealous bitch, I suppose. Nothing special. “Maksi,” she called.
He looked round. “Bramble?”
“Going back to Jal Virri?”
“Yes, I’ve got an apprentice to teach.” He threaded his big hand through Korimenei’s flyaway hair, shook her gently. “Work her little tail off. You?”
“I’m for Mun Gapur. See you round. Tak?”
“Give the girl a rest, Maks, come see us some time. Bring your friend if you want. Ta.”
5
The next morning, a bright clear cool morning with air that bubbled in the blood like wine, Brann stood beside one of the few coldsprings in Tak WakKerrcarr’s watergarden at Mun Gapur. She held Massulit out away from her. “I don’t want it, Tik-tok. I don’t want it anywhere round me. It makes me nervous. It reminds me… She swallowed, the pain suddenly back, the loss raw in her.
“It goes where it will, Thomlet and that’s not me. You want to lay a curse on me even I couldn’t handle, try giving it to me.” His mouth twitched in a smile part rueful, part calculating. “You might give it to Amortis.”
Brann snorted, then she smiled too, a small reluctant lift of her mouth corners. “I will never ever forget that scene. I hope Slya sets her hair on fire.” The smile went away. “And melts him into slag.”
“Ah, m’ dear.”‘
“Hunh!” She contemplated Massulit a moment longer then tossed it into the spring and watched it sink through the clear cold water. It shone briefly but intensely blue, then settled dark and anonymous among the stones at the bottom of the pool. “There. I give it to nobody.” She turned away, brushing her hands as if she brushed away the whole of the painful time just past. “This is a fire mountain,” she said.
“True. Why?”
“Build me a kiln, Tik-tok.”
“You need to rest a while, Thornlet, Relax.”
She moved her shoulders, ran a hand through her long white hair. “I can’t, luv. Not for a while yet. Do you understand? I need to be busy. I need to do something with my body, my hands, my mind. Something with meaning to me. When I was last in Kukurul I saw newware from Arth Slya. It gave me, idea I want to try. Any clay deposits round here?”
“I don’t know. I’ll see what I can find out. You’re sure?”
“They were my children, Tik-tok. I have to grieve for them a while. But only a while. We have time, luv. If nothing else, we do have time.