From the corner of my eye, the motion of the glider caught me, and I turned. Three people sat under the clear bubble canopy as the five-meter-long craft slid toward the kiosk that marked town center, apparently suspended in midair over the black, rain-polished stones of the gliderway.
I thought the figures might have been Eel-master Parsfal and Quella and their daughter, probably returning from shopping in Leboath, but a line of rain splashed over me, and I blinked, and the glider was out of sight.
Just before I reached our gate, so did the Townkeeper, and he waited for me.
'Master Tyndel.' Trefor bowed the bow of the perfect third.
'Townkeeper Trefor.' I responded, as necessary to the headman of the town, with one of a perfect fourth. 'You look well.'
'As do you, Master Tyndel'
'And of those you wish to speak?'
Trefor bowed again, then offered a smile. 'Dynae has become a candidate scholar in the Hall of Dzin, under the Overmaster Juab. Much credit falls upon you.'
'I can only take refuge in ignorance, Townkeeper. May she find it as much of a blessing as I have.'
'I am most certain she will, Master Tyndel.' He inclined his head, smiled, and continued toward the brown-walled house on the hill to the east of the square.
The drier and covered front portico of our home beckoned, and I sloshed the last few meters up the walk, turning and looking back once I was under the overhang. Was the yew hedge too large, its edge too close to the green ceramic border of the walk? The edges were clean, straight, as they should have been, but the hedge did appear oversized, slightly at least?
An ill-proportioned hedge would not be appropriate for Hybra's Dzin master, small as the school was, especially not after the Townkeeper's visit.
I repressed a shrug and opened the door. The scent of lemon-grass chicken filled the foyer, and my mouth watered as I took off my boots and donned the green house slippers.
I bowed to Foerga as I entered the kitchen. Foerga was tall, half a head taller than I, and her eyes were the piercing blue of the west, for all that her parents and ancestors had lived in Dorcha all the days of their existences.
She nodded in return, and her eyes met mine, and we both smiled.
'My dear.' I kept smiling.
'You looked troubled when you came in, Tyndel. Is it the rain?' She offered another of the warm smiles I treasured. 'The tea is ready.'
'I can't say it is the rain, but I am indeed ready for tea.' We didn't go in for the long ceremony, just the short one, and I marveled, as always, at the precision and grace with which Foerga served and presented the tea. My own efforts fell far short of hers.
I sat at the burnished oak table set in the bay that overlooked the rear garden and the raven fountain that had been Foerga's first gift to me after she had joined me in Hybra. The warm scent of the Arleen wreathed my face, offering comfort.
And your day?' I asked after the first sip, letting the warmth diffuse through me.
'Quiet. I finished the last of the goblets for Annynca. The turned ones, you recall?' She lifted her cup as gracefully as she had poured the tea.
I recalled. The area prefect's spouse had wanted unique goblets and hadn't even balked at the price - more than thirty credits each. 'They're a bargain at thirty.'
'Perhaps in Metterfels, but not in Hybra. Annynca and the Townkeeper's family are the only ones here who can afford my better work.'
That was why Foerga often took the glider to Henvor or Teford, or down the Greening River to Leboath or even the Metterfels of her youth. There the great art dealers or even the household planners employed by the families of the wealthy clamored for her work.
'It's a pity, in some ways.'
'In some,' she conceded. 'But it is far more peaceful here, and I'm happier and do better work where it's peaceful.' She offered that open smile, so much more warming than even the Arleen tea.
'I'm glad of that'
'So am I.' She refilled her cup, and then mine.
'I noticed the hedge. Does it seem slightly overlarge? Perhaps overpowering the balance between the garden rows and the walk?'
Foerga laughed gently, kindly. 'You have always seen those balances more readily than I.'
'You're too kind. I see your glasswork, and the balance and artistry.'
'Glass and crystal are not living plants. There's a difference.'
I let it go. She believed what she said, my all-too-modest Foerga. 'Townkeeper Trefor was waiting by the gate for me,' I mused. 'It wasn't an accident.'
'I would think not. There are not many accidents in any townkeeper's life.' She slid the plate of wafer biscuits before me.
'Thank you.' The butter-based wafer melted in my mouth, and I took another sip of tea, glancing out the window at the blue-feathered jay that alighted on the smooth brown bricks of the garden wall before shaking awkwardly, spreading wing, and vanishing into the mist and twilight. 'Young Dynae had been accepted as a candidate scholar by Overmaster Juab.'
'Overmaster Juab was at Henvor when you studied with Master Manwarr. You spoke of him.'
'He always had insights, but seldom spoke.' I sipped the last of the tea in the cup. 'I did not recommend Dynae. Not even to Manwarr.'
'His selection of Dynae troubles you.'
'I cannot believe I was that mistaken. Yet...' I shook my head slowly. 'To believe in one's own infallibility proves the opposite.'
You think that other considerations were involved?'
'I cannot believe that, either, although my mind says such is certainly possible.' I laughed. 'I don't wish to believe that Juab might be either fallible or venal, nor that my judgment was so erroneous.'
'Sometimes, as someone I respect and love has said, all choices are unpleasant.'
You keep me more honest than I would otherwise be.'
'More humble, I suspect. Not more honest. You're too honest as it is, Tyndel, my dear.'
My dear ... How I loved those words and the lady who uttered them. With a smile, I lifted the teacup. I could do nothing about Dynae, nor Juab, nor the Townkeeper. I could hold to the warmth of the past that we had built over the years in Hybra.
Had it been eight years? Closer to nine, actually. Nine years since I'd walked the River Greening and watched two children kiss by a cataclypt? Nine years since I'd found a blue-eyed artist who warmed my soul? Nine years bringing Dzin to the children of tnifflers, fishers, eel-masters, and geoponickers.
Tomorrow, I thought. Tomorrow, I would prune the hedge, before anyone else noticed the imbalance. I smiled to myself at the thought. Who else would even notice? But once a Dzin master, however humble, always one, even unto pruning hedges.
9
Openness to the world, to what is, can never be aquired.
I paced back and forth across the foyer floor. Had allowing Mother to invite her young artisan friend been a mistake?
'Don't be so nervous,' my mother called from the lower balcony.
That was easy enough for her to say.
'Your father won't be home for a while,' she added, as if that were supposed to be a consolation.
I paced some more. At least I'd grown up with Esolde. What if I didn't like this woman? Mother would be telling me how good and how talented she was for the entire length of my stay.
'Stop pacing. You sound like a demon in heat. It doesn't become the aquacyan.'
I stopped and shook my head. How could a demon be in heat? And what did that have to do with the color of my robes?
Then the bells chimed, and I took a deep breath before stepping forward and opening the door.