With my eyes closed at least I could speak.
"I’m fine, my brother, I—forgive me, I've never truly seen you before. It was so dark last night…" I opened my eyes again. He wasn't quite so overwhelming this time. "You are so beautiful."
He dipped his head on his long neck, and the Language of Truth sang in my mind, rahg in my heart, nearer than ever whisper might come.
"You honour me, Lanen Kaelar."
I felt my heart fill like an empty cup, fill to overflowing, felt a wash like light sweep over me from top to toe until there was no room for darkness.
I had heard my true name spoken by one I loved, however disparate our races, and I would have died content at that moment. I would have missed other, more wondrous things, but I knew even then that there is no greater joy.
"Well met, I say again, Lanen. Is that how you would be called?"
She smiled up at me, her eyes bright in the moonlight. "Yes, Lanen is what I'm called. How shall I name you?"
"I am known as Akhor." I returned her smile in the way of my people. (She did not flinch this time, though I learned later that the sight of my teeth was still frightening.) "And still you leak seawater. Do tears come so easily to you, Lanen?"
She laughed. "No, not usually. Only since I met you, and then only for joy."
I bowed. "May all your tears be for joy then, sister Lanen. And have you thought on our words last night?"
"I have thought of little else, Akor, all last night as I lay awake and all today," she said. I noticed she could not truly pronounce my name, but from her "Akor" was meet. "Can you tell me something? You said that our meeting was forbidden. I think I know what you meant, but if your people have laws I don't know about, please tell me." She paused, but I did not speak yet. "I don't want to cause trouble for you over our meeting. I didn't know if it was an actual law or well, ever since I left my home I’ve talked to people about wanting to meet you—your people, I mean. And everyone I spoke to thought I was crazy, one accused me of wanting gold, one said you weren't real—and I think the only one who actually believed me spent most of his time wondering how he might get a trade advantage."
I had to laugh—I had heard variations on those arguments from my own people for hundreds of years. She did draw back at that. When I asked, she wrinkled her head at me and asked if I was amused or angry.
"I laughed. That is the word, is it not? Laugh?"
"Laughing means you find something funny. Is that what you meant?"
I hissed my amusement at her. "Yess, Lhanen. If you think, you do the same—I saw you, the day you arrived—but as you are not creatures of fire, there is no steam or flame to accompany the laughter."
"We're a damn sight smaller, too, and don't have near so many teeth," she answered in what seemed a wry tone of voice.
"To answer your question about the ban, littling, would require the telling of a long tale, and that must wait. Suffice it for now to say that my people have made it a law that we should not come too near friendship or trust with the Gedri, for in the past great evil befell my people and yours because of such trust." I bowed. "Indeed, I have broken that law to speak with you even so much."
"But why?" she asked, genuinely puzzled. "How could I possibly hurt you? Your lightest thought could destroy me." Then she shook me as she echoed what I had said to Shikrar. "Forgive me, my brother, I speak in ignorance, but could it be that your laws are too harsh in this?"
"You speak with my words!" I stumbled over the words even as I spoke, so many thoughts were trying to come out at once. "Where now are the insurmountable differences between us? It is true, I had to learn your language, but I understand your Attitudes without thought. I am not as certain of the changes that come over your face. I know they have meaning, and I suspect that they mesh with the Attitudes of your people; but taken all in all they are not so strange, and with a little time I will come to know them. We both laugh when we are amused, we shed flame—or tears—with great emotion, we watch out the night when there are great things to ponder ... and we do not bear well under laws that are too strict. Surely, my soul to the Winds, there are no creatures in all the world so similar as we two, for all our differences."
And a deeper voice from behind me said quietly, "And it appears that the Gedri also are heedless in their encounters with other races."
I must have jumped back ten feet. I landed in a fighter's crouch—bless Jamie!—for all the good it would do me here. They just stared at me, with what I hoped was curiosity. The newcomer had moved forward a little, and the moon was higher now. I could see them both very clearly indeed.
It didn't really help.
The first thing I noticed was the other was considerably larger than Akor. His great fangs gleamed as he spoke, the vast wings tucked against his body rippled in the moonlight. His hide was much darker than Akor's, but I could still see the gem in his forehead, above and between the eyes. Both gems caught the moonlight and sparkled, though I suspected that much of the sparkle came from within. (A fleeting thought struck me that if Marik ever saw those gems he would move mountains to get hold of them.) His horns, as he stood, framed the moon for a moment. It was frightening, but it was unutterably lovely.
And to be truthful, I was fascinated. I had forgotten their wings when I saw Akor last night, and now I was terribly curious about them, and about the purpose of the gems. I would like to say I forgot to be afraid of the newcomer, but in truth I was proud of myself for simply not running. I had never imagined that something that big could be alive.
"Is this the wonder I saw in your mind, Akhor?" he asked. His speech was hard to understand, but I could tell what he was saying. "She is much smaller, and I do not see the radiance about her that you do." He carne very close to me very quickly—if I had not been so frightened or determined not to move, I might have been more impressed by the speed at which he moved. As it was I stood there frozen, using all my strength to hold still.
When his head was only inches from mine he stopped. He seemed to be smelling me, which bothered me a great deal—it made him seem for a moment like a huge misshapen beast, a freak of nature, horrible. I could feel a scream welling up; those huge fangs needed only open and shut once. With that speed, I might never know I was dead.
Akor spoke and saved me. "Well, Shikrar, are you satisfied? You could smell Raksha-trace in her grandmother at that I range."
I relaxed a little, began to breathe again. Shikrar drew back (for which I was intensely thankful), but he never took his eyes from me.
"Why do you stare at me?" he asked harshly. "I am not the soft fool you spoke to last night, and I will know the truth when I hear it."
I tried for a second to think of something courteous to say, then realised that my idea of courtesy was unlikely to mean anything. The truth was bald, but I dared say nothing else.
"I was staring because it is much brighter out tonight—there are no clouds—and I can see you both so much better I than I could see Akor last night. And because you are even larger than he, and I do not know you, and I am frightened."
Akor hissed with laughter. "Well answered, Lhanen!" he said. "There, my friend, was an answer worthy of any youngling. Are you still convinced that she opens the door for the Rakshasa?"
Shikrar snorted; a great puff of steam. "There is much yet to discover," he said in a gravelly voice. "I do not believe the tale she told you. She is not a youngling, Akhor, no matter what you may think, and even for the Gedri she is no child. What brings you here, Gedri?" he growled at me. "What tale has brought you so far from your Kindred? Are you mad? Do you seek after gold? Or is it the thrill of near approach without violating our law, thus to flout death in its very teeth? I charge you now, tell me the truth of your call, or I shall dare my friend's vengeance and break you where you stand, Boundary or no."