She was silent for a long time. "I can't even imagine it," she said finally. "What do you do with all that time? You have seen so much—dear Lady, when you were born there were still people in Ilsa who lived in grass shacks on the plains and worshipped horses! And you still have questions to ask?"
"Indeed," I said. "And if you will allow me, I will pose one now. What does it mean when you bend yourself in half?"
"Bend in—oh: a bow!" She demonstrated. "Like this?" I nodded. "I never thought. It means—it is a way of showing agreement or respect."
"I am familiar with the concept. So that is a bow. Fascinating. What did you think Shikrar did after you bespoke him?"
"That was a bow?" she asked, delighted. "You've saved me a question. What a strange thing to do, a bob of the head and the wave passing down the neck after it. But then I can't imagine you bending in the middle!" After a moment' s pause she added, "It was very kind of him."
Akor seemed to find that funny. I let him hiss his amusement and looked more closely at him. The moon illuminated his hide beautifully. It gleamed like polished silver, and in the cool blue light it struck me again that he looked like the moon on the sea turned solid and come to life, shimmering and changing as he moved gleaming through the darkness.
I shook myself back to the moment. I decided that if I ever wanted to find out anything important I might as well try now. "Akor, Shikrar spoke of caution, and I don't think he meant only me. Did he?"
"No, he did not refer only to you. We must both be cautious."
"But why?" I asked again. I felt like a child, asking such questions; but I knew that I would never have another chance. "Is there time now for that tale? I cannot imagine a reason for your law. You are ancient and powerful beyond imagination. What in all the world is there for you to be afraid of?"
He lifted his head from where it had been resting, very companionably, on his forelegs near the Boundary. He tilted it a little, as if he listened to something, but whatever it was seemed to satisfy him. "Have you never heard of the Lesser Kindred? They live in the north, in the Trollingwood."
"No," I replied, feeling like the merest idiot. I felt I should know, of course, everyone knows about the Lesser Kindred and why Dragons are afraid of people, why didn't I? It was the first time, I think, that I felt the enchantment that I had heard of in the ballads. Those who speak too long with Dragons come to believe everything they are told…
"This may be difficult for you to hear, little one. It is a tale full of darkness."
"I still want to know."
"Very well. I have then a request to make. May I bespeak you? It grows tiresome winding my tongue around the sounds of your language, and I fear I do not have all the words for this that I shall need."
I nodded. "You are most welcome to bespeak me, Akor."
This is the tale he told.
"When the world was younger and the last of the Trelli but lately departed, our two peoples lived in harmony. The wooden huts of the Gedri circled the caves of the Kantri teachers without fear, and the Kantri taught the Gedri children with great patience and much joy.
"This is the true way of life for both peoples, as I understand it. The Kantri need the quick-living Gedri to remind them that all life passes, that there is a need to live life in the moment rather than ignoring the present as it rolls over them. The Gedri need the ancient Kantri to remind them that their concerns, though pressing, are but a part of life in its vast patterns. In that time, both peoples found in each other a constant source of delight in other minds and other ways of thought.
"So they lived and so they worked, and through many lives they throve together. The huts became houses, farms, smithies. Soon beyond the circle of structures there blossomed fields of grain, and pastureland to feed the cattle that fed both peoples. Beyond that, orchards, graves and gardens. It was not the first time the two had lived in peace, but it was the best. There was plenty, and harmony, and peace.
"At this time the Healers first arose among the Gedrishakrirn. It happened that some, those who spent much time with the Kantri and learned about truespeech, began to discover their own gifts in the realms of the will and the mind. In time they found they could heal small wounds; then there came those who could knit badly torn flesh quickly; and once in a generation there would arise one who could join broken bones in minutes. They were deeply honoured, and their services were a blessing to the Gedrishakrim and a wonder to the Kantri, for my people have never had the gift of healing. It was a new gift altogether, and a very great one.
"At the time when Lishakisaan of the Kantri passed to the Winds, the greatest Healer of that time came to see the remains before they were consumed (for our inner tire; released from our control at death, destroys our bodies from within in a very short lime). Some years later a youngling of the Kantri was wounded near to death in a tight, and this Healer drew in her will and sent it forth in, a blue glow to surround the wounded littling. The youngling was healed in a moment, but in that instant all the Healer's strength left her and her gift never returned. However, she passed her knowledge on to her daughter, who was also a Healer, and from that time some few of the Gedri were able to assist the Kantri when they were in pain, without losing their power in the process.
"It is perhaps not surprising that from this great good came great evil. The balance of all things will not be denied. It was a Healer who turned to the Rakshasa and so to the sundering of the peoples.
"He was a son of that line, the kin of the first Healer of the Kantri. He lived in the south of the Trollingwood at the edge of a settlement. As a child he was content enough, willing to work, listening to the Kantri teachers with a single-mindedness unusual in one so young. When he reached the first stirrings of manhood he demanded to be tested, for Healers were discovered in youth that their training might begin at once.
"His power was shown to be that of the lowest of Healers, able to cure small wounds, help in a small way. Even that little was more than most were given, but for him it was never enough. From the moment he discovered that only the smallest portion of power was his, he sought to increase it, convinced that he was born to surpass his revered ancestor. He began by wanting to learn more from the Kantri, working hard for many years and asking penetrating questions, but he learned at last that there is no way to gain more power than the Winds have given.
"It was his ending and his dark beginning. He left the settlement and burned his home behind him. The fire spread to several other dwellings and one young girl was killed; thus his first death was accomplished without thought or concern. It became the pattern of his numbered days.
"No one knows how he discovered a way to treat with the Rakshasa. Did his curses simply fall on receptive ears, or did he stand in seven circles and call some dark name, or make some offer that degraded race could not deny? It is a moot point. The Rakshasa have always known the needs and the frailties of the Gedrishakrim, and they nurse ever their hatred of my people. It is enough to know that he summoned them, and the world is the worse for it.
"He is called only the Demonlord. His name is not remembered. He traded it, before the end, to one of the Lords of Hell for a great power in this world, and when it went to that Lord it took all memory of itself from those who had known it. He surrounded himself with the lesser race of the Rakshi, the Rikti or minor demons. Thus, with no name to give power to another, and a defense that seemed to him impenetrable, he was free to work his will.