''You have no voice here ..." began one lady feebly, but I could not bear to hear that again. Instinctively I spoke aloud
"I should have a voice here! I am not a beast, I am an ensouled creature as you are, and I never heard that the Winds gave you the power of the high justice over me and mine!'
"Would it not be best to continue in the Language of Truth?" asked Shikrar quietly. "It is thus that we may best hear you.''
I thought about that for a moment. "I believe you are right, Shikrar, and I thank you. I spoke in my own tongue in my anger, but were you to come among us we would wish you to speak our language. I shall continue as long as I may, though I cannot use the silent speech for long without some discomfort. It is natural to your people—and to me, it seems—but I am newly come to it. Still, I shall try.''
Obviously there were many who had not believed, even after hearing her distant calls on several occasions, that she, a Gedri, could be the source of truespeech. There could be no doubt now. When she lapsed into her own speech again, I translated for her.
I had meant to establish her right to speak. The right was mine, and would have been hers if she had been of the Kindred. I at least was due an appeal. But I did not dare interrupt She was inspired, and I was glad enough to wait and watch. Our people are prone at times to sudden ill-conceived actions—it is the hazard of being creatures of Fire. I would make certain she was protected from any who threatened.
Otherwise, I merely sat and marvelled at her. She was a wonder.
"People of the Greater Kindred, I stand before you as your sister in this world. True, we are made differently, but we are far closer in spirit than you are to the Rakshasa, or either of us to the vanished Trelli. In the first days of our meeting, Akor and I quickly came to understand each other's Attitudes and expressions. And even when words failed us, we learned that rone of voice was a near-infallible guide. As I understand Attitudes, I stand somewhere between Defiance and Respect.''
One voice rang out. ''We read you well enough, Gedri. You are sentenced already.''
"No, Dragon, I am not," I cried, lapsing into my own tongue and putting as much venom in my voice as I could. They all stirred at that; some who had been in what looked like it might be Listening or some such now stood in Anger. As soon as I saw it I understood, I knew what I must do.
"Yes, Akor has told me how that name offends you. Very well! You are the Greater Kindred, I will pay you that respect; but I have told you my own name. I am Lanen Maransdatter. To call me Gedri, a Silent One, is in any case not correct—but among my people if you deny the name, you deny the person, and I think you have done quite enough of that already. ''
"Who are you to judge us?" called a voice from behind me, dripping with hostility but speaking in my language. I turned back to face the bright copper Dragon I had merely glanced at before. ''Rishkaan,'' whispered Akor in my mind.
"I have told you. I am Lanen Maransdatter, beloved of Akor the Silver King, and whatever you do you cannot unmake that which already is. You could crush me with a fraction of a thought, with the lightest breath of fire, but you cannot destroy the change that I bring.''
I turned back to the assembly. "Don't you understand? Have you not heard? How can you censure your King when he is caught in the web of the gods? Yours and mine! How absurd, for us to be so devoted after so short a time. Can you imagine we do not know it? We are not fools. When we came to ourselves after the joining of our souls, we stood apart and called on our gods for understanding, each to each. And the Winds and the Lady spoke to us.
"I did not come here to fall in love with one of the Kindred: Blessed Lady, what a pointless thing to do! I suffer from the same ferrinshadik that is so deep a part of my beloved; I longed only to speak with another soul that felt as I did, once in my life to hear the thoughts of the only other race in this world that can speak and reason. Why should I not? I had no idea. I knew nothing of the ban until Akor told me of the Lost Ones. That tale itself is long forgotten by my people.
"I speak with you now as I have a thousand times before in my heart. I left my home gladly to follow the merest rumour of you, for I knew in my soul you were no legend. I gave up my home to find you, to learn of the Greater Dragons who lived apart from my people. You were the old ones, the wise ones, and I desired to learn from you.''
I spoke now aloud and let my voice rise, partly from some memory of the tricks of the bards, partly because I was now hard put to it to keep stray thoughts out of my truespeech and I wanted this clear.
"And thanks to your King, I have indeed learned. I ask you now, do you not remember your own history? Kantri and Gedri are meant to be together, to live in harmony. Yes, you had reason to be angry at the death of Aidrishaan—but he was only one. By that time the Demonlord had destroyed several villages full of my people. You are creatures of Fire, I can understand that you would be driven to too great an anger, to too-hasty action—but that is what it was. And is.
"I believe you never accepted my people as your equals, even in the days of the Peace. Always we have been the Gedri. the Silent Ones, our very name in your language a dismissal, a cause for contempt. We are smaller, weaker, we live a fraction of your lives, we cannot fly—but you have never admitted that we have a greatness that you do not possess."
There was much muttering at that. More stood in Anger. I had no plan, no idea of what to say, but the words came for all that. I still did not understand why I sought to anger the Kindred. I trusted in whatever was leading me and followed as best I could. But the hall had begun to hum, low and deep, with murmuring, and the beginning of the most unsettling melody I had ever heard.
"What of the Gedri is worthy the name of greatness, Maran's daughter?" growled Rishkaan from behind me. "They have brought only darkness and blight on the world. My mother's granddam was changed by the Demonlord in the iower of her youth, she was riven from her daughter when she could barely fly, along with all the rest of my family that ever was. I shall bear the Gedri ill will always.''
"That is your choice, Rishkaan of the Kantrishalcrim, but you do not speak for all the Kindred." Akor's truespeech rang clear and firm. "Now silence all, by our own laws, and let her continue.''
I took a deep breath. ''I have never heard of a Healer among your people," I said calmly. "Has there ever been one?"
All was silent.
"No, Lady,'' said Shikrar, trying to keep a quiet delight out of his voice, ''you are correct. None of us has ever had that gift-"
"Many of my people are Healers now. They are better than you remember, if the last you knew was what Akor told me in the Tale of the Demonlord. Not a full day past he carried me to the camp nearly dead, my hands and arms so badly burned I thought I should never use them again. A Healer came to me and, I am told, spent his whole strength on me— but this very morning I was recovered and nearly managed to escape from captivity. A captivity in which I was being held for dark reasons I had nothing to do with. I could have made my life easier by betraying you to the Merchant Marik, but I did not, and some time before I warned you to beware of him."