Every bone in my body cried out when the soulgems of the Lost were stolen, every instinct told me to fly to the Chamber of Souls, and so I did, swift as wings would carry me. I had only just landed when Rishkaan arrived, a fury in his eyes that frightened me. Akhor came as swiftly as he could, but he had been far to the west.
I tried to reason with Rishkaan, but I might as well have spoken with a stone. He rushed past me into the Chamber, sniffing for all he was worth. "No scent, no scent, how can that be, there must be some trace, there has to be—''
''Rishkaan, remember what the Gedri Rella said, that he had come and gone without our knowledge before. We will never find him this way."
He snapped his head to face me. "You are right," he said in a voice of iron. "He must have gone—" He did not stay even to complete his thought, but sped away past me into darkness.
I could not follow, and did not want to. If Rishkaan needed vengeance, if in his fury he slew this Marik, I would not stand in his way. I would await Akhor here, in my ravished Chamber, where the soulgems of my ancestors looked down in contempt on the failure of the Keeper of Souls.
The soulgems of the Lost sang loudly of their theft; I could not ignore it. I took Kédra by surprise and pushed him aside—he is much younger and smaller than I, after all— and leapt into the sky as soon as I was out of Akhor's cave, flying towards the Chamber of Souls.
It was not only the theft that compelled me. I could not rid myself of that vision, it lingered before my mind's eye like an image of the sun. Akhor, dead, his body turned to ash—that was bad, but death comes to all in their time. Far worse, worst of all, the horrible clarity of the Gedri Lanen with her younglings. They were a monstrous union of the two Kindreds, able to change from one to another at will. It was the sight of that perversion that struck bright flame within me. Such abomination I would spend my life to prevent.
The Silver King, Akhor the Wise, I had hoped for so much from him. Still, he would get over this Gedri child. It was merely a passing madness. He had many years yet in which to accomplish the purpose for which he had been born.
As long as my dream remained unfulfilled.
I saw Shikrar land before me, but the time for subtlety and obedience was past. I ran before him into the Chamber, where stray glints of moon and starlight filtered down from the airhole above and struck brief gleams from the soulgems of the Ancestors on the back wall. Someday I shall have my place there, I thought briefly, a good end for a long life, rest and peace and the voices of your descendants to call you forth from time to time—but as I knew it must be, when I turned to look at the flickering depths of the Lost Ones, I could but stare, for all my knowledge silent and open-mouthed, at the pedestal where they had rested near five thousand years, empty now of anything but memory.
Shikrar reminded me I could not trace him by smell, so I must outwit the creature. Where should he go but the fastest way back to the Gedri camp?
I hurried out of the Chamber of Souls and made the straightest way to the Boundary, searching still as I went for the smell of the Gedri or for Raksha-trace. I found none, but still I followed the way the evil one must have gone.
XVII
THE LOST
It was but a moment after Rishkaan had gone that Akhor bespoke me. ''What news, Shikrar?'' he asked urgently.
"Rishkaan is gone after the thief," I replied, and in the Language of Truth I could not keep my underthought from adding, "and I did nothing to stop him."
"You are not to blame," he said instantly. "Where has he gone?"
''Towards the camp of the Gedri,'' I replied. ''He is in a fury, Akhor. What must I do?"
"Keep you in the Chamber of Souls, Eldest, lest against all reason Marik should return. Reason seems to have little sway this night. I will await Rishkaan and Marik in the camp of the Gedri.''
And he was gone.
"Kédra, please, I must be with Akor. All is changed now, I beg you, take me to him!"
"Lady, ask me anything but this," he replied, deeply troubled. "I have already lost my charge Rishkaan, I dare not so disobey my King as to do this for you. Lord Akhor would not thank me for taking you into such danger."
"I don't care!" I shrieked. I was dancing with frustration and the need to be gone. "Damn it, Kédra, I can't leave him alone in this. I tell you I heard the Lost cry out before Akor spoke word, I am called, I cannot stay here!"
He stared at me in silence for a long moment, then leaned swiftly down. ''Come then, lady, the Winds and Lord Akhor forgive me."
"Bless you, true friend," I cried as I scrambled onto his neck.
"If you think I'm staying here without either of you, you're both crazy," said Rella's voice from behind me, and there she stood, arms on her hips. "Kédra, of your kindness, either take us both or give me directions so I can walk."
"Get on, then. Quickly!"
She scrambled up nimbly enough behind me. Kédra was not as strong as Akor, and had twice the burden. "I do not dare fly thus," he said, "but I can run. Hold tight."
He sped off in the direction of the camp. I called in true-speech, "Kédra, may I bespeak you?"
"Of course."
"I'm sorry I have had to ask this of you, my friend, but I must be with him. How should I bear it if—'' I could not say it aloud, but there rose in my mind the image of the wounds Akor had from the demon. No, no, I would not think of it....
''Lady, fear not. Rishkaan is with him, and though he bears you no love he is loyal to the King. There is no demon spawned that could stand against the two of them.''
"I'm not very good at hiding underthought yet, am I?" I said ruefully. "I vowed I'd stay well clear of this, but I can't. I can't. Damn. Damnation. Hell, blast and damnation.'' And I can't tell you why, but that opened the floodgates. Poor Kédra. I started cursing, aloud and in truespeech, beginning with the wide-ranging matter I had learned from the seamen on the voyage out, through the many choice oaths of the stablehands at Hadronsstead, and ending with a good long string of simple old-fashioned swear words. I must say, it helped, and I heard Rella behind me laughing quietly.
When I had done, Kédra bespoke me. Even in the Language of Truth, they hissed their laughter. ''Lady, I am impressed. I thought I knew your language, but through all of that I caught little sense. Extraordinary. I could feel the shape of the words in my mind, but I had no sense of their meaning.''
"They don't have much, really," I said, deeply pleased that he hadn't understood. "I was swearing. I don't know if the Kindred do it, but for humans it's a necessity. "
"I shall remember.''
Rella tapped me on the shoulder. I half-turned to hear her.
"You talk to them, don't you? Without words. Farspeech."
"Yes," I said. It seemed so trivial now.
''Dear Lady Shia, is there no end to what I am to learn on this voyage?'' She laughed. ''I must remember that little skill of yours."
In the darkness I had no idea of how fast we were moving, but now as false dawn began to lighten the sky, I could see the trees flashing past. It was frightening, a little, but at that point it was mostly satisfying. And there before us was the Boundary.