“I wouldn’t know about that, Isaho. Do you think you could go to sleep for a while? We’ll be traveling all night again.”
She sensed a sudden wild burst of fear in the child, but Isaho’s smile didn’t falter. The femlit put out a hand, touched her knee. “Will you be sleeping, too, Messenger of God?”
“No, I have to see that Thann eats and I’ll be keeping watch for strangers.”
“Then I can sleep.”
Shadith chuckled as Thann made a face when xe saw the tube she was holding. “I’ve run some water through the filtra and you can have a nice cup of hot tea once you get this down.”
+Isaho?+
“Sleeping. In the beginning she woke up several times an hour to make sure I was still there watching, but she’s been sleeping really well since noon. Not like before, just good healthy sleep. There. That’s over for now. And here’s your tea. Hang onto the mug, let me lift you up. There. You can rest your head and shoulders on my knee.”
When Thann was finished, Shadith took the mug back and set it on the ground beside her. “Want more? No? Feeling like talking a while?”
+Yes. I owe you my life. Ask what you want.+
“Well, first of all, when you’re in Linojin, I’d be grateful if you forget how you got there. Don’t mention me, not even a hint of what I look like. Or anything about flying. Isaho told me her mother and father and brother are there. I doubt you can keep her from talking to them, so see if you can get them to keep quiet, too.”
Thann sighed. +Isaho won’t say anything to them, Shadow. They’re dead. All of them. Her brother five years ago, her Mam and Baba just before we left Khokuhl. She saw them dead, but she won’t let herself remember that.+
“Then why…?”
+Because five times she started out to walk to Linojin by herself, twice she was nearly killed. I thought at least we’d be away from the war and the Anyas of Mercy have their hospital there and they know about such hurts to the soul, they might be able to heal her and bring her back to peace with God.+ Thann sighed. +And there was no place for us in Khokuhl. My clan was never big and they’re mostly dead. Bazekiyl and Mandall, those were my bondmates, their cousins had their own families to care for. So there wasn’t much choice about what to do.+
“I see. How’s the babbit?”
+Doing well. Xe’s a hungry and lively little one. I was afraid… not trusting God’s providence enough. But One has forgiven my weakness and blessed me.+
“Hm. Good to hear. We’ll reach the mountains above Linojin by daybreak tomorrow. I’ll set you down beside the Pilgrim Road. Will you be strong enough to walk the last stretch, or do you want to lay up for a day and start the next morning?”
+That paste you’ve been feeding me is amazing. A little sleep and I can run the rest of the way.+ Xe’s hands made a smile.
“Then you’d best get that sleep.’ Shadith eased the anya’s head down, thrust her arms under xe, and lifted xe quilt and all. “I’ll tuck you in beside your daughter.” She chuckled. “You can snore up a partsong together.”
12
The Gateway is the sign in the middle. Retreat or go forward. The choice is yours.
Chapter 11
On the fourth day after leaving the village, the Shishim Remnant left sand and sawgrass behind and found a road heading north. As Wintshikan stepped onto the worn paving, she sighed with relief-at last some solid land that didn’t slide away from under her feet and slip into her sandals until each step was a punishment. Never mind that she’d walked mountain trails for sixty years now; her knees hurt, and there was an ache in the place between her shoulder blades that she couldn’t reach.
No more swarms of black biters that lifted off the sawgrass and drank the sweat on her arms and face, walking over her sticky skin with their tiny tickling feet until she wanted to scream.
This was open land like the Meeting Grounds. Fields with small herds of maphiks and zincos grazing under the eyes of mallits and femlits. Flocks of small dark maphabirds following the beasts and pecking at the droppings. It squeezed her heart to see those familiar things here in the lowlands she despised.
The paving was cracked, even crumbled in places, square flags of stone held together with a dark tarry substance. The jomayls’ hooves click-clacked loudly on that stone. Their red eyes flickered in the sunlight, and one after the other they announced their pleasure at the footing with drawn-out nasal honks; they’d liked slogging through the sand even less than she had.
A breeze touched her face, cool air with a touch of brine, stirring the heart-shaped leaves in a small grove of young vevezz a short distance ahead, turning them over so the silver sides caught the sunlight, letting them fall again so they shimmered from pale green to silver and back again.
Kanilli rode one of the pack jomayls, Zaro was slumped on the back of another; she was miserable, covered with welts from the biters. The last time Wintshikan had checked on her, she’d been running a slight fever, but she’d become angry when Xaca wanted them to stop so she could tend her daughter. “I hate this place,” she said. “If I have to crawl, I’ll keep going.”
Luca and Wann rode ahead of them, talking energetically, guiding their jomayls with the balance of their bodies, looking as wild and unconfined as the sea birds that soared overhead.
We’re not even a Remnant now, Wintshikan thought, not Pixa at all; we’re turning into something else, and I don’t know what it is.
Would it have been better to stay on the Round and fall at the hands of the Imps where at least they’d know who they were, what they were? Would it have been better to hold more tightly to the bond with God and let One harvest them, set them aside to be reborn into the Company of the Faithful? I want things to be like they were, she thought, I want to know what I’m meant to do. Her eyes burned with tears-which made her angry with herself, then angry with God for allowing this. Which appalled her so much, she tried to wipe the thought away with her tears as she scrubbed her sleeve across her face.
Zell leaned down to stroke Wintshikan’s hair. Xe was riding.a packer jomayl, but xe was all the gear it carried. Xe’s joints had suffered in the passage through the edges of the salt marsh, and xe could no longer walk because something had gone wrong with xe’s hip. Even riding meant endless grinding pain, but xe never complained nor would xe permit Wintshikan to hold the Remnant in camp longer than necessary. +I can rest when we reach Linojin+, xe signed. +And I’d certainly rather ride than scratch+.
By mid-afternoon the Remnant was moving through a patchwork of small farms, the land intensely tilled, some plots with vegetables, berries, and fruit trees growing together, three levels of crops ripening at the same time. There were more people working in those fields than Wintshikan had seen since the last Grand Gather.
Her heart ached again when she looked at them. They were lightly clad because it was a very warm day, so she could see that they were unarmed except for cultivators and pruning shears. Not a single rifle anywhere. No guards, no fences, no watchchals. It isn’t fair, she thought, it isn’t right that life on the far side of the mountains should be so terrible, and here so peaceful that those folk don’t care that we’re strangers. No guns, no guards, no walls, yet they’re calm and contented, at ease with the world. It just isn’t fair. They ought to feel some kind of guilt for their good fortune, they should lower their eyes when we go past and be ashamed because they have so much while we’ve lost everything.
By mid-morning on the next day there was a dark blot visible on the northern horizon. At first Wintshikan thought it was a cloud though there wasn’t a wisp in the rest of the sky, but as the hours slid away, the blot turned into shining white walls and dark green foliage with the patchy browns and grays of a fishing village obscuring part of it. The coast curved closer to the road so the ocean was visible again in the west, a shattered blue so brilliant that her eyes hurt looking at it.