S'Doryn's heart.
T'Noth and Etan said their farewells, and walked off to T'Noth's home. N'Tevva began preparing the girls for bed in the bedroom that she and S'Doryn usually shared. For the time being, at least, that would be their room, and the adults would sleep in the common room. After a time, she came out again.
"They want you to say good night to them," she said.
He nodded and walked back to their bedroom. Now it was the girls' room. Was that how they'd speak of it from this night on? Was he really a father now?
They were tucked into the single bed, Vettala by the wall, her pale eyes shining in the light of the single candle that burned by the door. S'Doryn crossed to the bed and sat beside Jynna. "Good night," he said.
Jynna smiled. "Good night."
"You're comfortable?"
She nodded.
He looked at the younger girl. "And you?"
She hid her face in the pillow.
It seemed that smiling with the other children was one thing. Accepting him as a friend, much less as a new father, was quite another. He stood, walked to the door, and bent to blow out the candle. Before he could, Vettala let out a small cry.
"I think she wants it lit," Jynna said.
"All right then." He straightened and stepped out of the room. "Thank you," Jynna called to him. "From both of us."
He grinned. "You're welcome." He pulled the door until it was nearly all the way closed, and went out to the common room. N'Tevva was sitting at the table.
"Did the younger one say anything to you?" she asked, looking concerned.
"Not a word," he said, sitting beside her.
She shook her head. A pale wisp of hair fell over her brow and she brushed it away. She still looked much as she had when they first were joined. Her skin remained smooth, save for a few lines around her eyes and mouth, and she still wore her white hair tied back loosely. Her eyes were the color of the winter sun on a hazy day.
"She wouldn't even look at me," she said. "I tried everything, but you would have thought that I was a demon from the Underrealm itself the way she shied away from me."
"It'll take some time. But Jynna will help her through it."
"I know," she said. She smiled, though the look in her eyes remained sad. "There are children sleeping in our home."
"I've been thinking about that. It's not quite how we always hoped it would happen."
"No, but that's all right. They need us." "We're a bit old to be starting out as parents."
"I don't know what you're talking about," she said airily. "Oh, I suppose you're getting on in years, but I'm certainly not."
He laughed, then leaned over and kissed her. "I missed you."
"I missed you, too." She took his hand, but he could see that she was troubled. "All this talk of a Mettai witch frightens me. It's going to frighten a lot of people as it gets around the village."
"It should," he said. "If she's really out there, doing to other villages what we think she did to Tivston, we should all be terrified."
Over the next several days, the girls began to settle into the rhythms of Fal'Borna life. They accompanied N'Tevva into the fields and they fished the waters of the lake with S'Doryn. They even went to the sanctuary for lessons with other children their ages, though N'Tevva was concerned about Vettala, who had yet to say a word to either her or S'Doryn, and who seemed unwilling to leave Jynna's side.
According to the older girl, however, Vettala willingly went off with children her own age once they reached the sanctuary. Even there, she spoke to no one, but she played some of the games that the younger children played, and she appeared to listen attentively to her lessons.
U'Selle had said that she would speak with other a'laqs, using her powers to walk in their dreams, as all Weavers could. But S'Doryn heard nothing from the a'laq, and he didn't presume to ask her, knowing that if she had anything of importance to tell him, she would do so.
The full of the two moons came and went, marking the beginning of the Harvest waning, and still the a'laq told him nothing.
"You should ask her," T'Noth urged one evening, as S'Doryn and
T'Kaar walked the fields with him.
"Don't you think she'd tell us if she knew anything?" T'Kaar asked.
"Perhaps she hasn't even reached for them yet," the younger man said. "She's not been well, you know. It might have slipped her mind." "And what if it hasn't?" S'Doryn asked. "What if she takes the ques tion as an affront?"
T'Noth offered a small shrug. "You could…" He shrugged a second time. "She'd probably understand. She knows how anxious we are for any word of the woman."
"Perhaps it slipped her mind," T'Kaar said, grinning now.
"Yes," S'Doryn said. "I think you should remind her, T'Noth. Old as I am, it might slip my mind as well."
T'Kaar laughed.
"Fine," the younger man said, walking away from them both. "We'll wait."
They didn't have to wait long. Three days into the waning, at midmorning, as he worked his crops, S'Doryn received word that the a'laq wished to speak with him. He hurried to her house, arriving there just as the brothers did. It seemed they had been summoned as well.
"Do you know what this is about?" T'Noth asked.
He sounded eager, as only a young man could under such circumstances. For his part, S'Doryn had started to hope that Jynna had been wrong about the Mettai woman, that her tale really was just the product of fear and grief and a young girl's imagination. He dreaded hearing whatever it was the a'laq had learned.
Stepping into the a'laq's cottage, they saw that the other members of the clan council were there as well, some of them seated around her table, others standing. Far more surprising, Jynna, who was supposed to be at the sanctuary, sat at the table beside U'Selle, looking pale and young and very scared. Every person in the room looked up as the three men entered.
"At last," the a'laq said brusquely. "Come in, please. There isn't much room, but I hadn't the strength to make my way to the sanctuary." "Not good," T'Kaar muttered, his voice tight.
S'Doryn had to agree.
Jynna looked as though she wanted to be near him, but was afraid to offend the a'laq. U'Selle appeared to notice this as well, for she whispered something to the girl, and immediately Jynna was on her feet. She ran to him, threw her arms around him, and pressed her face to his shirt.
"What's going on?" she asked, the words muffled. "Why did they bring me here?"
"I don't know, Jynna," he said, stroking her hair. "But we'll find out. Sit with me."
She nodded, and followed him to the table. T'Noth and T'Kaar sat with them and the rest of those who had been standing came to the table as well.
"When Jynna first came to our village with her story of the pestilence and its odd effect on her people," the a'laq began, "we didn't quite know what to make of it. Some wondered if this were some new form of the disease that struck only Qirsi victims. Others thought it might be unique to the Y'Qatt, a product of their forswearing of magic. And still others thought it might be the work of the Mettai, a spell directed at Qirsi magic.
"I've considered all of these possibilities and at the same time have been in contact with a'laqs throughout Fal'Borna lands to see if there are other villages or septs that have suffered as Jynna's people did, dreading the day I would find them."
She took a breath and was taken with a fit of coughing. When it finally passed, she dabbed at her mouth with a small cloth.
"I found them this morning. Or rather, they found me. Another a'laq, a man named S'Plaed, spoke to me as I slept, Weaver to Weaver." Jynna turned to S'Doryn, looking puzzled.
"Weavers can walk in the dreams of other Qirsi," he whispered to her. "Even from afar. It allows us to communicate with other septs, even other Qirsi clans if need be."
U'Selle had paused in her tale, allowing him to explain. Now she went on. "S'Plaed leads a sept on the northern edge of the plain. Not long ago they numbered five thousand strong. Then they were visited by an Eandi merchant. Within hours of this man's appearance, the pestilence struck, sickening thousands-at least half of S'Plaed's sept. As with Jynna people, this strain of the disease took hold of their magic so that fire and shaping and healing raged out of control. Hundreds more died in the destruction the afflicted did to their families and neighbors. The a'laq usually meets with all merchants who visit his village, but in this case the man was in too great a hurry to leave. His haste is all that saved S'Plaed's life.