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run its vibrating curve. Alone I was, in space, hurtling upon sails of gold.
Where?
 Estri, he said, slurring his tone a half-step, his hand under my chin. I
liked not those storm-morn eyes, cold as Opirian nights. I tried to turn my
head. His thumb pressed down upon my chin, three fingers up into the soft
tenderness behind and beneath.  You just might be right. His hand toyed again
with the incinerating cube.
I shivered before him.  How long, I asked faintly,  have we been off
Silistra?
 Six hours, fifteen minutes, he said, of his own knowledge.
An hour is about twenty-one twenty-seconds of an enth, the Silistran
twenty-eight-enth day being only forty minutes shy the B.F. Standard day of
thirty hours. It was near moon s meal upon Silistra. The moon would be up,
over the Lake of Horns. I wondered what had come to pass this day, Brinar
second sixth. Of Chayin I thought, tasting his pain, and Sereth, with whom he
had lain whilst this strange creature abducted me. And Khys? Had they come and
told him, in his meeting while he was yet filling the vacancy of the southeast
corner? Whom had he chosen for these lands, to oversee Dritira, Stra, and
Galesh?
 Why? he asked me, shaking my shoulder.
I only regarded him. Could he not see what loss I mourned, what loss my world
was to me? His fingers fell to the dharen s mark, swirled upon it.
 Why did you ask the time? he demanded in a voice that scraped bone. How, I
wondered, would he have treated me, were he not planning to return me to Khys?
His hand slid about my throat, longing. I saw him restrain himself, whatever
violence crossed his mind. He shook my head about savagely.
 I am only hungry, I choked.
 I have no intention of feeding you until we ve finished our little talk. How
and why was the band put upon you in the first place? I marked him
disquieted. He believed the artifactual evidence upon me. His machine had
spoken for my truth. M tras clicked, shifted. I took comfort in his unease.
 Did not he from whom you obtained aid explain that to you? I dared.
 Don t push me. His fingertips played a syncopated pattern upon my throat.
 It is rather complex, what you ask. I sighed.  As to how it is done it is
simply done. When Khys had me brought before him, I was much wounded. He
merely put me in flesh lock and slipped it about my neck. He made me hold up
my hair while he did it.
 What s flesh lock? he rejoined, eyes narrowed.
 You would surely be angered if I tried to explain it. The band is fastened
about the neck of the victim by he to whom it is keyed. It must be removed by
that same hand. Not even the high chalder, who has charge of the bands until
they are keyed, can remove them. My eyes begged his, that I might be silent.
 Where do they come from?
 Normally they are produced by the dharen s council. One puts a band of
restraint upon a highly skilled person only, one who may not be bound
otherwise. They are little used. I had never heard of them upon Silistra until
I was taken to the Lake of Horns.
 You have not told me why you wear it, he prodded, implacable. I shifted upon
icy limbs between his legs. I did not want to speak to him of my diminishment,
my shame. I did not want to think of what I had been so highly skilled, so
arrogant, so foolish. His hand twisted in my hair. By it he pulled me closer.
 I abrogated, in hauteur, my chaldra. I became couch-mate of a chaldless
outlaw. We caused a great deal of bloodshed, hearkening to the law within.
Khys did not deal harshly with us. He left us our lives. He wanted a child
from me. I would not give it. He stripped me of my memories, that I might not
object. When it was done, I did not object, but asked for his seed. Blinking
back tears, I regarded him. His face was emotionless. His grip upon my hair
relaxed. I sank back, resting on my heels.
 How did he get you to put the band on you, if you were, as you put it, so
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highly skilled? I thought him further disquieted. His brows had both
descended. I had been reminded, relating what had occurred, of the damage done
to me. Could I ever, I wailed silently, be again what I had been before
Amarsa,  695, what I had been with Sereth, upon Mount Opir? Even might I
regain such skills as I had been pleased to employ when I found myself in the
Parset Desert? I doubted it. I dropped my eyes to M tras belt. Doubtless I,
too, would need such a machine to think for me, to direct me as to what
owkahen had in store, and how to meet it. He cuffed my head to one side,
against his thigh. I let it lie there, slumping against him.
 How did he acquire me? He hested it. He brought his will into the time. He
waited, and when the moment matched his sensing, he sent men to fetch us. I
had fallen unconscious. I awoke in the hands of his minions. Without my
power, and without most of my sensing, I recalled.  We were brought before
him. He tried and sentenced us as suited him. He, as I just told you, put the
band upon me. The rest also I have told you. From my slanted viewpoint, his
face seemed gray, alien, forbidding. I raised my head, held it straight. His
hand freed my hair, touched his eyes, rubbed there.
 Sit as you wish, he said, releasing me totally. I did not try to rise. I
would not have been able. By my arms I pushed myself backward and slid my legs
out and around. I could not feel them. In a few moments, I knew, I would long
for this state. They were clumsy, as if another owned them.
 What are you thinking? he demanded, rising. He stretched, his hands at the
small of his black-clothed back. His boot heels thudded on the metal as he
went and stood before the real-seeming Western Forest, truly upon far
M ksakka. We were not going. I knew, to M ksakka.  If you want to eat, you had
better be responsive, he warned, turning to face me, arms crossed above his
wakened belt. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]