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those message stones, Nothing she could do about that now. She let her breath go
in a rush, Danner s going to be even angrier when she hears our idea.
What do the others make of it Cassil, Holle, T orre Na?
I don t know yet. I wanted us both to speak to them, together. They re waiting.
But neither of them moved for a while; the night was soft and spicy and peaceful,
and the talking that lay ahead would go on until morning. They watched the horses
flicking their tails at the flies.
The late afternoon sun was a hot, orangey red, and the shadows of the seven
women were beginning to lengthen. Danner stared at the other six one by one, at
Cassil and T orre Na, at Day and the one from Singing Pastures, Holle, at Marghe
and Thenike. She could not believe what she was hearing.
Let me make sure I ve got this straight, she said. These tribeswomen have
driven Holle and her kin from their land and slaughtered half their herds. They ve
butchered eleven of my best people for no reason that makes any sense to me,
despite what you ve been saying, and maybe taken one hostage. Now they re on
their way here to wreak god knows what havoc upon us all. And you want to send
Marghe here, and Thenike, unarmed, to talk to them.
No one said anything.
Danner wanted to put them all in a bag and shake them. She turned to Marghe.
Do you want to get yourself killed?
You ve accused me of suicidal tendencies before, and been wrong.
But not by much! Look at yourself, for pity s sake: fingers missing, scarred,
wearing rags. By your own admission you nearly died at the hands of these same&
tribeswomen.
There s no other real choice.
There is!
Danner looked to Day in mute appeal, but the ex-Mirror shook her head. I think
she s right, Commander.
Danner would not accept that. Look. Just wait until tomorrow. Until midday
tomorrow. Nyo should be here by then. She thinks she can find a way to stop a
storm disrupting our weaponry. Then we can escort you to this Uaithne, protect
you. You can talk to her all you want from behind an armored skirmish line.
Maighe shook her head. That s the worst thing we could do. Danner, I know
these people. Or what they ve become. They don t think the way we do they never
did. And now that they re behind Uaithne, they ve become unreachable. They re
living a legend, can t you see that? They ve given something up, call it a sense of
reality, to live inside something Uaithne has created. They no longer think of
themselves as individuals; they re just the followers of the Death Spirit. They don t
care about dying in fact, they d welcome death.
Danner shook her head in denial.
Marghe thrust her left hand under Danner s nose. Look at that, Danner. That
hurt. For months I was cold, hungry, treated like an animal. I nearly gave up, laid
down, and died. The snow up there does something to you. I ve lived there. I know
what it s like. They know they can t survive. They re not stupid. Every year fewer
and fewer children survive into adulthood. There s more and more deficiency
disease. They re dying, their way of life is dying. They know that. But what they
can t conceive of is that it s possible to live another way. They live inside
themselves in a way it s almost impossible to understand. So now along comes
Uaithne, who says, I m the Death Spirit, death is glory! And they see a way to make
it all good again. To die. To kill others.
But if
Marghe ignored her. Some of them, one or two, perhaps, might still be open to
reason. And they know me. But if they see your line, nothing in the world will stop
them throwing themselves upon you. Can t you see that? It s what they want:
hundreds of deaths.
They talked on, through dusk and into the night, until Danner s teeth ached from
clamping her jaw around words she knew she would regret if they were said. When
she went to bed, she was too keyed up to sleep.
Damn the woman. How could she risk herself like this? Couldn t she see that she
would just be throwing her life away, hers and Thenike s? Throwing them away on a
useless gesture. And their deaths would be added to the list of people Danner
already felt responsible for. Damn them all.
She fell asleep eventually, and dreamed she was standing alone on a grassy plain
facing a hundred riders. She was holding a knife, but as they galloped toward her,
she realized the knife was a child s toy, clumsily carved of wood.
She woke before dawn, hooves still thundering through her head. She got dressed
and walked barefoot through the dewy grass toward the hospital, enjoying the cool
wet sliding between her toes.
Lu Wai was sitting patiently by Letitia s bedside. The only noise was the faint
hum of a machine at the head of the bed. Lu Wai straightened.
How is she?
Stable, ma am. And improving. She spoke to me last night. The trace of that
miracle was still on Lu Wai s face. She nodded at the machine. But Dr. Hiam thinks
we should keep her asleep as much as possible.
You agree?
Lu Wai looked surprised. Yes. Sleep s a good healer. She paused. You re not
sleeping well, ma am?
No. No I m not. She pulled a chair up to the bed and sat down. Lu Wai, how
do you decide what to do when you think you re right, but everyone else, who you
would have thought should know better, thinks you re wrong?
Lu Wai took a moment to answer. That depends. Usually, when what I want is
the direct opposite of what everyone else thinks is right, I find fear of some kind, my
fear, at the bottom of it. Take my request to be sent with Letitia and Captain White
Moon.
I
Lu Wai held up her hand. No. You were right. What would have happened to
Letitia if I d died out there? But it was fear, fear for Letitia, that prompted my
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