they have shut her out had this meeting not been intended?
Intended? Was this the beginning of the answers
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she had sought since that moment when the planted sword had remained
unchanged? Had that strong pull which had brought her across the swamp, even
through the monsoon, been meant to bring her to this meeting?
"We have waited long," the words continued in her mind. "Dream search has
been made many, many times. We have striven hard to seek those who must return
''
"But I am no kin of theirs!" she countered swiftly.
"Were you not accepted you would not walk these ways." That was a flat
statement and Kadiya sensed that no argument of hers would change it. But what
did these creatures want from her? She had chosen the swamp as her own domain,
but had another Power had a hand in that?
"I am Kadiya," she said again. "I am no kin, share no blood with those who
ruled here. Though it was by the favor of one" she thought of the Archimage
Binah "that I first found this place. I am of another people who entered
this land long after the Vanished Ones had gone. The Oddlings I know; they
have been my battle comrades. The Shritek I know, and they are the enemy. Tell
me, Speaker, who are you? For what people do you speak?" She gave him the
premier title known to the swamp folk, not knowing how else to address one who
must be a leader.
Again there was a silent pause, broken this time by a stir of those in the
company, though there was no change in the position of the one fronting her.
Then came an answer in part:
"This one is Gosel of the Hassitti, those who were to wait."
Kadiya acknowledged this with a courteous nod.
"Those who were to wait," Gosel repeated, "for so was the bond laid upon us
when the Shining Ones departed for their own place. Dreams have been sent us,
many dreams through the seasons, and in them each we saw again what had been
and received that promise of what would be: that we should not be alone, even
though we could not fol¬low their road which was not meant for our kind. We
have waited for the coming of the promised one but it has been long and lone
..."
If thought could vanish in a sigh, then this did. Kadiya felt a little of a
vast need long unfulfilled.
"I am not one of those who left you." She must drive that truth home. She
must destroy at once any hope these might have that she was one of the city
people come again.
"You are one brought to us," Gosel returned stubbornly. "Surely you came by
the will of the Great Ones or you would not be here. Therefore the Hassitti
are to be again dwellers of the court¬yards, heart-friends, even as was."
"Friends, I will gladly claim you," Kadiya an¬swered. She held out her hand
across the table as if in guest-welcome.
So their hands met palm to palm. Instantly Ka¬diya was aware of a flood of
warmth, of welcome and good feeling such as she had seldom known. There was
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something about these Hassitti which was dis¬arming, which drew her even as
she had always been
drawn to the Oddlings and the swamplands, yet this was even more intense.
"We have kept all which we could, safe held for your coming," Gosel said with
the eagerness of a child who wished to please an elder. "Come with us, Noble
One, to see how the Hassitti have striven to follow all the needs of duty."
So she was escorted from that room of feasting by Gosel, the one who carried
the crystal bells, and now a host of lamp bearers. In company they went from
chamber to chamber.
There were the remains of rich furnishings, skel¬etons of chairs and tables,
fashioned in a greater size than those she had always known, even as Gosel's
table had been lower. The walls were painted. Some showed scenes she longed to
study closer, but her guides impatiently pressed her on. One chamber was
fitted with many shelves and on those were stacked boxes of metal, some
touched by rust.
At Gosel's direction several of these were opened and their contents
displayed. It was a strange mix¬ture of objects. There were more of such gems
as lay in the fountain basin or used to adorn the rags the Hassitti wore. Also
there were rods with bulbous encrustations on their sides, and rolls of what
she thought might be the cured skin such as was used for the inscribing of
formal documents among her own people. Again she was given no time for
touch¬ing or lengthy examination.
Several rooms were so crammed with things that one could only look in from
the doorway. The lamp¬light did not stretch far enough to let her see what
objects this clutter might conceal save that many pieces were big and
bulky.
Kadiya began to believe that either those who had once dwelt here, or perhaps
the Hassitti in a desire to preserve all that was left, had emptied other
buildings to transport their contents here. It would take her days to make
sense of it all, if that could ever be done. Still curiosity bred excitement
and she felt that stir of blood which made feverish the hunter of treasure.
Here was such a find as the Ruwendians had never known existed.
They came at last through the maze of rooms and hallways into a courtyard.
Here was another foun¬tain in play and the fresh air of the outer world.
For the first time she could view clearly all those who had accompanied her.
Most of them wore some kind of drapery, scarves heavy with bits of jewelry, or
a few long tattered robes. Their own scaled skins gave off an irradiance
similar to some of the jewels they wore, glinting green, blue, red, orange in
the daylight. They were all of a size, standing just to the height of her
shoulder. There were no smaller ones suggesting offspring among them.
Now those who had carried lamps blew them out. They broke apart from the
tight escort group, some pressing forward to bend heads and protrude their
long tongues to suck up the fountain water. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]