He stood there, smiling. He carried a plate laden with all my favourite food: tiny pies containing berries, smoked hezzin meat, dried fruit from places far beyond our mountains, and fresh vegetables sliced fine and soaked in vinegar. “I noticed that you did not eat,” he said. “May I come in?”

“Of course, lord.”

He came in, looked around, and set down the plate on a low table by the fire. His eyes, dark and wise, pierced me to the heart. I swallowed, and looked away. He knew about the young man with the green eyes and beautiful mouth. And why did I feel guilty, I who had done no wrong except drink from a Chosen cup?

“I have something to tell you,” he said quietly, crouching down by the fire, and picking up a firestone from the basket on the hearth. He held the black stone out to me, and smiled. “From Siranjaro,” he said. “Like your talisman.” He placed the fuel on the hearth beside my woman-stone, and warmed his hands by the fire.

“From home?” I asked, surprised, kneeling beside him. “Is Siranjaro close?”

“Close enough to send excess firestone to this town when it ran low. It is over the ranges east of here, Elsha. Not far, as your Kallai flies. Without wings, a six-day walk.”

“Lord, may I go there? Please? My parents, my brothers, all my friends, are in Siranjaro. They have no idea where I am, or what’s happened to me. I could go there with a guide, stay a few days, and come back.”

“Now is not the time,” he said gently. “There is somewhere else I want to go before the Fire Festival. After that, you will renew ties with Siranjaro. I promise.”

I looked at the black stone in my hands, and almost cried Maybe hands I knew had mined this stone, hands I loved. I looked at the fire. “Siranjaro flames,” I said. “Out of my home, my mine, my earth.”

He gave me a strange, tender look, and a smile lingered about his mouth and in the corners of his eyes. “There is a brighter fire than this come out of Siranjaro,” he said.

For a while we sat there, side by side, the silence easy and warm between us. Slowly he stood up. He seemed suddenly very tired.

“Don’t forget your true road, Elsha,” he said, and left.

12 Other Fires and Dreams

12

Other Fires and Dreams