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hoarse as he labored be-hind her. Sling in one hand, stones in the other, she
skidded into the processional aisle, flew along it and out into the street,
skidded about again and ran round the outside of the wall toward the
grove behind the shrine.
Halfway there, she stopped, whirled, stood shaking and unsteady, eyes burning
and blurred, gulping in great bites of dusty air. Still shaking a little, she
thumbed a stone into the pocket of the sling and started whirling it about her
head, her eyes on the corner.
The acolyte came plunging around the corner, stumbled to a stop, then started
for her, triumph stretching his mouth and glittering in his eyes. His
exertions had knocked the hood back from his head. She saw with a clarity that
startled her the polished gleam of his shaved pate, his ears standing out like
handles on a jug.
The sling whirred over her head. He was a half-dozen steps from her
when she loosed the stone. His last step aborted, a look of surprise
in his one remaining eye, one hand starting to lift toward his
face, he crumpled to the pavement and lay in a heap, the wind playing with
the folds of his robe.
Tuli waited. He didn't move. She lifted a hand grown leaden and pushed the
sling into her jacket pocket. The wind sang eerily along the wall, tugging at
the flattened folds of his robe, pressing the cloth against his bony length.
She longed to run to her father and feel safe in his arms. Her stomach
churned. She rubbed her sleeve across her eyes, realizing with some surprise
that she was crying. She looked up. Nijilic The Dom was riding heavily across
a crack in the yellow clouds, his light touching a Maiden face visible
above the top of the wall, lovely, serene, compassionate, seeming to smile at
her. She walked past the fallen boy (he couldn't be more than three or four
years older than her), walked past the black heap, her eyes fixed on the
gentle face, the forgiveness she read into it helping her to forgive herself.
She flattened her hand on the wall, walked along it, turned the corner, her
hand slipping over the rough stones, the ten-sion flowing out of her back and
shoulders as soon as the body was out of sight. She went through the gate, her
feet scuffing on the bricks.
Joras was sitting up, breathing hard and poking at his head,
cursing softly but with great feeling. Vonnyr was prop-ping him up,
his mobile face squeezed into a scowl of rage and concern. The
other taroms, Tesc with them, clustered around him, throwing muttered
questions at him that he'd given up trying to answer.
Teras was the first to see Tuli. He started toward her, call-ing her name.
Tuli tried to smile at him, couldn't, brushed past him and threw herself at
her father, shaking all over as reaction hit her a second time.
"Tuli?" He smoothed his broad hand over her hair, patted her shoulder. "What's
wrong?"
"The acolyte. He was listening. He came after me, chased me. I killed him. Out
there." Her face pressed against her fa-ther's well-covered ribs, she waved
a hand awkwardly at the street. Her words muffled and indistinct,
she said, "Around the corner."
With a muttered exclamation Burin shifted his heavy body into a light-footed
run and disappeared out the gate. He was back a minute later. "Dead all right.
Little one here, she whanged him good with her sling. Wonder how much he
heard?"
"Enough to get us all proscribed." Kimor dropped his hand on Teras's shoulder,
smiled at Tuli. "Terrible Twins just saved our necks."
Vonnyr helped Joras onto bis feet. "You all right to ride?"
Joras smiled at his father, a small twitch of his lips, his face sweaty and
pale. "I can stick in a saddle."
"With the sneak dead, we got time and room to move." Vonnyr looked anxiously
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at Joras. "Take it easy. We can haul the body off with us, bury it somewhere."
"No," Tesc said sharply. Tuli stared up at her father, startled to see him so
grim. He shifted her around until she was standing beside him, his arm curled
protectively around her shoulders. "No," he repeated. "You want the Agli to
call him from the grave to tell the tale of what he heard?"
Vrom gaped. "Huh?" Vonnyr looked uneasily around, his eyes drawn to the silent
street visible through the gate's ele-gant arch. The others shifted with the
same lack of ease. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]