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Seth pointed southward. That s our road.
Damon scarcely said another word all morning.
They passed through Genton that day, where the nearest garrison to
Wilton sat with its gates ajar but watched by armed Paladin
irregulars. The next day, and most of the day after that, they were in
the Barrens, where rock frequently broke through thin soil and the
plants were all sturdy miniatures: tiny trees, tinier shrubs, and a
scattering of early flowers that looked like blue-dyed dust. The rock
fields were of solid black stone that appeared to ripple like water.
Some people found the Barrens disquieting, but Seth liked the spare
landscape and the mournful wind. Damon was restless beneath the
open sky and kept looking anxiously towards the horizon as though
to spy an enemy before he himself was spotted. What s that? he
asked sharply, pointing to the west.
Oh, those are the Three Sisters. They re hills, though they are oddly
shaped. The man we re trying to find was camped over near their
base, but he s gone now.
This is a strange place, he said, in his simple, blunt way.
Yes but listen to the wind singing on the stones. You won t hear
that anywhere else.
She pointed west. We re two days from the coast, where the rocks
flow right into the sea, like a stone river. I have walked that way to
the coast almost every year. In the spring, you can see huge fish
swimming northward, and in the autumn you can see them
swimming southward. Once, one of those fish washed on shore. It
was seven times my length! Now its bones are still there. I have
spread my rain cape over the ribs and camped inside the skeleton.
The land dropped gradually towards Basdown; the gray haze became
a leafless forest that stretched from east to west as far as could be
seen, frequently interrupted by long stretches of rich grassland,
where the cows of Basdown grazed. Seth could have named each of
these pastures or hay fields but did not subject Damon to that recital.
Soon, their vista was delimited by trees. The road began to meander
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this way and that, though generally it went southeast. The
Threeflowers were blooming: three-leaved plants with three-petaled
white blossoms. Damon asked her to name the plants for him, and
Seth explained, They spread by roots, but it s impossible to dig one
up and move it. They shrivel up and die; they won t accept any
unfamiliar dirt.
As they drew near a farmstead a couple of cow dogs appeared to keep
an eye on them, and then a raven flew down from his hidden perch in
a tall tree, to land nearly at Seth s feet.
You must be the G deon s raven, Seth said to the bird. You ve been
watching the road for us, I guess.
The raven eyed her steadily, not at all like a wild bird. Now you just
have to follow us, and when I find the assassin I ll tell you. I ll put
food out for you, also.
The raven lifted off and disappeared into the overhead branches as
abruptly as it had appeared.
It was late afternoon, and Seth s bones ached from last night s rocky
bed in the Barrens. Her feet also hurt, and she was actually looking
forward to a bowl of the salt-beef stew she was usually so tired of by
late spring. But if she and Damon walked until dark, they could
reach High Meadow Farm tomorrow. She gave the distant cow dogs a
wave and continued down the highway.
Damon, who never questioned or complained, walked steadily beside
her, and she named more flowers for him. He asked, How does Karis-
the-G deon make the ravens?
I haven t thought to ask her.
But since you are like her you have the same center
Element, she corrected him.
Element, yes. It is the same, so you think the same.
Somewhat, said Seth, remembering Norina s assessment of her
elemental makeup.
Damon considered for a few paces. How would you make a raven?
The ravens would make one for me. I guess I d take and raise the
hatching maybe that s what Karis did. But some physical part of
her must be incorporated into the bird somehow. I know that one
G deon was able to halt a famine by scattering his blood in the fields,
so maybe it s Karis s blood that the ravens have. And that, also, Seth
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realized, explained how Clement had been kept alive until Karis
could reach her.
Once I thought I understood everything, said Damon. He made a
soldier s gesture of helplessness. Now nothing. Nothing at all.
They stayed the night at Hundred Farm. ( A hundred what? asked
Damon, and couldn t believe that no one remembered anymore.)
There the farmers treated them with minimal courtesy. Even when
Seth directly chided them, it made no difference. Damon made
several light remarks that earned only blank stares. Seth reported
the doings in Watfield, and not even when she stressed the
importance of Karis s declaration making the Sainnites into Shaftali
did they become friendly. We heard that from another traveler, said
one without enthusiasm. Another made a caustic remark that it was
not a surprising declaration from a half-Sainnite.
Seth was so consternated that she could not trust herself to make a
reasonable reply. But Damon said, You have many travelers here?
We see only ourselves.
No one responded to him, as though they had agreed to pretend he
did not even exist. Then, one of the older children spoke, for like Seth
he seemed to find that silence inexplicable and unbearable. So far
there s been just one. He taught me how to carve.
Will you show me? said Damon.
For a man who had never had contact with children, he was
managing well. Despite the ill-disguised objections of the boy s
parents, Damon and he soon went into a nearby parlor. The boy
launched an enthusiastic explanation of how he had carved a stick
into a bird.
Seth said to the remaining people, Do you know that Basdowners
decency is renowned all over Shaftal?
The Hundred Farm people applied themselves to their stew as
though they had not eaten for weeks.
When I visited you last, on my way to Watfield, you all said you
wanted peace. Therefore I m on the Peace Committee, and I ve
brought Damon to Basdown to see whether a Sainnite soldier can be
comfortable on a Shaftali farm. He s here because of you.
One of the people at the table had been Seth s brother. They had
grown up together at High Meadow, and it was possible they might
share a parent, though no one paid attention to such things here. He
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muttered at his soup plate, Well, we were wrong. And so are you.
How do you know? Seth looked around the table. How am I to
speak for Basdown, if Basdown won t speak to me?
A few of the farmers brought themselves to talk. They said things
Seth had heard many times already, unarguable facts and arguable
judgments. Seth s experience as a councilor, tiresome though it could
be, proved itself useful. She restrained her impulse to disagree, and
merely asked questions and listened. She began to hear a name,
Jareth, that didn t belong to anyone in Basdown.
She and Damon slept in the cow barn that night. She didn t want to
leave Damon alone, and the farmers didn t want him in their guest
room. They made their beds in a hayrick where it still smelled like
last summer. I guess the assassin has another kind of poison, Seth
said, as they lay in the soft darkness. The cows were left in the field
at night, now it was spring, watched over by cow dogs. Seth and
Damon were the barn s only occupants.
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