Laurana saw nothing of this. She was aware only that he moved slightly. She almost got up and left, but she felt drawn to him now, and he still had not answered her question, “I-I meant-can you see the future? Tanis told me your mother was-what do they call it-prescient? I know that Tanis comes to you for advice. . . .”
Raistlin regarded Laurana thoughtfully. “The half-elf comes to me for advice, not because I can see the future. I can’t. I am no seer. He comes because I am able to think, which is something most of these other fools seem incapable of doing:”
“But-what you said. Some of us may not see each other again.” Laurana looked up at him earnestly. “You must have foreseen something! What-I must know! Was it… Tanis?”
Raistlin pondered. When he spoke, it was more to himself thorn to Laurana. “I don’t know,” he whispered. “I don’t even know why I said that. It’s just that-for an instant-I knew-” He seemed to struggle to remember, then suddenly shrugged.
“Knew what?” Laurana persisted.
“Nothing. My overwrought imagination as the knight would say if he were here. So Tanis told you about my mother;” he said, changing the subject abruptly.
Laurana, disappointed but hoping to find out more if she kept talking to him, nodded her head. “He said she had the gift of foresight. She could look into the future and see images of what would come to pass.”
“That is true,” Raistlin whispered, then smiled sardonically. “Much good it did her. The first man she married was a handsome warrior fram the northland. Their passion died within months, and after that they made life miserable for each other. My mother was fragile of health and given to slipping into strange trances from which she might not wake for hours. They were poor, living off what her husband could earn with his sword. Though he was clearly of noble blood, he never spoke of his family. I do not believe he even told her his real name.”
Raistlin’s eyes narrowed, “He told Kitiara, though. I’m sure of it. That is why she traveled north, to find his family.”
“Kitiara… ” Laurana said in a strained voice. She touched the name as one touches an aching tooth, eager to understand more of this human woman Tanis loved. “Then, that man-the noble warrior-was Kitiara’s father?” she said in a husky voice.
Raistlin regarded her with a penetrating gaze. “Yes,” he whispered. “She is my elder half-sister. Older than Caramon and I by about eight years. She is very much like her father, I believe. As beautiful as he was handsome. Resolute and impetuous, warlike, strong and fearless. Her father taught her the only thing he knew-the art of warfare. He began going on longer and longer trips, and one day vanished completely. My mother convinced the Highseekers to declare him legally dead. She then remarried the man who became our father. He was a simple man, a woodcutter by trade. Once again, her farsight did not serve her.”
‘”Why” Laurana asked gently, caught up in the story, amazed that the usually taciturn sage was so voluble, not knowing that he was drawing more out of her simply by watching her expressive face than he was giving in return.
“The birth of my brother and I for one thing,” Raistlin said. Then, overcome by a fit of coughing, he stopped talking and motioned to his brother, “Caramon! It is time for my drink.” he said in the hissing, whisper that pierced through the loudest talk. “Or have you forgotten me in the pleasure of other company?”
Caramon fell silent in mid-laugh “No, Raist,” he said guiltily, hurriedly rising from his seat to hang a kettle of water over the fire. Tika, subdued, lowered her head, unwilling to meet the mage’s gaze.
After staring at her a moment Raistlin turned back to Laurana, who had watched all this with a cold feeling in the pit of her stomach. He began to speak again as if there had been no interruption. “My mother never really recovered from the childbirth. The midwife gave me up for dead, and I would have died, too, if it hadn’t been for Kitiara. Her first battle, she used to say, was against death with me as the prize. She raised us. My mother was incapable of taking care of children, and my father was forced to work day and night simply to keep us fed. He died in an accident when Caramon and I were in our teens. My mother went into one of her trances that day”-Raistlin’s voice dropped-“and never came out. She died of starvation.”
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127