She walked out to the middle of the silk-strewn floor. ‘Stilcho,’ she said; and
a man who had been near dead moved, tried to sit.
‘Don’t,’ Moria said, a strangled, small voice – not love of Stepsons, it was
sure; Mradhon felt the same, a knot of sickness in his throat.
Ischade held out her hands. The Stepson rose, swayed, walked to her. She took
his hands, drew him to sit, with her, on the floor; he knelt, carefully.
‘No,’ Haught said, quietly, a small, lost voice. ‘No. Don’t.’
But Ischade had no glance for him. She began to speak, whispering, as if she
shared secrets with the man. His lips began to move, mouthing words she spoke.
Mradhon seized Haught’s arm, for Haught stood closest, drew him back, and Haught
got back against the wall. Moria came close. Mor-am sought their corner, the
furthest that there was.
‘What’s she doing?’ Mradhon asked, tried to ask, but the room drank up sound and
nothing at all came out.
She dreamed, deeply dreamed. The man who touched her -Stilcho. He had been deep
within that territory of dreams, as deep as it was possible to go and still come
back. He wanted it now: his mind wanted to go fleeting away down those dark
corridors and bright – Sjekso, she chanted, over and over: that was the easiest
to call of all her many ghosts. Sjekso. She had his attention now. Sjekso. This
is Stilcho. Follow him. Come up to me.
The young rowdy was there, just verging the light. He attempted his old
nonchalance, but he was shivering in the cold of a remembered alleyway, in the
violence of her wrath.
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 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268