Wurts, Janny That Way Lies Camelot

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.The way of the wolf-pack urged her to leave.Survivors did not burden their resources; tobe encumbered by the helpless was to invite a pointless death.Yet the dream of the singerhad poisoned the familiar, pushed Skyfire's awareness beyond the limits of experience.Though taxed by the rigors of her night4ong run, and shaped by the same wild laws whichhad arbitrated her dispute with the wolf, the chieftess hesitated.Skyfire found herselfincapable of leaving the Dreamsinger to die.Surely Recognition might cause such madness.Partially reassured, the chieftess caughtthe stranger beneath the shoulders.The gray wolf whined, but did not interfere as she halflifted, half dragged him over the heavy drifts.The Dreamsinger was slight, perhaps thesame build as Sapling.Yet the Huntress was tired, and the snow hampered her steps.Leaving her arrows and broken bow, she labored over the ice with her burden until her feetstumbled beneath her.Her strength was long-since spent.Somehow she continued.Intime the magic of despair fell behind.The stars overhead lay pale in the glow of dawn, andgreen ferns and moss cushioned her steps.Skyfire lowered the Dreamsinger in a clearing and flung herself down by his side.Whether or not there were humans, she could go no farther.She curled on the groundbeside the strange elf and slept.After pacing with uneasiness the gray wolf curled on theopposite side of elf-friend and buried its muzzle beneath its brush.Huntress Skyfire awakened to song.Sunlight dappled her shoulders and eased the ache ofher cut wrist; yet even summer's warmth seemed thin beside the joy in Dreamsinger'smelody.The chieftess stirred, and found eyes of unearthly silver intently watching her.Theblack-haired elf seemed poised, as if for flight; only the ties of Recognition prevented.Speech itself seemed an intrusion, a sour note against a magnificence of song that noliving being might dare to spoil.':' ':'Come,* ':' Skyfire sent.She raised her arms towardhim.The outsider elf hesitated.Outcast, the song defined him, and a thread of sadnessslowed the cadence.I85aaTTnnssFFffooDDrrPPmmYYeeYYrrBB22.BBAAClick here to buyClick here to buywwmmwwoowwcc.AAYYBBYYBBr r'No.' Skyfire smiled, for the moment as sure as bedrock.'Dreamsinger.' Though the waysof the pack and the vision of dream might war inside her, the call of Recognition obscuredthem.For a moment the fey elf clid not move.All his years of wandering cast a current ofdoubt between them.Skyfire smiled, uncaring; and the pull of longing overwhelmed.TheDreamsinger answered the name he had been given and gathered Skyfire into his embrace.His song swelled around her.For an instant she knew the wild joy of Timmain runningwith her wolf-mate; then the pound of blood in her veins overturned the dream.The notesof the spell shifted afresh, transformed the clearing to a place of new spring grass that wassoftly perfect for mating.Skyfire had known the exertion and thrill of the hunt.She hadkilled for food and for survival, and lived the fierce way of the wolf-pack.She had howledin moonlight, and chipped winter ice for drinking, and gnawed upon bones when herstomach was hollow with hunger.The life of the pack contained all there was to know ofdeath and survival.But in Dreamsinger's arms the Wolfrider chieftess learned gentleness,and that one thing overturned all else.Dreamsinger traced her many scars with light fingers.His song spoke now of healing,and places where elves need not kill.Skyfire heard, ancl ached with the terror of theunknown.This dream which lacked the howl and the hunt tore away the familiar, left heradrift without bearings.The Dreamsinger sang of the past, lost forever, or of a lifeimpossibly far into the future.Skyfire caught her fey mate close, for his body was warmand listening caused pain.Yet little comfort came to her.He was the song, and hisstrangeness brought conflict beyond bearing.The pull of Recognition would not let herleave, not let her run and join Woodbiter, and find refuge in the pack.She could not go; intime she no longer wanted to.The Dreamsinger's strange magic touched her spirit andwove irrevocable change.After the mating he caught up her fiery hair and gloried in the colour, which promisedboth sunset and dawn.As he braided the shining length of it, Skyfire looked up past hishead and watched a tree burst spontaneously into blossom.The scent made her languidand content, until the Dreamsinger's spell changed key, as, inevitably, it must.Hebelonged to no pack.As Outcast, he must leave her, or risk the leadership she had wonfrom Two-Spear atI86aaTTnnssFFffooDDrrPPmmYYeeYYrrBB22.BBAAClick here to buyClick here to buywwmmwwoowwcc.AAYYBBYYBBr rsuch cost.Dreamsinger's music encompassed the brightness and sorrow of that.Releasedfrom the drive of Recognition, and caught in contention between ways, Skyfire pulled freeof his arms, unable to speak.The aftermath of their joining was bittersweet.The Dreamsinger pulled on his raggedclothing with his back turned.Before the afternoon was spent, his grey wolf arose andslipped away with him into the forest.Evening fell, and the moon rose.Skyfire sat amid drifts of falling petals.Woodbitercrouched at her feet, insistently proud of finding her; she had strayed very far from knownterritory.The old wolf's sides heaved as he panted, yet occasionally, in concern, he wouldturn his muzzle and lick at the cut on his chieftess's arm.Skyfire scratched absently at his ears.She was hungry but had no inclination to hunt.The woodland silence oppressed her, filled her with a strange, numb emptiness that theway of the wolf could never fulfill.She would bear a cub to the Dreamsinger; such was thefruit of Recognition.But his song and his dream might leave her with more than offspring,if she was bold enough to risk leading the tribe into change.For by the way of the wolf, Dreamsinger was Outcast.The magic of the high ones ran tomadness within him.Rightly the earlier generations had driven him out, for compassionand dreams of peace had no place in pack life.Yet Skyfire had shared his visions.She hadexperienced the hopes of Timmain, and through them she understood that her ancestresshad mated for more than the toughness and savagery of the wolf.The ancestress hadwished to pass on hardiness and forest cunning, yet retain the bright dreams of the firstones.All of this had been lost over time.Skyfire's tribe lived only the way of the pack, andnot an elf among them questioned why.The chieftess rose restlessly to her feet.She drew on her boots, and blossoms fell likesnow from her shoulders.She considered the cub she would bear from this mating.Itmight inherit its father's fey madness.By pack law, it also might suffer and be driven awayinto solitude.Skyfire flicked her braid back in frustration.By then she herself might notremember the song and the dream, for the wolfsong eroded the memory.This minute she187aaTTnnssFFffooDDrrPPmmYYeeYYrrBB22.BBAAClick here to buyClick here to buywwmmwwoowwcc.AAYYBBYYBBr rperceived very clearly.If the tribe continued as it had, they would have nothing to offertheir cubs bht hardship and hunger and the changeable luck of the hunt.Somethingprecious stood to be lost, perhaps without chance of recovery.Dreamsinger himself held the answer.He wandered the forest ir~ exile, hunting what hecould forage, and driven relentlessly by gifts that had potential to l~ill him [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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