drilling the Quraiters in the martial skills Kashi wanted them to have; otherwise Pavek came to the village at supper, then returned to the grove to sleep with starlight falling on his face.
It was easier for them both.
Easier. Better. Wiser. Or so Pavek told himself whenever he thought about it, which was as seldom as possible. But the truth was that he’d give up Telhami’s grove in a heartbeat if Kashi would invite him to hers.
A wind-gust swirled out of the grove. It slapped Pavek smartly across the cheek—Telhami was annoyed with his dawdling and guessed, he hoped, at the reasons. He dusted off the pollen and retrieved his hoe. A stone-pocked path led from the verge to the heart of the grove—Telhami’s magic from his first days here when he’d spent most of his time getting lost. This one path would take him anywhere in the grove, anywhere that Telhami wanted him to go. He veered off it at his own risk, even now. Telhami’s grove abounded with bogs and sumps as dank as any Urik midden hole. Such places were home to nameless creatures that regarded the grove’s current, under-talented druid as Just Another Meal.
There was a black-rock chasm somewhere near the grove’s heart—he’d come upon it from both sides without ever finding a way across. And a rainbow-shrouded waterfall that he’d like to visit again, except that it had taken him three days to find the path out.
Stick to the path, Akashia had snarled when he’d finally returned to Quraite, tired and hungry after that misadventure. Do what she tells you. Don’t make trouble for me.
He’d told her about the misty colors and the exhilaration he’d felt when he stood on a rock with the breathtakingly cold water plummeting around him. Foolishly and without asking, he’d taken her hand, wanting to show her the way while it was still fresh in his memory.
Do what you want in Telhami’s grove, she’d said, as hateful and bitter as any Urik templar. Wander where you will. Sit under your waterfall and never come back, if you think there’s nothing more important to be done. But don’t drag me after you. I don’t care.
Pavek couldn’t remember the waterfall without also remembering Kashi’s face contorted with scorn. He’d tried to find his way back, to restore himself in the pure beauty of the place, but he couldn’t remember the way. She’d seared the landmarks from his mind.
It wasn’t right. His old adversaries in the templarate could have a man’s eyes gouged out if he looked at them wrong, but, except for the deadheart interrogators, they left his memories alone.
Another gust of wind struck Pavek’s cheek.
“Work, that’s what you need, Just-Plain Pavek. Escrissar’s havoc isn’t all mended yet, not by a long shot. There’s a stream not too far from here. He knocked down the trees along its banks; now it’s dammed and stagnant. Can’t count on anything natural to set it flowing again, not here in the Tablelands. The channel needs to be cleared and the banks need to be shored up.”
With one last thought for the waterfall, Pavek followed today’s path into the grove. He’d never been one for rebellion. Following orders had kept him alive in Urik; it would keep him alive in Quraite as well.
A little walking on Telhami’s path and Pavek came to a place where a mote of Elabon Escrissar’s wrath had come to ground beside what been a stand of sweet-nut trees beside a brook. The trees were all down, black with mold, and crawling with maggots. Their trunks had dammed the brook, turning it into a choked, scummy pond. An insect haze hovered above the mottled green water and the stench of rotting meat weighed down the air.
Compared to the other places where Escrissar’s malice had struck the grove, this place was healthy and almost serene. There was no danger here, only the hard work of getting the water to flow again. Evidently, Telhami had been saving this particular mess for a day when she thought he needed the kind of distraction only exhaustion could bring. Pavek wondered how many such places she held in reserve, how many he’d need before he could think of Kashi without sinking into his own mire.
Telhami shimmered into sight atop one of the decaying trees. “Get the water flowing. Work with the land rather than against it.”
Time was that Pavek wouldn’t have known what to look for and she would have fed him clues. Now she expected him to