from the fisherman. “What became of her mother?” he had asked. “I killed her,” had been the answer, and then he had told it all.
Other memories troubled Ilbran, as well. He clung to Kallan’s arm as a drowning man would clutch at the side of a boat. “I am blind. What more can I give you?”
“No need of anything.”
His fingers tightened convulsively. “Do not send your dead to the rocks with gold. They carry it off to their dens.”
“I understand; I understand,” Kallan said, though he did not understand.
Then the fisherman’s eyes opened, his face stricken with horror as he recognized the man bending over him. “I swear, we told you all we know,” he said in desperate earnestness. “She did not say where she would go!”
Kallan pulled free and stepped back out of the other man’s sight. The medicine had been given, all but the pasty dregs. He threw the wooden bowl viciously, to smash against the safehold wall and fall crack-grained to the floor. A shocking sound—but Ilbran lay unconscious again. Bright blood sprang through the bandages; his struggling had reopened the wounds on his legs.
So it was time to change the bandages, and try to draw them tight, and stop the bleeding. Afterwards, Kallan washed the old bandages out, and hung them on the thornfruit bushes to dry. Work is good if a man must not think.
Syresh and Andiene sat on the steps, speaking in low voices. Lenane had stayed in the safehold, telling stories to try to amuse Kare, who sat by her father’s side as though she were deaf and mute.
When Kallan stood in the doorway, he heard the minstrel saying, “And so, the mouse ran after the spider, and the grasskit ran after the mouse, and the courser ran after the grasskit, and the hunter ran after the courser, and the kingsman ran after the hunter.
“And all of a sudden, the spider turned and ran back toward the mouse … ” Kare’s voice joined in timidly. “And the spider and mouse both ran back toward the courser … ” Lenane smiled.
“And the spider and the mouse and the grasskit and the courser and the hunter all turned and ran back to where the kingsman stood, wondering what had happened.”
“Why did they run?” Kare asked.
“Why did they run? Because there was a rardissian standing in the path. With flaming red eyes, and teeth as sharp as daggers, and long, long, long black hair. And he said, ‘Ha! Ha! Ha! Spiders for breakfast! Mice for breakfast! … ’”
Lenane paused invitingly, and Kare joined in again.
Andiene went over to Ilbran, and lay down beside him, holding him in her arms, speaking softly to him. He seemed to lie more quietly.
Kare and Lenane chanted together: “‘Hunters for breakfast! Kingsmen for breakfast!’ said the rardissian, and he smacked his lips.” Lenane made loud slurping noises, and Kare giggled.
“There’s one who would feed kingsmen to the rardissian for breakfast and supper too,” Kallan said to Syresh.
“She has her reasons for mistrusting us,” the other man said earnestly.
“I’m sure she does.”
Syresh looked puzzled at the note of mockery, but had no time to answer. “Come here,” Andiene said.
Kallan stepped to her side and stared in disbelief. Ilbran’s tunic was wringing wet; his skin was cool and damp. When Kallan offered him water, he opened his mouth at the touch of the cup on his lip and gulped the water down greedily.
“That child is wiser than you or I,” Andiene said.
Kallan looked at her. So you did nothing? He wanted to ask that, but he said nothing. He covered Ilbran with his cloak and laughed long and happily.
***
They stayed at the safehold one more day, though the sun grew brighter, and the leaves more golden. Ilbran woke, and talked to them, little sentences with long silences between them, as though he had fallen asleep.
“I dreamed of dragons,” he said once. “Wide wings … and gray … and a look in his eyes … as though the world would die in winter.”
Andiene came and knelt beside him. His face was filled with wonder and recognition. “So you lived … lived and grew strong.” He closed his eyes for a long time. She waited by his side. “I almost betrayed you,” he said, as though it were some confession that needed to be given.
“Never mind, never mind,” Andiene said.
“Have you ever seen her weep?” Kallan asked Syresh, softly.
“No, and never will. I think this is as close as she will ever come to that.”
The