the more serious problem. The templar himself is insignificant Surely he didn’t learn anything in the Don’s archive that is more important than what the Lion’s minions are doing with our zarneeka. Let me teach Pavek in my grove for a few days, at least until you’ve found what you’re searching for. I’ve led the children through their catechism. I enjoy it, and you’d be free to do what only you can do.”
Telhami removed her hand from the pole. She stood straighter, and her eyes, when she turned around, were clear and bright. “Pavek is not a child, Kashi. Pavek is a man, a young man with a mind and strong thoughts of his own.”
“Grandmother, I’m not blind. I know exactly what Pavek is. I kenned him when he first told us his tale. His thoughts were strong, but there weren’t very many of them. His spirit isn’t dark, it’s empty. Scarred and empty. I could almost pity him, Grandmother, but no more than that.”
“Almost?”
She lowered her eyes. In Urik, she’d barely pierced the surface of Pavek’s mind when she kenned him for his basic character. Still, what she had encountered had both surprised and saddened her.
“You taught me that children are all innocent and full of potential, and that men and women are uniquely good or evil according to the sum of their deeds. But Pavek’s not like that. He’s not anything. His memory is filled with terrible images, Grandmother. Evil images. But he’s empty. He risked his life to tell us about Laq; he risked it again to save Ruari’s. And yet he’s empty. It’s as if Pavek has the shape of a man, but the spirit of—of something broken. Something that never grew. The spirit of I don’t know what.”
“Of a templar,” Telhami said gently.
Images of habit and prejudice swarmed her mind. Templars were brutal and malicious predators, savoring the agony they brought to less fortunate, less privileged folk. Ruari’s father had been a templar—a rapist and murderer whose victims, Ghazala and Ruari, had survived. When she’d kenned Pavek, she’d seen a man who was more preyed upon than predator, more numb than brutal, and scarcely more fortunate or privileged than a beast of burden. “Not a templar.”
Telhami’s eyebrow arched. “Exactly a templar. Did you think they were all like Ruari’s father?” She made a fire in a tiny hearth and filled a small pot with water.
“Yes. Yes, I suppose I did. I suppose I still do. Pavek was different, even that first time, when he wore a yellow robe. Did I tell you he fought with another templar over a human infant’s life? I keep thinking he should be a good man, but he’s not. He’s just plain broken.”
“I suspect all templars are broken. One way or another. They couldn’t survive if they weren’t. Some survive better than others, of course. I doubt Ruari’s father was the worst to wear the yellow. But broken is as true a description as any. The pieces grind together when he invokes the guardian. Are you sure you want to take a broken man to your grove?”
“He can’t harm me,” she said, with less confidence than she’d intended. “If he forgets or tries, he’ll be very sorry.”
“And what about you? How sorry will you be, Kashi? How disappointed or betrayed?”
“Betrayed? Betrayed by what? I said I know he’s not a good man. He’s not even an attractive man. I know I brought him here, Grandmother, but I don’t particularly like him, and I certainly haven’t lost my head or my heart to him.”
“You’re certain?”
“Of course I’m certain. Wind and fire, Grandmother, you’re as bad as Ruari. Do you think I’d be blinded by the first stray man that stumbled across my path—and a templar at that?”
* * *
Telhami threw tea into the pot. “No,” she conceded, swirling the leaves, studying their patterns on the water.
Akashia hadn’t been blinded by Pavek, but she was blind to her own beauty and to beauty’s effect on the men around her. Not that Pavek seemed to be affected by beauty… or anything else. Beyond his determination to master spellcraft, Pavek seemed to have no other interests. His very doggedness blocked his progress; Quraite’s guardian responded to livelier spirits’. Perhaps Akashia’s notion was not so bad, after all. Kashi was good with beginners…
Then the image of a copper-haired youth stormed through her mind, all flashing eyes and scowls.
“There’d be trouble with Ruari,” she admitted aloud.
“If there was going to be trouble with Ruari, it would