This happened to her quite often. Jynna gathered that the a'laq was dying, though few in the village ever said as much or even spoke of her being sick. In fact, the only person whom Jynna had heard say anything about it was U'Selle herself, who often joked about how odd it was that she was still alive. Jynna thought that U'Selle had to be very brave to laugh about her own impending death. It was one of the reasons Jynna liked the a'laq so much.
"I understand you're going fishing," U'Selle said when she could speak again. Her cheeks were red and she seemed to struggle merely to draw breath.
"Yes, A'Laq."
"Jynna's under the mistaken impression that she can catch more fish than I can," S'Doryn said, winking at Jynna. "I intend to disabuse her of the notion."
"He sounds a bit too confident to me, Jynna. I think he's in for a surprise."
Jynna smiled. "I think so, too, A'Laq."
"Before you go, though, my dear, I need a word with S'Doryn in private. I hope you don't mind."
The a'laq said this with a smile, but Jynna could tell that she took seriously whatever matters she'd come to discuss. Suddenly Jynna felt cold. Had the plague come back? Was the Eandi army headed toward Lowna?
"The fishing poles are around back," S'Doryn said, forcing a smile as well. "Why don't you fetch them and the bucket and that net we used last time? I'll be out shortly."
Jynna nodded and crossed to the door. She could feel them watching her, and she knew they'd say nothing of consequence until they were certain she was out of earshot.
She tried to do just what S'Doryn had asked of her. She retrieved the poles from where she and S'Doryn had left them after their last visit to the lake. She found the bucket and net right beside them, and though she struggled a bit, she managed to bring all of it around to the front of the house in one trip.
The problem was that this left her with nothing to do. She checked the poles for tangles in the line. She made certain the net had no holes.
But her mind kept returning to the same question: What were S'Doryn and the a'laq talking about? Most likely, it was nothing that concerned her. S'Doryn was a member of the clan council, and he and U'Selle had been friends for a long time. The a'laq often came to him to discuss things that Jynna thought were terribly boring: disputes between traders in the marketplace, or between villagers who wished to work the same plot of land; provisions for the coming Snows; requests from young couples who wished to build a new house in one part of the village or another. Once they'd spent half the day talking about a fight between two men who claimed to have caught the same fish. Jynna had thought that one especially funny. She could hardly believe they were talking about adults.
Other times, though, they talked about Jynna and Vettala and the other children who had come to Lowna from Tivston. Or they spoke of the plague that had claimed Jynna's family, or of the coming war. These conversations fascinated Jynna. Often after U'Selle left, she would ask S'Doryn so many questions about what they had said that he would finally tell her to leave him alone, something he never did under any other circumstance.
After standing there for several moments, looking at the net, and the bucket, and the poles with their untangled lines, she sidled closer to the house. She knew it was wrong; she knew that S'Doryn would be angry with her if he found her trying to listen. But she couldn't help herself.
At first she couldn't hear much of anything. A small flock of finches chose that moment to alight on the branches of the spruce tree just beside the house, and for several moments their chattering drowned out everything else.
Then they moved on, and Jynna stepped closer to the house, even going so far as to press her ear against the wood. She heard S'Doryn's voice first."... peculiar that a man from the Forelands would be doing all this?"
"Yes, I do," U'Selle answered. She began to cough and for several moments said nothing more. "It seems he's living on the plain now," she went on at last, her voice sounding strained. "So its not surprising that he should be concerned about the plague. But I gather that he and E'Menua are at odds. I'm not sure what that means."
"And these Mettai he mentioned; do you know where they came from?"
"I don't know the name of their village, if that's what you mean. But he said they came from the same village as the witch."
Jynna could scarcely believe what she was hearing. They had to be talking about that woman! Licaldi! The one who killed her family; the one who had haunted her sleep this past night. What other Mettai witch could they have been referring to?
"This could all have been a lie," S'Doryn said. "He might have intended to kill you rather than help you."
"Why would a Weaver from the Forelands-" She broke off, taken by another coughing fit. "Why would he want to kill me?" she continued eventually. "I'm practically dead already. And as Fal'Borna septs and villages go, Lowna isn't important to anyone other than us."
"So you believe him," S'Doryn said.
"Yes," U'Selle told him, "I suppose I do. I came to you to gauge your reaction. If you don't want me to pass this spell on to you, then I won't, nor will I take it to any of the others. But if you believe we should trust this man, then I want to spread the spell as quickly as possible. The plague is still out there. Just because it's spread westward doesn't mean it can't come back this way."
For several moments neither of them spoke, until finally S'Doryn broke the silence.
"You've put me in a difficult position, A'Laq."
"Yes, I have. Would you have preferred that I go to one of the others?" "You know I wouldn't. Since Jynna first came here," he went on, dropping his voice lower, so that Jynna had to press her ear more tightly to the wood, "I've tried to tell her that she shouldn't hate all Mettai for what befell her family. But the truth is, I've never trusted the Mettai. I've tried to avoid having dealings with them in the marketplace. And now you want me to accept this spell of theirs. I don't know if I can do it."
"I understand. But this can save lives, S'Doryn. This can protect all of us from the plague."
"If it's true."
"Yes. For whatever it's worth," the a'laq said, after another brief silence, "I feel well today. Or at least as well as I ever do. The spell hasn't affected me at all."
"Maybe it doesn't work, then. Maybe the Mettai and this Forelander are hoping to make us overconfident. If we no longer fear the plague, we might grow complacent, careless. They could kill us that way."
U'Selle offered no reply, and finally S'Doryn said, "You don't believe that, either."
"No," the a'laq said. "I don't."
"Very well, then. What is it you'd have to do?"
"I just need to touch your magic with my own."
"Jynna!"
Jynna jumped so violently that she scraped her ear on the side of the house. N'Tevva was striding toward her, with Vettala following at a run.
"What are you doing?" N'Tevva demanded, though she already seemed to know, judging from the angry expression on her face.
Jynna stared back at her, wide-eyed with fright. Back in Tivston, before the plague came, her own mother and father had grown angry with her at times, just as they did with her older brothers. She knew that all parents yelled at their children.
But this was the first time either N'Tevva or S'Doryn had been so angry with her. And yet, her thoughts were focused elsewhere.
I just need to touch your magic with my own.
"Jynna, answer me!" N'Tevva said, stopping a short distance from where the girl stood. "What were you doing?"
Vettala had stopped just behind N'Tevva and was gaping at Jynna, looking even more frightened than Jynna felt.
Jynna bolted past N'Tevva, ran up the small steps at the front of the house, and pushed open the door.
"Jynna!" S'Doryn said, obviously startled by her entrance. "Did I just hear N'Tevva?"
"You can't do it!" Jynna said. "You can't let her touch you with that spell!" S'Doryn's expression hardened. "You were listening?"