"No. Was she supposed to come to Amethyst's?"
"We were hoping," Lord Kaneth said with a sympathetic look at Shale. "We thought she might have gone there for help, and to warn you."
"I could have done with the warning. Soltar found me only after we left the arta's house. Sunlord forgive me, I left Amethyst with Taquar."
Even in the dim light, Shale glimpsed a haunted look in the rainlord's eyes. Taquar will kill her, he thought with certainty. And Lord Nealrith knows it. Yet he isn't going to do a thing.
Nealrith turned his attention to him. "Wash Drybone Settle?" he asked. "We went there, must be four years ago now. I don't remember you." He gripped Shale's shoulder. "Come, let's go and sit down by the fire where I can see you better, and you can tell us the whole story."
The guards brought them food and water as Shale recounted his history. When he skimped on the telling, trying to gloss over the details to avoid the pain of memory, it was Lord Ryka who teased the full tale out of him. Useless, he decided, to hide anything from her; she had a mind that could race ahead of his and a personality that would not rest until the truth was known. In the end, the only thing he didn't touch on was what he knew about the power of waterpainting.
He said, by way of ending, "I think Lord Taquar's the one who stole the storm that came down our wash. I believe he kidnapped Lyneth. And that it's even possible he killed the other young rainlords who rivalled him."
The rainlords exchanged startled glances. Lord Nealrith said, "He kidnapped Lyneth? What do you know of her? Dear sweet water, she's not still alive, is she?"
Shale shook his head. "I shouldn't think so." He told them about the clothes at the mother cistern and how he had guessed who had once worn them. He showed them Lyneth's bracelet.
Nealrith fingered it, his face ashen, and passed it to Kaneth. "I remember this. It was a present from Iani." He looked back at Shale. "You will have to tell him of what you have learned, when you meet him. Lyneth's father. And her mother, too, Lord Moiqa."
Kaneth gave the bracelet to Ryka to look at, and she handled it with an expression of profound grief on her face. "No end is too horrible for that man," she said at last, almost spitting out the words in her disgust. She handed the bracelet back to Shale. "None."
Kaneth looked startled at her vehemence but didn't comment. "It can't have been a coincidence that Taquar was at the dancer's house, can it?" he asked.
"That stinking steward of hers must have betrayed us," Shale said. "Amethyst thought he was Taquar's spy. I wish I knew what happened to Terelle."
Nealrith looked at Kaneth. "Sandblast it, how can we rainlords have been so blind to Taquar's perfidy? Is he withering insane, dealing with a scorpion like Davim and stirring up trouble from one end of the Quartern to the other?"
It was Ryka who replied. "Power mad. How we get rid of him is the problem. We are hardly prepared to declare war on another Scarpen city, especially not on one that has zigger-armed guards."
"The Council of Rainlords could vote him out of power," Nealrith said, "just as it once voted to back the Cloudmaster's decision to give him the rule of Scarcleft."
"Don't be ridiculous. He is long past listening to the council," Kaneth said with heavy scorn. "It will take force to dislodge him now."
"He's the Cloudmaster's heir," Nealrith reminded them in anguished tones. "And my father thinks he's the nearest thing we have to a solution to our problems." He turned his attention back to Shale. "You say Taquar trained you in the use of water-powers?"
"Yes."
"Can you shift water?"
"Yes."
"How far? From here to the rim up there?"
Shale glanced upwards. "Yes." Nealrith frowned sharply, and Shale knew he had heard the element of hesitation in his voice. He added, "Further. It's not shifting water that is my difficulty. It's separating it from impurities. I can't get fresh water from salty."
"Oh!" Nealrith thought that over before asking, "But Taquar thought you were a stormlord?"
"He was hoping I'd learn how to be, in time. I'm not so sure it's possible. I never seem to get any better."
In the flickering light of the fire, Nealrith's cheeks looked sunken and gaunt. "Damn it, if we'd taken you to my father four years ago… That man may have destroyed any chance we have."
"He has to be stopped," Kaneth said.
"I thought you would support him," Nealrith said.
"That's unjust, Rith. True, I want a firm hand in Breccia ruling over the Quartern, but no sane man would hanker after a power-hungry tyant who would ally himself with a murderous band of renegade Reduners."
Nealrith looked back at Shale. "Will you come to Breccia with us and learn the art of a stormlord? It will be hard work, and it will mean heavy responsibilities. In return, you will never want for anything, as long as you live. You will be honoured as a stormlord of the Quartern, or at the very least as a rainlord, and will have all the privileges that go with that rank. One day, you may even rule this land."
Shale stared at him. "You are asking me?"
"Yes, that's right."
"Uh-I mean, can I refuse?"
"Yes, you can refuse."
Annoyed, Lord Kaneth made an exasperated sound of protest, but Lord Nealrith held up his hand to quiet him.
Shale shuffled his feet, disturbed, and shot a glance at Kaneth before asking Nealrith, "What happens if I say no?"
"Nothing. I will still take you with us to Breccia. You can live there, under the protection of the city, if that is what you wish. We don't turn people away from our gates."
"I-no one has ever given me a choice before."
"I'm not sure it's much of a choice now, either," Lord Ryka said. "If you don't learn to stormshift and cloud-break, in all probability we will die, you included."
"You don't have to say yes yet," Nealrith said. "Right now, I think we should ride on through the night. Taquar will be searching outside the walls for us now that Shale has escaped." He waved Elmar over. "Break camp. We ride out at once, and we don't stop until the pedes are exhausted. Shale, best you ride behind Soltar, I think, even though we do have a spare pede now."
"And Terelle?" Shale cut in. "She ran, but one of Taquar's men went after her with orders to kill her. Kaneth promised to go back and look for her."
Kaneth nodded. "And I will, right now. I'd like to get Amethyst out of there, too, if I can."
Ryka frowned. "You're tired," she said.
"Going back could be dangerous," Nealrith added.
"I doubt Taquar wants me dead that badly. True, his men were trying to kill me earlier, but that was only because they didn't know who I was. Once Harkel had control of the situation, we sorted things out."
Nealrith took a moment to consider, then said, "All right. But your safety is paramount. A rainlord's life is more important than a dancer's or an apprentice waterpainter's; remember that." He walked away towards his pede.
Ryka stared at Kaneth. "Yes. You remember that," she said. She sounded snappish.
Bitterness surfaced somewhere inside Shale. That was always the way of it. Some people were more important than others. Terelle would have said it wasn't fair, and she would have been right.
Kaneth turned to Shale, his voice blade-sharp when he spoke, "Ryka was right earlier. The idea of choice is an illusion. You don't have a choice."
Shale looked at him solemnly. "I know. But at least Highlord Nealrith let me have the illusion." He turned away.
"Louse of a lad," Kaneth muttered to Ryka, but he was grinning. It took them well over a day to arrive in Breccia. It was an unpleasant journey. They rode at a punishing pace, and anxiety about Terelle's safety made Shale feel ill much of the time. During their brief rest stops, he found it difficult to eat and even harder to nap. So, evidently, did Nealrith, who used the time to question him concerning Amethyst's relationship to Taquar, betraying his own battle with guilt. To Shale, Ryka appeared tense and worried. The guards were grieving the death of Gadri and did not talk much. The only good news was that there was no sign of pursuit.