"Normally, yes." Saimura cocked his head slightly at John, his expression openly curious. "Were you hoping to keep someone away?"
"What do you mean?" Again John felt a wave of anxiety.
"I know that this storm isn’t natural." Saimura kept his voice low. "I’ve spent three days tracking it to its source." He stared directly at John. John said nothing. He hardly moved.
"Why did you summon it?" Saimura asked.
John considered denying that he had. But Saimura seemed far too certain to be fooled.
"I didn’t mean to," John whispered. "The Payshmura sentenced me to burn on the Holy Road. I used the storm to escape, but I haven’t been able to stop it since then."
Saimura seemed to contemplate John. Then his expression softened to something like compassion – as if he’d discovered John weak and in dire need.
"Ji will be able to help you dissipate it," Saimura said, "but until we reach her, take this."
Saimura handed John a polished bone with strange little symbols cut into it. The instant John closed his hand around the bone, he felt a warmth radiate up from it. It seemed to gently pulse against John’s fingers, as if it were a small animal crouched against his palm.
"It should ease the strain of this storm," Saimura said.
John nodded, but his attention was no longer on the bone in his hand. He couldn’t keep himself from glancing to the shadowy distortion that loomed over Saimura. Ravishan hung in the Gray Space, almost on top of him.
John wondered what Ravishan was thinking of all this. What would it look like from the silence of the Gray Space?
John dropped the bone into the deep pocket of his coat.
"Thank you." John stepped back from Saimura and turned to the tahldi. He brushed snow from the animal’s speckled back.
"There’s no reason to be afraid," Saimura said quietly. "In the Fai’daum we do not condemn men and women as witches. Ji will help you learn to control the power within you, I swear."
"The power in me might be best left alone."
"It can’t be, Jahn. This storm of yours is dangerous to the people in the mountain heights and to you as well. It has to be stopped before it kills any more flocks and before it consumes you." Again Saimura gave John that soft, compassionate look. "I’m amazed that you have withstood it for so long, as is. When Ji sent me out, I expected to come across a group of Payshmura mystics feeding the storm, not just one man."
"Payshmura mystics?" John asked.
"Those in the Black Tower often send hard weather against us in the north. Ji can usually break a storm moving across such a great distance. But this one of yours was different."
"And you think Ji could show me how to stop it?"
"Certainly." Saimura nodded. "She will teach you to control your power so that something like this doesn’t happen again."
"What if she can’t?" John asked. "What if I…"
"Can’t be taught?" Saimura asked with a smile. "You don’t strike me as a man who can’t learn. I’m sure Ji will be able to instruct you. She’s trained far worse students, I promise you that."
"But what if I’m something…" John trailed off, not wanting to admit more than he had to. And yet he wanted to know what the demoness Ji could teach him. "What if I can’t be stopped?"
Saimura laughed. John frowned at him.
"I’m serious," he said.
"Your own power isn’t something that you can’t stop. It should be like your breath. It is always there, but you can hold it, slow it, and quicken it. It is part of you. Ji will teach you all of this. I promise."
John just nodded.
He hadn’t read anything in any Payshmura text about a Rifter controlling his power. There had been nothing but blind destruction in the old books. But then no previous Rifter had survived in Basawar for more than a few days. Maybe it was possible.
If he could learn to control the Rifter within him, then maybe he could use that power without destroying everything in his path. Maybe there would be a way to save Laurie. It would mean going with Saimura and joining the Fai’daum. But if he could help Laurie, it would be worth it.
John wiped more of the snow off the tahldi’s back. Droplets of water gathered around John’s hand. He brushed them aside. Tiny rivulets slid down the tahldi’s neck to its lowered head. The animal snorted in vague irritation. John put his hands back in his pockets.
"Can you excuse me for a few minutes, Saimura? I have to piss."
"Of course." Saimura looked slightly embarrassed.
"I’ll be right back."
John waded through the snow back into the deep cover of the stands of black trees. He waited for Ravishan to drop out of the Gray Space beside him.
"Who is that man?" Ravishan demanded the instant he emerged. White snowflakes drifted into his black hair but didn’t melt. The chill of the Gray Space still clung to him.
"Keep your voice down," John whispered.
"Who is he?" Ravishan hissed.
"His name is Saimura."
"Why was he embracing you?"
"Because I saved his life," John said. That seemed to give Ravishan pause.
"When?" Ravishan asked.
"Years ago. The Fai’daum attacked Fikiri’s convoy. Saimura was injured and I hid him."
"Those people are Fai’daum?" Ravishan’s expression was troubled as he gazed back through the trees at the shadows of the gathered Fai’daum.
"Yes."
"Shit." Ravishan studied John in silence for a moment. "There’s no way you could outrun them. They have rifles."
"I know," John replied.
Ravishan nodded, almost to himself. He turned his attention back the way John had come. As Ravishan stared out through the trunks of black trees, his entire stance changed. His arms drooped slightly. His knees bent, bringing his hips into perfect balance with his chest. His lips relaxed and his eyes lowered just slightly.
At a glance another man might have thought that Ravishan looked half-asleep, focusing on a passing dream. John knew that distant expression and deceptively relaxed stance. He had seen it countless times in Rathal’pesha. It was the brief moment in the ushiri battle forms that came before a violent attack.
John caught Ravishan’s hand. "Let’s not resort to killing before we have to."
"They’re armed. And they will be able to track you through this snow," Ravishan replied, the urgency of his tone belying his obvious attempt to sound reasonable. "We have the advantage of surprise now."
"They aren’t threatening me, Ravishan. Saimura doesn’t have any reason to want to harm me."
Ravishan scowled at this. But he didn’t interrupt John.
"He’s offering to give me shelter. I think he may want me to join the Fai’daum," John finished.
"And you’re actually thinking of accepting?" Ravishan demanded.
"Shh. Yes. Why shouldn’t I?"
"Because they’re Fai’daum. They are the enemies of the Payshmura Church."
"And so are we," John said. "Those bounties on our heads aren’t a friendly gesture, you know."
"I know. But to go to the Fai’daum…" Ravishan frowned down at the snow.
"Just two weeks ago in Nurjima you said that you agreed with their – "
"That was in Nurjima," Ravishan cut him off, "when I was going to be leaving this world and you and I were going to live together in Nayeshi and I…There’s a difference between being sympathetic to a cause and allowing them to take my lover away."
"They aren’t taking me away – not from you," John said.
"I can’t come with you."
"I don’t know about that. Maybe you can. I want to talk to their leader, Ji Shir’korud."
John reached out and gently pulled Ravishan close.
"You would be a powerful asset to the Fai’daum, you know," John said softly. Though, he wasn’t thinking about that exactly. He wondered what he would do if they wouldn’t accept Ravishan. He kissed Ravishan’s forehead. His skin felt ice cold.
He’d just have to find another way to help Laurie. He wouldn’t give Ravishan up.
"Will you give it a chance?"
"I don’t like this," Ravishan said.
"We don’t have too many other choices," John replied. "Even if you kill all of those men – and I wouldn’t want you to – but even if you did, there would be more of them. I would still have to travel on foot through this weather to get away from them. They would still be able to track me."