“Haven’t you guessed?”
“Tayan’gil means ‘white blood.’ The white road leads to them?”
“Yes, and the white road we followed when we left Aurënen. But the tayan’gils themselves are sometimes called ‘white roads.’ It is their blood that heals us, and the same blood that made us exiles.”
“I see. And am I correct in assuming that Hâzadriën was made from your ancestor, Hâzadriël?”
“Yes.”
“That was more than four generations ago. He’s really that old?”
“That’s correct. She is dead, but he still exists. No one knows if they ever die.”
“How do you feed him, if the person he was made from is dead?” asked Alec, breaking his silence at last.
“Any Hâzadriëlfaie can feed a tayan’gil. We all share the same blood. Think what you like of us, but my people will not let Sebrahn go hungry or be harmed.”
“Anyone?” Alec looked positively dismayed at that.
Seregil’s heart went out to him. First the little rhekaro’s disregard for their departure, and now this. Perhaps this will help him accept the truth, and what has to happen when we get back.
Turning to Rieser, he asked, “How did Hâzadriël and her people come to be in that valley?”
“How much do you know of her?”
“Only that she had some sort of vision, gathered up some followers, and headed north.”
“That’s the end of the story, but not the beginning. She was captured by the Plenimarans, and was used by a—What did you call them?”
“Alchemist.”
“Yes, by an alchemist to make Hâzadriën. Somehow she escaped, and brought four other ’faie back with her, and five tayan’gils, including Hâzadriën. They were the only ones to return. What she saw in Plenimar—” Rieser paused and made some sort of sign with his right hand, probably one of reverence, or warding. “It was only then that it was revealed to her that her blood and those of the people she saw treated in the same manner was different, special.”
“Dragon’s blood,” Alec murmured.
Rieser gave him a surprised look. “Yes, we are blessed with the Great Dragon’s favor. It is our gift and our burden.”
“Do they all have the power to heal?” asked Micum.
Rieser acted as if he hadn’t heard him.
“Do they?” asked Seregil.
“Yes. They are a treasure to our people. Some even count them as a gift of Aura, but the white blood was a curse when we lived within the grasp of the Tír. They tortured and enslaved us to make tayan’gils, and bled us to make dark magic.”
“Not my people,” Micum replied.
Rieser smiled darkly. “Oh, yes. Tayan’gils have been found in all the Tír lands over the years, so it isn’t only the Plenimarans who know the secret of their making. That’s why we withdrew so far. There were no Tír near the valley you call Ravensfell when she led her people there. Now that there are, we have to guard ourselves all the more carefully.”
“I’m from Kerry,” Alec told him. “Most people up there don’t even believe in you anymore. I always thought the ’faie were just some tales the bards told.”
“Your father knew better,” Rieser pointed out. “Did he lie to you, his only child?”
“To protect him,” Seregil cut in. “To keep him from going off to look for his mother’s people, or seek revenge. Alec’s father knew what would happen to him if he got anywhere near you.”
“How did your father meet her in the first place, Alec, if you don’t mind me asking?” said Micum.
“He never told me anything about her, except that she died when I was born. Whenever I asked more questions, he’d go silent. Sometimes he looked sad.” Alec paused, gazing off into the distance as if he could see his past there. “He had no people, so it was just him and me, all those years, always moving around. We never went near the pass.” He turned to Rieser. “It was because he knew about the Ebrados, wasn’t it? You came hunting us.”
“Of course. Until the day our captain’s horse came back with blood on the saddle. We always assumed that he’d found you, and that your father had killed him.”
“No. I would have known.” Alec paused. “He did leave me with an innkeeper sometimes, when I was little. Maybe he knew that the Ebrados were close by.”
“He was a brave, good man,” said Micum.
Alec swallowed hard. “I never knew. He was just—my father. He didn’t even carry a sword.”
“If he was half the archer you are, he wouldn’t have needed one.”
“A good man wouldn’t have left the mother of his son to die alone,” said Rieser.
“He didn’t!” growled Alec. “I saw what happened, in a vision at Sarikali. He was trying to save her when she died. Your people killed her before he could, but he saved me.”
“He didn’t know what he was doing,” Rieser replied solemnly.
“So that’s what you Ebrados do? Kill innocent people?”
“The ones we kill are not innocent. Men came looking for us and we killed them to protect ourselves. Others caught some of us who unwisely ventured out of the valley, and carried them away to make more tayan’gils. The Ebrados hunted every one of them down, and brought back the Hâzad, if they still lived, and the tayan’gils. We take care of our own.”
“Just how many tayan’gils do you have?” asked Seregil.
“Nineteen. They are gentle, silent creatures like Hâzadriën, and great healers.” He turned to Alec again. “They are treated with the highest respect.”
Alec frowned and looked away.
“But you’re willing to risk Hâzadriën, to bring him along as your healer?” asked Seregil.
“It was Hâzadriël’s will, when she led the Ebrados. And it’s not only that. He can sense others of his kind. He helped Turmay find you, and now you see how he cares for Sebrahn. When the time comes, Sebrahn will come with him willingly.”
“But he’s not harmless like the others,” said Alec, still frowning. “What will you do with him?”
“That is up to our khirnari, but I know he will come to no harm, as long as he causes none.”
“How did alchemists find out about the white blood in the first place?” wondered Seregil. “You don’t look any different than any other ’faie. How did Hâzadriël know, for that matter?”
Rieser shrugged. “Aura guided Hâzadriël to find others with the same special blood. The annals say that she was guided by visions. She did not go north until the Lightbringer revealed the way to her.”
“You weren’t a people then, were you?”
“No. We were scattered among all the clans. Some ’faie have magic. Some have music or the hand for art. We had the white blood of the Dragon.”
“How could no one else in Aurënen ever have known?” Seregil wondered.
“They knew at Sarikali. That is where she went with the first rhekaros, and that is where she was given her first vision that sent her to find the people of the blood.”
“She must have been a very strong woman,” said Micum.
Rieser finally spared him a glance. “She was. We strive to be worthy of her legacy, and that of all our forebears.”
A proud people, thought Seregil. That would make them all the more dangerous.
“We should have gone to Sarikali when we had the chance,” said Alec. “If she could take a rhekaro there, then we could have, too!”
“Other rhekaros can’t kill,” Seregil reminded him.
“We could have found a way.”
Seregil sighed inwardly. He didn’t blame Alec for being angry right now, and probably feeling helpless into the bargain. All Seregil could do was trust that he wouldn’t do anything stupid and impulsive. Alec was too smart for that.
Even so, Seregil was still all too aware of the pain his talímenios was in, and how much he hated their unwanted companion. He had no doubt that if Rieser tried anything, he wouldn’t get more than a bowshot away.
They came in sight of Ero early the following afternoon. The ruins of the citadel were visible for miles, and Alec forgot his simmering worries for a moment at the sight of them.