Jhirun nodded, and her eyes slid uneasily toward Morgaine, wary and desperate.
They came to Aren, Morgaine said, hunting you. And you are known there. There are some Aren-folk who know your name and say that you are halfling yourself, and in some fashion they blame you for some words you spoke against their village.
Lord, Jhirun said in a thin voice, and edged against Vanye, as if he could prevent such questions. He sat stiffly, uncomfortable in the touch of her.
A quake, said Morgaine, struck Hiuaj after we three parted company. There was heavy damage at Aren, where I was; and the Barrows-folk came then. They said there was nothing left of Barrows-hold.
Jhirun shivered.
I know, said Morgaine, that you cannot seek safety among your own kinsmen... or with the Aren-folk. Better that you had remained lost, Jhirun Elas-daughter. They have asked me for you, and I have refused; but that is for now. Vanye knowshe will tell youthat I am not generous. I am not at all generous. And there will come a time when we cannot shelter you. I do not care what quarrel drove you out of Barrows-hold in the first place; it does not concern me. I do not think that you are dangerous; but your enemies are. And for that reason you are not welcome with us. You have a horse. You have half our food, if you wish it; Vanye and I can manage. And you would be wise to take that offer and try some other route through these hills, be it to hide and live in some cave for the rest of your days. Go. Seek some place after the Ohtija have dispersed. Go into those mountains and look for some place that has no knowledge of you. That is my advice to you.
Jhiruns hand crept to Vanyes arm. Lord, she said faintly, plaintively.
There was a time, Vanye said, hardly above a breath, when Jhirun did not say what she might have said, when she did not say all that she knew of you, and stayed by me when it was not convenient. And I will admit to you that I gave her a promise... I knowthat I had no right to give any promise, and she should not have believed me, but she did not know that. I have told her that she should not have believed me; but would it be so wrong, liyo, to let her go where we go? I do not know what other hope she has.
Morgaine stared at him fixedly, and for a long, interminably long moment, said nothing. Thee says correctly, she breathed at last. Thee had no right.
All the same, he said, very quietly, I ask it, because I told her that I would take her to safety.
Morgaine turned that gaze on Jhirun. Run away, she said. I give you a better gift than he gave. But on his word, stay, if you have not the sense to take it. Unlike Vanye, I bind myself to nothing. Come with us as long as you can, and for as long as it pleases me.
Thank you, Jhirun said almost soundlessly, and Vanye pressed her arm, disengaging it from his. Go aside, he said to her. Rest. Let matters alone now.
Jhirun drew away from them, stood up, left the shelter for the brush, beyond the firelight. They were alone. Across the camp sounded the wail of an infant, the lowing of an animal, the sounds that had been constant all the evening.
I am sorry, Vanye said, bowed himself to the ground, expected even then her anger, or worse, her silence.
I was not there, Morgaine said quietly. I take your word for what you did, and why. I will try. She will stay our pace or she will not; I cannot help her. That She gestured with a glance toward the camp. That also has its desires, that are Jhiruns.
They believe, he said, that there is a way out for them. That it lies through the Wells. That they will find a land on the other side.
She said nothing to that.
Liyo he said carefully, you could do thatyou could give them what they believecould you not?
A tumult had arisen, as others had arisen throughout the evening, on the far side of the camp, distant shouts carrying to them: disputes, dissents, among terrified people.
Morgaine set her face and shook her head abruptly. I could, yes, but I will not.
You know why they have followed you. You know that.
I care nothing for their beliefs. I will not.
He thought of the falling towers of Ohtij-in: only a hands breadth closer to the sea, Jhirun had laughed, attempting humor. Somewhere the child was still crying. Among the rabble there were the innocent, the harmless.
Their land, he said, is dying. It will come in the lifetime of some that are now alive. And to open the Gates for themwould that not?
Their time is finished, that is all. It comes to all worlds.
In Heavens good name, liyo
Vanye. Where should we take them?
He shook his head helplessly. Are we not to leave this land?
There are no sureties beyond any Gate.
But if there is no other hope for them
Morgaine set Changeling across her knees. The dragon eyes of the hilt winked gold in the firelight, and she traced the scales with her fingers. Two months ago, Vanye, where were you?
He blinked, mind thrust back across Gates, across mountains: a road to Aenor, a winter storm. I was an outlaw, he said, uncertain what he was bidden remember, and the Myya were close on my trail.
And four?
The same. He laughed uneasily. My life was much of the same, just then.
I was in Koris, she said. Think of it.
Laughter perished in him, in a dizzying gap of a hundred years. Irien: massacreancestors of his had served Morgaines cause in Koris, and they were dust. But it was a hundred years, all the same, he said. You slept; however you remember it, it was still a hundred years, and what you remember cannot change that.
No. Gates are outside time. Nothing is fixed. And in this landoncean unused Gate was flung wide open, uncontrolled, and poured men through into a land that was not theirs. That was not theirs, Vanye. And they took that land... men that speak a common tongue with Andur-Kursh; that remember me.
He sat very still, the pulse beating in his temples until he was aware of little else. I knew, he said at last, that it might be; that Jhirun and her kindred are Myya.
You did not tell me this.
I did not know how. I did not know how to put it together; I thought how things would stray the Gate into Andur-Kursh, lostto die there; and could not men
Who remember me, Vanye.
He could not answer; he saw her fold her arms about her knees, hands locked, and bow her head, heard her murmur something in that tongue that was hers, shaking her head in despair.
It was a thousand years, he objected.
There is no time between Gates, she answered him with an angry frown; and saw his puzzlement, his shake of the head, and relented. It makes no difference. They have had their time, both those that were born to this land and those that invaded it. It is gone. For all of them, it is gone.
Vanye frowned, found a stick in his hands, and broke it, once, twice, a third time, measured cracks. He cast the bits into the fire. They will starve before they drown. The mountains will give them ground whereon to stand, but the stones will not feed them. Would it be wrong, liyo, would it be wrongonce, to help them?
As once before it happened here? Whose land shall I give them, Vanye?
He did not have an answer. He drew a breath and in it was the stench of the rotting land. Down in the camp the tumult had never ceased. Shrieks suddenly pierced the heavier sounds, seeming closer.
Morgaine looked in that direction and frowned. Jhirun has been gone overlong.
His thoughts leaped in the same direction. She would have had more sense, he said, gathering himself to his feet; but in his mind was the girls distraught mood, Morgaines words to her, his dismissal of her. The horses grazed, the bay mare with them, still saddled, although the girths were loosened.