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and sickly purple, like PUS from a long-infected wound.
The Blasted Plain itself was an expanse of black, gray and brown boulders
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spread across glistening, powdery umber sand. Through the murky air, he could
see tall curling spires of rock like broken strands of glue left over from a
badly managed patch job. The place was more than the sum of its parts; it was
more living than dead, but nothing alive was visible. It was malevolent, made
of things long buried, hard emotions long suppressed, mistakes covered over.
Death, despair, foulness and horror.
Michael shuddered and the shudder turned into shivers of delayed shock. He
descended the knoll as quickly as his unstable legs allowed and began his
march over the grassland, upriver to Euterpe and
Halftown or so he hoped and away from the desolation of a war he could
hardly imagine.
After a few minutes, he began to draw on reserves he had built up during the
past weeks of training. He walked for the hour or so remaining until dark,
then slept fitfully under the open night sky, and resumed at dawn. He would
not die. He would not starve.
He had survived; and in that simple fact, Michael found a dismaying,
pleasurable pride.
Thick swaths of fog shouldered in over the plain, driven before the sun's
warmth. Michael followed the sandy river bank, crossed the shallow ox-bow
where the river rippled and glittered over rocks and
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Bear, Greg - Songs of Earth and Power Vol. 1 - The Infinity Concerto pebbles,
and climbed another hill to get his bearings.
The roofs of Halftown were about two miles away. He broke into a run along a
trail of hard, clayey sand.
In Halftown, things seemed to be carrying on as usual. There was rain and wind
damage to several of the buildings, and Lirg's market courtyard had nearly
been flattened, but the Breeds went about their business as if the night
before had been commonplace.
The hut of the Crane Women was unscathed. Nare wove reeds into thick sitting
mats, squatting between two piles of animal bones, holding a long reed in her
teeth and plaiting steadily. Coom was nowhere to be seen. Spart, he
discovered, was walking behind him as he approached the mound. Michael grinned
at her over his shoulder.
"Worried about me?" he asked. Spart's eyes widened and she bared her black
gums.
"It wasn't you they were after, nor any human," she said.
"I got that impression," Michael said. He stopped before his house and lifted
one foot to scrape mud from his shoe. "What happened?"
"There was a raid on the Breeds," Spart said. She walked toward the door of
the hut with jaw working as if chewing cud. She hardly seemed glad to see him.
"I took care of myself," he said.
"You were very, very lucky." She turned at the doorway. "You escaped Umbrals
and Riverines. They're branches of the Sidhe who worship Adonna most
fervently. Adonna needs Sidhe blood to do its work, but it cannot touch the
pure Sidhe. So it comes for us. We're adequate for its needs, and few care if
a Breed is lost. You were lucky, man-child, not skilled."
Michael looked between the two Crane Women, his face reddening. "I survived,"
he said. "God dammit, I
survived! I'm not just some piece of garbage everybody kicks around! I have my
rights and I& I " But he was speechless. Spart shrugged and entered the hut.
Nare cocked a glance at him, smiling around the reed in her teeth. She removed
the reed and spat into the dirt.
"You survived, boy," she said. "But you did not help anybody else. Three
Breeds were taken last night, including Lirg of the line of Wis."
"What will happen to them?"
"Adonna has its uses for them. We said that, boy. You don't listen."
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Michael suddenly felt exhausted and discouraged. He had never lived in a place
so cruel and unpredictable. The thought of continuing to struggle seemed to
pull wool around his brain. He sat before his hut and held his chin in his
hands. "What about Eleuth?" he asked a few moments later.
"She was not taken," Nare said. "She is only one-quarter Sidhe. Her uses would
be limited."
"Do they always attack on a night of
Kaeli?
"Not always. Often enough."
"So why so you still hold them out in the open?"
"We are still of the Sidhe," Nare said. "We must keep the customs, even when
it is dangerous."
Michael pondered that for a time, and decided it didn't really make sense. But
he didn't want to pursue that line of questioning. "I'm going to run now," he
said. Nare didn't react. He wanted to get into Euterpe and talk with Savarin,
find out what happened to the humans. At least with Savarin, he could ask
questions and not be ridiculed.
He started off at a gentle lope, hoping to ease the exhaustion and funk from
his body. As he approached
Halftown again, he slowed. Glancing behind to see if he was watched, he took
the path leading through the village.
Eleuth swept debris from the courtyard as Michael approached. She glanced at
him without slowing her broom.
"I heard," Michael said. "I'm sorry."
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Bear, Greg - Songs of Earth and Power Vol. 1 - The Infinity Concerto
"He serves the god now," Eleuth said. Sad, her voice was even more beautiful.
"Are you going to work the market alone?"
"I'll try."
He opened his mouth, but decided he really had nothing to say. He bent down to
pick up a piece of timber.
"Put it in the pile," she said, gesturing with the broom end to a neat stack
of ruined boards.
"If I can help& "
She regarded him with a calm, still expression, though her cheeks were wet. He
had never seen a Sidhe or a Breed cry before. He filed the information away;
perhaps it was because she was three-quarters human.
"I mean, anything I can do," he said awkwardly.
She shook her head and continued sweeping. As he turned to walk away, she
said, "Michael."
"Yes?"
"I will take my rest later this day. May we visit then? I'll be better."
"Sure. I'll be back by my place at "
"No. Away from the Crane Women."
That suited him. "I'll meet you here."
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