Rift in the Sky

Sona’s Birth Watcher went back to tidying the new baby’s bed. “Trust me, Lymin, it will be before firstnight. Let Oswa take you home. Tell Suen he will have to try hard to be as helpful as Gijs and that I’ll come as soon as I’m finished here.” Aryl noticed the others took comfort from Seru’s assured and confident tone, the calm anticipation she felt. Her cousin had indeed come a long way.

“Don’t worry, Lymin,” Seru went on. “This is why we attend each other’s birthings. To see there is nothing to fear.”

Except for Naryn.

Their eyes met. Aryl wasn’t surprised to see tears glistening in Seru’s.

There were some in her own.

Chapter 4

HAXEL WAITED OUTSIDE the door. “Another like Yao. What’s going on?”

A question the First Scout knew full well she couldn’t answer. “Maybe nothing is.” Aryl motioned toward the river, and the pair started to walk.

“Maybe it’s this place.” Haxel stomped on a paving stone. “These mountains. Where nothing grows. It’s not natural for Om’ray.”

“Oswa told me Yao was the first such born to Grona.” Whose Om’ray lived quite well in the mountains, but Aryl didn’t add the obvious.

“Well, I don’t like it. Om’ray who don’t know their place in the world. What will become of them? Can they even become Choosers?”

Surely another question Haxel couldn’t expect her to answer.

Yuhas and Galen crossed their path, bringing water to the fields. Each held a thick wood splinter across his shoulders, a jar of water suspended from either end. The wheeled cart Veca and Morla had built required a ramp, something the Sona could spare neither time nor effort to build. Both Chosen were shirtless and sweating, but smiled a greeting. Other Om’ray were climbing up from the river, still others going down.

They couldn’t water full-grown plants this way, not and expect an abundant crop.

“No more water from our neighbors. Am I right?”

Trust the First Scout. Had her meeting with the Oud been only this morning? Aryl decided it felt like days ago. Since? Ael and Myris were gone. She’d seen her mother. Watched Juo’s baby enter the world.

Odd, how some days were filled with change while others passed without note, as if never lived at all. Aryl pushed her grief aside. “The Oud claimed we have enough water for our needs. That we waste what we have.”

“Waste it?” Haxel snorted. “I’d like to pour it down one of their tunnels and then see what they say about water.”

“We have a more urgent problem. Oran’s been sending dreams about us—about traveling through the M’hir—to other Adepts.”

The First Scout stopped in her tracks. A hand clamped on her wrist. How do you know?

Aryl, forced to stop too, tried not to notice the startled looks from those close by. It was the height of rudeness among Om’ray, to turn a public conversation private. But Haxel wasn’t wrong.

Taisal told me. She accused us of trying to interfere with Yena. Don’t worry. I’ll talk to Oran first. With Enris, she finished dutifully, though his presence in her mind was thankfully preoccupied. We don’t know how she’s doing it yet.

You went there. To Yena. An undercurrent of longing. For an instant, Aryl thought Haxel, who hadn’t the Power for such a long ’port, would demand she take her to the canopy. But the other Om’ray only tightened her grip, until her fingers dug into bone. Because of Myris. That was foolish.

Because I wanted to know why she was picked for exile—why we all were. Taisal said they didn’t know why. That they dreamed of Yena’s ending and our leaving it. Until Oran. Now they dream of us and fear the M’hir.

Haxel let go, her shields tight. Her eyes were stunned, as if she hadn’t understood the sending, then abruptly sharpened, as if she did, more than Aryl knew. But all she said was, “There’s no one to cook at the Cloisters. Oran will be back for supper.” A squint at the sun. “Two tenths till firstnight.” The First Scout glanced back to Aryl, the jagged scar drawn white. “Let her enjoy the meal,” mild. Almost serene. “It will be her last at Sona.”

Naryn did not want company. From the roadway, Aryl could feel the warning/preoccupied/don’twantyou blend of emotions her friend let through her shields. Reluctantly, she turned back.