Windhaven

At first Evan told stories of Thayos society, his descriptions so vivid that she could almost see the people.

But after a time his talk turned to himself, and he offered her his own life, as if in exchange for the confidences she had made to him during her delirium.

He had been born in the deep woods of Thayos, an island on the northern fringe of Eastern, sixty years before. His parents were foresters.

There had been other families in the forest, other children to play with, but from his earliest years Evan had preferred the time he spent alone. He liked to hide in the brush to watch the shy, brown dirt diggers; to hunt out the places where the most beautifully scented flowers and tastiest roots grew; to sit quietly in a small clearing with a chunk of stale bread, and tame the birds to come to his hand.

When Evan was sixteen, he fell in love with a traveling midwife. Jani, the midwife, was a small, brown woman with a ready wit and a sharp tongue. In order to be near her, Evan appointed himself Jani's assistant. She seemed amused by his interest at first, but soon accepted him, and Evan, his interest sharpened by love, learned a great deal from her.

On the eve of her departure, he confessed his love for her. She wouldn't stay, and she wouldn't take him with her — not as lover, not as friend, not even as assistant, although she admitted he had learned well and had a skillful touch. She traveled alone always, and that was that.

Evan continued to practice his new healing skills when Jani had gone. Since the nearest healer lived in Thossi village, a full day's walk from the forest, Evan was soon much in demand. Eventually he apprenticed himself to the healer in Thossi. He might have attended a college of healers, but that would have meant a sea-voyage, and the idea of traveling on the dangerous water frightened him as nothing else ever had.

When he had learned all she could teach him, Evan returned to the forest to live and work. Although he never married, he did not always live alone. Women sought him out — wives seeking an undemanding lover, traveling women who paused a few days or months in his company, patients who stayed until their passion for him was cured.

Maris, listening to his soft, mellow voice and gazing at his face for so many hours that she knew it as well as that of any lover in her past, understood the attraction. The bright blue eyes, the skillful, gentle hands, the high cheekbones and imposing beak of a nose. She wondered, though, what he had felt — was he as self-contained as he seemed?

One day Maris interrupted his story of a family of tree-kits he'd recently found to ask, "Didn't you ever fall in love? After Jani, I mean."

He looked surprised. "Yes, of course I did. I told you about…"

"But not enough to want to marry someone."

"Sometimes I did. With S'Rai — she lived here with me for almost a year, and we were very happy together. I loved her very much. I wanted her to stay. But she had her own life elsewhere. She wouldn't stay in the forest with me; she left."

"Why didn't you go away with her? Didn't she ask you to?"

Evan looked unhappy. "Yes, she did. She wanted me to go with her; somehow it just didn't seem possible."

"You've never been anywhere else?"

"I've traveled all over Thayos, whenever there has been need," Evan said, rather defensively. "And I lived in Thossi for nearly two years when I was younger."

"All Thayos is much the same," Maris said, shrugging her good shoulder. There was a twinge in her left, which she ignored. She was allowed to sit up now, and she was afraid Evan would revoke the privilege if she ever admitted to pain. "Some parts have more trees, some parts have more rocks."

Evan laughed. "A very superficial view! To you, all parts of the forest would seem identical."

This was so obvious as to require no comment. Maris persisted. "You've never been off Thayos?"

Evan grimaced. "Once," he said. "There'd been an accident, a boat cracked up against the rocks, and the woman in it had been badly injured. I was taken out in a fishing boat to see to her. I got so sick on the journey out that I could scarcely help her."

Maris smiled sympathetically, but she shook her head. "How can you know that this is the only place you ever want to live if you've never been anywhere else?"

"I don't claim to know that, Maris. I might have left, I might have had a very different life. But this is what I've chosen. I know this life — it's mine, for better or worse. It's rather late now to mourn all the opportunities I've missed. I'm happy with my life." He rose then, ending the conversation. "Now it's time for your nap."

"May I…"

"You may do whatever you like, as long as you do it lying flat on your back without moving."