Codex Alera Book 1 - Chapter 34

Kitai frowned, pale brows drawing together. "I am what?"

"You're a girl," Tavi accused.

"No," Kitai said in a fierce whisper. "I am a whelp. Until they bond, all Marat children are whelps. After I bond to a totem-then I will be a young female. Until then, I am a whelp like any other. Your ways are not our ways, Aleran."

Tavi stared at her. "But you're a girl."

Kitai rolled her eyes. "Get over it, valleyboy." She started to stand and move slowly up out of the water.

"Wait," Tavi hissed. He lifted a hand to block her way.

"What?"

"Wait until they've gone. If you go out there now, they'll see you."

"But I am covered by the cold blanket."

"And if you walk in front of that fire, you'll be the only cold thing there," Tavi said. "Stay here and be still and quiet. When the fire dies down, they'll spread out to look for us again, and we'll have our chance."

Kitai frowned, but slowly settled back into the water. "Our chance to do what?"

Tavi swallowed. "To get inside. To that big tree."

"Don't be foolish," Kitai said, though there was a reluctant weight to her words. "The Keepers are roused. No one has ever gone to the tree and come out again when the Keepers had been stirred from sleep. We would die."

"You forget. I'm going to die anyway." He frowned. "But it might be just as well. I don't want to lead a girl into that kind of danger."

The Marat girl scowled. "As if I am any less able to defeat you now than a few moments ago."

Tavi shook his head. "No, no, it isn't that."

"Then what is it?"

He shrugged beneath the blanket. "I can't explain it. We just-we don't treat our women the same way we do our men."

"That's stupid," said Kitai. "Just as it is stupid for us to pursue the trial. If neither of us comes back with the Blessing, the trial is inconclusive. They'll wait until a new moon and hold it again. You will be Doroga's guest until then, valleyboy. You will be safe."

Tavi frowned and swallowed, thinking. Part of him had all but let out a shout of relief. He could get out of this bizarre chasm with its alien creatures and return to the world above. It wasn't a friendly one, among the Marat, but it was living, and he would at least be kept alive and unharmed until the next trial. He could survive.

But the new moon wouldn't be for weeks. The Marat would move long before then, attack Garrison and then the steadholts in the valley beyond, including his own home. For a moment, Tavi's imagination conjured up an image of returning to Bernardholt to find it deserted, thick with the stench of rotten meat and burned hair; to open one of the swinging gates and see a cloud of carrion crows hurtle into the air, leaving the bodies of people he had known his whole life ravaged and unrecognizable on the

cold earth. His aunt. His uncle. Frederic, Beritte, Old Bitte, and so many others.

His legs started shaking-not with cold, but with the sudden realization that he could not turn his back on them now. If returning with that stupid mushroom meant that he would gain his family even a better chance to survive what was coming, then he could do nothing less than everything in his power to retrieve it. He couldn't back down now, he couldn't run now, even though it meant he might go into mortal danger.

He might wind up like that crow, sealed into the croach, devoured alive. For a moment, the pale, colored eyes of the Keepers haunted his mind. There had been so many of them. There still were, gathered all around the now-guttering fire, crawling mindlessly over one another in all directions, their long, k.n.o.bby legs falling feather-light onto the surface of the croach. Their leathery sh.e.l.ls made squeaking sounds as they crowded close, rubbed against one another. And they smelled. Something pungent and acrid and inexplicably alien. Even as he realized that he could smell them, Tavi felt the hairs on the back of his neck p.r.i.c.kle up, and his s.h.i.+vering increased in reaction.

"I have to go," Tavi said.

"You'll die," Kitai said, simply. "It cannot be done."

"I'm going."

She shrugged and said, "It is your life to waste. Look at you. You are shaking hard enough to rattle your teeth." But her odd, opalescent eyes stayed on him, intent, curious. She didn't speak the question, but Tavi all but heard her ask: Why?

He took a shuddering breath. "It doesn't matter. Doesn't matter that I'm afraid. I have to get that mushroom and get out again. It's the only thing I can do to help my family."

Kitai stared at him in silence for a long moment. Then she nodded once, an expression of comprehension coming over her features. "Now I understand, valleyboy," she said, quiet. She looked around them and said, "I do not wish to die. My family is not at stake. Freedom from my sire is useless to me if I am dead."

Tavi chewed on his lip, thinking. Then he said, "Kitai, is there any reason that we can't both get the Blessing? What happens if we both get back with it at the same time?"

Kitai frowned. "Then it will be a.s.sumed that The One tells us there is

merit in either side's argument," she said. "The headman will be free to decide on his own."

"Wait," Tavi said, his heart pounding faster. "You mean that you'd get out from under your father, and he would be free to lead your people away from the battle with mine?"

Kitai blinked at Tavi and then smiled, slowly. "By The One, yes. That was his plan all along." She blinked her abruptly s.h.i.+ning eyes several times and said fiercely, "The problem is that Doroga does not seem to be clever. No wonder my mother loved him."

"Then we work together," Tavi said. He offered the girl his hand. She glanced down at his hand, frowned at him, and then mimicked the gesture. Her hand was slim, hot, strong. Tavi shook and said, "It means we agree to work together."

"Very well," Kitai said. "What do you think we should do?"

Tavi shot a glance back to the Keepers, who were slowly, randomly dispersing again, crawling away in different directions and at different speeds.

"I have a plan."

An hour later, Tavi, covered with the soaked and chilly blanket, moved in silence over the smooth surface of the croach, his pace never varying. He kept count to himself as he walked, one pace per count. He was near five hundred. A Keeper walked perhaps ten feet in front of him, on a slow and steady pace toward the great tree at the center of the chasm. Tavi had followed it for several minutes without it turning to look at him or giving any indication that it sensed his presence. He had become more confident that he had determined how the things would detect him. So long as he was careful to be quiet and moved smoothly, he was effectively invisible.

The enormous tree loomed closer and closer, though the more Tavi could see of it, the less certain he was that tree was the right word to describe it.

Though the rest of the forest was covered in a sheath of the greenly glowing croach, this one tree, smooth sided, branchless, straight, was only covered to a height of ten or fifteen feet. The trunk was enormous, fully as big around as Bernardholt's walls. It didn't look like it had any bark at all-just smooth wood that reached up to a height of more than a hundred feet before ending in round, irregular edges, as though the tree had been snapped off by some giant hand, then had its rough edges smoothed by time.

At the base of the tree, there was a cavernous opening, a sloped and irregular triangle where the trunk parted, allowing entrance to the interior Tavi paused and watched the Keeper he had been following It paced slowly into the tree's interior, and as it pa.s.sed within, another Keeper moved out on the other side of the opening, as though it were a tunnel in the causeway

Tavi stopped for a few moments and watched Shortly, the Keeper he'd been following or another like it came out of the tree in exactly the same place Still another came creeping in from another direction and entered the tree in exactly the same manner as the first, emerging again a few moments later

The Keepers must have been taking something into the tree But what' Something small, if they were just scuttling in and out, like ants in and out of their hills Food' Water' What did they carry'

Tavi shook his head and touched the blanket with his fingertips Though it was still cool, it didn't feel as cold as it had a few minutes ago The air down here in the chasm was just too warm He had to hurry, he knew, because with each pa.s.sing moment his method of concealment became less effective

Tavi struggled to calm the pounding of his heart What if these bugs were smarter than he thought' What if they had only allowed him to come this far because they wanted him there anyway' What if they just wanted to get him to a place where he could not escape and would then leap on him and devour him'

And what, he thought, could possibly be there inside that tree' What would be there that the Keepers would be carrying something to' If they were like ants, existing in a colony, where some carried food, and some fought, and so on, would they have a queen, like ants did' If so, would she be inside the tree, at the heart of their domain'

A dozen more questions flicked through Tavi's mind, before he realized that he was doing nothing but wasting his time He didn't have any answers to any of the questions, and he wouldn't get the answers standing in place- all he would get would be warmer More vulnerable

He kept counting in his head and reached five hundred

Tavi all but held his breath, poised to flee if the plan went wrong, though he knew that his chances of escaping from the heart of the chasm were slim indeed Tavi waited And waited Nothing happened

He felt his heart begin to race as panic crept over him. Had Kitai abandoned him and her own part of the plan? Had something gone wrong? Had she been found and killed before the time limit was up? Could she even count to five hundred? What had gone wrong?

Tavi remained still and kept counting, deciding to give her another hundred counts before he fled.

Then the stillness and silence of the Wax Forest dissolved into a symphony of whistling shrieks. If Tavi had not seen it happening, he would never have believed that so many of the Keepers could be so close to him without his knowledge of them. They erupted from everywhere, from every surface where the croach glowed, ripping their way up out of the waxy forest floor, dropping from the glowing branches of the twisted trees, boiling out of the interior of the great tree trunk itself. Hundreds of them appeared, and the air itself shook with their whistles and clicks and the squeak of sh.e.l.l rubbing on sh.e.l.l.

Tavi froze, panicked. It was everything he could do to keep from bolting at the sheer speed with which they had appeared. One of the Keepers swept past him, almost close enough to brush against his soaked cloak.

They all swarmed off in the same direction-that opposite of the one that lead back to the ropes to the world above. Kitai had done her job, Tavi decided. She must have been keeping a slower count than Tavi had. She had used half of their remaining oil and the firestones to light a blaze that would draw the Keepers. If she was all right and had kept to the plan, she would even now be huddled beneath her blanket, moving for the ropes out.

The last of the Keepers in sight fled, vanis.h.i.+ng into the glowing trees. All that remained was for Tavi to accomplish his part of the plan.

A lump crept up into his throat, and his knees felt like someone had simply slipped the muscles and tendons out of them. He thought that they might abruptly buckle and pitch him to the surface of the croach at any time, he was so afraid. He struggled to keep his breathing slow and quiet, to make sure that his trembling didn't result in any twitches that the Keepers would see as sudden, jerky movement, and stepped forward, into the trunk of the tree.

Inside, the croach wasn't in a smooth layer on the floor and walls-it was spilled and dumped and heaped and piled like wheat in a granary. Great swirling loops of it twirled up the walls or wound intricately through one

another like the guts of some great and glowing beast Tavi stared at them for a moment, in confusion and incomprehension It was beautiful, in a bizarre, alien way-strange and unsettling and fascinating

He jerked his eyes from one of the more intricate structures and moved closer to a wall, where it would be less likely for a newly entered Keeper to simply b.u.mp into him, looking around, struggling to orient himself according to Kitai's description

He paced deeper into the eerie stillness inside the tree, around a mound of whirled croach that looked like an anthill and forward through a small field of lumpy croach, which could have contained another thousand Keepers, silent beneath the surface

He found the mushrooms in a ring at the center of the field, just as Kitai had said They grew at the base of a glowing mound twice the height of a man, as big around as a small house The mound pulsed with greenish light, and Tavi thought he could see the shadow of something dark, something slender within

He drew closer, a sensation of raw dread flowing over him like an icy bath, even worse than the soaked blanket he wore as a cloak His knees grew weaker, and his breathing, despite his best efforts, became ragged

Kitai was rather -pretty, he thought Though she was a savage, there was something about her face, her eyes, that he found intriguing If she wasn't dressed, up in a ragged smock (which really was shamefully short now that he thought about it), she might look more like a girl, less wild Of course, he had begun to see her without the smock If he had told her to get more into the water, she might have taken it off altogether The thought made his cheeks burn, but lingered in front of him, enticing in its exotic appeal

Tavi shook his head abruptly What was the matter with him? He had to be careful and get the Blessing of Night The dark mushrooms had some kind of spiny thorns on their undersides, Kitai had said, which had pierced her hand once and left welts that lasted for months

He glanced up and around him, but saw no Keepers That could be an illusion, he knew There could be a dozen within arm's reach But no matter how afraid he was, Tavi had to press on

That was the history of his people, after all The Alerans had never let fear or the odds of failure deter them from overcoming, prospering Their oldest histories, his uncle had once told him, reached so far back into time that the hide and vellum and stone they had been scribed upon had worn away They had

come to Carna from, another -place, a small hand of only a few thousand, and had found themselves pitched against an entire -world. They had overcome the Icemen, the Children of the Sun and their stronghold in the Feverthorn Jungle, had repelled the Marat and the Canim over the centuries to claim the land of Alera as their own. They controlled the seas around their home, had walled out the Icemen in the north, overcome the Marat through sheer, savage fighting. With their furies and their furycrafting, the Alerans dominated the world, and no other race or peoples could claim mastery over them.

Tavi shuddered and blinked his eyes several times. He must have stood there, his hand extended toward the first of the mushrooms for nearly a full minute, not moving. What was the matter with him?

The hairs on the back of his neck p.r.i.c.kled up more sharply as he reached for the nearest mushrooms. He hurried, breath rasping, picking one, then another, careful to put them into the pouch at his belt.

And then he thought he saw something in the great mound in front of him move.

Tavi jerked his eyes up to it, flinching, and felt an immediate, hot pain in the fingers of his hand. The thorns on the next mushroom had pierced him. He jerked his hand back, and droplets of his blood flashed out and arced through the air, sprinkling the glowing mound in front of him.

Tavi stared at the mound, the droplets of his blood on it. The surface of the glowing croach abruptly pulsed, bulged, and then rippled beneath the droplets of his blood, moving like the skin of some hideous, enormous creature and making Tavi's own flesh crawl in response. He watched as the droplets of blood vanished into the mound, sinking into the surface of the croach like snowflakes into a still-melted pond.

And the shadowy shape within the mound abruptly shuddered. And moved. A slow unwinding of limbs, languid, liquid, as though from a sleeper that had, after an endless pa.s.sing of seasons, finally awakened. It moved, and Tavi felt its movement, felt a vast, bewildering awareness that swept over him like the gaze of some ancient and horrible beast.

Terror flooded over Tavi, raw and hot rather than cold, terror that set his limbs on fire and burned any thought from his mind, save one: escape.

Tavi spun on his heel and, heedless of the danger in revealing himself, broke into a panicked sprint.

He would remember little of his run, later. One or two chirruping whistles, perhaps, echoed through the trees after him, but they were spa.r.s.e, and

he left them behind him, his steps light on the surface of the croach, terror lending him more speed than he would have credited to himself before that night

He flicked one glance over his shoulder as he ran and saw something through the glowing trees, at the base of the monolith, the opening he'd fled through He saw something tall, glistening-alien It stood just within the central tree, just behind the doorway Tavi could not quite see it, but he could feel it in a way both horribly intimate and beyond simple description

The lower-pitched whistle that went out through the trees felt, to Tavi, like some sort of hideous, mocking laughter

Tavi fled and did not look back again

He ran over the croach until his legs were burning and his limbs felt as though they would be ripped apart by the demands he placed on them He almost didn't see the strip of blanket that he had torn off and tied to a low tree branch before he left to mark his way back He headed for it, and from that flag spotted the next, and the next, laying out his escape route back to the ropes at the base of the cliff

"Aleran'" came a voice from before him Kitai dropped from a tree branch ahead of him "Do you have it'"

"Got two'" Tavi yelped "Couldn't get any more'"

Kitai extended her hand, and Tavi shoved one of the mushrooms into it "Run! Go, go go'"

Kitai nodded once, then stooped to the ground Tavi hesitated behind the girl, dancing in place as he looked back over his shoulder "Hurry," he panted "Hurry, hurry, hurry "

Kitai drew out the firestones smoothly, her expression cool, and struck them together Sparks fell from the stones onto the oil-soaked blanket that lay on the croach before them Kitai watched the flames leap up, then moved quickly, reaching up to grab the end of the fis.h.i.+ng line that Tavi had soaked in the icy water before he left She jerked the line toward her, hand over hand The other end of the line looped up over one of the higher branches of the tree, up where living leaves grew above the grasp of the croach, and then fell back down to where it was tied at one corner of the oil-soaked blanket Kitai hauled the line in, and the blazing blanket rose up into the tree's branches and snagged among the living leaves

Fire leapt up from the tree in a blaze, sudden and high, and once again, from the direction of the central spire, whistling shrieks rose up in a solid

wall of terrifying sound-one underlaid, this time, by that deeper whistle, one that overrode the shrieks and continued over the silence

Kitai stared at Tavi, her eyes suddenly wide "What is that?"

"I don't know," Tavi said "But, uh I think, uh I think I woke it up "

They looked at one another once more and, in silent accord, turned together and fled toward the ropes a few yards away, toward the safety at the top of the cliffs To either side of him, Tavi saw the Keepers flooding toward the fire through the trees, closing on them in a carpet of glowing eyes and k.n.o.bby limbs and leathery sh.e.l.ls

Tavi had reached the ropes and Kitai was only a few paces behind when something dropped down from one of the crouch shrouded trees above them, something tall and slender and horribly fast Whatever it was, it wasn't a Keeper, because it reached out with one long limb and wrapped hard-looking, chitmous fingers around Kitai's ankle, hauling her to the ground The girl let out a scream of sudden terror and twisted in that grip

Tavi only saw what happened in bits and pieces He remembered turning to see something that he thought was like some kind of hideous wasp, semitransparent wings fluttering in the glowing light of the crouch, It bent over Kitai, weirdly humped shoulders flexing as its head whipped down, as mandibles sunk into her thigh Kitai let out a horrible scream and struck down at the thing's head with her fists, once, twice Then her eyes rolled back in her head and her body started jerking and twisting in helpless spasm, limbs flailing She kept trying to scream, but the sound came out broken, irregular

The wasp-thing, covered in the glowing slime of the croach, lifted its head and let out a signal-whistle that echoed around the chasm like the tones of some vast bell It shook blood from its mandibles, and Tavi caught a flash of multifaceted eyes, of some kind of yellowish fluid at the edges of Kitai's wounds

"Valleyboy!" shouted a distant voice Tavi looked up to see Doroga, one hand on the rope, leaning far out over the cliff, and even from so far below, Tavi could see that his face was anguished "Aleran! You cannot save her! Come up!"

Tavi looked back and forth between Doroga and the Marat girl on the ground, the horrible thing crouched over her twitching body Terror rose through him, a horrible taste in his mouth, and he couldn't see, couldn't seem to focus his eyes One hand tightened on the rope in helpless frustration

Kitai had saved his life

She had trusted his plan to get them both out of the chasm alive

He was the only one who could help her

Tavi let go of the rope

He turned and ran, not toward the thing crouched over Kitai, but past it, around several glowing trees and to the one they had set on fire Keepers crowded in all around him He could hear them coming through the forest toward him, shrieks and whistles resounding

Tavi leapt up to the lowest branches of the tree, hauling himself into them and started scrambling toward the top, toward the fire Halfway there, he hauled himself up and found himself face-to-face with a Keeper, which reared back from him in surprise, its mandibles clacking against its sh.e.l.l

Tavi didn't have time to think His hand flashed to where he'd put Fade's wickedly curved knife at his belt He slashed it at the creature's eyes It scuttled back from him Tavi followed it, wriggling forward, thrusting the knife at the thing's face

The Keeper let out a shriek and fell backward, out of the tree, its limbs flailing It hit the ground twenty feet below with a crunch and a wet-sounding splat, and Tavi looked down to see it writhing on its back, legs flailing, its broken body trailing glowing fluids out onto the forest floor

Tavi heard more Keepers coming He hauled himself up higher into the tree, until he reached a branch bare of the crouch, slender and unable to support his weight Farther out along the branch hung the burning blanket Fire spread along it, toward the trunk of the tree

Tavi hacked at the branch with the knife, the steel biting into the soft wood Then he gripped the knife in his teeth and hauled at the branch with both hands

It swayed and then broke, peeling away from the tree Tavi scrambled down, trailing the long branch with its flaming leaves, the oil-soaked blanket, and when he had reached the forest floor, he ran toward Kitai

The thing crouched over her saw him coming and turned toward him with a hiss, its mandibles spreading wide, along with its chitmous arms Though its eyes glittered and reflected the light of the fire from a thousand facets, it had a horribly slime-covered, unfinished look to it, as though it hadn't finished becoming whatever it was to be Half-born, half-alive, the huge wasp-thing rattled its wings in a furious buzzing sound and whistled to the Keepers around them

Tavi screamed and swung the branch in a broad, clumsy arc, fire trailing

The thing hissed and drew back from the flames, jerking its wings back sharply

Tavi seized on the advantage, shoving forward with the branch and driving the hissing monstrosity back from Kitai's still form The girl lay, pale and silent, her eyes open but unmoving, her chest heaving in labored breaths Tavi slipped an arm beneath her and, in a rush of terror, hauled her up onto his shoulder He staggered beneath her weight, but grasped the branch and spun about, wildly swinging the blazing wood and leaves and blanket about him

The creature leapt lightly away from him, landing on the wall several yards down from the ropes, horrible eyes focused intently on him

Oh crows, Tavi thought It knows It knows I'm going for the ropes

If he didn't move, he was finished Even if the creature didn't leap on him, he would shortly be drowning in Keepers Even his terrified strength was be ginning to fade, his body to burn under all the effort He had to get Kitai to the ropes, at least He could tie her foot and Doroga could haul her up

Doroga Tavi looked up to the top of the cliff and saw Doroga's pale form there, staring down at them Then the Gargant headman shouted, "Courage, valleyboy'" and vanished back over the lip of the cliff

There was still a chance Shoving the branch in front of him along the ground, he rushed toward the creature, which scuttled nimbly up the wall, a crab-like sideways motion Tavi looked above it, to an outcropping of rock No good He had to get it to move toward him, toward the ropes

Tavi ground his teeth in frustration on the blade of the knife "Oh furies, Kitai I hope this works " Gracelessly, he dumped the girl onto the ground, then leapt toward and grabbed the nearest rope and started climbing

The creature let out a whistle and scuttled toward him He knew that he did not have a chance of escaping it, or of fighting it, there on the ropes, but he took the knife from his teeth and swiped it at the thing

It paused, hesitating just out of his reach Its horrible head tilted, as though a.s.sessing this new threat

"Doroga'" Tavi screamed "There it is, there it is'"

From above came a slow and tortured scream, bellowing in Doroga's ba.s.so, filled with anger and defiance

Tavi would never have believed that a man could lift a boulder that large But Doroga appeared at the top of the cliff again, bearing a stone the

size of a coffin over his head, arms and shoulders and thighs bulging with effort He flexed the whole of his body, a ponderous motion, and the huge stone hurtled down toward the creature

Its head abruptly whirled on its neck, whipping around to face directly behind it The creature moved, its wings buzzing, but it was not fast enough to wholly escape the plummeting stone It flashed by Tavi, missing him by the breadth of a few fingers The creature leapt away from the wall, but the stone crushed against it, sending it spinning out of the air to land on the ground many yards away The stone itself hit the ground and shattered, chips of rock flying, glowing slime from within the croach hurled into the air as from a fountain

Hot pain flashed along Tavi's leg, and he looked down to see his trousers cut by a flying piece of stone, blood on his leg From above came Doroga's defiant howl of triumph, a bellowing roar that shook the walls of the chasm

The creature let out another whistle, this one higher, filled with fury and, Tavi thought, with sudden fear It staggered but could not rise and instead began dragging itself back into the trees, as the glowing eyes of dozens of Keepers began to appear behind it

Tavi dropped the knife, slid down the rope, and ran to Kitai He seized her and began dragging her back toward the ropes, grunting with effort but moving quickly, jerking her over the ground

"Aleran," she whispered, opening her eyes Her expression was pained, weary "Aleran Too late Venom My father Tell him I was sorry "

Tavi stared down at her "No," he whispered ' Kitai, no We're almost out "

"It was a good plan," she said

Her head lolled to one side, eyes rolling back

"No," Tavi hissed, suddenly furious "No, crows take you! You can't!" He reached into his pouch, fumbling through it as tears started to blur his vision There must be something She couldn't just die She couldn't They were so close

Something stuck sharply into his finger, and pain flashed through him again The crows-eaten mushroom had jabbed him with its spines The Blessing of Night

Fever Poison Injury Pain Even age It has power over them all To our people, there is nothing of greater value

Weeping, Tavi seized the mushroom and started tearing off the spines

with his fingers, heedless of the pain. Shrieks rose all around him, came closer, though the still-blazing branch seemed to have confused some of the Keepers, to have temporarily slowed their advance.

Tavi reached down and slipped an arm beneath Kitai's head, half-hauling her up. He reached down to the wound over her thigh and crushed the mushroom in his hand.

Musty-scented, clear fluid leaked out from between his fingers and dribbled over the wound, mixing with blood and yellowish venom. Kitai's leg twitched as the fluid touched it, and the girl drew in a sudden breath.

Tavi lifted the rest of the mushroom to her lips and pressed it into her mouth. "Eat it," he urged her. "Eat it, you have to eat it."

Kitai's mouth twitched once, and then began to chew, automatically. She swallowed the mushroom and blinked her eyes slowly open, focusing them on Tavi.

Time stopped.

Tavi found himself staring down at the girl, suddenly aware of her, entirely aware of her in a way he never had been aware of anyone before. He could feel the texture of her skin beneath his hand and felt the abrupt compulsion to lay his fingers over her chest, to feel the beat of her heart beneath it, slowly gaining in strength. He could feel the surge of blood in her veins, the fear and regret and confusion that filled her thoughts. Those cleared as her eyes focused on him, widened, and Tavi realized that she had felt his own presence in the same way.

Not moving her eyes from his, Kitai reached out a hand and touched his chest in response, fingers pressed close to feel the beating of his heart.

It took Tavi a frozen, endless moment to separate the beating of his own heart, the rush of blood in his own ears, from hers. They beat together, perfectly in time. Even as he realized it, his own heartbeat began to speed, and so did hers, bringing a flush of heat to his face, one answered in her own expression. He stared at the wonder in her eyes and saw that it could only be a reflection of that in his own.

The scent of her, fresh and wild, curled up around him, through him like something alive. The shape of her eyes, her cheeks, her mouth. In that single moment, he saw in her the promise of the beauty that would come in time, the strength that had still to grow, the courage and reckless resourcefulness that matched his own and flamed wild and true in her.

The intensity of it made his eyes blur, and he blinked them, tried to clear the tears from them, only to realize that Kitai was blinking as well, her eyes filling with tears, going liquid and blurry.

When Tavi had blinked the tears away, his eyes returned to hers-only to find not opalescent swirls of subtle, s.h.i.+fting color, but wide pools of deep, emerald green.

Eyes as green as his own.

"Oh no" Kitai whispered, her voice stunned, weak. "Oh no" She opened her mouth, started to sit up-then shuddered once and slumped in his arms, abruptly overwhelmed with exhaustion.

The frozen moment ended.

Tavi lifted his dazed head to see the first of the Keepers edging past the blazing blanket and branch. Tavi hauled himself to his feet, lifting Kitai, and stumbled toward the ropes. He stepped into the loop at the base of one, then reached over to the other, and wrapped it around his waist, around her legs, tying her to him. Even before he was finished, Doroga had started hauling the rope up the face of the cliff. The other rope came in as well, where Hashat must have been pulling it along to keep it tight.

Tavi held on to the rope, and to Kitai, not really sure which one he held tighter. He closed his eyes, overwhelmed, and did not open them again until he and Kitai sat at the top of the cliff, in the cold, fresh, clean snow. When he opened his eyes again, he sat with his back against a stone and idly noted the fresh earth beside him, where Doroga had uprooted the boulder and hurled it down.

A moment later, he realized that Kitai lay against his side, beneath one of his arms, warm and limp, half-conscious. He tightened his arm on her, gently, confused-but certain that he wanted her to sleep, to rest, and to be right where she was.

Tavi looked up and found Hashat staring down at them, wide-eyed, her expression bewildered and then, by slow degrees, becoming indignant. She turned to Doroga and demanded, "What are you going to do about this?"

The headman, veins still standing out on his arms and thighs, tipped his head back and poured out a rich and rolling laugh. "You know as well as I, Hashat. It's done."

The Horse headman scowled and folded her arms over her chest. "I've never heard of such a thing," she said. "This is unacceptable."

"This is," Doroga rumbled. "Other matters are before us now."

Hashat flipped her mane out of her eyes with a toss of her head. "I don't like it," she said, her tone resigned. "This was a trick. You tricked me."

Doroga's eyes glittered, and a smile lurked at his lips, but he said in a stern tone, "Keep your mind on why we are here, Hashat."

"The trial," the Marat woman said and turned back to Tavi. "Well, Aleran? Did you recover the Blessing?"

Tavi s.h.i.+vered and felt abruptly stupid. He had forgotten. In all the excitement and confusion, he had forgotten the trial. He had forgotten that he had used the mushroom he'd needed to win on Kitai. And though he may have saved the girl's life, he had lost the trial. His own life was forfeit. And the Marat, united, would ride against the people of his home.

"I..." Tavi said. He reached toward his pouch-and felt warm fingers inside.

Tavi looked down and saw Kitai drawing her hand back out of his pouch. Her eyes blinked open once, toward his, and he felt more than saw the silent grat.i.tude in them, the respect for his courage.

"But it was so stupid," she whispered. Then she closed her eyes again.

Wordlessly, Tavi reached inside his pouch and found the second Blessing of Night where Kitai had left it. He drew it out on fingers already p.r.i.c.ked and bleeding and offered it to Doroga.

Doroga knelt down on both knees in front of Tavi and accepted the Blessing, his expression grave. He looked down at the mushroom, then at Kitai's thigh, the yellowish venom drying there. His eyes widened with sudden realization, then went back to Tavi. Doroga's head tilted to one side, staring at him, and the boy felt certain that Gargant headman knew exactly what had happened in the alien valley below.

Doroga reached out and laid one huge hand on Kitai's pale hair for a moment, eyes gentle. Then he looked back at Tavi and said, "I loved her mother very much. Kitai is all I have left of her. You have courage, Aleran. You risked your life to save hers. And in doing so, you have saved not one, but two whom I love. Who are my family."

The Marat rose to his full height and reached down his hand to Tavi. "You have protected my family, my home. The One demands that I repay you for that debt, Aleran."

Tavi drew in a sharp breath and looked from Doroga to Hashat. The Horse warrior's eyes gleamed with a sudden excitement, and she drew in a breath, laying one of her hands on the hilt of her saber.

"Come, young man," Doroga said quietly. "My daughter needs to rest. And if I am to repay you, I have work to do. Will you come with me?"

Tavi took a breath, and when he spoke, his voice sounded, to him, to be deeper, more steady than he'd heard it before. For once, it didn't waver or crack. "I will come with you."

He took Doroga's hand. The huge Marat headman showed his teeth in a sudden, fierce smile and hauled Tavi to his feet.