THE SOUL WEAVER

I peered through the thick limbs, strained my ears to hear a footstep… a cough… a breath… to tell me that the villain who’d done this was within reach of my justice. The three odd creatures from my dreams were still chuckling, hidden behind their oak tree. Several pairs of boots pounded the leafy ground, but the three men were ru

I laid my mother in the damp leaves beside the lilacs. She fought for breath, and her hands grew cold though I chafed them unceasingly. Her eyes clouded. What could I say to her? I needed her to know… “Hold on. Trust me.” I couldn’t think of anything else. She wouldn’t want to hear what I was going to do to the person who had hurt her.

And so I left her, trying to ignore the rumbling in my head that felt like an approaching earthquake, and I hurried to where the dwarf and his companions awaited me. “I must go away from here now.”

“To what awayness would you go, great Master?”

“Outside the walls of this parkland, to the outer gate. Can you show me the way out?”

“Nicely can we do that. But not more? Not into the treeland or the grassy abiding? Not to the place of many walls?”

I had no idea what they meant. “No. Just show me how to get over the walls and back to the main gate without being seen” - the shouts were getting very close - “and it has to be now.”

“Now!” said the dwarf.

“Now!” echoed the brown man and the ru

The only ill effect of the strange transport was a distinctly queasy feeling. My nausea wasn’t helped in the least by the bloody knife in my hand. My mother’s knife. Stupid to pull it out of her. I dropped it hastily. My hands were sticky, and I stank of blood. Thank all gods that my father was a Healer.

“Unsettles the belly,” said the dwarf, gri

“That’s a truth,” I said, “but I’ve no sword sticking through my gut, either, and that would be more unsettling yet.” I gave the three a proper bow, and thought that perhaps when I had finished the next step of my escape plan, we might try their magic again. “I thank you, Sir - ?”

“Vroon?” said the dwarf, hesitantly.

“I thank you, Sir Vroon. Well done.”

The dwarf puffed out his chest and gri

There simply wasn’t time to decipher his odd speech. My father’s rage rent the night. If I just had enough power left to do what I needed. A simple thing…

I did. After a long few moments, Jasyr raced through the gates and stopped right in front of me, quivering and tossing his head, just as he did when I galloped away from my dreams. The only problem was that another horse followed right on his tail. And that horse had a rider.

“I knew it, you bloody bastard. I’ll kill you for this. How could you do it?”

He was off Molly and on top of me before I could blink, and I was afraid I might have to break both his arms to keep him from doing what he said. His eyes were blazing, and he obviously didn’t care in the least what I did to him, unless it was kill him before he’d done the same to me.

“I didn’t do it,” I gasped, getting him pi

“She’s dead. You killed her, you black-hearted devil.”

“She won’t die. He’ll save her. If it’s possible, he’ll do it. I don’t have the skill for healing, so I called him to come. Would I have called him if I wanted her to die? I don’t. Of course, I don’t.”

“I don’t believe you. Her blood is all over you.”

Vroon and his friends grabbed Paulo and yanked him out from under me, and he didn’t even notice, any more than he noticed the blood dripping from his nose into the dirt or the fact that his shirt was half torn off him. He never took his eyes from my face.

“Why should you believe me?” I said. “I wouldn’t either, if I were you. So believe what you want; it doesn’t change the truth.”

“I don’t want to believe it. I thought I knew you.”

“Then listen to what I say. I’ll swear on anything you want that I didn’t hurt my mother. I could never do that.”

“You’ll swear, but it don’t mean dung on my boots when you don’t have a lick of truth in you.” He kicked the bloody knife toward me. “Pick it up and kill me, too. It’s the only way you’ll get away with it.”

“Go back and help them. Tell my mother what I’ve said. I’ve got to get away or I’ll be dead, too. Then we’ll never know who really did it, or what’s the truth of any of this business. Look who’s holding you. They showed up tonight and helped me get away. Do you remember what I told you about my dreams?”

He had finally settled down enough to take notice of the three odd-looking fellows who had his arms pi

“I’ve got to go find out what’s going on, Paulo. It’s all co

“I won’t.”

“Suit yourself, then. Stay here and rot.” I mounted Jasyr and motioned to the three to let him go.

He strode across the trampled grass to where his Molly waited for him. I squeezed my eyes closed, trying to erase the image of a ski

When I opened my eyes again, I saw Paulo only as he was that night: tall, wiry, surprisingly strong, thrusting himself into the saddle with the two good legs that the Prince - no, that my father, Karon - had given him. He ripped the tail off his shirt, wiped the blood from his face and threw the rag on the ground. “I’m going with you.”

“With a murderer? A traitor? Would you ride with a Lord of Zhev’Na?”

“Maybe. Maybe not. You’ve got some convincing to do.” He didn’t say which way I’d have to convince him.