Dreamsnake

She was probably safe in the underground city, gathering new knowledge that would atone for the actions of Arevin’s cousin. Arevin reflected that Stavin’s younger father was lucky he did not have to pay for his terror himself. Lucky for him, unlucky for Snake. Arevin wished he had good news to give her when he did find her. But all he would be able to say was, “I have explained, I have tried to make your people understand my people’s fear. But they gave me no answer: they want to see you. They want you to go home.”

At the edge of a meadow, thinking he heard something, he stopped his horse. The silence was a presence of its own, all around him, subtly different from the silence of a desert.

Have I begun imagining sounds, now, he wondered, as well as her touch in the night?

But then, from the trees ahead, he heard again the vibrations of animals’ hooves. A small herd of delicate mountain deer appeared, trotting across the glade toward him, their twig-thin legs flashing white, long supple necks arched high. Compared to the huge musk oxen Arevin’s clan herded, the fragile deer were like toys. They were nearly silent; it was the horses of their herders that had alerted him. His horse, lonely for its own kind, neighed.

The herders, waving, cantered up to him and pulled their mounts to flamboyant stops. They were both youngsters, with sun-bronzed skin and short-cut pale blond hair, kin by the look of them. At Mountainside Arevin had felt out of place in his desert robes, but that was because people mistook him for the crazy. He had not thought it necessary to change his ma

“You’re a long way from the trade routes,” the older herder said. His tone was not belligerent but matter-of-fact. “Need any help?”

“No,” Arevin said. “But I thank you.” Their deer herd milled around him, the animals making small sounds of communion with each other, more like birds than hoofed creatures. The younger herder gave a sudden whoop and waved her arms. The deer scattered in all directions. Another difference between this herd and the one Arevin kept: a musk ox’s response to a human on horseback flailing their arms would be to amble over and see what the fun was.

“Gods, Jean, you’ll scare off everything from here to Mountainside.” But he did not seem perturbed about the deer, and in fact they reassembled into a compact group a little way down the trail. Arevin was struck again by the willingness to reveal personal names in this country, but he supposed he had better get used to it.

“Can’t talk with the beasties underfoot,” she said, and smiled at Arevin. “It’s good to see another human face after looking at nothing but trees and deer. And my brother.”

“Have you seen no one else on the trail, then?” That was more a statement than a question. If Snake had returned from Center and the herders had overtaken her, it would have made much more sense for them all to travel together.

“Why? You looking for someone?” The young man sounded suspicious, or perhaps just wary. Could he have met Snake after all? Arevin, too, might ask impertinent questions of a stranger in order to safeguard a healer. And he would do considerably more than that for Snake.

“Yes,” he said. “A healer. A friend. Her horse is a gray, and she has a tiger-pony as well, and a child riding with her. She would be coming north, back from the desert.”

“She’s not, though.”

“Jean!”

Jean scowled at her brother. “Kev, he doesn’t look like anybody who would hurt her. Maybe he needs her for somebody sick.”

“And maybe he’s friends with that crazy,” the brother said. “Why are you looking for her?”

“I’m a friend of the healer,” Arevin said again, alarmed. “Did you see the crazy? Is Snake safe?”

“This one’s all right,” Jean said to Kev.

“He didn’t answer my question.”

“He said he was her friend. Maybe it’s none of your business.”

“No, your brother has the right to question me,” Arevin said. “And perhaps the obligation. I’m looking for Snake because I told her my name.”

“What is your name?”

“Kev!” Jean said, shocked.

Arevin smiled for the first time since meeting these two. He was growing used to abrupt customs. “That is not something I would tell either of you,” he said pleasantly.

Kev scowled in embarrassment.

“We do know better,” Jean said. “It’s just all this time out here away from people.”

“Snake is coming back,” Arevin said, his voice a little strained with excitement and joy. “You saw her. How long ago?”

“Yesterday,” Kev said. “But she isn’t coming this way.”

“She’s going south,” Jean said.

“South!”

Jean nodded. “We were up here getting the herd before it snows. We met her when we came down from high pasture. She bought one of the pack horses for the crazy to ride.”

“But why is she with the crazy? He attacked her! Are you sure he was not forcing her to go with him?”

Jean laughed. “No, Snake was in control. No doubt about that.”

Arevin did not doubt her, so he could put aside the worst of his fear. But he was still uneasy. “South,” he said. “What lies south of here? I thought there were no towns.”

“There aren’t. We come about as far as anybody. We were surprised to see her. Hardly anybody uses that pass, even coming from the city. But she didn’t say where she was going.”

“Nobody ever goes farther south than we do,” Kev said. “It’s dangerous.”

“In what way?”

Kev shrugged.

“Are you going after her?” Jean asked.

“Yes.”

“Good. But it’s time to make camp. Do you want to stop with us?”

Arevin glanced past them, southward. In truth, the mountain shadows were passing over the glade, and twilight closed in toward him.

“You can’t get much farther tonight, that’s true,” Kev said.

“And this is the best place to camp in half a day’s ride.”

Arevin sighed. “All right,” he said. “Thank you. I will camp here tonight.”

Arevin welcomed the warmth of the fire that crackled in the center of camp. The fragrant burning wood snapped sparks. The mountain deer were a dim moving shadow in the center of the meadow, completely silent, but the horses stamped their hooves now and then; they grazed noisily, tearing the tender grass blades with their teeth. Kev had already rolled himself up in his blankets; he snored softly at the edge of the firelight. Jean sat across from Arevin, hugging her knees to her chest, the firelight red on her face. She yawned.

“I guess I’ll go to sleep,” she said. “You?”

“Yes. In a moment.”

“Is there anything I can do for you?” she asked.

Arevin glanced up. “You’ve already done a great deal,” he said.

She looked at him curiously. “That isn’t exactly what I meant.”

The tone of her voice was not quite a

“I don’t understand what you do mean.”

“How do your people say it? I find you attractive. I’m asking if you’d like to share a bed with me tonight.”

Arevin looked at Jean impassively, but he was embarrassed. He thought — he hoped — he was not blushing. Both Thad and Larril had asked him the same question, and he had not understood it. He had refused them offhandedly, and they must have thought him discourteous at best. Arevin hoped they had realized that he did not understand them, that his customs were different.

“I’m healthy, if you’re worried,” Jean said with some asperity. “And my control is excellent.”

“I beg your pardon,” Arevin said. “I did not understand you at all. I’m honored by your invitation and I did not doubt your health or your control. Nor would you need to doubt me. But if I will not offend you I must say no.”