The Blue Sword (Damar #2)(61)

"Yes," she sighed, and tapped a finger on Gonturan's hilt, and thought of the red-haired rider on the white horse. He had looked as though he knew where he was going, although she had to admit that he had also looked as if the knowledge gave him no joy.

"Not he," said the man with yellow hair. "The Lady Aerin. You should begin to recognize her, you know; you have seen her often enough."

She blinked at him.

"You carry her sword, and ride to a fate not entirely of your own choosing. It is not surprising that she in some manner chooses to ride with you. She knew much of fate."

Not surprising. It continued to surprise her. She would prefer that it surprise her, in fact. She permitted herself - just briefly - to think about her Homeland, with the wide grassy low hills and blue rivers, when the only sword she knew was her father's dress sword, which was not sharp and which she was forbidden to touch; and where the only sand was at the seaside. She rediscovered herself staring at a silver pot over a tiny fire.

"I'm afraid I can't comfort you very much with predictions; it is pleasant when I can comfort anyone with predictions, and I always enjoy it as much as possible because it doesn't happen too often. But I can tell you even less than I can usually tell anyone, and it hurts my pride." His hand closed around the dark stone at his neck; it glowed through his fingers like fire.

She looked at him, startled.

"You have already begun to see the hardness of the choices that you will soon be forced to make; and the choosing will not be any easier for your not knowing why you must choose." His voice took on a singsong quality, the red light of the stone pulsed like a heart, and the heavy eyelids almost closed.

"Take strength from your own purpose, for you will know what you must do, if you let yourself; trust your horse and the cat that follows you, for there are none better than they, and they love you; and trust your sword, for she holds the strength of centuries and she hates what you are learning to hate. And trust the Lady Aerin, who visits you for your reassurance, whether you believe it at present or not; and trust your friendships. Friends you will have need of, for in you two worlds meet. There is no one on both sides with you, so you must learn to take your own counsel; and not to fear what is strange, if you know it also to be true." He opened his eyes. "It is not an enviable position, being a bridge, especially a bridge with visions. I should know."

"You're Luthe, of course," she said.

"Of course. I told Corlath in particular to bring you - although he has always brought his Riders if he brings anyone. And I knew you had been made a Rider. I don't ask for anyone often; you should be pleased."

"I can see the two worlds I am between," she said, unheeding, "although why the second one chose to rise up and snatch me I still don't understand - "

"Ask Colonel Dedham the next time you see him," Luthe put in.

"The next - ? But - " she said, bewildered, and thrown off her thought.

"You were about to ask me a question important to you, for you were trying to put your thoughts in order, when I interrupted you," said Luthe mildly, "although I won't be able to answer it. I told you I am not often comforting."

"What are your two worlds?" she said, almost obliterating the question as she continued: "But if you can't answer it, why should I ask? Can you hear everything I'm thinking?"

"No," he replied. "Only those arrow-like thoughts that come flying out with particular violence. You have a better organized mind than most. Most people are distressing to talk to because they have no control over their thinking at all, and it is a constant barrage, like being attacked by a tangle of thornbushes, or having a large litter of kittens walking up your legs, hooking in their claws at every step. It's perhaps also an effective preventative to having one's mind read, for who can identify the individual thorn?"

Harry laughed involuntarily. "Innath said you lived where you do, high up and away from everything, because lowland air clouds your mind."

"True enough. It is a little embarrassing to be forced to play the enigmatic oracle in the mountain fastness, but I have found it necessary.

"Corlath, for example, when he has something on his mind, can knock me down with it at arm's length. He's often asked me to come stay in his prison that he calls a city, saying that I might like it as it is made of the same stone as this - " He gestured upward. "No thank you." He smiled. "He does not love the stone walls of his city, and so he does not understand why I do love my walls; to him they look the same. But he knows me better than to press it, or to be offended."

"If it is only within arm's length you find Corlath overwhelming, I have no sympathy for you," Harry said ruefully, and he laughed.

"We soothsayers have other means of resistance," he said, "But I shall be sure to tell him you said so."

She sobered. "I'd rather you didn't, if you don't mind. I'm afraid we're - we're not on the best of terms just now."

Luthe drummed his fingers on the wooden armrest. "Yes, I did rather suspect that, and I'm sorry for it, for you need each other." He drummed some more. "Or at any rate he needs you, and you could do a lot worse than to believe in him." Luthe rubbed his forehead. "But I will grant you that he is a stubborn man at times."