Elizabeth Kerner - Redeeming the Lost

I breathed deep in the clear morning. It would not be a hardship to fly over these lands seeking hidden chambers. Kolmar was lush and inviting, what little I had yet seen of it. I would enjoy that particular task.

Kedra bespoke us then—they had already found Will's friend, and had sent Will on ahead. Will, seemingly, had talked him out of simply appearing at the farmer's door. I snorted. Kedra was impulsive as ever, and the flight across the sea had not improved his sense of humour.

Akhor, though—Varien—alas, he was changed yet again. I gazed after him. The joy that had filled him when he left our old home with his beloved was gone. That joy that had sustained me, knowing that he had found his soulmate at last, though all my years of hopeless love fell like dead leaves around my heart. He could barely speak for his anger and he was wild with helplessness.

I could look at Varien no longer and wandered about, trying to distract myself. Rella was rummaging in her pack for something. Beside her stood two other humans, solemn and unmoving, but some creature was joining them from the shelter of the trees. It stood beside them—what—

"Shikrar!" I cried. "Whatever is that bright creature that waits with the Gedri children? It—is it—by the first Wind that ever blew, it looks like—"

"Come, Idai," he said, amusement in his eyes. "Come, I would introduce you to my friend, the Lady Salera."

Shy as a bird the bright one stood as I came near, raw courage holding her unmoving in the face of awe. I lowered my head slowly to look closer—oh, she was of our Kindred, that was certain. She appeared to be no more than the merest youngling. And gleaming in her shining copper faceplate were eyes blue as a summer sky, and a soulgem the same—colour—a soulgem. A soulgem.

"Hadreshikmr, I will beat you for keeping this from me," I swore in truespeech. "Name of all the Winds that ever were. A soulgem. The creature has a soulgem. How has this come to be?"

I could not stop staring, but to my relief it was mutual. Shikrar took refuge in speech.

"Idai, this is Salera, the first of the Lesser Kindred to come into her own," he said, and his own wry amusement was transmuted now to a kind of awe. "She and her—Kindred—are younger than the moon. They were brought into the light of reason but three days since." His voice danced with it. "New-come to the world, new-come to speech and reason. It is a great wonder."

I could barely speak myself. "How, Shikrar?" I asked, never taking my eyes off the litding.

"I was not there, Idai," he replied gendy. "Why do you not ask Salera?"

I shook myself and bowed to her. "Your pardon, Salera. I am the Lady Idai. Little one, you are a wonder and a mystery. Of your kindness, will you tell me how you come to be here, as you now are?"

"It was the Silver King Varien and his Lady Lanen who opened our minds," said Salera calmly. "We all were called by some deep song in our hearts, we met all together in the High Field, and— the Lord and the Lady wakened us." She bowed her head briefly, that we might see her faceplate more clearly. It touched my heart, for it was the same gesture every youngling of the Kantri makes for a time after their soulgem is finally revealed. "Where before was darkness, now our soulgems gleam as bright as yours. The Silver King opened our minds to speech that day, and the Lady Lanen guarded the narrow way, that we might pass over in safety."

Even Shikrar looked surprised. "1 have not heard this version, Idai," he told me in truespeech. "What did she guard you from, Salera? What threatened you?"

"Fear," replied Salera. She gazed at the two of us steadily. "We could barely understand what Lord Varien offered us, but we knew deep within that it was change beyond measure, and that it could not be undone once it was done. It was... frightening." She fluttered her wings in remembered agitation. "Frightening is too easy a word. Fear, and fear, and fear beyond that. Even I resisted, and I knew that my father was on the other side of that change. But Lanen—she showed us her heart, we saw that she too was Changed and become more than she had been, and the great joy she had in her new life. Her gift was to awaken our courage. It was a great gift indeed."

She bowed slighdy then, as if it were a strange movement to her, and said, "If you are answered, Lady, can you now tell me where is my father gone?"

I blinked. "Your father, littling?" I asked, confused, but Shikrar interrupted, "He is gone with my son Kedra to find food for the Kantri. He will return swifdy, I have no doubt."

She relaxed visibly—

"Name of the Winds, Shikrar, they use Attitudes but a talon's breadth removed from our ownl" I cried in truespeech.

—and continued, "It is well." She saw that I stood in Astonishment and laughed. "Lady, forgive, you cannot know—Will raised me from a kitling, he is the only family I have ever known." Her speech was a little slow, a little stumbling, and she sometimes managed the more difficult human sounds and sometimes did not. Without thinking I addressed her in truespeech.

"Solera, might I bespeak you? Human speech is difficult, and I know not if you have yet learned our own language."

She sat bolt upright, in the absolute image of Astonishment, and stared wide-eyed at me. Her speech instantly became all but incomprehensible. "How iss thiss done? Hwat iss this hyou ssay? I hear hyourr voice yet you haff not spoken!"

"Hadreshikrar, do you mean to say you have not bespoken this child?" I said, turning to Shikrar in amazement. "You, who are the first always to introduce younglings to truespeech!"

To my delight, he could not answer at first. It is not easy to surprise Shikrar, the Eldest of our Kindred, and it always pleased me when I was able to do so. "I—before she, before they were—oh, ldai, I have not even tried to bespeak her since she and her people awakened!" He turned to her, tenderly, and spoke quietly using the broadest kind of truespeech. "Lady Solera, I beg your pardon. My friend Akhor—Varien—told me that you could not hear him, but that was before you came into your own."

"Hwat iss thiss bespppeakking?" she asked him, her wings fluttering in her agitation.

"Calm yourself, little one," I said, trying to be as gentle as I could. "It is natural for our people. This is the Language of Truth, the language of the mind. With it, we may speak to one another when we are far apart, or when we are aloft and the wind will not carry sound between us."

"How isss it done?"

"It is done with thought, littling," said Shikrar calmly, and aloud. "Where most thought is scattered abroad, like clouds in the sky, traespeech is more like to a single star—focussed." He continued in traespeech. "This kind of speech, which we start with, may be heard by all who care to listen. It is the first kind we learn and the easiest to master. There is another kind, whereby we may speak only to one particular soul at a time." He paused a moment. "That usually takes some years to master, but you are not as young as you appear, I would guess. You might achieve that level of concentration much faster than is usual."

"How shall I do thiss?" she demanded.

"Let us begin slowly, and with a warning," said Shikrar, still speaking broadly. I managed not to laugh. I recognised the very words. It was the same speech he had given to every youngling he had ever taught. Teacher-Shikrar indeed!

"Thoughts are truth, and traespeech will reveal your inner thoughts, whether you want it to or no, until you have become accustomed to it. It is impossible to lie in this speech, for the lie will burn like a beacon, and in any case your underthought will give you away."

"Hwat iss to lie?" Salera asked, in all innocence.

Shikrar bowed. "It is to say that which is not so, little one," he said aloud. "Forgive me. I suspect it is not within you."