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little people were rooted fast in the city and they seemed unable to think of anyone voluntarily venturing
out of it. She faced warnings and pleas which ate at her patience. Once or twice she wondered if the
Hassitti might even take steps to detain them  perhaps using some trick such as the maze of light.
However, Kadiya continued to draw upon her store of hard learned patience, insisting that she must go.
To her surprise she was suddenly backed by the dreamers when she sat in council with Gosel and the
other Seniors.
Quave was the leader of those sleep sages, a Has-sitti whose eyes were not bright buttons but rather
veiled by a cloudy film as if he used other means of sight. He was treated with great ceremony by his
people. When he came into the meeting one of his attendants carried a bowl, not of the metal Kadiya had
seen elsewhere but rather fashioned of some age darkened wood.
After Quave had settled in the seat Gosel hur-riedly quitted, the bowl was set on the table before him.
He seemed to huddle there with his head low-ered, looking into the bowl's depths where a dark liquid
was cupped. His next move was so sudden that Kadiya was caught by surprise. The Hassitti's paw shot
out from beneath the edge of the thick shawl draped about him and the claw digits caught at Kadiya's
wrist where the girl's hands lay on the board.
That grip was tight enough to jerk her forward and Quave raised his head so that the seemingly blind
eyes fixed on her.
"Dreams have come." Quave's words were sharp in her mind with a demanding note. "Noble One, if you
cannot dream  then look! Call upon that which you need for your purposes!"
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Need for her purposes? Kadiya's thoughts were not in clear order. She needed knowledge of a kind
which was not common, which in the very depths of her she dreaded. Who might have such knowledge?
There were wisewomen among the Oddlings  and there was Haramis!
She stared down into the bowl, fastening her thoughts upon her sister, striving to picture her in those
depths as she had seen her last at the Citadel.
' 'Haramis  '' she called the name aloud even as she also sought with the inner thought.
There was no stir of liquid in the bowl, but its dark surface grew brighter from a spark in the very center,
the dim radiance spreading out toward the edges from the heart of light.
The picture was not clear. Walls seemed to flicker in and out of being. Along those she thought she
could see books and scrolls stored, though kept in neater order than the room she had searched here.
There was a table on which clustered flasks and jars, a pile of parchment sheets. She who sat before
those, pen in hand, was even less visible than her surroundings.
"Haramis!" Kadiya drew upon her will and en-ergy to make contact with her sister.
That shadow which was Haramis suddenly raised her head as if summoned, turned a little so that Kadiya
could now see her sister full faced. Lips moved in that face, the eyes peered as if the other strove to see
through some barrier.
"Haramis!" The whole scene wavered and rip-pled as if the liquid mirror in which she viewed it was
disturbed. Then it was gone.
"Who is this Weaver of dreams you strive to sum-mon?" Quave loosed his grip on Kadiya.
"My sister, she whom the Archimage Binah chose to take her place as sorceress and Guardian."
"She is of great Power, this Haramis?"
"Of us all she holds the Power the strongest," Ka-diya answered. "I can wield this," she touched the
sword cautiously, "but I am not learned in the ways of magic. That is why I must discover all which I can.
I have no dreams to warn or guide." She tried to erase the hasty tone from her voice, to make Quave
under-stand her real helplessness and through him these others.
For a space of several breaths the other did not answer. He made a small gesture with one claw and the
attendant who had brought the bowl picked it up again.
"This is possible," Quave's reply came at last. "We are not those who deal with strengths as the Noble
Ones knew. If you believe, One Who Has Been Dreamed, that you must seek knowledge, then you
indeed prove that you are of the Ancient Ones  forever did they so." He pulled fussily at his scarf and
then looked to Gosel.
"If this one must venture forth, then let aid be given. There is that arising which will cloud the sky far
darker than any storm we have known. Noble One," now he turned to Kadiya, "there was evil in the
past, and those you know fought it. Evil arises again. Be careful in your seeking, step lightly on any trail,
and be ever ready with your eyes and this thing of Power. Lately I, too, have dreamed. I think that
something begins to shadow us so that we cannot detect our danger."
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He arose and bowed his head to Kadiya. Feeling the force of personality in this dreamer, the girl
in-clined her head in turn.
So there was no more disinclination on the part of the Hassitti to help them. Jagun displayed satis-faction
over that. They would once more face the fury of the storm and the trip down the Upper Mutar, daring
again passage through the Thorny Hell. However difficult it would be to travel through the almost
constant storms it would be better to go now than to wait for better weather, for the force of wind and
flood would keep a-den many of the dangerous inhabitants along the way.
They would need a boat and supplies, the latter easier to assemble than the former. But at Kadiya's
questioning, Gosel produced a strange, skiff-like transport which could be used over both slimy mud and
the river water  or so Jagun pronounced, hav-ing inspected it carefully.
The Hassitti had had other visitors through the years  or rather at a much earlier time there had been [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]