Maeve Read Online Free PDF Page A

change the plan. There’s not enough water to go the way you wanted. And we can’t move as fast as the kaffon. So we head due east. Should get to the edge in a couple of days. Can you climb?”
    Aleytys was silent a minute. She let Gwynnor draw ahead, then narrowed her eyes and unfocused them. “Harskari. Shadith. Swardheld.”
    Three faces blinked into being. Harskari looked a little impatient. “What is it?”
    â€œAny of you mountain climbers?”
    Swardheld grinned. “I was born in the mountains, Leyta. Remember? No damn rock I can’t climb. Once …”
    â€œHeaven forfend we hear another of your stories, old growler.” Shadith’s voice was gently mocking.
    Harskari turned cool, amber eyes on her companions and they quieted immediately. “Why, Aleytys?”
    â€œThough I was born a mountain girl, I never climbed anything. Raqsidani women weren’t allowed to. Now it looks like I’ll have to go down a cliffside.”
    As Gwynnor walked along waiting for his answer, he realized that the silence had gone on too long. He looked around. The star-woman was standing slumped against the side of the ravine, her eyes half shut, her mouth moving soundlessly. Talking? To someone? To something? He shivered in sudden, superstitious fear. Reluctantly, he edged closer.
    She opened her eyes and smiled at him. “Yes.” Her voice was a warm contralto that he found gentle on his music-starved ears. “I can climb.” She pushed away from the wall of rock. “I was born in the mountains.”
    She walked beside him, her stride long and free, one accustomed to walking, not like those feeble types from the city. More and more he felt confused by her. He couldn’t fit her anywhere among those in his experience, not as enemy and certainly not as friend. And how could anyone be neutral about her? The wind blew over her and brought him her complex scent, a tart-sweet smell that disturbed … excited … She was taller than he was, had a look of completeness about her, of knowing who she was and what she was, needing no one, nothing. He envied her and distrusted her. Wanted her. Despaired. She seemed to point up all the things he found wrong in himself. Sunk in the melancholy gloom that was the curse of his temperament, he plodded wordlessly beside her.
    â€œAny more of those devils about?”
    He looked at her, startled to hear her break the silence. She smiled and the knot began dissolving inside him. Tentatively, he smiled back. “They have a kind of nest-clan arrangement. Several pairs together. So we’d better keep watch. Holy Maeve be blessed, they don’t fly about after dark.”
    â€œThat’s a relief.” She raised her hands high above her head, stretching and twisting to relieve muscles held too taut too long. “I wasn’t looking forward to shivering under my blankets waiting for old big mouth to descend on me.” A sudden thought sent her eyes to his. “Or do you have worse mouths that inhabit the night?”
    He grinned at her, obscurely pleased by this evidence of her mortality. “Only snakes. They like your body warmth and crawl under the blanket with you.”
    â€œMy god.” Shaking her head, the starwoman shortened her stride to match his and paced down the winding and deepening ravine toward the haunt of the rising sun.

Chapter III
    The meager fire glowed red and gold in the blackness. Aleytys felt its gentle heat bathing her face as she stared at the constantly altering patterns of dark and light.
    â€œThere’s no need to keep watch.”
    She looked up. Gwynnor’s eyes shone phosphorescent green in the firelight. She smiled. “Your night’s too long for me. I need to do some thinking before I sleep.”
    He lay down and pulled the blanket over his head, his feet pointing toward the fire. Almost between breaths he was asleep.
    With a sigh, she tucked her blanket