The Glass of Dyskornis Read Online Free PDF Page B

He’d accept a short delay before I stepped into it. He wouldn’t like it, but he’d let me do it. He wouldn’t have much choice.
    What about Ferrathyn and the Council? I can’t know for sure, of course, but I suspect they’ll want a definite answer tomorrow. They might accept the delay if I could be confirmed, or sworn in, or whatever, before I left. But that would still require a decision right now, which is what I’m trying to avoid.
    And here’s the sixty-four dollar question: if I leave Raithskar and get out of his reach, will Worfit take out his anger on the people close to me? Would I be justified in taking away their protection?
    Puzzles! Always puzzles!
I complained.
I’m not getting anywhere.
    Gharlas is responsible for all this
, I thought.
If
he hadn’t stolen that fool gemstone, Zaddorn wouldn’t have harrassed Worfit into threatening me.
    But then, I’d never have gone to Thagorn. For that matter, Markasset would have had no reason to follow Gharlas away from the caravan in the middle of the night and get himself killed.
    Would I be here if Markasset were still alive?
I wondered.
And if both our personalities were intact, in the same body, which one would dominate? Unimportant, since it didn’t happen that way, but as an intellectual exercise, I’d have to say the native, because of his familiarity with the world and the way his body worked.
    I can’t buy Thanasset’s explanation of me. I’m not part of this world, wherever it is. Or I wasn’t, until I died in my own. And if there was some purpose in my coming here, as Thanasset thinks, it’s my guess that I’ve already accomplished it by getting the old man off the hook over the Ra’ira’s theft. So the rest of this life is mine, and I do want it to be worthwhile. All I have to do is decide how to support myself …
    I drifted off to sleep.
    I woke late in the afternoon, alarmed to think I might be late meeting Illia. Keeshah was instantly alert and, as he had already buried the remains of his meal, we took off running.
    I clung to his back with hands, elbows, and thighs, trying to make myself an extension of Keeshah. I closed my eyes against the wind, and reached out to form a light linkage with Keeshah’s mind. He loved to run, to stretch himself and drive the ground along underneath him. I let my problems drift away as I shared that total, physical joy with the great cat.
    We stopped at the gate of the city, and I walked Keeshah home, all the way to the semi-dark house at the back of Thanasset’s yard. As I left him, I realized that he hadn’t brought up Thagorn again. I supposed he had considered his last words sufficient.
    I went to the back door of the house and found it off its latch, swinging wide open. A shiver crept up my spine.
    “Milda! Thanasset!” I shouted, as I ran into the house.
    The midhall was a mess. Dishes had been brought from the dining room and shattered against the fine parquet walls. The portraits and sketches which had decorated one wall had been pulled down and thrown around; not one glass frame was intact. The beautiful parquet was marred, and the floor was littered with broken crockery.
    “Markasset?” The voice was old and thin, and it sounded from the dining room.
    “Milda!” I ran in to find her bending over the dining table, rubbing a dark and glistening oil into white scars that crisscrossed its polished surface. “Are you all right, darling?” I asked her. I put my arm around her shoulders and turned her face toward me, pulling her gaze away from the table. Her eyes looked through me at first, then began to focus.
    “Markasset!” This time, her voice carried awareness. She moved to hug me, then drew back. “Oh, I forgot. You’re not …”
    “It doesn’t matter, Milda,” I said, and pulled her into my arms. The top of her bald head barely reached my shoulder. “Please tell me you’re all right.”
    With a little sob, she put her arms around me and hugged me with all her strength.