Lightnings Daughter, Mary Herbert [year 7 reading list .TXT] 📗

two lords, the Khulinin's oldest allies, made it a point to welcome every arriving clan and chieftain as if all the troubles of the past year had been forgotten. Their attitude spilled over onto their people and helped soothe the barely suppressed anger many still harbored. Unfortunately, they could not make the clans forget everything.

When the remnants of Lord Medb's old clan, the Wylfling, came on the fourth day, the whole gathering nearly shattered in rage and old grief. Only the Wylfling's new chieftain, Lord Hildor, held his clan together and forced them to stand their ground before the anger of the other clans. His courage and the timely arrival of the Khulinin helped defuse a potential tragedy. The Khulinin wer-tain, Guthlac, remembered his orders from Athlone and had the entire Khulinin clan come forward to greet and embrace the Wylfling. Gradually the heated emotions cooled down, and the clans warily got down to the business of the gathering.

The chiefs then discovered another real problem: Lord Athlone was missing. The Khulinin chieftain had not been seen or heard from since he had left Reidhar Treld almost two months before. The Khulinin reported that he was going to Pra Desh with Lady Gabria to find Branth, but they did not know when he was coming back.

The chieftains were alarmed. They did not want to start the serious proceedings of the council without him, yet they could not wait all summer for him to appear. Lord Sha Umar finally suggested postponing the council for at least five more days and offered to send scouts out along the clan trails to try to find Athlone.

The other chiefs readily agreed, and Lord Koshyn and Wer-tain Guthlac sent their scouts out as well. While the chiefs settled back to wait for some word of Athlone, speculation ran rampant through the camps about his disappearance. Rumors spread like flies. Some people whispered that Gabria's sorcery had destroyed him, while others thought perhaps Branth had kil ed him. No one knew what to believe.

On the evening of the fifth day, there was stil no sign of Lord Athlone or his party, and the clans were growing tired of waiting.

Lord Koshyn tried to curb his own impatience during the day, without much success. Immediately after his evening meal, he retrieved a flask of redberry wine he had left cooling in the river and walked downstream along the bank to the camp of Clan Jehanan. He found Lord Sha Umar relaxing on a rug under the awning of his tent. The chieftain's maroon banner flapped idly overhead. The Jehanan leader welcomed the young Dangari gladly, and they sat down to enjoy the cool wine.

For a while they rested in companionable silence, watching the evening activities of the clan. The women were cooking over campfires while the children tumbled in the dirt with the dogs. Some warriors lolled in the shade of the trees. A piper was playing nearby, making his music light and capricious to match the fitful wind that blew through the camp, swirling the dust and tugging at the tents.

Koshyn suddenly sat upright. "That man is a nuisance!" he said in annoyance.

Sha Umar followed his friend's gaze and saw Thalar, the Khulinin clan priest of Surgart, talking vehemently to a crowd of onlookers at the Bahedin camp just across the river. The priest had been using his time to preach against sorcery to all the clans. He knew, as well as everyone else, that the chieftains were going to discuss magic during their council and debate on the possibility of altering their laws.

Thalar took full advantage of his lord's absence to try to influence the other chiefs and their people against sorcery.

"He has certainly been making his opinions known,” Sha Umar replied dryly.

Koshyn looked away, his blue eyes vivid with anger. "And too many people are listening to him. If Athlone doesn't get here soon, he may find the entire gathering ready to exile Gabria and turn against sorcery forever."

Koshyn had fought beside Athlone at Ab-Chakan and was his close friend. He liked the young woman, Gabria, too. He recognized the truth of her arguments to reinstate sorcery in the clans and did everything he could to forward her cause. The fact that his friend Athlone had the talent to wield magic only increased his determination to rescind the law that forbade the use of sorcery on pain of death.

"We can't put the council off much longer,” Sha Umar said, his tanned face lined with worry.

"What do we do if he does not come at al ?"

The Jehanan chief scratched his beard. "If he and Gabria both disappear, the people will think the problem of sorcery will simply vanish."

"No, it won't," the Dangari said vehemently. "Too much has happened for everyone to forget." He gestured to the teeming camps along both rivers. "Somewhere out there are other magic-wielders who know of their talents and are afraid, or those who will learn of their powers by accident and will be killed or exiled. Those people are not freaks. There is a reason some clanspeople can wield magic. We can't keep turning our backs on that power."

Sha Umar's mouth widened into a grin, and he held up his hand. "Al right! You don't need to convince me." He passed the wine flask to Koshyn. "We should push to change the laws whether Athlone is there or not."

"Absolutely. We don't need another tragedy like the one Medb brought down upon us."

"Agreed."

Koshyn leaned back on a cushion and stared out beyond the camps to the far hil s darkening in the purple of twilight. "I just wish I knew where Athlone was."

"And Lady Gabria. Without her, our task will be much harder," said Sha Umar.

"They must have run into trouble."

The Jehanan chief snorted. "Probably Branth. That fool has been nothing but trouble. I wonder where he is."

"Dead, I hope," the Dangari said honestly.

Sha Umar raised his cup to that hope.

At that moment,