His gaze focused on M'kar again and the humor faded slowly, like water draining from a basin. "You need to flee, Little Blade. To a kinder place. Where you will make many strong, brave, clever friends. You will need them when you come back. To anchor you." His voice took on that hollow tone that made her shiver. "A good place where you don't need honor scars. Always more and more honor scars, until you're erased, buried under them. Come back when you don't want to. Make sure the boostifaks don't get what they want. Make sure you do get what you want. When you come back, the surbda craters will be safe hiding places. Understand? The safest places on the planet. Even though they need to be taken apart once and for all. Hear me?"
"Yes," she whispered, and nodded hard,
when he gripped her shoulder with a bony hand and looked deeper into her eyes.
"Safe for you. Maybe you'll see Etrusca. But
remember this, child. You can only go in and out safely a few times. After
that, you leave pieces of yourself behind. You'll get eaten. Bit by bit."
The intensity shattered off his face, and he was only a frail, crackle-voiced
old man again. "But who knows? Maybe you're the one who can fix the broken
pieces. Pull the rotted tooth before the whole body is poisoned." His fingers
tightened on her shoulder again. "This is important. Take the broken
pieces away. Off the planet. Where their power won't pull at us and keep trying
to shred us. Promise me, Little Blade."
"I promise."
"Good." His eyes filled with tears and he shuddered and exhaled, then gulped in air like he had tried to run a race up the highest tower steps. "Etrusca's marks protect you." A snort escaped him, turning into a snicker. "Old Anguak would have a brain-spark, if he got a look at you. Proud of you," he added, as the door swung open and Ashrock walked in.
No comments:
Post a Comment