Tarashana Rachel Neumeier (top 10 motivational books TXT) 📖

anybody talk him into accepting an inTasiyo, I would bet coin on that. Hush, I said. It’s harder when you try to talk.”

I wanted to say that Tano had made that possible with his own cleverness, but I let out my half-drawn breath, relaxed the muscles of my chest and stomach, and lay still.

“Better, yes. That’s really impressive. You’re so relaxed I’d swear you were dosed to the eyeballs, but here you are, perfectly capable of listening. So let me say this too: You ought to marry. There’s that young woman you’ve got your eye on—shh, everyone knows it. Darra inKarano, quite a match, that’s another way anyone could tell you’re supposed to be important among your own people. You ought to marry her and have children. Or if not her, someone. You should have sons. You’ve been wonderful with Tano. Anyone could see that boy’s father practically crushed him. You’ve about got Tano un-crushed, and how long did that take you? Plus your brother misses you terribly, though he wouldn’t thank me for saying so. I mean Raga.”

Of course she meant Raga. I breathed steadily, in and out, keeping my stomach muscles relaxed so that she would finish more quickly.

Lalani went on. “I’m sure Garoyo misses you too, but he’s a busy man and a lot older. It’s different for Raga. You were his older brother who was a warrior, but who also knew all the tales. He respects Garoyo, I mean, who wouldn’t, but Raga looks up to you more than anyone. He would do anything to impress you. You should keep that in mind. All right, last couple. One extra here just to make sure, sorry, but the muscle’s cut and you don’t want that tearing any farther. Next time, Ryo, duck faster.”

She patted my stomach above the rows of stitches and sat back, letting out her breath. “I will never like doing that, but it is so much easier with an Ugaro man who doesn’t even twitch. Sixty-three, Ryo. Are you mad at me?”

I sat up, carefully, rolling to my side so that I did not need to use the muscles of my stomach to push myself up. I still felt those muscles very clearly. The injuries were far less dangerous now that they had been properly closed, but closing a wound certainly does not make the pain less. At least not right away. I got a knee beneath me and straightened, then got to my feet. Lalani offered her hand, and I let her help me, but I did not need help, only to move carefully. Finally, once I was certain I had set the pain at a distance and could speak steadily, I faced her and said, “I am not angry. It is impossible to be angry with you, as you know very well. I will consider your words. Please wash the bandages in the stream and put them to dry. These injuries should be bandaged again to protect your work.”

Lalani picked up the strips of cloth and dashed down toward the stream, so that suddenly she looked younger to me, as Lau people sometimes do. She was actually a little older than I. She had been a talon wife a long time. In that time, she had probably seen many young men and some young women make stupid mistakes. I would have to think about her words to me, but I suspected I would decide she was right about everything.

I wished I knew where my brothers were now. I wished very much that I had any reason at all to believe that Raga or Garoyo were safe. Despite the danger from the Saa’arii warriors and the shiral wind, I wished they had come out of the shadow of the dark tide with Tano. I thought of Hokino and Arayo too. Perhaps Aras had called everyone else to him later ... but he said he had no tie to Raga or Arayo. But he had promised he would try to find them.

I took a breath and let it out. When we found Aras, everything would be better.

I tried not to think of all the great number of things that might go wrong. I did not want to think of those things. Thinking of them would not help in any way.

Lalani came back with the cloth bandages dripping in her hands. She cast a look up at the sky—nothing seemed to have changed; the Moon still stood where she had. The three bright Dawn Sisters still stood near her, out of place. But perhaps they always approached the Moon when they came into the land of the shades.

“The Sun must come to this sky sometimes?” Lalani said, in the tone of a question. “Never mind, it doesn’t matter. Just stay there, Ryo. There’s some scrub willow and other wood down near the stream, so we can have a nice fire and that will dry those bandages. There’s no spare shirt in the pack, that’s one item everyone seems to have forgotten, but I could make you one out of a blanket—”

“I do not need a shirt as much as you need a second blanket,” I told her. “But a fire would be good. There is journey food. You will not like it, but it is the only kind of food we have.”

“I will like anything, I promise you,” she answered, her tone fervent. “I’ll get some wood.”

I picked up the pack, setting aside the pain this caused me, and carried this to a protected place between the boulder and the cliff face. I laid out the blankets. Then I sat down and made myself comfortable. The pull remained steady, which comforted me. But the cliff before us certainly grew no less high while I studied it.

Lalani came back with wood, took in the small preparations I had made, and nodded. “Good!” she said. “I’ll make tisane.”

She had found