Tarashana Rachel Neumeier (top 10 motivational books TXT) 📖

to speak of anything that happened. I am sorry. I should have come to speak your name and help you remember the way back from the sky. You were a long way from the world. Everyone says so. But …” I could not bear to see anyone. Not even my sister. I did not say that.

“You were upset. I understood. You did not need to be concerned for me. Nothing I did was dangerous.” I raised my eyebrows, and she amended this, “Very well! Nothing I did was very dangerous, because the gods have been very generous to me. Every time I begin to lose myself, my star sings my name back to me so that I remember myself better.”

“You have a star of your own?”

“Yes. Or, no. I think the Tarashana would say I belong to a star, Ryo. This is not extraordinary. Every Tarashana is known to one star. Now some Ugaro people are also known to stars.” She leaned against me again. After some time, she said without looking at me, “Aras took all those names and gave them to Lalani, and Lalani gave them to me, but only one at a time because I could only listen to each one properly when I came to that name. None of us would have known what to do or how to do it, not even Inhejeriel, except that Aras showed us. He understands Lau memory-keepers and Ugaro singers and Tarashana sorcerers. No one else understood well enough how to make everything work.”

“Yes,” I said. “I am certain you are right about everything.”

Etta sighed. She was silent for a little while.

“Etta?”

She blinked and straightened, rubbing her face. “Yes, yes, I am here.” After a moment, she said, “Everything was hard. But I am glad you did not kill him.”

“I wanted to. But also I did not want that.”

She nodded. “Iro said that if he stood in your place, he would not know what to do. He said you would find the strength to do what you should.”

I pushed her gently away from me so that I could look at her face. “Iro said that?”

“Yes, Ryo.” My sister smiled at me. Much of the liveliness had come back into her manner, so that now she seemed much more like herself. She said, “Iro is ashamed because he died before he could do anything useful. If he had not died so soon, he might have been more use to Aras, and then perhaps—”

“Iro should not take any of the blame for anything that happened,” I said, so surprised I interrupted her. “He has no reason to set any fault against himself. He acted bravely and honorably in everything.”

“I know that, Ryo, but it is not my place to say so. If you tell Iro that, he may listen.”

“Or he may be offended at my presumption.”

She looked at me sidelong. “Oh, indeed, I am certain that possibility concerns you! No, speak to him when the chance comes, Ryo.”

“So,” I said. It was true that the son of a warleader might hold himself to a difficult standard. Iro had only nineteen winters. This might be the first time he felt he had failed at something important. That was something I could understand. “I will talk to him. Sometimes courage and honor are not enough.”

“Yes,” my sister said, gently this time. “I think that is so. I think everyone behaved courageously and honorably, until courage and honor were not enough.” Then, before I could answer her, she jumped to her feet and held out her hand to me. “I know it is not my place to argue with a warrior regarding matters of honor! Pretend I said nothing. I am beginning to hear the stars too clearly again. I want ordinary voices around me, speaking of ordinary things. Let us go to the fire.”

She was shameless, but I could not be angry with her. I said nothing, letting the subject turn, but I took her hand and let her pull me up.

As we walked along the path toward the fire, she said unexpectedly, “In the winter country, it is nearly spring. Time ran in a different way while we were in the land of the shades. Did you know?”

I had not realized this.

“So the pass is closed, but I think,” she said, smiling at me, “I think if I ask for wind to blow the snow out of the pass, perhaps the gods might send a wind to do that. I would like to go home, if this is possible. The stars are beautiful, their voices are beautiful, but I would rather hear them from a greater distance. Now that everyone is better and you have made a better peace with Aras, perhaps we might try the pass, if my brother and my eldest brother agree this would be wise.”

I had not guessed that she might clear the pass. I thought of that. I wanted to go home. I wanted that intensely. But I said, “Perhaps this may be so. But the starlit lands are warm.”

“You mean, for the Lau. So, that is true, Ryo. This is a gentle country. But the Sun does not rise in this land, so that cannot be comfortable for any Lau. I think if you ask, you will find they would all prefer to endure the cold rather than linger in a land where the Sun never shows his face.”

Obviously this was so. I nodded.

“So. I think perhaps we should go home soon, if we can do this. We might be able to come back into the winter country in time for the Convocation. You have not been to a Convocation for two winters, Ryo. This would be the third you have missed.”

Her words struck me oddly. For a moment I did not know why.

Then I knew. I had meant to