Night Song (The Guild Wars Book 9) Mark Wandrey (christmas read aloud txt) 📖

“Not most, no.” A sharpening of his face told Shadow the older Zuul had noticed that he hadn’t answered the question. “I am Isgono, of Cho’Hosh.” He paused, giving Shadow a moment to reconcile the translator’s stumble. Cho’Hosh, it repeated, layering over it Day Song with the faint chime that indicated it wasn’t a perfect translation.

Shadow filed that away, figuring it for a clan name that meant more than its simple word translation, and when he blinked in confirmation, Isgono continued.

“Nor are they always memories, exactly, that some remember from their earliest days. Or their later days. A scent, a moment, understandings that they can replay in dreams.”

Excitement shot through him, tightening his hands on his own legs, cramping his toes in their boots. “Zuul have visions?”

“Humans might call it so. As you must have learned, we sense beyond what they do. In some Zuul, the things they sense are put back together in a different way.”

“Some Zuul?” Shadow had to hold himself still, striving not to communicate his near-overwhelming interest, on the chance that it would stop or distract him from the conversation.

“Earth pup, what do you remember of your time before Humans?”

“I don’t.” He looked away, eyes coming to rest on some middle distance. “I was very sick in my early days, even after arriving on Earth.”

“But.”

“But I dream.”

Isgono’s grunt communicated satisfaction and absolutely no surprise.

“I dream of space, sometimes. Three stars that orbit and fall and grow and wane and rise. Travel and loss. I forget who I am, and I remember, and I howl, or hear others howl, or both. I remember war I’ve never seen. I remember a smell I can’t place when I wake up.” He shook his head, regaining control of his words and studying the older Zuul. “I thought they were dreams, like Humans have, because my siblings don’t have them. I’ve followed Human holy people, trying to have visions and learn more.”

“It feels almost right sometimes, but doesn’t settle,” Isgono stated, and leaned forward. He’d tensed within the first few words Shadow spoke, then relaxed, jaw dropping slightly in a reassuring smile.

Shadow nodded, keeping his ears attentively pricked toward him even as nerves fired throughout his legs in the pressing urge to do something.

“Earth pup, as I said, I am Isgono of Cho’Hosh, and as you will now know, I am called to the Sei of my clan. More properly, you would refer to me as Sei Isgono Hosh.” The translator stuttered over ‘called’, and Sei offered multiple options.

One rose to the top for Shadow: shaman. Isgono was a holy one in his clan. Zuul could be called to things, to spirituality of some sort. Maybe, like Humans, they chose multiple paths. Maybe they weren’t all mercs. Maybe he could fight or, maybe Ripley could be a pilot and. Maybe they weren’t all made for war—he pulled himself up sharply, aware he’d gone rushing down paths of perhaps when there was someone directly in front of him who actually knew.

He wasn’t limited to wondering and poking around the immensity of GalNet.

He could just ask.

It spun him so hard he went right back to being wordless, his ears rotating and focusing on everything and nothing.

“Calm your mind.” Isgono’s voice pitched lower now, and the translator responded by slowing his words slightly. “Did you note the cube I paused at before?” He stared directly into Shadow’s eyes, then flicked his glance away, as though dismissing him.

A test?

Shadow did remember, and if this was to be his test to prove his worthiness to learn, or just a distraction for the wild tension Isgono sensed in him, he had it. He pushed away from the bench, further away from the door, aiming surprisingly well, for all his inexperience in zero G. In a single leap, he met his target, and didn’t remember steadying himself on anything along the way.

Then he smelled what the cube held and remembered nothing at all.

Did minutes pass? Had they somehow gone through the stargate already? He blinked, his eyes gummy and dry, and registered how deeply he breathed. The cube’s scent filled his lungs, his thoughts, his everything.

“This…” he managed, words crystallizing only with enormous effort. “This is…this is home.” It carried the commonality he’d only begun to notice in his siblings and himself. It brought the image of Dana, and the feeling of late evenings in their family quarters, without any identifiable reason to connect those memories to this cube. Something of the outback and the sea and the feeling of falling through stars…

“Yes.” Isgono sounded…Shadow couldn’t quite determine the emotion, not when words were still so difficult to come by in his own head. Sad. Triumphant. Worried. Proud. “Shadow, go and settle in your bunk. Rest. Bring your siblings to me once we are through the gate.”

Perhaps because Isgono had said his name, or perhaps because his entire world had narrowed to and exploded from the reality of that one new and yet utterly known scent, Shadow obeyed without asking anything at all.

* * *

“How are the kids?” Dana asked. “Are they scared, excited? Do they miss home?”

“They’re fine,” Alan replied. It would take several minutes for the reply to reach his wife. They were only minutes from the stargate. Paku was set for an immediate transition; she wouldn’t have time to reply. “They’re either excited or nervous.” He laughed a little. “Maybe some of both? They all send their love. We’ll be home in a few months, safe and sound. I hope it’ll be aboard Starbright, too. Love you and see you shortly.”

He keyed the transmission as completed, so she wouldn’t reply when he wouldn’t be there to receive it, and shut down the interface. On a monitor in the little cabin he’d been provided, Earth was a little