Tarashana Rachel Neumeier (top 10 motivational books TXT) 📖

so that the stars return those names to the world, only to redeem the lost. That is why I cannot speak. All the names press upon me. If I speak any word, I will sing. All the names, I will sing all the names of the lost, I will not be able to hold them, I will sing them now, in this place, in the wrong place. Then all my people would be desolate forever.

My father demanded, “You say your people have been lost. In what manner has this happened? Did an enemy come upon them and destroy them? Why do you look with fear toward your own country?”

Inhejeriel gazed at him, her eyes wide and pale. Great lord, yes, not enemies, not enemies who wished to destroy us. But they destroyed us. The people of the sunless sea, the starless sea, the dark sea beneath the black sky, the Saa'arii who live there, those people wished to drown our lands, to bring their sea upon our lands. They had no care for what else might come of that. When the sea rose and flooded south, when the stars above our lands began to go out, we went north to set our strength against the tide. All my people, we set our strength against the black tide, the rising tide of the starless sea. But it came, it rose, it poured acros our land, it destroyed us, my people drowned in the dark tide, all my beautiful people, lost in the darkness, lost, lost! Please, lord, help me remember them, that the stars and the world may remember them and the starless sea may be pressed back and my people not be lost forever.

For some time, everyone was silent. The woman's story was not entirely clear, but her endless desolation was very plain.

I had never heard the name of the people against whom she spoke this accusation. The word she used for these people was strange, with vowels that lingered on the tongue and a little trill in the middle. I wondered what kind of people might live upon the darkling waters where neither the Moon nor the Sun looked down upon them; where even the stars must be a distant presence? Those people must be stranger than the Tarashana, stranger even than the Lakasha-erra.

“These Saa'arii sound very much like enemies to me,” my father said finally. The name was difficult. Inhejeriel had spoken the word with a strange catch in the middle. He did not attempt to say it that way, only set a little pause into the word. “Why did these people wish to drown the starlit lands?”

Inhejeriel held out her hands, a gesture like asking for mercy, but different. She said, The Saa'arii do not speak to the gods, they do not listen to the gods, they do not know the gods. They warred with one another and those who lost, they sought another place to go, a new place for the starless sea. They care nothing for the earth and the sky. Long ago, long ago, we used to trade with those people, but then they would not give, only take. Those who came now upon the black tide would not speak to us. Their rising sea has taken half the starlit lands. The tide rises still, lord, and my people are lost, they are desolate. Please lord, please help me redeem my people.

My father regarded her steadily. “You say your people are lost. Do you mean that they have gone into the land of the shades? If that is so, what is your meaning when you say you will redeem them?”

Inhejeriel answered, They are gone, yes, but they are not in the way, they have gone in a wrong way, great lord. They did not rise to the stars, they fell into the earth, beyond the earth, they fell into the empty dark, the black tide, the shadow of the black tide took them and so they are lost. If they have gone, had gone, if they had gone into the heavens by the way my people should go, they would not be lost, only departed. Please, lord, I must be their remembrance. Please. I cannot die, must not die. I must remember my people. I must go to the place where the stars may answer when I sing their names. Help me come to this place. Please. Please.

When she tried one word and then another, when she tried one phrase and then another, each time she came closer to her meaning, it was as though her desperation also became more clear. When she begged for help, it was not so much as though she said the words of a plea, but more that she touched the heart with her appeal. I wanted to help her. But I did not trust this feeling.

“So,” my father said, his tone considering. “I will say, these Saa'arii may be a dangerous people, but this avila does not dangerous to me. We may choose to help her or we may decline to take up this trouble that has come to her people, but I think I need not put this woman to death at once.”

Aras inclined his head in approval. Garoyo nodded. Inhejeriel shivered, gripping her hands together, her gaze lowered.

“The little serpents seem harmless,” said Seroyo inVotaro, his tone thoughtful. “Until one discovers that they carry venom in their fangs.”

“True,” conceded my father. “Still.” He turned to my mother. “My wife, do you recall any tales of dangerous avila sorcerers? If anyone knows such a tale, I will hear that person.”

Our mother answered thoughtfully. “For many years we traded with the people of the starlit lands, amber and gemstones for grain and wine. Many tribes traded in the same way. Before our own sisters and cousins traded with the people of the starlit lands, our mothers traded with them, and before our mothers, our