Tarashana Rachel Neumeier (top 10 motivational books TXT) 📖

to reveal those trees, though there had been no mist. We stood now in the great forest far to the south, not high in the northern mountains. Almost before I realized this, a little distance away, not far, one of the small deer, a stag, leaped out of the air and dashed away, not floundering in the deep drifts of snow as he would have in the land of the living, but bounding lightly across the surface. He was neither the red of deer in the summer nor gray as in the winter, but a soft, misty white. Other deer followed the first, some visible, but more revealed only by their tracks.

The wild, beautiful singing of the wolves stopped, and then the wolves poured past, pursuing the deer. As with the deer, a few of the wolves were visible—misty white like the stag—but many we could not see at all, only their tracks.

Then they were gone, deer and wolves together, and the great trees with them, and we stood again in the high mountain valley, where we had stood before.

For a long moment, everyone was silent. Then Geras, beside me, exhaled slowly. “That was ... did that really happen? Is it likely to happen again?”

“Who can say?” Etta said. “Things like that happen here. Except for a wolf who turns into a Lau! I have never heard any tale where such a thing happened!”

“I think that this was a good thing to happen,” I said. “I think the taiGara and all Ugaro shades will be less concerned that we brought Lau here after seeing that woman greet us in that way.”

My sister nodded, smiling. “I think that could be so. I think it will be so! I think that is why she greeted us—one reason why. I wonder very much how that woman came here!”

Aras said, his tone bemused, “I think ... never mind. Remind me later and I’ll tell you who I think our unlikely visitor might have been.” Everyone looked at him in astonishment of a different kind, and he said, “You children are all too young to have heard the tale, probably, though I imagine your people know it. It is not important now. You know, if I hadn’t seen that woman with my eyes, I would have had no idea she was there. I don’t think I can hear shades at all.” He was looking at Inhejeriel. “Perhaps we should have expected that.”

The old dead, the old shades here are not important, whispered Inhejeriel.

“She did not mean that as it sounded,” Aras said at once.

No, no, no offense, I meant no offense, only those who are lost, the desolate lost, all our lost, those are not the same as those who have taken the proper path and come to the proper place.

No one could be angry at that. I said, to turn the subject, “Etta, if you ask the gods to turn our path toward Talal Sabero, we may hope they might hear you.”

“Yes,” Etta said. She was still gazing after the wolf who had also been a woman. But now she turned and smiled at Aras. “Later, if the chance comes, I would like to hear that story.” Then she said to me, “Yes, Ryo, I will try. There is no song already made for that. Let me think.” She added “I can think while I walk. Probably it would be better to sing while I walk.”

“Close together,” I said. “Iro—”

Iro nodded. “Yes.” He swung his pack to his shoulders and shifted his weight, making sure he could reach the hilt of his sword easily. He looked speculatively the way we had been going, toward the impassable cliffs he had described. The great mountain of Talal Sabero must lie beyond, but we could not see the mountain from this place. The light of the moon turned the pale stone of the surrounding cliffs pure white, setting aglow the ice that streaked those cliffs. Snow began to fall, though the sky was high and crystalline and perfectly clear; the flakes caught the moonlight, so that sparks of silvery fire seemed to fall all around us, melting as they touched the green grasses. The air had fallen utterly still. I could hear the soft whisper of the falling snow. The sound was familiar and peaceful. More important, it was not loud enough to mask the sound of a tiger’s footfall.

I said, “We will walk quietly. Iro and I will be listening, so do not speak unless you have something to say. Etta, if you sing, that is different; do not hesitate. If we come to a cliff that we cannot climb, we will think about what to do, but if the gods tilt our path in some way that is more helpful, perhaps we will not face that kind of problem.” I added, to Inhejeriel, “I hope you can walk for a little while.”

I can walk. I will walk as far as I must.

I nodded, thought I doubted very much she could walk far. I said only, “Stay close to Etta. If there is any kind of danger, we can protect you both more easily if you are close together.” Then I added to Geras, “If there is a tiger, stand back to back and use your swords to keep him at a distance. I know it will be hard if we cannot see him, but we will try to give him reason to seek easier prey.”

“Oh, this sounds fine,” Geras muttered. “Can the weapons of living people even touch one of these invisible shades?”

“Tales say one thing and another thing,” I admitted. “But I do not know what else we can do should something of the kind happen. Is everyone ready? Then we will go on.” I nodded to Iro, who turned and set our direction, along the length of the valley.

Our steps shushed softly through