[Lanen Kaelar 03] - Redeeming the Lost Read Online Free

of three days and nights, without
cease and without hope of rest—and before that, two full days of flight to reach
the tiny isle where we had rested and drunk from a small, brackish pool. None
had eaten since the fires of the earth had taken our island home from us, and
although we do not normally require large amounts of food, we were all in
desperate need of sustenance.
    Here, however, came one in whom pride was
stronger than exhaustion—Idai, weary but unbowed, striding towards me from the
eastern side of the field. She it was who, following me, had led the Kantri
through the everlasting Storms and across the wide expanse of the sea. I walked
to meet her and bowed formally, in the mingled Attitudes of Joy and Praise, in
acknowl-edgement of all that she had accomplished.
    “Iderrisai! My heart rejoices to see thee
safe,” I said aloud, adding in truespeech, “Safe and well, and with all our
people. It is a great thing that you have done, Idai. You will be remembered
among the Kantri forever.”
    “I thank you, Hadreshikrar,” she said gravely,
aloud. She remained silent otherwise. I turned to follow her gaze—ah. Yes, she
would not bespeak me on seeing him, lest truespeech betray her deeper thoughts.
The Gedri—no, human, I must remember—the human called Varien approached us
swiftly from the edge of a small stand of trees in the west. Varien, the
Changed One. He who had lived a thousand years as Akhor, the Lord of the
Kantri-shakrim, soulfriend and dear as a son to me, and who for most of his
life had been dearly loved by Idai. Poor Idai. Akhor had never returned her
love or encouraged her regard: but even among the Kantri we cannot choose whom
we will love. It was less than a full year past that he had been changed,
through a kind of death and rebirth, impossibly, from his true form to a
creature with the form of the Gedri children, but with his soul and his mind as
they had ever been.
    I glanced again at Idai and knew the pain in
her heart, though she tried to hide it. Truespeech does not always require
words, after all. She had loved Akhor for most of her life, knowing full well
that he did not return that love but unable to deny her own heart. For her to
see him now was little less than agony. It was a measure of her greatness of
soul that she did not hate Lanen, who had caught Akhor’s heart between one
breath and another while yet he was of the Kantri. She and Lanen had made their
peace: but now Lanen was stolen away by great evil, and all Akhor’s thought and
all his mind and all his soul were focussed, waking and sleeping, on getting
her back. A lesser creature would have rejoiced inwardly at Lanen’s misfortune.
Idai has a great soul.
    I had known Akhor from his birth, a thousand
and some winters past; he was soulfriend to me, and apart from my son was the
only soul on live who knew my full true name. He had possessed the form of a
human for less than six moons. It was still very hard for us all to accept,
this strange being who was undeniably Akhor in his soul but withal so very
different. So small, so fragile! I prayed to the Winds that he would not be so
short-lived as the children of the Gedrishakrim usually were. By all rights he
should live yet another thousand years, in the common way of our people.
    Varien hurried over to meet us. Idai bowed her
head low, and without thinking he leant over and stretched out his neck as if
to greet her in the Kantri manner. The very feel of it must have stricken him
wrongly, though, for he swiftly stood upright. Instead, he reached out with his
hand and placed it, oh, so gently, upon her cheek, where the solid faceplates
of my people curve back to protect the great vein in the neck. She trembled a
little at the contact.
    “Idai! Oh, welcome and welcome, my namefast
friend, my heart soars at sight of thee,” he said. He dared to gently stroke
her dark copper faceplate, gazing into her steel-grey eyes. “When we parted I
feared I would not see you for many