The Space Between Read Online Free

twenty
kilometers distant. She quickened her pace. As the day wore on and
the trail failed to veer away, she started to run.
    The carpenter led her home. On the way she
passed a half finished mallet lying in the path and another pile of
timber, stripped of bark but not yet starting to take shape.
Meledrin did not slow. She raced along the path, lungs burning,
legs aching, mind aswirl with possibilities.
    She ran into the village
late in the afternoon, exhausted and wondering what she might find.
But all seemed to be as it had been when she left. Other residents
went about their business as if nothing was amiss. The quiet life
of Grovely went on. She jogged among the cabins, following the main
trail — a ribbon of brown on the velvet of the lawns. Eventually,
she collapsed under a tree on the edge of the common lawn that
fronted the Ceremonial Hall. Without the breath to speak an Ending , she danced her
hands in a lazy, perfunctory manner. A moment later, Delfrana
tottered through the rune carved Ancestors' Door and onto the porch
of the Hall.
    "Meledrin," the old woman said. "Meledrin,
you look as though you have seen a spirit of the dead." She came
down a couple of steps. "It is not seemly for a Warder to perspire
in that manner. Get you where you cannot be seen."
    "Delfrana, High Warder, someone is here."
Meledrin tried to catch her breath. "I have followed a trail from
out in the forest. It led directly here."
    "We are aware of the stranger." Delfrana
waved her walking stick. "Now go, before a saveigni sees you."
    "You know?"
    "Yes. Two nights past, while we were
sleeping, someone completed the restoration of the dock. Last night
the fence around the sheep enclosure was renovated as well." The
old woman waved her stick again. "Go and wash, Meledrin.
Quickly."
    Meledrin nodded and climbed slowly to her
feet. Her legs were aching. Her shirt and breeches were clinging to
her skin.
    "Oh, if a man should see you now," Delfrana
hissed. She spun about and returned to the Hall. Meledrin plucked
at her clothes to stop them from clinging and hurried away.
    In her cabin, Palsamon was waiting.
    "I heard you had returned," he said,
offering her a flask of cool water. "Larawin passed by not long
ago. She informed me that she saw you running towards the
Ceremonial Hall." There was more water in a cauldron over the fire,
and Palsamon added more even as Meledrin drank. He went outside to
the well for one more bucketful then maneuvered the bathing tub
into the middle of the room. "The water will be a good while yet.
Why don't you rinse off first, while I prepare some food."
    Meledrin nodded; her lover
knew everything she needed. How could I
return him to the cabins of the saveigni?
    When the shutters were closed tight, she
stripped off her odorous clothes and crossed to the cauldron.
    "What do you know of the stranger?" Meledrin
asked. Like all elves, she was tall and thin with slightly angular
features, large eyes, and pale skin. She did not think she was
particularly beautiful with only her unusual copper colored hair
setting her apart, but Palsamon was watching her avidly. Dipping a
cloth into the water, she started to wipe away the grime of the
forest.
    The man shrugged, not taking his eyes off
her though he was slicing fruit. "He is a large man. Or woman I
suppose, though the latter is unlikely."
    "Why and why?" Water sluiced down over her
body and disappeared between the floorboards.
    "Why is he large? Because of the size of the
tracks his boots left. Bigger than anyone I know." Palsamon was
mixing fruit in a bowl, but still he watched. "Why is he a man?
Because he was able to repair the dock on his own in a single
night. The quartet of us who started the task expected to be
working for another day. There was much heavy lifting
involved."
    "So, we have a large man wandering around
Grovely mending things at random? In the forest he was making
things. At least, he started to. Nothing seemed to be completed,
however." Discarding the