Blood of Dragons (Page 104)
Alise swayed in Leftrin’s arms and he tightened his embrace to keep her from falling. ‘Alise, I thought you had gone apart to take some rest! How could you risk yourself so? We are not Elderlings, to fearlessly touch the stones!’
‘How could I not?’ she asked him faintly. ‘How could I not?’ She laughed brokenly. ‘The music, Leftrin. There was music, in one place, and dancing. I wanted to forget what I came for and just dance. Then I thought of you and I wished you were with me …’ Her voice trailed away.
He tipped her face up to look into her eyes. ‘Alise?’ he begged. ‘Alise?’ Her gaze shifted to meet his. She was still there. A bit of life came back into her face. Sedric hovered nearby, with Sylve at his side. He knew they wanted to help but he could not surrender her to them. He suddenly saw them as Elderlings, impossibly different from himself and the woman he held in his arms. He spoke hoarsely by her ear. ‘Why did you do it? It’s dangerous. You know it is! Regardless of what Rapskal may say or the others do, we know what memory-stone can do to us. Many of the Rain Wild folk have drowned in memories. Perhaps Elderlings can use such stones without threat, but we cannot. I know you wish to know all about the city, but touching the stone is something you must leave to the others. What could make you do such a foolish thing?’
Her words drenched and drowned him like a flash flood. He hugged her close to him, his mind whirling with possibilities that had never seemed quite real to him before. ‘I’ll clear the well,’ he promised her. ‘I’ll get that bucket up and out of the way. It’s as much as I can say for certain, but I’ll do it.’
‘It’s the missing piece,’ she said into his chest. ‘Of that I am certain. Silver is what is needed. You will be restoring full magic to the Elderlings.’
Malta had stood and Reyn had trailed her as she approached them. Her lips were chewed and chapped, her hair like straw. The babe in her arms mewed endlessly. ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘For all the ways you have tried to help us, thank you.’ Leftrin did not doubt her sincerity, but pure weariness and unadulterated sorrow sucked the heart from her words. She might have been thanking Alise for a cup of tea instead of thanking her for risking her sanity.
Leftrin stepped back, holding Alise by the shoulders. ‘Bellin!’ he barked suddenly. ‘Take her down to the ship. Get a hot meal into her and see that she goes to sleep in my stateroom. I want her out of the city for a night at least.’ As Bellin approached, Leftrin looked at the well with new eyes. ‘I’ll clear it,’ he promised her again.
The ‘fishing’ consumed the rest of the day. The line was long and the ghost-light of the jewellery barely enough to see anything by. Sedric took a fruitless turn at the effort. A hundred times, a thousand times, the hook slid past the bucket’s handle without catching on it. Keepers and crewmen, all took turns. All failed. When Sylve finally hooked it, she gave a single whoop of excitement.
‘Keep it taut!’ Carson barked at her, but he grinned as he said it. Everyone gathered in a circle around her held their breaths. The Elderling girl grasped the line firmly, holding the tension while Carson slowly took up the slack on the other side of the pulley. ‘Got it,’ he told her, and very slowly she let go of the rope. She backed away from the well’s edge and then stood up, arching her back. Lecter came without asking to take up the line behind Carson. ‘Slow and steady,’ Carson told him, and he nodded.