Tarashana by Rachel Neumeier (little red riding hood ebook TXT) 📕

the shadow. It is like a shadow, but not like a shadow. I think maybe a voice. Not a voice, but like a voice. I do not remember what this voice say, but I think I remember ... I think I can go ... one way or another way. I go into the ... into the shadow. That is my choice, but ...” He stopped again, swallowing. Finally he finished, in a low voice, “I am somewhere else, in the dark. I am lonely—”

“Alone,” I suggested.

“Right, thanks,” Geras said in darau. “I’m probably embarrassing myself here.”

“You speak well enough. Everyone understands you. You chose to go into the shadow tide?”

He gave me a wry look. “I don't exactly remember, Ryo, but I guess so. I think so. A good thing, too, since here I am. Pretty sure it wouldn't've happened that way if I'd made a different choice. I think that could've been the idea, but I wouldn't lay coin on anything about it.” Then he went on, in taksu again. “I am alone. It is as Garoyo say, that place. I look for Aras. I think I hear him. Maybe. I am not certain. Then I hear Etta call my name, and then someone else, not Etta. This other voice call me again and again. I am somewhere else, walking somewhere else. Light is everywhere. There is no darkness, only light. Not sunlight, or only little sunlight, mostly starlight. This is very close to the end. Many things happen everywhere else before that time. Someone else should tell about those things.” He looked at me uncertainly. “That’s all. Should I sit down, Ryo?”

I nodded. “You do not remember dying?”

“No, I don’t, for which I thank the gods.”

“The gods were generous,” I agreed. Geras sat down, and I went on with my part of the tale, explaining how Aras called Suyet and Lalani out of the tide, and then Tano, but then the Saa’arii warriors found us.

Suyet, ashamed of his actions then and of his quick death, did not want to say anything of that. He said only, “I died almost at once. There is nothing to say. I died, and then it happened for me just as Geras described.”

Tano said, very softly, “Suyet did better than I did. I disobeyed Ryo and—”

“No, Tano, you did much better than I—” Suyet interrupted him.

“Everyone was courageous and tried to do his best,” Aras said firmly. “Everyone should stop trying to explain this tale in any other way. Etta asked for the gods to send the shiral wind. This part of the story is hers.”

Etta took up the story. “I asked the gods to strike with their whip, the shiral winds,” she explained. “Many Saa'arii killed themselves so they could come through the black tide into the land of the shades as shadow warriors. Inhejeriel explained that later, how the ka’a, the proudest warriors of the Saa'arii, did this so that they could find her and kill her. There were so many! I thought the storm would drive them back, drive back their tide. This happened as I hoped, except that my brother and everyone else, they did not see the shiral coming, so they were all scattered. Only Inhejeriel and I were protected enough by the cliffs. I thought we would both die anyway, because I thought everyone else had been flung from the heights and killed. I thought the ka’a warriors would surely find us and kill us. Inhejeriel knew the way we should go, but she was not strong enough to climb all that way and I was not strong enough to help her. I prayed for help, but I thought our enemies would have everything as they wished.”

I wanted to put my arm around her, but Iro was already beside her, so I stayed where I was. Etta leaned against Iro and went on. “Aras found us before any of our enemies. After that, I had more hope. Together, he and I could help Inhejeriel enough. Aras said he was calling everyone else. He said everyone had been thrown far into the sky and scattered, but the gods had softened the blow of their whip as much as they could, so no one was badly hurt. Aras said he thought he might be able to call Garoyo and Hokino out of the shadow of the black tide. He said he would try to find Raga and Arayo and I should think of them as clearly as I could, so I tried to do that. We climbed and climbed. We had to go to the highest peak of the sacred mountain, where a person can walk up into the sky. It was a long way, and by then, the shadow of the Saa’arii tide was coming back.” Stopping, she looked at Iro.

Iro took up the tale, speaking quietly. “Those of us who were scattered came together far below. We knew which way to go by means of the sorcerer’s leash. We knew Aras was alive. We hoped Etta and the Tarashana sorcerer might be with him. We traveled as quickly as we could. The gods guided our steps, but this was a long way. We came to Talal Sabero. I was killed there, too quickly to do anything useful.” He spoke in calm, measured tones. “I thought if I died, I would become a shade and then I would fight in the way that shades fight. But by then the shadow tide was very close. I think this is why I did not become a shade in the ordinary way. I fell into the dark, perhaps because I was killed by these shadow warriors or perhaps only because the shadow tide was so close.” Iro paused. Then he said, in the same calm way, “Fortunately, Tano inGara was wiser than I. Many shades were battling our enemies there. Tano did not permit himself to be