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.“Gelsan, I must speak with you.In private.”Gelsan nodded, her eyes searching Kevla’s.“Help us clean up and we will talk.”Kevla obliged, gathering up the bowls and taking them outside to be scrubbed with snow.The young man who had rashly attacked her when she had first arrived—Olar, she believed his name was—lugged out the heavy cauldron.His long yellow hair was tied back in a ponytail and fell to the middle of his back.His young body strained with the effort of hauling the iron pot.Kevla now saw a resemblance between the three she hadn’t noticed before.When Olar went back inside, she said to Gelsan, “He’s your son.”“Yes.And grateful I am that you burned only his torch, not his flesh.”“You must forgive him,” Mylikki said, whispering lest her brother overhear.“He tries so hard to act like a man, but sometimes he doesn’t understand how.Ever since the men—”“Mylikki!”Mylikki drew herself up to her full diminutive height and gave her imposing mother stare for stare.“I told Kevla we would tell her,” she said.“She deserves to know.”“And I have much to share with you,” Kevla said.“You don’t yet know what is at stake.Why my task is so important.”“Few things are more important to me than the well-being of my village,” Gelsan said.“I understand.And I hope to help you.”Gelsan sighed.“Bring in the bowls.” They returned inside.Olar knelt on the floor, trying to get the wood to catch.“Olar, we need to be alone for a time,” Gelsan said.He nodded his head.“Yes, Mother.I will go with Ranin and get more wood from the forest.” He looked shyly at Kevla.“Will…will the Flame Dancer heat up the stones for the hut again today?”“Of course,” Kevla said.Olar’s young face brightened.She watched him go.“How old is he?” she asked.“Thirteen sum—” Mylikki caught herself and smiled without humor.“We count ages by summers, but as we have not had a summer for so long it seems silly to phrase it thus.Will you help with the fire, Kevla? Olar was not able to get it going.”“I’ll do better than that,” Kevla said.She thought about the room being warm, and it became so.“No need for the smoke.”Gelsan shook her head.“You taaskali are remarkable,” she said as she pulled up a stool.She reached for a large sack and withdrew two garments and a small box.Handing one dress to Mylikki, she said, “Mylikki and I’ve mending to do.We do not have the luxury to simply sit and talk.”Kevla nodded her understanding.The other two women fished out what looked like bone needles and sinew.For a moment Kevla watched the bone needles darting through the brightly colored fabric, and when at last she spoke, it was in a hushed voice.“Tell me about the men,” she asked.Gelsan inhaled swiftly.A bright spot of blood appeared on the garment.She sucked her finger for a moment.“Your words first, Fire Woman.”“I have told you who I am.I am Kevla-sha-Tahmu, and I am the Flame Dancer.The Dragon is my Companion.You have seen the sort of power I possess.I do not know the term taaskali, nor what it means, but I do know that while I am unique in my particular abilities, there are others who have similar ones.”Mylikki’s hands had stilled and she regarded Kevla with wide eyes.Gelsan kept her eyes on her work and her needle never slowed, but Kevla knew the headwoman was listening intently.“One such is the man I seek,” continued Kevla.“He is the Stone Dancer.”“What abilities does he have?” Mylikki’s expression had changed slightly.“I’m not sure.But his element is earth, as mine is fire.Whatever his abilities are, they would center around that.”Mylikki opened her flower-bud mouth to speak again, but Gelsan interrupted her.“Why do you seek him?”Kevla suddenly realized what the older woman was thinking—that perhaps Kevla and the Dragon had come to harm this man.“The Dragon and I need his help,” she replied.“For what?”Instead of replying directly, Kevla seemingly changed the subject.“Your song last night,” she said to Mylikki.“You said it is an old song.It’s a story about standing against a Shadow, a Shadow that will wipe out everything in the world as if it had never been.”Mylikki nodded.“Yes, that’s right.”“Were there any other verses? About a beggar boy, about a Dancer lying dead in the streets?”Mylikki’s blue eyes grew enormous.“Yes, there are,” she whispered.“The song has many verses and is almost always shortened for performing.Where did you hear them?”“I never heard that song until last night,” Kevla told her.“But I know the story behind it.I know because—because someone I knew lived that story in a life before this one.He was the beggar boy on the parapet, and I was the Dancer lying murdered in the streets.”She had their full attention now.They stared silently at her, mouths slightly open.“That man was called a Lorekeeper,” Kevla continued.“The Lorekeepers are the only ones who remember what has happened in the past.They find the Dancers and help them remember.”“Dancers?” Gelsan’s voice was sharp with disbelief, but Kevla noticed that she had stopped mending the garment.“That’s what we’re called,” Kevla said.“I’m not sure exactly why.” She took a deep breath and decided to reveal everything she knew.“I am the element of fire incarnate.The man I seek is earth.There are three others—water, air, and spirit.We five have lived four times before, fighting to protect the worlds into which we are born.We stand against the Shadow and somehow—I don’t yet know how—we try to hold it back.If we win, that world survives.If we fail, it is engulfed by the Shadow, erased as if it had never been.Twice we have won, twice lost.This is the final time—the final Dance.The fate of more than one world rests upon what we do here
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