How the Gods Wove at Kyrannon. Ardath Mayhar

heart, joy that lit the mind with starbursts of glory. And they also poured fear, terror, sorrow, grief, all the passions that grind the lives of men between their stones. They filled Heraad as though he were an empty cup, cracking the dry walls of his ignorant conceit and crumbling the foundations of his youthful arrogance.

      The light of the new day found them all asleep, dropped where they sat in utter weariness. The clouds had departed in the night and frost hung upon the junipers in the newly minted sunlight. The first rays awakened Heraad, who stirred uneasily, then sat erect in alarm. Those whom he feared lay sleeping, before him. His hand went to his spear, and he rose and bent over the two who had so wrenched his life from its pattern. In the clear light, their faces were marked with beauty and peace and purity and weariness. No sign was there of the terrible strengths they possessed; they were defenseless now. He lifted his spear and straightened, bringing his arm back as if to strike. But, in the midst of the motion, he looked into the sky and about the little hollow of rock, as though he were bewildered.

      Upon a juniper, just above his head, sat a Grack, its head cocked to one side, staring at him with curious black eyes. He looked into those knowing eyes and, for a heartbeat, he felt the swift throb of the blood through its body, the chill of the juniper twig in its claws, the light gnawing of morning hunger in its belly.

      Slowly he lowered the spear. Moving quietly, he put his scattered belongings into his pack and fastened it onto his shoulders. He lifted the spear again and studied it as though it were some strange artifact found by accident. Then he thrust it deep into the earth beside the sleeping women and turned toward the mountains, moving away into the eye of the sun.

      Before the Grack had flown away, Tisha woke. The shadow of the spear lay across her face, and she turned and touched Cara. Together they sat in the abandoned hollow, feeling the dwindling presence that was Heraad move away, into his own place, leaving their world to its lawful tenants.