Tall Man stared vacantly at the fire, his turtle-like face expressionless.
“Fair is fair,” she said. “We made a bargain. What single thing would you change? Come on, Magician, why are you here?”
The wind rustled the leaves high overhead, and within seconds, a pelting of drops spattered their blanket. Cold, wet.
Would it ever be warm again?
He frowned slightly, then said in a weary voice, “It’s the spiral. Circles within circles. The Light must always balance the Dark. Of all the things I’ve done, I’d change quite a few.”
“Like letting the Power go to your heart?”
“Just like that.” His smile seemed remote. “For such a little man, Power expanded within me. And I used it for myself, for my aims. What is given is taken away. What I misused now misuses me.”
“What does that mean?”
When he sat silent, she reached over and cuffed him. “Tell me! You’ve hinted, weaseled, and misdirected. I gave you my secrets, rot you, now give me yours! It has something to do with the Mask, doesn’t it? I must know!”
She stretched over Silver Water’s sleeping form and shook him. “Tell me, Magician.”
Tall Man licked his lips, nodding. She released her hold and backed away carefully, aware that she’d come perilously close to waking her daughter.
Tall Man’s mouth pursed as though he’d eaten something bitter, something he wanted to spit out but couldn’t. “A little more than two tens of years ago, I was asked to perform a Healing by a High Head Clan. The patient was dying, and there wasn’t anything that could be done. Power runs its course. Lives are lived, be they long or short, and the soul departs. That’s all there is.”
Tall Man closed his eyes as if in pain. “She had arrived just before I did. I remember that my heart skipped when I first saw her, and I could do nothing but stare. Her sister had sent for her, and she lived quite far away, in the north. She had kinship ties with the High Heads … strong ones. Not only had her sister married a High Head, but they were descendants of prestigious High Head clans.”
“Like me.”
He seemed to stumble, adding quickly, “Yes, like you. I was enchanted, completely obsessed with her. I admit that I’d known a great many women of passion and beauty. You met one in the Blue Duck holdings—but this one, she was different. Not just a beauty. She had a poise, a bearing like no other woman I’d ever known.
“When she looked at me, my soul melted like beeswax on hot rock. She moved with a stately grace, and her gestures were those of a dancer. Her body sang to mine with every curve and motion. Those incredible dark eyes carried me into worlds of soft fantasy. Her face might have been the Earth Mother’s, full of promise.
“I barely managed to conduct my duties, and, of course, the man died. She stayed for the funeral; her sister needed her. I made sure that I, too, stayed.
“Everything she did sprang from some presence of the soul that I had never encountered before. She was kind, gentle, caring, concerned with everyone and everything. Here, before my eyes, was a perfect woman! Do you understand? She was the complete fulfillment of every man’s fantasy. Charming, beautiful, sensuous, intelligent, and compassionate. Body and soul, she might have been sent to me by the Mysterious One himself.”
“And did you tell her of your love?”
Tall Man hung his head. “Yes. On the night of the cremation.
She listened, hands in her lap, and then she told me this: ‘ Tall Man, your words are most flattering and complimentary. I treasure your eloquence and earnestness. However, I am happily married to a wonderful man. Were I not his, and he mine, your warmth might lead me to reciprocate. Instead, I shall honor and cherish your kind words, and I hope you will do the same with mine.’ ” “She did that very well,” Star Shell said warily.
“As she did everything.” The dwarf fingered the hem of his shirt, his stubby fingers rolling the material back and forth. “I couldn’t leave it at that. Not I, not the Magician! Through my skills, I determined the route she would take north, and left several days before she did. I was waiting at the clan house where she would spend her last night before arriving home.
“Imagine her surprise when, upon her arrival, she found me.
Nor did she disappoint me. That keen soul of hers didn’t let her down and she understood immediately what I was about. With that perfect control, she told me that there could be nothing between us. And in that moment, I understood just how sincerely she meant it.”
“But you couldn’t leave it be, could you?”
Tall Man shook his head. “I made up my mind instantly.