Sword-Maker(150)
Time to protest again. “—can’t—Del … Del—” I sucked in a breath. “You have to go look for Ajani.” The world was graying out. “You have to go meet Bellin, to find out where Ajani is … bascha, you have to go … you’ve waited too long already—”
Del knelt down by me. She put a hand to my temple and drew away bloody fingers. The look in her eyes was odd.
I squinted through the fog. “You have to find Ajani.”
Her tone was very fierce. “To hoolies with Ajani.”
“Dell—wait—come back—”
But Del didn’t wait.
And Del didn’t come back.
Sixteen
He knelt next to me. I looked him in the eye. “Am I dying?” I asked. “Is there something I should know?”
Alric smiled. “No. You only feel like it. Here.” He gave me a bota. “Drink a little of this. It’ll make you feel better.”
I drank. “Hoolies, that’s aqivi!”
“It’ll help settle you. I got hit over the ear once … it takes away your balance.”
“Is that why I keep falling down?”
“That, or clumsiness.”
Gingerly, I touched the tender place. It was, as Alric said, right over my ear. It was swollen, matted, a little crusty; no new blood. It also hurt like hoolies.
It was too quiet. “Where is everyone?” I asked. “Where did everyone go?”
“To the dance. They wanted to wager on Del.”
“Oh, hoolies … it’s my dance—”
“You’re in no shape for dancing.”
“Maybe this will help.” I drank more aqivi. Tried to uncross my eyes. “I have to go,” I said. “Do you think I can sit here while she’s out there dancing?”
“I don’t expect you to, no. But I also don’t expect you want me to carry you.”
I drank yet again, then hitched myself to my feet. Stood there wavering, trying to maintain balance. “Why are there two of you?”
Alric stood up. “Two of me?”
“Yes.”
He took the bota away. “I think you should go to bed.”
“After I see about Del.”
“Tiger—”
“I have to see about Del.”
Alric sighed. Put away the bota. Took me under one arm. “We’ll never make it to the circle.”
It took great effort to speak. “Certainly we will.”
“Then why don’t you show me the way?”
“First just show me the door.”
Alric steered me toward it.
By the time we made it through the alleys and out to the circles, I was more than ready to lie down and pass out. But I didn’t dare do either, in any particular order, after what I’d said.
“Hoolies,” I mumbled, “the people—”
They thronged around the circle. Behind us lay the city, broken walls and rubble now serving as steps and platforms from which to watch the dance. People hung out of the windows of crumbling second stories and lined the fallen rooftops. Others rimmed the circle itself, forming a human perimeter. Someone had drawn a second circle around the first as a line of demarcation. The three paces between the true circle and the second one was meant to serve as a buffer zone, to keep the people back.
I swayed. Alric’s hand tightened. “What did you expect? This is a dance between two of the best sword-dancers in the South—even with you out of it—and a lot depends on it.”
I squinted against the sunlight. “I wonder where Esnat is. He ought to be here. He better be here … him and all his friends … and Hadjib, too.”
“They’re probably watching from the city.”
Someone jostled me. Unbalanced, I nearly fell. Only Alric kept me upright.
“Everything’s moving,” I muttered.
I shouldn’t have had the aqivi. Or maybe it was just that I shouldn’t have been kicked in the head. Nothing fit together. I saw faces, heard talk, felt the press of the crowd. But everything seemed to exist at a very great distance from me.
I squinted through the rising thumping in my head. “Where’s Del? Can you see her?”
“Not through all the people.”
“Then let’s get closer. I have to see Del.”
“Tiger—wait—”
But I wasn’t waiting for anyone. Not when I had to see Del.
It’s not easy trying to walk when your balance isn’t right, let alone push your way through a crowd. I stumbled, staggered, nearly fell, ignored oaths and insults, shouldered my way through the throng as Alric brought up the rear. A few people tried to stop us, but Alric and I are big. They didn’t try for long.
We broke through at last and nearly fell over the line. People protested, complaining about my pushiness, but a few were sword-dancers who recognized me. The word went around quickly: I was given room. It gave me a chance to breathe.