White Road

Dragon’s favor. It is our gift and our burden.”
    “Do they all have the power to heal?” asked Micum.
    Rieser acted as if he hadn’t heard him.
    “Do they?” asked Seregil.
    “Yes. They are a treasure to our people. Some even count them as a gift of Aura, but the white blood was a curse when we lived within the grasp of the Tír. They tortured and enslaved us to make tayan’gils, and bled us to make dark magic.”
    “Not my people,” Micum replied.
    Rieser smiled darkly. “Oh, yes. Tayan’gils have been found in all the Tír lands over the years, so it isn’t only the Plenimarans who know the secret of their making. That’s why we withdrew so far. There were no Tír near the valley you call Ravensfell when she led her people there. Now that there are, we have to guard ourselves all the more carefully.”
    “I’m from Kerry,” Alec told him. “Most people up there don’t even believe in you anymore. I always thought the ’faie were just some tales the bards told.”
    “Your father knew better,” Rieser pointed out. “Did he lie to you, his only child?”
    “To protect him,” Seregil cut in. “To keep him from going off to look for his mother’s people, or seek revenge. Alec’s father knew what would happen to him if he got anywhere near you.”
    “How did your father meet her in the first place, Alec, if you don’t mind me asking?” said Micum.
    “He never told me anything about her, except that she died when I was born. Whenever I asked more questions, he’d go silent. Sometimes he looked sad.” Alec paused, gazing off into the distance as if he could see his past there. “He had no people, so it was just him and me, all those years, always moving around. We never went near the pass.” He turned to Rieser. “It was because he knew about the Ebrados, wasn’t it? You came hunting us.”
    “Of course. Until the day our captain’s horse came back with blood on the saddle. We always assumed that he’d found you, and that your father had killed him.”
    “No. I would have known.” Alec paused. “He did leave me with an innkeeper sometimes, when I was little. Maybe he knew that the Ebrados were close by.”
    “He was a brave, good man,” said Micum.
    Alec swallowed hard. “I never knew. He was just—my father. He didn’t even carry a sword.”
    “If he was half the archer you are, he wouldn’t have needed one.”
    “A good man wouldn’t have left the mother of his son to die alone,” said Rieser.
    “He didn’t!” growled Alec. “I saw what happened, in a vision at Sarikali. He was trying to save her when she died. Your people killed her before he could, but he saved me.”
    “He didn’t know what he was doing,” Rieser replied solemnly.
    “So that’s what you Ebrados do? Kill innocent people?”
    “The ones we kill are not innocent. Men came looking for us and we killed them to protect ourselves. Others caught some of us who unwisely ventured out of the valley, and carried them away to make more tayan’gils. The Ebrados hunted every one of them down, and brought back the Hâzad, if they still lived, and the tayan’gils. We take care of our own.”
    “Just how many tayan’gils do you have?” asked Seregil.
    “Nineteen. They are gentle, silent creatures like Hâzadriën, and great healers.” He turned to Alec again. “They are treated with the highest respect.”
    Alec frowned and looked away.
    “But you’re willing to risk Hâzadriën, to bring him along as your healer?” asked Seregil.
    “It was Hâzadriël’s will, when she led the Ebrados. And it’s not only that. He can sense others of his kind. He helped Turmay find you, and now you see how he cares for Sebrahn. When the time comes, Sebrahn will come with him willingly.”
    “But he’s not harmless like the others,” said Alec, still frowning. “What will you do with him?”
    “That is up to our khirnari, but I know he will come to no harm, as long as he causes none.”
    “How did alchemists find out about the white blood in the first place?” wondered Seregil. “You don’t look any different than any other ’faie. How did Hâzadriël know, for that matter?”
    Rieser shrugged. “Aura guided Hâzadriël to find others with the same special blood. The annals say that she was guided by visions. She did not go north until the Lightbringer revealed the way to her.”
    “You weren’t a people then, were you?”
    “No. We were scattered among all the clans. Some ’faie have magic.