Tamlyn by James Moloney Read Free Book Online

will.
    â€˜Please,’ I gasped. ‘I have to put him down.’
    Tamlyn lowered his end in unison with mine and stood staring at me while my breath slowly returned to normal.
    â€˜Better now?’ he asked, and turned, ready to take hold of the poles again.
    â€˜Tamlyn,’ I said to his back, ‘I can’t keep this up for an hour, let alone two whole days. We have to find another way.’
    He faced me again, surprised and, I felt, disappointed, as though I was slacking.
    â€˜It’s all right for you,’ I said, suddenly annoyed. ‘You have the strength of a hundred men in your muscles. I don’t even have the strength of one.’
    Immediately I regretted the way this sounded, as though I was using my sex as an excuse. I was on the point of stooping to the poles again, just to prove myself wrong, when Tamlyn said, ‘I’m sorry, Silvermay. I should have realised. The weight is nothing to me.’
    â€˜Then carry him by yourself,’ I said, managing to sound even more like a pathetic female.
    â€˜Perhaps you’re right,’ he said.
    I thought he was goading me about my silly remark, but far from it. I had given him an idea.
    â€˜Do you think you could lift him one more time, not to carry him, but to help me get the grip I need?’ he asked.
    I didn’t have a clue what he had in mind, but the least I could do was help. This time he stood to the sideof the stretcher instead of the end and waited for me to do the same on the other side.
    â€˜What are you going to do?’ asked a voice from between us.
    Ryall was awake now, and looking rather worried, but Tamlyn didn’t answer. On his signal, I put every skerrick of strength I had into raising Ryall from the ground. He now lay between us as we faced each other.
    â€˜Now what?’ I grunted.
    â€˜Hold your side a bit longer,’ he commanded, and while I looked on, astounded, he kept up his share of the weight with only his right hand, which he’d shifted to the middle of the pole, and at the same time crouched to position himself beneath the stretcher. His left hand reached up and took the weight from my side and then he stood upright. Now I was staring at one man holding another directly over his head, both arms straight and his load perfectly level.
    â€˜How is it up there, Ryall?’ he asked.
    â€˜Closer to the sun,’ came the reply.
    Back on the ground, I wasn’t as convinced. ‘Now what?’ I asked again.
    â€˜We walk to Haywode as planned,’ said Tamlyn.
    â€˜With you holding Ryall above your head like that?’
    â€˜It was your idea, Silvermay. Carry him yourself, you said.’
    â€˜A two-day walk!’
    â€˜I told you, the weight is nothing to me and this way I can cushion Ryall from the bumps in the road. Would you like to sit up there, too? I’m sure I could manage.’
    â€˜Now you’re showing off.’
    He grinned. ‘And why not? I may be a Wyrdborn, but I still like young ladies to admire my strength.’
    He set off along the road as though he didn’t care whether I followed. I did, of course, and what a sight we made; there can’t have been anything like it in all of Athlane.
    The people in the first village we came to seemed to think so, as well, if their round-eyed stares were anything to go by. The entire population came out to see such a feat.
    â€˜What strength. How does he do it?’ a man asked me as we passed.
    There was a simple answer, one I was worried they would suspect, but when I helped Tamlyn lower Ryall to the ground and the people came close to inspect this strong man, I saw only wonder in their faces. Like Captain Jerbarle, they simply couldn’t believe that a Wyrdborn would help another human being and so they didn’t guess that Tamlyn was one of that hated breed.
    â€˜Some water?’ offered a woman, holding out a jug she had brought from her own home. There was food, too,