The Pool of Two Moons by Kate Forsyth Read Free Book Online

for how is humor a sense? There are only six senses . . .
    My grandmother is always admonishing me for not taking life seriously enough. Yes, the Khan'cohbans do live heavily. They are conscious always of the weight of death pressing them down.
    For the first time in their strange conversation, the Celestine had made a sound. She had said
    "Khan'coh-ban" as the People would have said it: a harsh, guttural "Khan," followed by two descending notes—the Gods! Children of. The sound had the same skin-shivering quality as the desolate cry of a raven at dusk.
    In the same language Iseult replied, "Life on the Spine of the World is hard." Indeed it is. We of the forest are fortunate. Or at least, we were. Melancholy now clouded the soft voice in Iseult's mind. We that you humans call Celestines were once as many as the stars in the sky. We lived in the forests and vales and cared for the land. We had our enemies. Who does not?
    What you call Satyricorn harried us often, and cursehags and gravenings too. Sometimes the Khan'cohbans came down from the snowy peaks in hordes . . .
    Iseult realized with a start that the complicated bud of wrinkles on the Celestine's forehead had parted and she was being regarded with a third, dark eye. It gleamed with liquid reflections, so bright it struck through her like a sword. Below, her two other eyes were clear and empty.
    Involuntarily Iseult started back, and the Celestine regarded her gravely, her long-fingered hands folded in her lap. The sight of my third eye frightens you? For some reason it always makes humans uneasy, perhaps because they lost theirs so long ago. Yet if I keep it shut, how else am I to see you clearly, or find the means to speak with you?
    Iseult regarded the eye in the middle of the Celestine's forehead. Ye see me differently through your third eye?
    Indeed. It is hard for me to describe. It is your emotional energies I see, your hidden thoughts . . . Do we no' have a third eye too? Meghan said something...
    Yes, but your forehead is smooth, your third eye cannot physically see. It is as much the sixth sense that you use. Your third eye is wrapped in veils, and you must learn to unwrap them. Your sister, of course, her third eye was sealed shut by Meghan, but she suffered a sharp blow to her head and that has shaken Meghan's mark off. She will find the veils unraveling quickly now. So what do ye see o' me through your third eye?
    You are yearning for the winged boy, yet you reprimand yourself for allowing yourself to think about him. He is bad-tempered and arrogant, you tell yourself many times. Be at peace, I tell you, for I feel your destiny and his lie together. The winged boy has enchantment in his voice. This morning saw the strongest running of the sum-merbourne in years. The summerbourne feeds the forest and the garden and all shall spring into life now and be renewed . . . Do not be angry with me for speaking of what I see. Your emotions are so tangled about this boy I can see very little else.
    Lachlan MacCuinn imitates and exasperates me, if that is what ye mean by my emotions being tangled. Other than that I rarely think o' him. Iseult looked down at the fruit "in her hand, avoiding the Celestine's three-eyed gaze.
    I think I see you more clearly than you see yourself. It is of no use avoiding truth with a Celestine, you cannot lie to us about emotions . . . I must go and walk with my grandfather now, he has missed me much in recent months. Think on what I have said, and be at peace. One cannot always control what one thinks and feels, there is no wrongdoing in discovering one's path lies in a different direction than one has thought.
    I am the heir to the Firemaker, Iseult thought defiantly.
    Cloudshadow rose to her feet, dusted off her pale silk gown, and smiled down at Iseult. Farewell, Iseult NicFaghan . . .
    Iseult looked up to find Lachlan's topaz eyes fixed on hers, and scowled at him. Immediately he scowled back. Yearning for that sour-faced lad? I do