THE (tlpq-4) by Daniel Abraham Read Free Book Online Page A

that I'm back in
    the war-I may scream myself awake, but at least I'm pleased that the
    dream's ended. When I dream about him, I'm happy. I'm at peace. And then
    ..."
     
    She gestured at the childless world around them.
     
    "It's worse, wishing I could sleep and dream and never awake."
     
    Maati's heart rang in sympathy, like a crystal bowl taking up the
    ringing of a great bell. How many times had he dreamed that Nayiit
    lived? That the world had not been broken, or, if it had, not by him?
     
    "We'll bring him," Maati said. "Have faith. Every week, we come closer.
    Once the grammar is built solidly enough, anything will be possible."
     
    "Are we coming closer?" she asked. "Be honest, Maati-cha. Every week we
    spend on this, I think we're on the edge, and every week, there's more
    after it."
     
    He tucked the chalk into his sleeve and sat at the girl's side. She
    leaned forward, and he thought there was something in her expressionnot
    despair and not shame, but something related to both.
     
    "We are coming near, and we are close," he said. "I know it isn't
    something you can see, but each of you knows more about the andat and
    the bindings right now than I did after a year with the Dai-kvo. You're
    smart and dedicated and talented. And together, we can make this work.
    It sounds terrible, I know, but as soon as Siimat failed her binding and
    paid the price ... I won't say I was pleased. I can't say that. She was
    a brave woman, and she had a wonderful mind. I miss her. But that she
    and all the others died means we are very close."
     
    Ten bindings, ending in ten failures and ten corpses. His fallen
    soldiers, Maati thought. His girls who had sacrificed themselves. And
    here, wet as a canal rat and sad to her bones, Vanjit impatient to make
    her own try, risk her own life. Maati took her small hand in his own.
    The girl smiled at the wall.
     
    "This will happen," he said.
     
    "I know it," she said, her voice soft. "It's just so hard to wait when
    the dream keeps coming."
     
    Maati sat with her for a moment, only the tapping of raindrops and the
    songs of birds between them. He stood, fished the chalk from his sleeve,
    and went back to the wall.
     
    "If you'd like, you could light a fire in the office grate," Maati said.
    "We could surprise the others with some fresh tea."
     
    It wasn't called for, but it gave the girl something to do. He squinted
    at the figure he'd drawn until the lines came into focus. Ah, yes. Four
    categories of being.
     
    The rain slackened as the others arrived. Large Kae checked the
    coverings over the windows, careful that no stray light betray their
    presence, as Irit fluttered sparrowlike lighting the lanterns. Small Kae
    and Ashti Beg adjusted the seats and benches, the younger woman's light
    voice contrasting with her elder's dry one.
     
    The scents of wood smoke and tea made their warehouse classroom seem
    less furtive. Vanjit poured bowls for each of his students as they took
    their places. The soft light darkened the stone so that the chalk marks
    almost seemed written on air. Maati took a moment to himself to think of
    his teachers, of their lectures. He willed himself to become one of
    their number.
     
    "The world," Maati began, "has two essential structures. There's the
    physical"-he slapped the stone wall behind him-"and there's the
    abstract. Two and two are always four, regardless of whether you're
    talking about grains of sand or racing camels. Twelve could always be
    broken into two sets of six or three sets of four long before anybody
    noticed the fact. Abstract structure, you see?"
     
    They bent toward him like flowers toward the sun. Maati saw the hunger
    in their faces and the set of their shoulders.
     
    "Now," Maati said. "Does the physical require the abstract? Come on.
    Think! Can you have something physical that doesn't have abstract
    structure?"
     
    There was a moment's silence.
     
    "Water?" Small Kae asked. "Because if you put two drops of water
    together