The Vildecaz Talents: The complete set of Vildecaz Stories including Nimuar's Loss, The Deceptive Oracle and Agnith's Promise by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro Read Free Book Online

screen: “Womotomaj’s Courtship of Svalen-Tu.”
    “We know,” Dinvee whispered loudly enough to be heard clearly.
    Unfazed by this deprecating interruption, Erianthee continued as a figure about two feet tall materialized on the table, coalescing out of nothing, and taking form gradually. “Svalen-Tu of Tirin-Dzur was the most beautiful woman in the Drowned World, sung and celebrated everywhere as beyond compare; yet more than her loveliness and grace distinguished her – she was a weaver of wool and canvas, whose cloth was always without slub or weakness, and of a beauty unequaled by others, so she was sought out by merchants and nobles, by sailors and shipwrights.” The figure changed, forming a hauntingly lovely young woman with masses of long, soft-brown hair and a lovely face in the style of six centuries ago. She sat at a tall loom, and the speed of the shuttle was a blur, so rapidly did she weave. “This was in the ancient days, some centuries after the Lost Times, when many of the gods were still mortals, and the world was recovering from the Cataclysm. In those long-vanished days, the gods had children to send as mortals to aid mankind in the restoration of the Great World, and Womotomaj was among the first to undertake his mother’s command.”
    A second figure formed, more quickly and clearly than the first, a strong man with the face of the figure carved over the main fireplace, a face that was at once charming and sinister. “In this time, Womotomaj, the son of Hyneimoj, like his two brothers and three sisters, was proving himself on earth, following the instruction of his mother, and the guidance of his father, Ondirpich, The Influential, who drew his children about the world even as he draws the tides. In his travels, Womotomaj discovered much about the Great World as he taught building in many forms, some of which harkened back to the Lost Times. In many places he heard of this radiant woman who wove flawless cloth, and he determined to voyage to Tirin-Dzur in the Drowned world, to see for himself if she was as accomplished as had been said. So, just after the Crocus Moon, after he had paid homage to Takzei, The Luminous, god-and-goddess of the Moon, twin of Tahmei, the Refulgent, god-and-goddess of the Sun, he set out in the new warmth of the Second Month, as ice was releasing its hold on the rivers and lakes.”
    The figure stepped into a newly-formed boat of antique design, and the two sailed the length of the table, then swung around and headed toward the weaver, where they stopped, and the young man strode out of the boat, which became less than a shadow as Womotomaj left it.
    “The son of Hyneimoj presented himself to Svalen-Tu as a merchant from far away, one who wished to purchase a great quantity of her weavings to sell on his voyaging and to use for his sails. But he was struck by her beauty and her skill, and that brought desire into his mind.” Erianthee paused as her figures mimed a bit of this conversation. “The more they spoke, the more Womotomaj felt himself enmeshed by the weaver as surely as if he had been the warp and the woof on her loom.”
    The Spirit of the Outer Air who had been given the shape and role of Womotomaj flung himself down before Svalen-Tu, his hands joined to beseech her to love him, but the endearing woman said no as gently as she could, and Womotomaj got slowly to his feet.
    “Although his heart was sore, Womotomaj’s mind already spinning plots, for he was and is The Fabricator, and plots come to him as readily as castles and bridges. He settled their arrangements for cloth, and he sailed away, promising to return in the Tenth Month, as the autumn nights draw in. He hastened his journey so that he might soon return to Svalen-Tu and resume his pursuit of her.”
    The shadow-boat became more real and carried Womotomaj on a circuitous tour of the table-top, until there was a disturbance near the boat in the ripples of Outer Air that created the illusion of