‘I’m here,’ she called, wondering who needed her for what now. The interruptions always seemed to come when she was in the most interesting part of something, and for what? So that she could identify a stove part or something that someone had found. Earlier in the week, it had been Rapskal with an armful of very large buckles set with sparkling stones. ‘I know these are important,’ he had said without preamble. ‘I know that I know what they are, but when I reach for the memory, it slides away. It isn’t something I used to deal with directly, but I know that someone did it for me and it was important to me and my dragon.’ He had taken a breath and added mournfully, ‘I found them in a pile of rubble behind my house. Something bad happened there, Alise. I know it.’
She’d looked at him dispassionately. He would never be her favourite person, but seemed artlessly unaware of how devastating his comments had been to her. He was the one who had pointed out that she was not an Elderling and never would be. He was the one who had told her that she had no say over what they did with the city, that the city belonged to the new Elderlings, not her. True as those statements had been, they had still devastated her and turned her life upside down. She’d had to change her image of herself from the very bones out. Ultimately, she knew, it had been good for her. That did not mean she enjoyed being reminded of it.
‘You never touched one of these before today,’ she pointed out to him. ‘But you may have sampled the memories of someone who did.’ An understatement if there was one. All knew how obsessed Rapskal was becoming with his ‘other’ self’s memories. She took one of the buckles from him and turned it slowly in her hands. ‘It’s from a dragon’s harness. Not for battle armour but for show. Perhaps as part of a victory parade or other celebration—’
‘Battle harness?’ he had interrupted her. ‘Battle harness? YES! Yes, that’s it, that’s what this reminded me of. But … but …’ Mouth slightly ajar, his eyes went distant and the light went out of his face. ‘I don’t remember all of it. I should, but I don’t know …’
‘Go to the Hall of Records, the building with the map tower. Climb up, oh; I think it was on the third storey. There are many wall decorations there that you can study to see how the harness was made and fitted.’
‘Yes. Yes, now I remember. Heroes were honoured there. Valiant men and dragons of great battle prowess …’ Absently, he took the buckle from her hands. Clutching it to his chest, he’d left her standing without even a thank you as he hurried off to try to recover a piece of a self he’d never been. She sighed. Leftrin had warned them all, but nothing she could say now would dissuade any of them. Lingering too long in memory-stone was dangerous.
And exciting.
She might not be an Elderling but privately she still believed she was the one best suited to extract the city’s secrets. The knowledge she had gleaned from her studies prepared and anchored her. It was not so foreign to her, and yet she could hold tight to her humanity and not be swept away. Still, it was frightening to let her own life and thoughts be swept aside in the stream of memories stored in the city’s stones. She had learned a new discipline in this city. When she ventured into her memory sampling, it was for a specific purpose and she kept her attention tightly focused on what she wanted to know, refusing all other tugs at her attention. It was like diving into deep cold water to retrieve a sparkling stone.
‘Alise!’
The voice came again and she recognized it as Sylve’s. Before she could respond, the keeper called once more, ‘Alise? Are you in here? Tarman’s coming. They’re back!’
‘I’m back here, Sylve!’ Then the meaning of the girl’s shout penetrated her distracted mind. Tarman had been sighted. Leftrin! He was back! And she was on the wrong side of the river. He’d be expecting to find everyone at the village site, not in the city. She leapt to her feet, dragon dentistry discarded. Leftrin was coming, and she looked a fright! She hurried to the door of the chamber and peered out into the tall, wide corridor. ‘Where’s Heeby?’ she demanded as Sylve came barrelling toward her. Behind the girl, the tall double doors stood open to the gusty wind of the spring day. Alise hoped the little dragon and her keeper would carry a message to the ship for her.
‘She and Rapskal are guiding Tarman in! Carson says he thinks our dock will hold, but not be very good for unloading yet. He’s worried about it, but I think it will be a good test of what we built.’
‘Tarman is coming directly here?’ She had even less time to prepare for him.