The Stumpwork Robe (The Chronicles of Eirie 1) by Prue Batten Page B

ambience.
    ‘It will do her good to rest. She’s had momentous times.’
    ‘She’s a sweet thing, Adelina, but she is not world hardened, is she?’
    ‘You’re so polite, Kholi.’ Adelina laughed, a throaty chuckle. ‘Naïve, young and immature are better words. And fragile. There is a brittle shell to her, as if one more tap will be all it will take to smash it to pieces. She just seems to have been unable to rationalize all that has happened to her.’
    ‘And why should she? The death of a parent, then the assault, let alone her mother's actions. I think you expect too much.’
    ‘Maybe. But that is what causes her fragility and she lurches from one bad idea to another. Running from her home, joining up with the Faeran. Aine! I have tried to impress upon her the dangers of Others and she almost laughs in my face. And all the time, Liam gets closer and closer to her. Her life now depends so much on her growing up very fast. And to be honest, she has no one but you and I to teach her. She certainly won’t return to kith and kin.’
    ‘Is it so bad that she has him as a friend?’
    ‘A friend?’ Adelina scoffed. ‘He wants her as a plaything. Mark my words. And what happens to a Faeran plaything, Kholi? Tell me that.’ Adelina poked Kholi in the chest, whereupon he grasped the offending fingers and kissed them as she tried to wrap herself in a robe.
    ‘Don’t be so hard on him, Adelina. I believe there is something deeper than play in his eyes. Amusing, isn’t it? That a mortal should so ensnare an Other?’
    ‘Ah, my Kholi, you’re such a romantic. Amusing, you think? To hell with that. If only it were amusing it would save a lot of angst, we could just sit back and watch.’ Adelina continued as they walked to the van, ‘But just say you are right and he does care for Ana. Even so, in my heart I feel a doom if they continue on such a path, an intuition. And you know you can’t deny Travellers’ intuition; we have a reputation for it. As Ana’s friends I think we must do all we can to protect her and teach her to protect herself.’ She raised her foot to step into the van.
    ‘Then you had best teach her about every single unseelie being in the whole of Eirie.’ Liam’s voice punctured the air behind them.
    Kholi’s face split into a grin that vanished faster than water on the Amritsands as he looked at Adelina’s face. Disgruntled to see the subject of her dislike standing before her, she was furious when the subject of her concern walked out from behind the black clad body.
    ‘Ana! We thought you were in bed. Where have you been?’ The Traveller swung around in a blaze of copper to Liam, letting him have the benefit of her ferocity. ‘What have you done?’ Her gaze intimidated, daring him to play the next move.
    Ana fired back. ‘He saved my life, Adelina. That’s what he has done. So get off your high horse with him because you weren’t around to save me. You were busy making love to Kholi.’
    Adelina flushed red at Ana’s bald argument. For a moment she was tempted to shout the chit down. How dare she? Am I her keeper? She stood for a moment as she dwelled on this new friendship, this relationship, its obligations. But then yes, maybe that is exactly what Kholi and I are. By default. She looked at Ana through eyes that had closed to slits. Perhaps not the innocent little lamb we imagined. But then raised her eyebrows and shrugged, a temporary peace. ‘So what happened?’
    The story of the dunters was related and the part Liam had played in returning Ana to her fold. Kholi, to underline what they had just heard, recounted a poem:
    ‘Invidious rust corrodes the bloody steel
    Dark and dismantled lies each ancient peel.
    Afar, at twilight gray, the peasants shun
    the dome accursed
    where deeds of blood are done.’
    ‘Oh exactly!’ Ana shuddered. ‘I shall never look at the ruhks on a shatranj board again, I swear!’
     
    Adelina busied herself preparing breakfast and then sat