And he remembered too, for all the day's
frustrations, his deep affection for her. If only he could bring them
all to some safe place.....
'Are you well?' he asked her.
'Well enough, now. I don't like the look of that sky, though, or
the sudden drop in temperature. I'm worried about Akar.'
'And I for the tiger. He's gone off, you know.'
'Yes. I'm sorry.'
He shrugged his shoulders unconvincingly. 'There's nothing I can
do about it now. I couldn't make him a prisoner.'
He took off his warm wrappings, refitted the one-piece garment, then sat
down on the steps of the altar and began sharpening his sword. But all
at once he cast away the whet-stone, a hard and bitter edge on all his
features.
'It's not fair,' he said. 'I wanted him to live..... I
wanted him to be my friend.'
Sylviana studied him wordlessly, touched and taken back, as ever, by the
power of his primal emotions. And when he looked up at her, she saw
again the restless and hungry expression that so haunted her. She
turned away, drawn to him as on a chain, yet afraid. Why did he move
her so?
'I didn't want to lose Akar, either. Sometimes if you love
someone, you have to let them go.' Now it was she who was
unconvincing. And all at once, he wanted her.
Kalus rose, all his sorrows and reawakened desires now focused with
total singularity upon the object, the living being of his love.
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