Reliance

It was an honor to be locked in the tower with Arun, they told me. Such a promising Chanter.

I stole a glance at him as the High Chanter wished us good fortune against the Shadows. Arun gave me a half-smile. I'd heard the rumors about him, so I frowned and looked away.

But no sight pleased me. Before us was the gray tower, in high relief against the frozen Waste. Behind us, the common folk nudged and winked.

Let them crack their filthy jokes. A Chanter pair's Tower Year was for bonding of another sort. And while many a marriage followed, so did lifelong grudges. I'd never forgive Gared.

After a last blessing, we ascended the tower, and the crowd returned to the city.

Arun gazed out a narrow window, not that there was anything out there but ice--and Shadows, but they hadn't sensed us yet. He gave me that half-smile again.

"Would you like the east chamber?"

"No!" My voice was over-loud. The memory of Gared haunted that room--a shadow no chant could banish.

Arun bowed, and I fled to the west chamber with my three precious books.

I knew I ought to befriend him--that the power of a Chanter pairing depended on their mutual reliance--but I couldn't bear that smile. I rehearsed my parts of the chants alone. I never heard Arun sing his.

One morning a new book slid under my door. Something in me thawed, but I remembered Gared--his rigid back as he walked from the Tower and from me--and I went cold as the Waste again.

We went on like this until the night three Shadows crawled up the tower, drawn to our warmth. I heard their claws on my window and began my most potent chant.

Arun burst through the door without a by-your-leave. I rounded on him, white-hot with fury.

"Get out!"

He held up his hands. "We've both been hurt, but a Chanter can't take on three Shads alone."

My hand slashed the air between us. "You know nothing of pain. You left that girl just like Gared left me."

That crooked smile again--and this time I saw pain behind it. "Did I?"

***
When the High Chanter returned at the end of the year, Arun and I greeted him at the door, hand in hand. All around the tower was a swathe of green carved out of the Waste.

END

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