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“Did you follow me the other day . . . the day I saw you down at the docks, near the Vivacia?” Althea's words came out almost as an accusation, but Amber seemed to take no offense.
“I could scarcely have followed you,” she pointed out, “seeing as how I was there before you. I confess, it crossed my mind when I first saw you that perhaps you were following me. . . . ”
“But the way you were looking at me . . . ” Althea objected unwillingly. “I do not say that you lie. But you seemed to be looking for me. Watching me. ”
Amber nodded slowly, more to herself than to the girl. “So it seemed to me, also. And yet it was not you at all that I went seeking. ” She toyed with her earrings, setting first the dragon and then the serpent to swinging. “I went to the docks looking for a nine-fingered slave boy, if you can credit that. ” She smiled oddly. “You were what found me instead. There is coincidence, and there is fate. I am more than willing to argue with coincidence. But the few times I have argued with fate, I have lost. Badly. ” She shook her head, setting all four of her mismatched earrings to swaying. Her eyes seemed to look inward, recalling other times. Then she looked up and met Althea's curious gaze, and once more her smile softened her face. “But that is not true for all folk. Some folk are meant to argue with fate. And win. ”
Althea could think of no reply to that, so held her silence. After a moment, the woman moved to one of her shelves, and took down a basket. At least, at first glance it had appeared to be a basket. As she approached, Althea could see that it had been wrought from a single piece of wood, all excess carved away to leave a lattice of woven strands. Amber shook it as she came nearer, and the contents clicked and rattled pleasantly against one another.
“Choose one,” she invited Althea, extending the basket to her. “I'd like to make you a gift. ”
Within the basket were beads. One glimpse of them, and Althea's impulse to haughtily refuse the largesse died. Something in the variety of color and shape caught the eyes and demanded to be touched. Once touched, they pleased the hand. Such a variety of color and grain and texture. They were all large beads, as big around as Althea's thumb. Each appeared to be unique. Some were simple abstract designs, others were animals, or flowers. Leaves, birds, a loaf of bread, fish, a tortoise . . . Althea found she had accepted the basket and was sifting through the contents while Amber watched her with strangely avid eyes. A spider, a twining worm, a ship, a wolf, a berry, an eye, a pudgy baby. Every bead in the basket was desirable, and Althea suddenly understood the charm of the woman's wares. They were gems of wood and creativity. Another artisan could surely carve as well, wood as fine could be bought, but never before had Althea seen such craft applied to such wood with such precision. The leaping dolphin bead could only have been a dolphin: there was no berry, no cat, no apple hiding in that bit of wood. Only the dolphin had been there, and only Amber could have found it and brought it out of concealment.
Althea could not choose, and yet she kept looking through the beads. Searching for the one that was most perfect. “Why do you want to give me a gift?” she asked suddenly. Her quick glance caught Amber's pride in her handiwork. She gloried in Althea's absorption in her beads. The woman's sallow cheeks were almost warm, her golden eyes glowing like a cat's before a fire.
When she spoke the warmth rode her words as well. “I would like to make you my friend. ”
“Why?”
“Because I can see that you go through life athwart it. You see the flow of events, you are able to tell how you could most easily fit yourself into it. But you dare to oppose it. And why? Simply because you look at it and say, 'this fate does not suit me. I will not allow it to befall me. ' ” Amber shook her head, but her small smile made it an affirmation. “I have always admired people who can do that. So few do. Many, of course, will rant and rave against the garment fate has woven for them, but they pick it up and don it all the same, and most wear it to the end of their days. You . . . you would rather go naked into the storm. ” Again the smile, fading as quickly as it blossomed. “I cannot abide that you should do that. So I offer you a bead to wear. ”
“You sound like a fortune teller,” Althea complained, and then her finger touched something in the bottom of the basket. She knew the bead was hers before she gripped it between thumb and forefinger and brought it to the top of the hoard. Yet when she lifted it, she could not say why she had chosen it. An egg. A simple wooden egg, pierced to be worn on a string on her wrist or neck. It was a warm brown, a wood Althea did not know, and the grain of the wood ran around it rather than from end to end. It was plain compared to the other treasures in the basket, and yet it fit perfectly in the hollow of her hand when she closed her fingers about it. It was pleasant to hold, as a kitten is pleasant to stroke. “Might I have this one?” she asked softly and held her breath.