Fingers cramped into his tunic, Lhut steadied himself against the wall. Enim saw the unnatural pallor around his lips. With one move, Enim was by his side, kneeling down to offer his support.

"Are you all right?"

Lhut nodded, a short, constricted move. "This just happens every now and then. The pain comes in waves," he panted.

Enim stared at him, speechless.

Lhut bit his lip. But then his body relented a little. The wave seemed to pass.

Lhut leaned his head against Enim's shoulder, his breath slowly calming down, becoming deep and regular again.

Lhut straightened up. "Some of the pain always remains, in the phantoms of my legs."

He raised a hand to show Enim the band of wooden pearls running around his wrist. Gently, he began to roll one of the beads between his fingers. "Our elder has shown me how to let the pain subside. It is a spell. A trance. A prayer. As you call on your pearls, one after the other, you let yourself be immersed in your inner ocean. You feel the waves come and go, and the pain slowly sinks down toward the bottom of the sea."

Lhut's gaze drifted off into the distance, his lips moving in silence as his fingers gently cradled the next bead. After the fourth, long before he had finished the round of his wristband, Lhut brought his eyes back to Enim. Alive now, and even holding a spark, a subtle, wistful smile. "The pain never goes away. But I have made my peace with it. I have learned to let it rest. It has grown slow, dull, over the years. And while it drifts a hundred miles under the sea, I can surf the waves in the sunlight."

Lhut licked his lips. "These sharp twinges are rare now. But falling asleep is still very hard. When my spells unravel and the dreams of the night do not yet pull me into relief." Lhut sighed. "Cahuan often helps me with that. Then I can navigate even that most difficult turn, that moment when my mind lets go, and the pain rises up like ravenous sea dragon. When I need to make the leap to the stars."

*

Lhut was going to spend the night with Kaya and looking forward to an evening full of friendship and lovemaking. Gathering a few belongings off the shelves of the Snuggery, he turned a shining, open face toward Enim, ready to joke and banter again.

"You see," he said, "I fit into this place perfectly. I can reach up to the same height as the small children. I even walk at the same pace, with steps the same size. Clearly, I have come to the right place." Lhut grinned. "Sometimes I say this is a special qualification. You see, I am always eye-level with the children. And in a metaphorical sense, that is what I truly wish to be."

Enim took a deep breath. He shook his head. "How you joke about this? Losing your legs. I don't know if it is me. If I can ever have the strength." He gazed at Lhut with an expression somewhere between bewilderment and adoration.

Lhut's grin became a little crooked. "Well. Yes. If Kaya were here, she would start screaming at this point. She just can't stand any of this happy-talk. Seeing the sunny side and all that. And she is right, in a way. All in all, this is unacceptable. I never should have lost my legs. People never should have died in that mine." Lhut sighed. "But I cannot thrive on anger. Kaya can. She gets stronger with it every time. But for me—I believe it would kill me. If I allowed myself to get into that vein of fury and rejection, I fear I would never come out again. It would sap all my energy, instead of giving me furious vigor." He shrugged lightly. "So I try going this way. Taking this part of the truth, and making my life in it."

Lhut toyed with his cuff. Then he looked up at Enim. "And there is truth over here too. There is. Even if I would prefer to have my full legs back, no doubt. And to not be in pain. But still, I am glad I have survived. And my life has improved in many ways since the accident. Being in the Snuggery is much better than working in a mine. The mine is dark, dirty and dangerous. The Snuggery is exhausting in its own way, but it is also inspiring. It is full of love and sunlight. I can be with the children. I learn and grow, as a person. It is very rich. There is a whole, full life here. Much, much better than in the mine."

Lhut cast half a glance at Enim, a little shyly. "So this is how I live. How I can be."

Enim nodded. He did not trust himself to say anything. His heart had grown so full that he did not know what would come out if he opened his mouth. But it probably showed in his eyes, anyway.

Lhut reached out a hand and pulled Enim down into an embrace, fingers buried in Enim's hair, head resting against his chest.

*

"Shall we go?" Lhut asked, his voice warm, his face open.

He walked out into the courtyard, with short steps on short legs. The evening sky was filling up with soft pastel colors and beckoning bird calls, and Enim had offered to take Lhut over to Kaya's oven.

Lhut threw a blanket into the cartwheel. "Shall I crawl in?"

"No." Enim came up to him. "I want to learn. To practice. Please, show me again. I maybe never be as good as Kaya or Cahuan. But I will be good enough, I believe."

"No doubt about it," Lhut agreed with a twinkle in his eyes. He explained once more to Enim how to stand, and how to lift him so that Enim won't break his back and Lhut will be both safe and, eventually, inside the cartwheel.

Enim tried. And it worked. Well enough.

Contentedly, they wheeled off into the evening. Hazy stripes of gold and orange reached out across a wide, open sky and Lhut began to sing out loud in a pleasant baritone, trying to teach Enim the second voice as they careened along the tangled lanes.

When they arrived at the oven, Kaya was out with her chicken, moving the pen a bit farther down the meadow and wrestling with the net that was meant to keep off the hawks. But the kids who had spent the afternoon with her came running up instantly to show off the eggs they had gathered.

Kaya, for her part, had picked up news.

"The nightling will be killed."

Kaya's eyes held a dangerous gleam. "Naydeer announced that she has secured the help of the magnificently imposing mage Pramus, who will hunt the monster down and kill it with enchanted fire."

"There is no need for that," Lhut opined.

"Of course there isn't. But it will be a great opportunity for the magnificent mage to show just how imposing he is. How indispensable. How powerful. And how dedicated to the well-being of Shebbetin. Almost as dedicated as wonderful Naydeer herself, never eschewing responsibility, all determined action."

Lhut shook his head in disapproval. "It is not the fault of the nightling if Naydeer has no system of protection in her mines. Why should the nightling pay the price? Just because we can't be bothered to keep our things in order, she will get killed?"

"Yes. Of course. What else? This is how Naydeer thinks." Kaya snorted. "There's a problem? Well, let's turn violent. Kill. That is the solution to problems."