Dead Rivers - Freedom's Gate Part 16

Zhanna nodded. "I could train both of you, I suppose."

"I'll think about it."

She was silent for a few moments, her hands in her lap. "Are you and Tamar summer friends?"

"What?"

"Summer friends." She looked at me with wide-eyed frankness, and the baffled look on my face must have told her that I had not the faintest idea what she was talking about. "Well, you know. During the summers, when we're with the sisterhood, some of the women have summer friends. Maydan and Jolay, for instance."

"You mean they're lovers."

"Right. Summer friends." She took a swig of water herself. "Of course, some women just aren't interested in that sort of thing. Erdene is one of those-poor Saken! And then there are women who have all-year friends. But most of them end up like Janiya."

"What do you mean?"

"Commanders of sisterhoods. And then they see their all-year friends only in winter."

"Wouldn't those be winter friends, then?"

"You'd think that would be the way it worked, wouldn't you?" Zhanna winked at me. She brushed a strand of hair from my forehead, and laid her hand gently across my face. "I'll talk to Tamar about shaman training, too. We can discuss it later."

"Tamar and I aren't lovers, but we're blood sisters," I said.

"Ohhh," Zhanna said. "I'd wondered why the eldress sent you to us together! Usually new people are split up."

Janiya strode over, a slightly grim look on her face. I braced myself, thinking that she would surely be here to confront me about my ability with the sword. But she squatted down beside me, looking a little ashamed.

"I shouldn't have let you come along tonight," she said. "Ruan was right to question it, and even after Tamar protested, I should have ordered you to stay here. You could both have been killed-especially you, in the thick of the fight with a sword you barely knew how to use." I felt a wave of relief at her words, followed by a rush of shame. Was I that unskilled with my weapon? "But I did, and luckily you both came through with no permanent damage."

I nodded.

Janiya tucked a blue bead into my hand. "You proved your courage in that first fight, little sister," she said. "I'm not sure what you proved by coming with us into the second fight-courage or foolishness, or perhaps that you felt yourselves to be sisters. But I think you earned a second bead then." She placed a second bead beside the first on my palm. "Both you and Tamar." She patted my shoulder. "Rest and let your body mend itself. You're to take it easy as much as possible until May dan says you're recovered."

As I lay around camp with Jolay, I worked on embroidering my black felt vest. The picture of the winegla.s.s was quickly completed: shaky, but I supposed that was almost appropriate. I needed an image for my life at Kyros's-other than a horse, because I still wasn't ready to try to make a picture of a horse. I could embroider a shovel, I supposed, for the manure.

I had supposedly shoveled in the barn, but some mischief in me made me think that it would be nice to do the vest using real images, images that truly represented my past but could still be explained to the Alas.h.i.+.

Kyros wasn't my owner, but he was my boss. What image could I use to represent him?

Honey cakes, I thought, picturing myself in Kyros's office. I never went in there without being offered tea and a honey cake. But that didn't really capture Kyros; an image of a honey cake implied a glutton, and Kyros was never a glutton. Particularly since I couldn't very well say to the Alas.h.i.+ that he always offered me honey cakes when I returned from a mission...

I summoned up an image of Kyros in my mind's eye. Though he was technically a military commander, he had the softness of a man who spent little time in the saddle and even less doing real work, but I'd seen him training with his sword, and he could move as fast as a diving hawk when he wanted. A hawk. That wasn't a bad image for Kyros; the hawk circled high above the desert, waiting to spot its prey, and that was often how I thought of Kyros. But in truth, Kyros wasn't a hawk; he was more like a hawk's master, sitting in the cool of a cave and waiting for the hawks to return with offerings of rabbits, squirrels, and sparrows. You've returned with my little straying bird already.

His spell-chains-he wore one around his neck, the other looped around his left wrist, so that no one could possibly miss the fact that he had two of them. On rare occasions he'd loaned one to me; I remembered the feel of the cool stones against my neck. I could embroider a picture of a spell-chain; I could use that to outline the back of the vest. And that way, if Janiya saw me looking at the spell-chain she picked up, she'd understand why. Perfect, I thought, and reached for the thread.

"Lauria." Janiya's voice broke into my reverie. "I need a cup of water."

I set down my vest and stood up, with some effort, and picked up the waterskin. As I put my hand on it, it occurred to me that Janiya was testing me again. I threw the waterskin to the ground and sat down with a thump.

Janiya laughed. "Better," she said. "But you still fail."

Tamar sighed as I sat back down. She seemed to have the morning off from practicing archery or horseback riding or whatever they'd been drilling her on while I was recovering, and she'd settled down beside me. She was still embroidering her first image-a rosebud, ripped in half, with feathers scattered across the bottom of the vest. "I don't know why she didn't tell me to get her water that time," Tamar muttered. "I was all set to ask her what was wrong with her legs that she couldn't get it herself."

I shrugged, though it disturbed me a little that someone who'd actually been a slave would have no trouble seeing through the demand to the test underneath. "It'll be your turn next time. Probably."

Tamar laughed a little.

"You should talk to Zhanna, you know," I said. "She really is a shaman. Maybe she'll finish your training, if you ask."

Tamar gave me a long, mournful stare. "I think she likes you better," she said, and went back to her embroidery.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

My wounds were still painful when Janiya announced that it was time to move, and to move quickly.

I looked her over carefully as I rose to join the others in packing our bags, and I thought I saw the glitter of the spell-chain peeking from the edge of her fist. She's been using the aeriko to watch the bandits, I thought. She'd wanted to give me and Jolay time to heal up before we moved, if possible, but now the bandits were presumably moving toward us again.

Well, I wasn't really looking forward to moving, let alone moving quickly, but I could if I had to. Around me, women began to pack bags and take apart the yurt; others went to gather in the flocks, which had been kept close by since the raid. I gathered up my own belongings-vest, blankets, sworduand strapped them to Kara's saddle. Tamar joined me a few minutes later, pink-cheeked and breathless; she'd been out riding. She greeted me breathlessly and ran to help pack the yurt.

I returned to camp to offer to help with the yurt, but Maydan firmly told me to sit down somewhere and rest until it was time to leave. I withdrew to the edge of the river to sit in the shade of a tree, watching the activity back in the camp.

There was a s.h.i.+mmer in the air in front of me. "You are seldom alone," the aeriko said.

It sounded almost like a complaint, and I suppressed a laugh, mindful of the fact that someone might glance in my direction and see me talking to the air. "Do you have a message for me?" I asked.

"Kyros sends the following words." The s.h.i.+mmer s.h.i.+fted slightly and I heard Kyros's intonation in its voice. "Greetings, Lauria, and I will try to keep this short. You are my most trusted aide and you have my complete confidence-however, I have been very worried about your safety, which is why I sent the aeriko to keep watch over you. Please give the aeriko a brief update, to set my mind at rest."

The ache in my ribs subsided as I listened to Kyros's words, and I felt the calm rea.s.surance of his words wrap around me. I hadn't even realized that my stomach was churning until I felt it settle. "Things are going well," I said softly. "Well, mostly. We'reu I'm-working to be accepted as one of the Alas.h.i.+. It hasn't been easy but I've pa.s.sed some of the tests." I fingered the bandage on my side. "We were attacked a few nights ago, and I was wounded in the fight. I'm recovering now." Should I mention Janiya's spell-chain? I hesitated-no, surely he knew that the Alas.h.i.+ had many resources, one more could hardly matter to him. But I could tell him about Sophos. "There's something you should know about what happened when I was with Sophos," I said. I paused for a moment to collect my thoughts, but suddenly my breath was ragged and my mouth was dry. The aeriko s.h.i.+mmered silently in the air, waiting.

"I-" No, that wasn't how to begin. "He-"

Back at camp, I could see Tamar conferring with Maydan, and Maydan pointing toward me. "Someone's coming," I said. My voice was unsteady, stumbling. I wish I could talk with Kyros about this face-to-face, not through an aeriko. "You'd better go, someone's coming."

The s.h.i.+mmer vanished. I glanced toward the camp again, hoping that n.o.body had seen anything, and saw that Tamar was not coming toward me after all. I could have finished my report. I rubbed my forehead with my hand, hoping that anyone who saw me would think my headache was from the glare of the sun.

At least this way, I could mull over how to tell my story, instead of thras.h.i.+ng around for words while facing an aeriko.

I hugged Kyros's rea.s.surances around myself like a blanket as I made my way back toward camp.

Everything was loaded up; women were mounting horses and moving out. Someone had saddled Kara for me, and I mounted with a little bit of difficulty and joined the rest of the group. As I started to ride out, I suddenly remembered something I'd seen, but not entirely noticed, down by the river. A cooking pot-the big iron pot we cooked rice in. Someone had been scrubbing it, probably, and left it behind.

Well, I'd ride down to the river and grab it and catch up; even injured I thought I could probably manage that.

It was right where I remembered seeing it-tipped over and full of water and sand. I started to lift it and had to stop; the strain on my ribs was too painful, and it felt like my entire back seized up in protest from the effort. I swore, in Greek; I had pictured myself simply scooping it up and tying it to the back of my saddle. I hadn't remembered it being this heavy, but then, when Tamar and I had cooked the meal, I hadn't had a broken rib. I kicked it over to dump out the water and sand, let it drain for a moment, then tried again. I thought I could probably lift it, but whether I could get it, and myself, up on my horseuwell, that was another question entirely.

"What the h.e.l.l are you doing?"

It was Tamar. Relief washed over me. "I saw this pot when I was down by the river and I realized someone had forgotten it. I thought... I thought I'd..."

"Why didn't you tell someone instead of taking off by yourself? Oh, don't worry about it. I'll get it."

Tamar efficiently loaded the pot onto her own horse and helped me mount back up. "Come on, we'll have to hurry to catch up."

We encountered Maydan on the way; she had doubled back to look for us. I was keeping up, but with a tight jaw and clenched fists, and Maydan sent Tamar on ahead while riding with me. "We can stop and rest if you need to, I know where everyone else is going."

"What if the bandits..."

"They're moving but they're not within striking distance of us yet." Despite her confident words, Maydan glanced over her shoulder to scan the horizon. I wondered if she knew about Janiya's spell-chain. What would Zhanna and the other djinn wors.h.i.+ppers think of Janiya making use of a bound djinn?

For that matter, I wasn't entirely certain I trusted Janiya's information. Janiya couldn't possibly have a lot of experience getting useful information out of bound aerika. It could have told her that the bandits were close just for the fun of seeing us scurry around like mice in a hawk's shadow; after all, without a precise definition, close could mean "closer than Penelopeia." By the same token, if the bandits were too far away to see, it could have told her they were far. Did Janiya know just how precisely she had to phrase her questions, in order to trust the answers?

I knew how to get information out of aerika. Throughout the ride, I mulled over whether I could offer to help, and if so, on what pretext. I could plausibly claim to have recognized the spell-chain, but I could think of no excuse for a former slave to have much experience at questioning aerika. Perhaps if I'd been a longtime trusted servant at Kyros's I would have occasionally overheard him giving instructions to an aeriko, but as a stable girl... no. There was nothing I could say; it was too risky.

Regardless of whether Janiya's aeriko was providing her with reliable information, Maydan and I were not attacked by the bandits before we joined the rest of the sisterhood at dusk. We had fallen so far behind during the day that camp was entirely set up by the time we reached it. The other women had built the yurts, lit a fire, and started dinner. I let Maydan remove Kara's saddle but insisted on grooming her myself; it wasn't as if it was that strenuous a ch.o.r.e. I had underestimated how utterly exhausted I was, and when I was half done, she took the brush from me and I didn't protest.

I slumped to the ground beside Tamar, hating my weakness, hating myself for having been so careless as to get injured. Tamar handed me a bowl of lentils and rice, which I ate without even really tasting them. I washed them down with water, refused the skin of k.u.miss, and went to get my blanket; all I wanted was sleep.

Janiya stopped me as I was returning to the yurt. "Tamar says that you went to get the cook pot, that you noticed it had been forgotten."

"Yeah," I said, wondering what I'd done wrong now.

"Why didn't you tell someone else to go get it?"

I shrugged. "Everyone else was busy. I thought it would only take a minute; I hadn't realized how hard it would be to lift the pot."

Tamar saw Janiya talking to me and joined me; her nervousness was palpable. She glanced anxiously at me, and shot Janiya a hostile look. "We didn't get that far behind," Tamar said.

"You went after Lauria," Janiya said to her. "Why?"

"What was I supposed to do? Tell someone else to go look for her? I was the one who noticed she was missing. I didn't think it would take long to find her, and if she'd fallen behind because of her injury, I could ride after the rest of the sisterhood and tell them to slow down."

"But she hadn't fallen behind because of her injury."

"Not then, no," Tamar said, her voice impatient. "She was struggling with the pot, so I loaded it up and we went. What did we do wrong now?"

"Nothing," Janiya said. She slapped a blue bead into my hand, then one into Tamar's. "For showing initiative. The initiative you failed to show that first day, when I sent you out looking for karenite. You acted as sisters and free women, not as slaves."

"For getting a pot?" I blurted out.

"It's no simpler than getting water for yourself before heading out for a walk in the desert," Janiya said.

She gave us each a cordial nod and walked away.

Tamar was grinning; I shook my head, hovering between elation and disgust. I would never figure these women out. Ever. My mission was doomed, then, unless I happened to pa.s.s the tests by luck, which seemed unlikely. I threaded my new bead on the leather thong, then strode into the yurt, threw down my blankets, and went to sleep.

I woke early, before the sun was up, and had to get up to relieve myself. The sky was just beginning to lighten; I stepped out of camp to squat in the long gra.s.s, and became aware after a moment or two that an aeriko was watching me.

I quickly finished my business, uncomfortable with the audience. I hadn't yet decided how to tell Kyros what had happened-I hadn't expected him to send the aeriko back so soon. "What now?" I whispered.

It said nothing, hovering in the air. "Did Kyros want more information?"

"Who is Kyros?"

I realized that the aeriko was unbound-or perhaps this was Janiya's aeriko. I bit back a Greek curse and said, "Did Janiya send you?"

"No one sent me."

Well, that was something. "What do you want with me?"

Silence and the s.h.i.+mmer. Then: "You are followed by one of my kind."

That would no doubt be Kyros's aeriko. "I see," I said.

"An enslaved djinn. A slaver wishes to spy on you."

"Why are you telling me this?" Was it trying to be helpful? Or to find out if I knew who'd sent the spy?

Silence again. Then the s.h.i.+mmer vanished like a faint star behind a cloud, and I knew I was alone.

I wasn't going to be able to sleep after that sort of conversation, but I was still hurting too much to go start on any useful work. After s.h.i.+vering on the edge of camp for a short time, wondering what to do with myself, I went and sat by the embers of the fire.

Ruan was the first of the sisters to get up in the morning. "Oh," she said as she stepped out of the yurt.

"So that's where you went."

"Did you miss me?" I asked, unable to keep the sarcasm out of my voice.

"Oh yeah," she said. "It's such a disappointment when I don't get woken up in the middle of the night."

She wandered over closer to the fire and tossed on some fresh fuel. "You must think you're quite the newly polished sword, little blossomuwounded in your first fight, everyone hovering over you like a clutch of hens with a limping chick."

"I'm sure everyone's wounded sooner or later," I said. "You, for instance, clearly had your face rearranged at least once."

"You certainly have a high opinion of your wit."

I squinted. "Maybe twice."

"Do you want to see the wound I took defending the sisterhood, little blossom?" Ruan pulled up her tunic to show a long, ragged scar along her side. It had clearly been a much deeper wound than I'd taken-in fact, it was amazing that she'd survived it. She let me take a long, incredulous look, then dropped her tunic and walked away without another word.

The sisters spent the morning settling into the camp they'd set up so hastily the night before-unpacking food, sorting out things that had been jumbled together when they had to load up in a hurry, exploring the area. "We'd have had to move soon anyway," Saken said. "The gra.s.s near our old camp was nearly grazed out."