Diversity Is Coming
Page 14
***
The summer was dying when Jezhei returned from the lowlands. She rode upon the back of a guar whose thick fur was mottled with blacks, browns, whites, and the orange of the setting sun. It had been a year and a moon since she had been thought lost in battle, and Subandi had begun to head north again, having avoided the villages near Folei since the loss of his daughter. Want of the richer plunders and food to last the winter called them to the broad lowlands below the plateau of the Roof, away from the poorer towns and villages which filled the valleys to the east. As the Tribe woke to break camp in the morning, the sentries spotted Jezhei returning to them from the north. Word was spread through the camp like a wildfire. All the women and men, all the children came out to see their chief’s daughter returning with awe and bafflement.
Subandi was first those who approached them, and his joy became a scowl when he saw clearly his child. “Who is this wearing my daughter’s face? I am the father of a warrior, proud and strong. This woman who approaches us wears no armor and carries no blade larger than an eating knife. She wears furs over soft leather and cloth, and has nothing but crutches at her side that do not match those she left with. She doesn’t even ride a highland horse, but mounts is on a wanderer-cow. Who are you? A lowlander-- or a taker of cattle, a master of the high places, and child of the Roof?”
“I am still your daughter,” Jezhei’s voice rang out loud and clear, her head held high and her back tall. “But the lowlanders know more than we realized, and I have learned much while I healed in their care.”
The scorn and bitterness in her father’s laughter was echoed by many of the warriors around him. “Healed by lowlanders, and willing to learn from them? Next you’ll say you did not even steal the cow to show us you’d kept something of your edge in the thick air.”
“It is called a tauzak, and males, like this one, are called guar. It was given to me, by friends who taught me a new Way, one better than that we have known, and one that can still be practiced on the Roof of the World. It is the way of Kiritru, who is the mother of their species.”
Subandi laughed again, this time in disbelief. “You want us to give up the way of the sword to follow a cow goddess? Don’t insult your ancestors so. Has the thick air drowned your thoughts? My daughter would know better. Now get off that beast and give it to me. The tribe eats meat today.”
“I think not,” Jezhei shook her head. “He is of my herd, and I will not see him harmed before his time has come.”
His jaw set strongly, the bandit lord glared at his daughter. “If you will not dismount on your own, I shall pull you off with these two hands!” Subandi rushed forward to grab his daughter, but the tauzak danced away without a visible sign motion from its rider, leaving the chief sprawled on the ground. Laughter rang out from the assembled crowd, and Subandi knew that he must not fail. He rose and attempted to pull his daughter down twice more. Each time her mount moved aside as the chief rushed in, with an agility unseen in such a large animal before.
“How do you make it move without even using reigns?”
“Chiru moves for me because he chooses to.” Jezhei answered him, the solid certainty of her voice in contrast to her father’s own bewilderment.
“He may be able to turn and twist when I reach for you, but I would never miss such a large target. One way or another, we shall eat meat.” The chief drew out his sword and swung with both hands towards the guar, a strong and fluid motion honed by years of practice. With a loud clang, Jezhei struck his blade from its path with the metal-shod end of her crutch, forcing her father to miss once more.
“Enough!” cried our Lady. “Violence only proves that one person can harm another. But life is not about harming alone, it is about living, and thriving. I have come with a new way, and you use steel because you fear the unknown, but my way is not one of fear. There is another path, and we can all take it together. Kiritru has given it to me, and I will make a gift of it to you all. Let me have but this day to show you, and if the tribe is unconvinced, I shall depart. You can all continue to do as you always have. But if instead you see merit in the new path I have brought, then I can bring a future full of hope and prosperity, one where we need not go hungry, and our children can befriend their neighbors instead of learning to take what they wish by blood and steel. Surely the people of the Roof cannot be scared to follow a woman on a tauzak for a single day?”
Subandi began to object, but his ears were filled with the curiosity of his people. A leader who never listens will not lead for long. “Very well,” he replied, spitting his words as if venom coated each one. “I will give you until sunset to show us this lowland Way, but none will care to follow it. Once the Tribe rejects you, flee. If you are on the same side of the horizon as this tribe when the sun passes beneath it, we will ride out in all our force and destroy you. No one mocks the People of the Roof and survives it.”