A Woman Warrior Born

by Alexander Edlund

  *****

  She walked southwest for four nights. There were soldiers all about during the days, searching for her, she was sure. On the second day, a patrol paused before the thicket where she hid. The soldiers discussed the thicket for a while, checked the ground for tracks, found none, and rode on. Finding hiding places for the day became increasingly difficult as more towns and farms dotted the hills and lowlands. Eating mostly wild onions she dug with her daggers, she felt herself weakening despite using the orb. She avoided contact with anyone. Total caution was her path now. No more confrontations. No more killing.

  On the evening of the fifth day, she emerged from the tiny cave where she’d spent the daylight and sat among the rocks overlooking a wide valley. The largest river she had ever seen meandered its way past endless leagues of farms. The roads along both sides of the river were teeming with people. Was this the Yasharn River? She had very little idea where she was in relation to the capital. The calls of goats caught her ear, and she went to investigate. Moving down the hillside, she spied an old goatherd sitting sullen beside a small fire. He wore a sheepskin hat that came down over his neck and ears, and had a thick blanket wrapped around his shoulders. He looked harmless, and she needed directions.

  "Greeting of a fair day’s eve," called out Breea from a distance.

  Startled, he looked up, then his demeanor changed to curiosity and interest, but not, she was glad to see, to suspicion.

  "Well met," he said in refined Yasharn.

  Breea approached and asked, "Would you tell me what valley that is below?"

  "Some call it the Valley of Enlightenment."

  "What do you call it?"

  "Sala Creenu, after the name my people gave it centuries ago."

  "I do not know your tongue, what does it mean?"

  His eyes held hers with dark emotion, and he said, "Torturer’s Valley."

  Breea did not like this answer. Perhaps her first judgment had been wrong. However, she needed to know where she was. Looking down to the roads along the river, she asked, "Where do those ways lead?"

  The man gazed at the valley as well, and said, "To pain and ignorance."

  Breea stared at him. His manner changed with each answer. She asked him, "Are you a riddler?"

  "How else am I to seem mysterious to a beautiful woman who appears out of the air and asks questions as though she knew nothing of the world?"

  "I know little of Yash, that is true. I came across the mountains from Iplock, and before that I sailed the Leuvat."

  "Ah, the Sea of Time."

  Breea looked at him in surprise, and asked, "Sailing Thoughts? Penned by Cir-sta Antival?"

  "Yes. Yes!"

  Breea laughed and pulled her Scholar necklace from under her blouse.

  "Turn the page!" he cried, and stood, bowing from the waist. "Sighn Baile, Second Sanis."

  "Breea Banea, First Sanis."

  "Banea? Elsemah’s daughter?"

  Breea nodded.

  His grin broadened, and he indicated that his fire was hers as well.

  Staring at her with pleased intensity, Sighn said, "You have chosen the wandering way? We all thought you would lead Limtir when you grew. You would not remember me. I saw you as a babe, though I have heard some of you since. What are you doing here? Surely Limtir did not send a First Sanis to Yash in a time of Conversion."

  She shook her head.

  "Tell me of Limtir," he said.

  Finding it difficult to switch so quickly to thoughts of home, Breea frowned and gazed over the valley.

  "It would take a long time," she said.

  "I have more than my allotment. But I see you are driven with seeking. Evening, as you say, is upon us. Will you help me drive my flock? They are rather dim, but follow instructions reasonably well." He smiled at some personal irony, and rose stiffly.

  They herded the goats up to a small plateau edged with a ring of ruined walls. The goats began settling in sheltered areas, and Sighn led Breea to a grass-obscured hole. He walked down steep steps and bade her follow. He paused to light a candle, then went deeper. From the shape of the walls and ceiling, Breea realized that she was in another Legend Time ruin. She listened, but there was no sense of power.

  "Soon I will have to move the flock down. Winter already freezes the ground some nights, but there is time yet. Should be more, but this is an omen year, and the Frozen One grips early and tight."

  Inside an underground chamber it was almost warm. Breea took off her cloak and gratefully set down her saddlebags. Sighn began bustling about, and Breea offered to light the fire. He made some tea when the fire was going, and served Breea dried berries, bread, and goat cheese. She consumed all that he gave her, including a second helping. Indulgent and doting, Sighn served her until she could eat no more. She began to feel guilty for taking so much of his food, but he seemed to enjoy watching her eat.

  By way of payment, she began telling him about Limtir, but he asked her to go further back each time she started, so that she was pulling up memories from childhood. Through the evening and into the night, she discovered that she could speak of her parents, something she had never been able to do before she met Etrya.

  As she was telling the story of her winning the Lower Division Guard Tourney, she started falling asleep and forgetting what she was saying. Sighn laid her down on a bed of sheepskins near the fire.

  In the morning, Sighn encouraged her to continue as he prepared a breakfast of bread smothered with melted goat cheese. He led her up into pale sunlight, and enlisted her help in moving the goats to another place to feed. When he found a place he liked to sit, he made a small fire and asked her to speak. Breea told whatever she could think of, up to the point when Ajalay told her of essence and weaving.

  They ate lunch in silence. Sighn seemed twice as alive as the previous day, and was doing a great deal of thinking. After staring out over the valley, he said, "Now tell me the secret you carry."

  Breea shivered, and told him of weaving, and Lupazg, and her journey to where she sat with him now. At the end he was leaning forward because her voice had worn down to a whisper.

  He lay back and looked at the afternoon sky, then he was up and jumping around on the slope doing a wild jig among the rocks.

  Shouting at the sky, he cried, "We have changed the world! Now the world has changed!" He fell over and grimaced in pain, but got up before Breea could come to his aid. "I have waited, dreamt, of such a thing for more years than you have lived, my fair scholar. More than you have lived. Once, when I was young, I believed knowledge was the power you speak of, but knowledge put me on this weather-cursed hill. Knowledge will get you flayed, girl, but pure power cannot be denied. Show me."

  Surprised by Sighn’s reaction, Breea considered how she might demonstrate. She drew a dagger, and released a boundary. The emerald pulsed to her heartbeat. Sighn stared in awed glee. Impulsively, Breea stabbed a large stone. The tip passed a good two fingers into the rock.

  Sighn cried out in amazement, then looked at Breea anew, his awe tinged with dawning respect, and the barest spark of fear. Embarrassed by his gaze, Breea sheathed her blades and suppressed the flame.

  For the rest of the afternoon, Sighn spoke of the college he once directed in Yash. When the sun began to set, they drove the flock back to the ruin, and went down into Sighn’s chamber. Along with dinner he gave Breea advice.

  "The priest you seek is an old High Priest, Duyazen. Fell out of favor, but he lives yet. Don’t ever show your daggers. Never speak in more than two languages in front of the same person. Don’t let the slit-pockets get your coin. The city guard is mostly corrupt, but not fanatical, like Temple guard. Avoid the Temple. I know you want to talk to Duyazen, but I recommend against it. It’s a paper wasp nest, and they’ll sting to death any who come too close. If you must go into the city, for the sake of all knowledge, do not show those blades, and tell no one you’re a scholar. I escaped by the goodwill of a noble friend, but it was a narrow thing. The Yasharn
are trying to tear the world apart again. I’ve seen thousands go toward the city and hundreds of galleys on the river. There’s an army of zealots down there. Follow this ridge until you see the city. Access to the city itself is controlled, but I trust you will find a way in. Be careful, and come back to tell me what you see."

 

  Chapter 10

  Rautukana