Pulik turned and marched to the man who had, by now, nearly emptied the kumis skin. “The drink and the whores can wait!” he yelled, knocking the man to the ground. Kalie noticed how slowly the man staggered back to his feet, while Pulik roughly interrupted the warrior who was busy with Mavra. But the last man—the one who had first taken the kumis from Varena—was moving strangely, his arms and legs twitching. He stared around him with widened eyes.
Kalie finally reached the prisoners, many of who were struggling against their ropes, unwilling to die like trussed sheep. Riyik stood perfectly still as she cut the cords which bound his hands and gave him the knife.
“Have you got another?” he asked her.
For an answer, she drew the second knife and moved to the next man, slicing through the cords that bound him, and moving on to the next. Kalie could hear the blood pounding in her ears as she cut through the ropes, certain that a knife was even now poised above her neck.
Then she heard the wet sound of combat as knife met flesh, felt the splatter of blood, and her hand froze on the ropes of the man in front of her.
“Give me that!” the anxious prisoner snapped, pulling the knife from her with his teeth and finishing the job himself.
She couldn’t move until Riyik’s face swam into her vision. Even then he had to pull her to her feet; Kalie seemed to have forgotten how to do it on her own.
“It’s all right,” he said. “You did it; you saved us!”
With a gasp she remembered how to breathe; then she looked around. Two of the would-be executioners were lying dead from knife wounds, while former prisoners stripped their bodies of weapons. The other two men were writhing on the ground, eyes rolling. No one was willing to get near them
Kalie looked from Riyik to Alessa to Brenia, not sure who to hug first. Then Riyik caught her in a fierce embrace. “Barak is hidden in your brother’s tent,” Kalie told Brenia over Riyik’s shoulder. Then Brenia was trying to push Riyik out of the way to hug Kalie herself and the three of them nearly fell over rather than let go.
As Brenia ran to get her son, Riyik kissed Kalie firmly on the mouth and released her, turning quickly to organize his men. That finally woke Kalie up to her own responsibilities as the women she had left behind came panting into the clear area around the king’s tent.
“Gather supplies,” she told the women before they could catch their breath. “Food, water, blankets—only one blanket each. The nights are not so cold yet, and we will have to travel fast. Faster than you have ever traveled in your lives.”
They dispersed to their tasks. Danica remained. “We must take a share of the herds,” she said, surveying the penned animals. “But only enough to feed us on the journey. There must be enough left behind to satisfy…whichever side wins this fight.”
“And you think they will just let us go?”
“If we leave behind enough wealth? Possibly. Herds and women—most of the women will remain, you know?” Kalie nodded. “With all that, and winter coming, they may not feel the need to track down a handful of traitors and madwomen. But if you give them reason to fear us…then they may choose to wait many years before searching for us in the west.”
The two women stared at each other. “I made many little stars out of bone…” Kalie began.
“Yes, they were so pretty that I made some as well. So did all the women of my household, and many others besides.”
Kalie smiled at the strange twisting of fate. “Perhaps, Danica, you could gather them up, and bring them here?”
Then Riyik was by her side once again. “We will have perhaps thirty horses,” he said. “Enough to carry those who would otherwise slow us down. The rest will have to walk.”
Kalie nodded. “Can one or two be spared to carry supplies?”
“Possibly.” He looked around at the women who stood by their tents, staring open-mouthed at the madness that had taken hold of their camp. “We must hurry. Gather who you will, but get them ready to leave at once!” Then he kissed her again and was gone.
Kalie hurried through the camp, more interested in it than in finding those she sought. Whether or not she would ever again see the land of her birth, this day would be her last in the tribe of Aahk. She tried to see it as the Goddess would: with compassion and sympathy, or perhaps without any judgment at all.
She failed. All she could see was senseless waste: of potential and life and even the fragile beauty that sometimes lived in this endless land of grass.
Altia stepped directly in her path.
Kalie halted suddenly as Maalke’s wife caught her wrist. “I am told you are once again my husband’s slave,” the older woman sneered. “When the men return, we will leave for the west, and then all the worthless whores of your land will learn what it means to live as proper women.” She pulled Kalie toward her and slapped her across the face. “Dress yourself and get to back to my tent! After I give you the beating you’ve earned, you may begin your work.”
Kalie looked Altia up and down, and smiled. Then she drew back her free arm and punched Altia in the face with all her strength. The woman released her and fell flat on her back, legs flying up in a scandalous fashion.
Kalie couldn’t believe how good it felt. She leaned over the stunned woman, who lay gaping up at her. “You are right about one thing, Goat-Dung: I do have work to do. But I assure you, none of it involves being your slave!”
She looked around, knowing that her future would be determined in the next few moments. Women everywhere were staring at the scene, most too frozen with shock to be any threat to Kalie. Some were giggling behind their veils, but Kalie sensed a note of hysteria.
“Kalie! What have you done?” Cassia was in the crowd, rushing to Altia’s side, and potentially very dangerous. Despite her difficult childbirth, Cassia was as physically powerful as Altia, and much more determined to keep Kalie with her.
Strangely, as she looked down at her, all Kalie could feel was sadness. “I’m sorry, Cassia,” she said. “I had hoped this would be a joyous day for both of us.”
Before Cassia could fully comprehend what she was saying, Kalie turned and ran back to Kariik’s tent at the center of the camp. The stool he had occupied that morning stood empty, the only high ground available in this flat, Goddess-forsaken grassland. Kalie leapt on top of it. With her height an added advantage, she could be seen by nearly everyone in camp.
“People of the Horse!” she shouted. “Women of Aahk and woman of Malquor! The time has come for me to leave this place, and return to the land of my birth. I ask all of you who would be free; who would dream of a better life, to come with me!
“Come with me to a land without slavery, where a woman’s body belongs to her alone, and if any man were to hit you, he would be driven from the settlement by every member of the community!”
“What about when a woman hits you?” cried a timid blonde slave whom Kalie remembered from Varena’s rites of womanhood.
The woman next to her did just that, but the girl did not cower, nor even show she felt any pain, only looked at Kalie with a kind of desperate hope.
“She, too, would be driven from the community,” Kalie said. “Although, perhaps, if some of you who are wives choose to come with us, time must be set aside for you to learn not to hit, just as young children must learn. And those of you who were slaves must learn not to strike back, now that you have the chance.” She pointed to where Altia was being helped to her feet by two other women. “I just struck the woman who thought she had the right to hit me. I promise all of you, here and now, that—except for when I must do so to protect myself or one of you—I shall never again strike another woman. Although I know I will want to!”
Laughter spread through the crowd that now included most of the tribeswomen.
“Why would any wife give up all she has to follow a shameless whore out into the wilds to die?” demanded a harsh voice. “Our husbands will soon return and hunt you down! Then you will learn what happens to slaves who speak as you do
!”
Kalie stared coolly into the fierce eyes of Leja, who with her pain-ravaged face, didn’t seem so fierce anymore. “Your husbands may return, victorious over their enemies. Or they may even now lie dead on the battlefield, as food for ravens. If that happens then you and your children will belong to the victors. While you wait to learn your fate, I shall leave here and fight for mine! The choice is yours.”
She stepped down from the stool, and found Riyik beside her. He lifted his arms as though to take Kalie into them, then hesitated. It was that hesitation that made it so easy for her to fling herself into his arms and wrap hers tightly around him.
“I believe, my love,” he said, gently disentangling himself, “that it is time for us to go.”
Chapter 36
Between them, Kalie and Riyik were able to make order out of chaos in a surprisingly short time.
Most of the women making the journey were slaves, and thus good at following orders and doing what needed to be done. The problems occurred when they began taking things out of their tents, such as water bags, food or even a single blanket. And of, course, themselves.
Kalie resented the fact that she had to call on Riyik and his warriors to pry a number of outraged wives off the women they believed to be their property. She had hoped this would be something she and her followers could handle themselves. At least the men were able to settle matters quickly. For, while those staying far outnumbered those leaving, and nomad women possessed impressive strength when it came to beating up other women, none of them would challenge an armed man with anything other than sharp words.
“Stop this!” screamed a desperate wife, as the slaves who were staying behind looked on in wonder. She kicked the departing slave girl viciously in the leg, causing her to stumble, and then launched herself at Kalie with wickedly sharp fingernails. “He will beat me if he finds her gone!”
“Then keep a knife handy and find the strength to use it on him!” Kalie shot back, pushing back a stray lock of hair, which now, freed from its veil blew wildly around her face. “You have two others who choose to stay! Be thankful for them!”
“But she keeps his interest from returning to me! Another baby will kill me!”
Kalie groaned and waved to one of the warriors to take over. Borik, a muscular giant, came over and lifted the struggling slave girl, carrying her to where a growing line was preparing to leave.
“Come with us!” Kalie said uselessly to the weeping wife, who now sobbed in the arms of her two remaining slaves.
There were bigger problems over supplies. It seemed that no matter how little the runaways were taking with them, it was too much.
“Fine, go, you worthless slut!” a red-faced wife was shouting at a skinny, half naked girl. “But all you’re taking with you is your rotted cunt!” She then tried to tear off the rest of the girl’s clothes. Kalie was grateful she had clarified the exception about defense of herself or another in her vow to stop hitting women. She had to pummel the woman half unconscious before she would stop.
For those few who were wives in their own right, the departure was easier. There were still disputes when a senior wife wanted to argue, or all of the women of the household united to stop her. But most simply stared in baffled amazement at their good fortune.
“You are his first wife, Nesia!” cried a pockmarked woman with a fussy baby at her breast. “You want to leave all you have to go die of thirst? What about your children?”
Nesia adjusted the strap that kept her infant son securely bound beneath her breast, then took the hand of her five-year-old daughter. “It is for them that I do this,” she said. “You know how ill our husband was when he rode to battle. What are the chances he will return alive?”
“But if he does, he will ride for as long as he must to bring back his children,” said a young concubine, a malicious grin on her face. “And he will beat you until you plead for death—which you deserve for such a deed!”
Elka watched with a puzzled frown as Brenia packed and walked quietly out of her tent with Barak on her back. Only when they passed the last of the tents, and took their places at the front of the line of refugees did Elka suddenly howl and give chase. “No!” she screamed. “It isn’t fair! Hysaak must kill you himself! It’s the only way I can be sure he loves me!”
“He will kill her as soon as he catches her!” laughed a woman who stood watching. “Why aren’t you happy to see her go? She’s taking your son’s only rival with her!”
Elka launched herself at Brenia. “I will not be cheated of my prize!”
Kalie pried the younger woman off Riyik’s sister and flung her to the ground with more force than was perhaps necessary. Elka kicked at her from the ground, her blond hair tangling around her head like a nest of snakes. “If she leaves, Hysak will remember only that he once loved her, and will want her back! She must stay! Without her to hate, he will begin to hate me!”
“I know this place is crazy,” Kalie said to no one in particular. “But I think she’d qualify as insane anywhere.”
“You’re probably right,” said one of the Aahken men in their group. In all, twenty-seven men were going west with them. It seemed to Kalie a good number: enough to provide protection on the journey home, but not enough to threaten a city if they proved less than honorable when the journey was over.
Finally, the camp was divided into two groups: a small group of women, ready to brave the unknown and make new lives, and the rest, who would wait in their tents as they had done for all of theirs.
The most heartbreaking, Kalie thought, were those who wanted to go, but stayed because of their children.
More than half the women leaving were either pregnant, or carried a nursing infant. Some had older children, who followed their mothers without question. But those with older children who understood what was going on and did not support it, faced an agonizing decision.
Most boys over the age of ten had gone with the warriors. But Kalie wept as she watched six women give up their dream of freedom when threatened by their own children.
“I will wait for father!” an angry seven-year old boy shouted with arms crossed over his chest. His mother looked sadly at Kalie, shook her head, and allowed the boy to lead her back into their tent.
“If you try to take me, I will kill you!” a child no older than nine shouted at his concubine mother. “You dishonor my father and all my ancestors.”
“I’ll show that little brat honor!” Kalie shouted.
Riyik held her back. “I know this is hard, but in these cases, we cannot interfere.”
“So we let children dictate to their mothers?” Kalie demanded. “Don’t they know that if the Wolf and their allies win this battle, every one of those boys will be killed? Their mothers to follow if they’re not desirable enough to merit rape and slavery?”
“Of course they know!” said Riyik. “But to them, it’s a better fate than fleeing the protection of a home and clan. Of being branded a coward and a traitor, and losing any chance of reaching paradise in the next life.”
Kalie had known how much the women who followed her risked, but until that moment she hadn’t realized how much they were giving up—for themselves and their children. It made her more determined than ever to make sure they lived to rejoice in their decision. But the scene before her still stung.
“We could drug the children. Or bind them.” Kalie looked pleadingly at Riyik. “Just until they understand it’s for their own good. When they reach the west they’ll be glad they came!” At Riyik’s look, she faltered, but did not give up. “If we could at least convince the mothers to come, they would not have to watch their sons die, or endure a life of slavery knowing every day that didn’t have to!”
Riyik’s face was lined with pain, but he shook his head. “If those women leave their children, they will come to hate themselves. And if we take those boys with us by force, what do you think will happen?”
Kalie groaned. “They will seek every opportunity to escape, an
d bring the warriors after us—or destroy us on their own, to avenge what we have done,” she said bitterly.
“As you yourself have done to this tribe, my beloved.”
“I hate it when you’re right,” Kalie said, shoulders sagging with defeat.
Riyik flung an arm around her and turned her until she faced west. “I grieve with you for those who stay behind. But look upon what you have accomplished!”
Before them stood an orderly line of thirty-two women, fifteen children, and twenty-six men. All of the men were mounted. Seven horses served as pack animals, to allow the unencumbered travelers to move at higher speed than they normally did. The old and sick, including Danica and Agafa, rode pillion behind patient warriors. Two horses stood saddled, but without riders: Thunder and Blossom. About fifty sheep and goats milled about, anxiously anticipating the signal to begin walking.
Riyik looked at the sky. “We can travel ten miles before dark. Perhaps twice that each day that follows.” He pointed to the full moon rising in the west. “If fate is kind, we will be in your land when next the moon reaches this phase.”
Kalie turned to him, memorizing every bit of this beloved face. “Get them started on their journey, Riyik, for that is something only you can do. I will catch up with you before the sun sets. But there is something I must do first.”
Chapter 37
Riyik swung on her so suddenly Kalie thought he was going to hit her.
Then she saw the look in his eyes, and knew he would not—only that he was as determined that she not do this thing as she was determined that she would.
“I can’t let anyone follow us,” she said simply. “You know as well as I that if the men of Aahk are not wiped out to a man, that they will come after us. And if the other side wins, they may well be drunk enough on kumis and victory to hunt us down tonight while we sleep, just for the sport of it.”
Shadow of the Horsemen (Kalie's Journey) Page 27