Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 83

by Vandana Singh

  “They are twins,” her uncle said. “When they came out into the world, Manhata was already bigger and stronger. He has always been quicker and more forceful than his brother. There are people who say he took something from his brother in the womb. I wouldn’t be surprised.”

  “This doesn’t sound promising,” Eyes-of-crystal said.

  “There’s nothing wrong with Eh Shawin. He looks very much like Eh Manhata, though he isn’t as tall or broad, and something is missing, as I said before. Manhata is like a man in sunlight. No one can overlook him. Shawin is a man at the edge of a forest, in shadow and not entirely visible. But he’s a good soldier, and no one has ever questioned his courage or intelligence. And he is Eh Manhata’s only full brother.”

  “No mating can tie us closed to Eh than this one,” her mother said. “And no lineage is more important to us. If we’re lucky, some of Manhata’s qualities will show up in your child or children.”

  “You want me to do this,” Eyes-of-crystal said.

  Her mother said, “Yes.”

  She agreed. A message was sent to Eh. Eyes-of-crystal took her bow and went down along the river to shoot birds.

  This happened in the late spring. Eh Shawin did not arrive until mid-summer. He came alone, which was not surprising. The road from Eh to Ahara was usually safe, and his brother was leading a campaign in the north against the Alliance of Five Less One. All his male relatives would be there. In peaceful times, of course, they would have ridden with him and made rude jokes about heterosexuality. It is always the job of one’s male relatives to demoralize, while the men of the other lineage are required to be friendly and encouraging.

  In any case, Shawin appeared alone at the gate of Ahara Tsal. The guards asked him to wait and sent a messenger ahead. There was time for her family to gather in the courtyard of their great house: her mother, her aunts, the older female cousins and the two old men who were not at war.

  Eyes-of-crystal was on a balcony. There were rules and courtesies in a proper mating. One does not meet the man right off. But there was nothing wrong in watching, as she did.

  He rode in. His animal was dusty and tired, but had a good shape with powerful haunches and shoulders and a wide head that might indicate intelligence. It was solid brown, a rare and expensive color.

  The man was as dusty as the tsin and dressed like an ordinary soldier. But he swung down gracefully, and once he was on the ground she could see he was tall, standing eye to eye with her mother and looming over the two old men, as they came forward to welcome him.

  All the rituals of greeting were performed. It seemed to her that Shawin moved through them with unusual precision, like the traveling actors she had seen now and then. They came to Ahara Tsal and set up their stage in the main square. There they danced and told the stories of heroes. It occurred to her as a child that she wanted to be two things: a soldier or an actor. Both were impossible.

  One of her sisters was on the balcony with Eyes-of-crystal. She looked down at the man in the courtyard and said, “He isn’t much to look at, is he?”

  Eyes-of-crystal held her tongue, though there was plenty she could have said. The sister had mated for the first time with a son of Merin, a beautiful man who liked fine clothing and jewelry. His eyes had been blue-green, the color of malachite. His manners had been good enough, especially at first. But it had taken her sister a long time to get pregnant, and the man became obviously restless. He was anxious to get back to the war and to his lover, the men of Ahara said.

  When he learned that the sister was finally pregnant, he let out a shout of joy, and he left as soon as he decently could.

  Eyes-of-crystal mentioned none of this. For one thing, the sister was still pregnant and with twins, if her size was any indication. Discomfort had ruined the woman’s usually good disposition, and it was never a good idea to criticize the father of an unborn child.

  Eyes-of-crystal kept her lips firmly closed over the hwarhath proverb which means, “Handsome is as handsome does.”

  The next day she was introduced to the man. He’d taken a bath and put on a new kilt covered with embroidery. The grip of his sword was white bone bound with rings of gold. His fur was brushed and glossy.

  That was as much as she learned about him. Their meeting was formal and brief. The words they spoke to each other were set by tradition. When they had finished, her great-uncles led Eh Shawin off to meet with other men. She went off with her female relatives.

  For the most part, the hwarhath would prefer not to think about what their ancestors had to go through before the development of artificial insemination. But the information is there if you want to look for it, and the author of this story clearly did her research.

  Remember that heterosexuality was—and is—frightening to the People. In it lies the power of generation and destruction. They know—and have always known—that the survival of their society depends on keeping men and women apart. But, through most of their history, the survival of their society depended on mating.

  They did what humans also do, when faced with something frightening and unavoidable: death, for example, birth or marriage. They use ritual to protect the act and limit it and direct its power. They used humor and drugs to diminish their fear.

  Eh Shawin spent the day with the men of Ahara, talking and getting a little drunk. Eyes-of-crystal spent the day getting ready for the night, and the author of the story describes every detail: the ritual bath, the ceremonies of protection, the comic skits performed by female cousins, the elaborate mating robe.

  Most likely, there is an element of malice in all this description. “Look, look,” the author is saying to her readers. “This is what you are trying to forget. This is where we come from. It’s as inescapable as shit.”

  Finally, at nightfall, Eyes-of-crystal was led up to the mating chamber: a large circular room high in a tower. Most of the space was filled by a bed, its wooden frame elaborately carved. Two chairs stood by a window. A lamp burned on the table between them. Eyes-of-crystal sat down. Her robe was stiff with embroidery. There was no way to relax. She had been given a potion, so the bed did not frighten her. Her relatives fussed around, straightening the cover on the bed, trimming the wick on the lamp, offering good advice.

  Finally, there was the sound of male voices, mostly drunk, at the bottom of the tower. The women grew silent. Eyes-of-crystal heard footsteps on the stairs: one person only, climbing steadily. The others had stayed behind, as was proper. One fellow kept shouting, “Good luck!”

  A couple of the women whispered angrily. This was a serious—a sacred— business, and it ought to be carried forward with gravity. A little bit of something to drink did no harm. But men never knew when to stop. Any excuse for a drinking party!

  The door opened, and there Eh Shawin was. A torch shone in back of him, so he was edged with red and yellow light. A moment later, he was in the room and standing in the shadows along the curving wall.

  The women left. Several of them touched Eyes-of-crystal as they passed her, but no one spoke. There was only the rustle of clothing, the slap of sandals on the bare stone floor and the breathing of an especially large and solid aunt as she went down the winding stairs. Last to go was Eyes-of-crystal’s mother.

  Eh Shawin closed the door, came over and sat down in the chair across from Eyes-of-crystal. Now she was frightened, in spite of the potion. He leaned forward and looked at her, frowning. “They have drugged you.”

  “Yes.”

  He sighed. “The first night is always like this. I’m going to tell you something, Ahara Pai, though I don’t know if you’ll be able to understand it at the moment. Still, I believe in acting directly3 and in saying what’s in my mind.

  “There are many families who want to interbreed with Eh, and all of them are interested in having my brother as a father. But, as you probably know, our lineage cannot let him leave the field of battle.

  “Because I’m Eh Manhata’s twin, I’ve been sent on trips like this—
“ He paused. “More times that I can remember. I know far more about this situation than is usual for a man, and I have formed my own opinions about how to go about producing children.”

  Eyes-of-crystal would have been shocked, if she had been sober. Thanks to the potion, she remained calm.

  “These drugs and rituals do nothing good! The woman is frightened, and the man would be, if he wasn’t drunk, as he usually is. It’s surprising he remembers what it is he has to do. In my opinion, everything goes best if the two people are sober and comfortable with one another. The woman seems to get pregnant more quickly, and it’s my impression that the child turns out better. And so I have developed my own way of doing this. I try to make it as ordinary as possible.”

  “Do your female relatives let you have these opinions?” asked Eyes-of-crystal. “It seems odd.”

  He glanced up and smiled briefly. “Remember that they’ve known me from childhood. Eh Manhata is fierce. I am stubborn.”

  He changed the topic then and asked her about hunting. The man of Ahara had told him she liked to hunt. It was an unusual trait in a woman, but not wrong or shameful. His home was on the plain. What was the great river like for hunting?

  She tried to answer him, but she was frightened, and the drug made it hard for her to think and speak. Her mind kept coming back to the present situation, though with decreasing fear. For one thing, his questions were so ordinary. For another, the drug was making her sleepy. Her thoughts moved more and more slowly, like people wading through a heavy fall of snow.

  “Maybe we should have this conversation another time,” Eh Shawin said finally. He paused, then continued, his voice quiet and gentle. “There is one thing I have never been able to change. Your relatives and mine have expectations about what will happen tonight. We must meet those expectations.

  “I can do the thing slowly and try to find some way to make it pleasant for you, or I can do it quickly and get it over.”

  “Quickly,” said Eyes-of-crystal.

  Eh Shawin inclined his head in the motion of agreement, then asked if she wanted light or darkness.

  “Darkness,” said Eyes-of-crystal.

  He licked his fingers and put out the lamp.

  The home world of the People has no moon, but the stars are brilliant, and the People have better night vision than humans. Most likely, the man and woman could see each other as they undressed. Maybe their eyes gleamed occasionally, reflecting starlight. Their dark, solid bodies must certainly have been visible, as they moved past the star-filled windows or settled on the bed, which was covered with a mating blanket of bleached fabric as white as snow or bone.

  The author of the story does not tell us any of this, though she describes their mating with clinical detail. Most likely, she was working from the old mating manuals, which are still available in libraries, though not (of course) in sections that children can access. There is no reason to believe that she is writing from personal experience.

  After they finished, the man went to sleep. Eyes-of-crystal lay next to him, looking out a window at the sky. She could see the Banner of the Goddess, the Milky Way.

  What had the Goddess been thinking of, when she devised this method for making people? It was like a great, ugly knot in the net of kinship and cooperation and love that held all of them—women and men, adults and children—together. Impossible to understand!

  She woke in the morning and found Eh Shawin gone, though she could see the place where he’d lain. Her body hurt. She got up groaning and went down to the women’s bathroom. There was hot water ready and a cousin to help her.

  Hah! It was good to wash and then soak in a tub of clean water scented with herbs. The cousin was middle aged, but had never been bred. One of her feet was twisted. It had been that way from birth, and this was not a trait the Ahara wanted continued. She barely spoke to Eyes-of-crystal, either out of envy or embarrassment.

  At last, Eyes-of-crystal got out of the tub and rubbed herself dry. The cousin brought a fresh new tunic. She put it on. Her female relatives would be waiting for her in the eating room and the kitchen. She had no wish to see them. Eyes-of-crystal thanked her cousin and went out to the stables.

  Light slanted in the little, high windows. The air smelled of hay and tsina. Most of the stalls were empty, the animals gone to war. But a few remained: the mares and geldings that children rode and her own hunters. She went to look at her favorite, a blue-gray stallion. His legs and hindquarters had white stripes, and his horns were as black as obsidian.

  Eh Shawan stood at the end of the stall. “A fine animal," he said. What do you call him?”

  “Direct Action.”

  “A good name. I talked to your mother this morning and explained that I don’t want to inconvenience your male relatives. There are so few home at present, and most are so old! They don’t have the energy to be entertaining a guest. And I do best in these situations if I keep regular hours and maintain my ordinary habits. So—“ He glanced up briefly and smiled. “Your mother has agreed that it makes better sense for me to go out riding with you. I get the exercise I need, and the old men of Ahara get their rest.”

  It wasn’t like her mother to agree to anything unusual, but Shawin was clever and plausible. There are men who know how to charm women, just as there are men who know how to charm men. These two qualities don’t usually come together in one person. Eyes-of-crystal had the impression that Eh Shawin was no exception to this rule. Her male relatives did not dislike the man, but it wasn’t likely they’d go out of the way for him.

  “My tsin hasn’t recovered from our journey yet, but one of your cousins has offered me this animal.” He led her to another stall.

  She knew the animal there: a large gelding. Its color was solid purple-brown.

  “He told me its name is Consistent Behavior, which sounds promising, though I’m curious why an animal this color was gelded.”

  She knew and told him. The animal had a sullen disposition. This wasn’t a problem for

  riding. “Unless you want to go quickly.” But Consistent Behavior was no good for hunting, and the animal would have been dangerous in a war.

  Eh Shawin laughed.

  “My cousin meant no discourtesy. You see how little we have available.” She gestured around at the empty stalls.

  “I don’t take offense easily. That’s my brother.”

  They saddled and rode out. The author of this story is anonymous, but she almost certainly came from one of the lineages along the river, maybe from Ahara. Her description of the country is detailed, and it reads like real experience, not something she got out of a book.

  They went east along a narrow trail that led past fields of hwal and antim. The sky was clear except for a handful of high clouds, and the air smelled of dust and dry vegetation. Small bugs filled the weeds along the trail. The names of the bugs are given: sunfly, hopper, pirig, heln and scarlet warrior.

  Eh Shawin asked about hunting a second time.

  Eyes-of-crystal hold him about the many fine animals and birds to be found in the marshes along the River Tsal and in the flood plain forest.

  It was obvious that he knew about hunting. The questions he asked were intelligent. But he had never spent much time around water. She told him about the giant fish that lived in the river. They were longer than a man and had teeth like knives. Their dispositions were nasty. Her people hunted them with nets and spears.

  “That must be something,” Eh Shawin said and then exhaled loudly. They had come to the top of the bluffs. In front of them was the river valley, wide and deep, full of many channels that wound through the forest and marshland, so the entire valley was like a belt made of strips of colored leather woven together: green, blue-green, brown and pale red.

  The two of them dismounted and let their animals graze. They spoke more about hunting. He reached over and stroked her shoulder the way a female lover might. Eyes-of-crystal frowned. After a moment he took his hand away and leaned back till he was lying full-
length on the stony ground, his hands forming a resting place for his head.

  Now she was made uneasy by his silence. “What is your brother like?” she asked.

  He glanced at her. In the bright sunlight, his pupils had contracted into lines she could not see. His eyes were like windows onto an empty, blue sky.

  “That’s a question I’ve heard before. ‘Tell us about Eh Manhata, Eh Shawin.’”

  “Does it make your angry to be asked?”

  “No. It’s always been obvious that he was something special, even when we were children. Everyone knew if he lived to be a man, he would be either a hero or a monster.

  “He is fierce and without fear, commanding, strong, clever about war. No one can match him as a leader in battle. So long as he’s alive, our lineage will always win.

  “He loves our mother and our female relatives, and he never acts without consulting them—except on the battlefield, of course. He is loyal to Eh. He respects the Goddess.”

  He stopped talking. There was no noise except bugs singing in the vegetation.

  “I know all this,” said Eyes-of-crystal.

  “Then you know Eh Manhata.” The man sat up. “Let’s ride more.”

  That day they stayed on the plain above the river. In the afternoon, they returned to Ahara Tsal. At night, they mated again in the tower room. It was as unpleasant as the first time, but she didn’t lie awake for as long afterward.

  The weather remained hot and dry: good late summer weather. They got in the habit of going out almost every day. Eyes-of-crystal showed the man of Eh her country: the cultivated fields, the marshes and forest. They hunted the animals available in that season, before the fall migrations began. The man was a good companion: patient, observant, respectful of her skill and knowledge, unmoved by violence and death.

  She liked him, though she had never expected to like a man who was not a close relative and thought he did things that made her uneasy.