Daughters of the Great Star

by Diana Rivers

  It was not till we had gathered to eat that Pell thought to ask me for Alyeeta’s message. I took the folded note from my pouch, broke the seal, and read what was written there, as surprised by those words as anyone in that circle.

  “From Alyeeta the Witch to Pell of the Star-Blessed, this is to ask if you would come with all your women to my shelter. The other Witches wish to meet with you there to see how we may best work together for our mutual aid and benefit. Come if you can the day after the morrow. Please to send your answer back with Hereschell. Tazzi will write it for you. As it must be, Alyeeta of Eezore.”

  There was a buzz of excited voices from around the table. Pell was watching me with surprise. “Are you sure of what it says, Tazzi? Did you memorize it all correctly?”

  “No, I memorized none of it,” I said with pride. “I never saw it before this moment, not until I broke the seal. I read it to you word for word, exactly as Alyeeta wrote it.”

  Pell leaned forward and stared at me intently as I passed the paper to her. While the others talked excitedly, she re-opened the note and gazed at it for a long while, mouthing the words. When she looked up at me again there was a strange, hungry look on her face. “So you can really read,” she said in a voice so low it was almost a whisper, a voice that had in it a mix of wonder, envy, admiration, and even an edge of anger. “Who would have thought it possible in so short a time.”

  “Oh, Pell, I could teach you too,” I said eagerly.

  “No,” she answered quickly, shaking her head and sounding almost frightened. “No, when there is peace, when we are in a safe place, then it will be time enough for me to learn such things. For now it is good that you can read and write. Alyeeta was right. It will help to keep us safe.” Then Pell turned back to the others as if nothing had passed between us. “So the wheel turns,” she said loudly. She had a wolfish grin. “We ride out tomorrow, unless there are any of you who think we should not go. Either way, Tazzi will write our answer.” This was followed by some discussion back and forth, but in the end all were agreed that we should meet with the Witches.

  After that there was much talk around that table, but at first Hereschell was almost silent, full of stiff dignity, not at all my easy comrade of the trail. Then I told the story of our ride and spoke of his wonderful block of food. Renaise begged to see this Korshi. Suddenly she was sitting next to him, asking questions, with Thalyisi on his other side. Hereschell was talking as if to an old friend, while the brick of Korshi passed from hand to hand being explained and commented upon. I saw Pell’s face light up when she held it. “Food to travel with, food for traveling light and far,” she said, nodding.

  Later I dragged my mat outside, thinking I would rather try to make peace with the trees than endure the stuffy confines of the overcrowded shelter. When I lay down to sleep, Pell and Jhemar and Hereschell were still squatting by the fire, heads bent together, talking of guard strength and troop movements and where the edict was already posted. I could tell from the smell of it that they had some Korshi cooking in the pot. From their talk, I thought they would soon be drawing maps in the dirt.

  Suddenly I heard Hereschell’s voice raised in anger. “No! Never! No Wanderer would touch fastfire! We certainly would not pass it on to another for their use. We are not killers nor do we aid others in killing, least of all with that most terrible of weapons.”

  “Not for killing, Hereschell, I pledge you my life on that. We would never use it on another, not even the Zarn himself, but we must have some to discover a way to quench it. Please, Hereschell, help us. Who else can we turn to?” Pell was almost pleading.

  “Never!” Hereschell repeated emphatically. “Say no more. Let that be an end to it.” After that their voices went back to a murmur. I fell asleep wondering how Pell would manage. I knew her well enough to be sure she was not done with this project.

  Chapter Thirteen

  I woke with Soneeshi licking my hand. Beyond her, in the dim grayness of dawn, I saw Hereschell mounted and ready to ride. But I have not written our answer, I thought in a panic as I struggled to free myself of the bedding.

  Hereschell rode over and looked down at me with amusement. “There is no need of a written note only to say yes. Dimwitted as I am, I can remember that much. If speech fails me, at least I can nod.” He spoke low, mindful of the many sleepers.

  Grinning at his mockery, I settled back gratefully into my bed. “I suppose I wanted to please Alyeeta with my writing,” I said ruefully.

  “And she no doubt wanted to show off your prowess. I, for one, was much impressed with your reading last night—something I have never learned. But surely there is no need for you to leap up so early to write that one word and surround it with many others just for show.”

  Looking up at this semblance of a ragged beggar, I was suddenly struck by how much I would miss this man, this fool that I had thought it an insult to be sent out with. “Thank you, Hereschell, for everything you taught me. And thank you for your patience with my own witlessness.”

  “Thank you, Tazzi. I had not thought there was much left for me to learn, least of all from a Ganja, but I was wrong.”

  “And I thought Alyeeta sent me out with you to teach me a lesson—to punish me in some way.”

  At that he threw back his head and laughed aloud, forgetting his attempt at silence. “I think that Witch sent us out with each other to teach us both a lesson,” he said with a grin. Then he paused and looked thoughtful.

  “That Pell—you could have done worse. She is not half bad, very capable, in fact. She will get you through all this if anyone can do it.”

  “And what of all those things you said of her yesterday?”

  Hereschell shrugged. “Wanderer pride,” he answered lightly. With a nod he reached down to touch my hand, while I reached mine up to meet his. For a moment he looked me in the eye with his wolf stare. Then he turned to go.

  “Will I see you again?” I called after him, feeling bereft.

  “Only if our paths cross,” he called back without turning. “If it is the will of the Cerroi.” Soneeshi whined and licked my hand again. Then, in a flash of gray, she vanished into the forest. Instantly the morning mist closed around them both, muffling the sound of their footsteps. After that I settled back to sleep till the sun rose.

  Later, on entering the shelter, I walked into a heated argument with Pell and Maireth on one side of it and Zenoria on the other. The rest of the women stood ranged around them in a loose circle. Pell had evidently had a change of heart or done some thinking in the night, for she was saying angrily, “What do they mean, commanding us in this way? Let them come here. There are many more of us. Why should we all gather ourselves up to go to them?”

  “Because we have given our word on it, and Hereschell has already left with the message,” Zenoria countered, with some heat. She must have come in the night. With her hands on her hips, she was standing in front of Pell, looking tall and proud in spite of her short stature. “It would take too long to change all that and get them to come to us, even if they consented, which I doubt. Besides, what can we offer them? How can we fit any more into this shelter? Look at it. The space is too crowded already for those who are here.” Pell was about to begin again when, with a sudden impatient gesture, Zenoria turned to me. “And what does Tazzi think? She has been there. Let her say.”

  I was startled, unused to making decisions, far more comfortable with following. I was about to shrug and shake my head. Instead, I found myself looking around Pell’s shelter, which had been so orderly and well-organized when I left. Seeing the chaos of clothes and bedding and belongings, and even unwashed dishes mixed in with the rest, I answered on impulse, “We should go to Alyeeta’s. There is room enough for all of us and more in her shelter and her clearing.”

  Pell stared at me in silence, as if weighing many things. Then she said abruptly, “Good, then that is settled. We must make ready to leave immediately.”

  I was amazed at Pell’s sudden change
of mind. I was even more amazed that I had so boldly opposed her will in this way. She seemed not at all put out, but drew Renaise aside to speak to her. Meanwhile Zenoria went off with three other women, all strangers to me, to gather and make ready some horses.

  To my surprise, it was Renaise who organized our departure, restoring a measure of order to the shelter, making sure we had supplies with us and trailbread for the road, seeing to it that each woman had clothes and bedding ready as well as a cup, a bowl, and a spoon of her own. Scolding or shouting as was needed, but mostly issuing commands in a clear, firm voice, this was not the Barrenaise I remembered from that time in the tavern, not the soft, helpless serving-girl who had ridden back with us that night. Or perhaps, I thought as I stopped for a moment to watch her, the skills learned there were far more valuable than I had realized.

  More than Renaise had changed in my absence. It seemed as if everything there had changed. There were at least five and twenty women, maybe more, maybe thirty camped in the shelter or outside it with their gear and clothes and bedding strewn about in all directions. Most of them were not known to me. Many, I suppose, were from Pell’s contacts, and three were burned ones, though none burned as badly as Maireth had been. Later Maireth told me that she had wanted the Witches to come to us—because she and the other burned ones could not travel yet.

  I moved through all this bustle and chaos feeling like the stranger, the outsider among them. I was unnerved by their noise and rendered almost helpless by the confusion around me, as I had become accustomed to the silence and order of Alyeeta’s shelter. Of all those new women whose names I heard, most I forgot almost as soon I heard them, but not Kazouri. That name I remembered. Who could forget the woman who went with it? I was standing at the shelter entrance, surveying the scene with some dismay, when this giant came striding up to me from outside. She clapped her big hand on my shoulder. It felt as if a hill-cat cub had landed there. “So you are Tazzi,” she said in a booming voice, “the one that went off to be Witch-taught. Well it does not seem to have harmed you much. I am Kazouri, Jhemar’s friend. I used to train her father’s horses. We left there together. I went wherever someone would pay me to tend horses, and Jhemar went to follow the Wanderers.” She looked like a big burly man, even taller than Jhemar and much broader in the shoulder, a walking mountain of a woman. I would not willingly have put myself in the way between her and something that she wanted. Her dark, bushy brows and thick features reminded me of my father. She had a wide, infectious grin that spoke of good nature, but even so, I was aware that the hand on my shoulder covered half my arm and could probably have lifted me off my feet with ease.

  “I am looking for Pell or Renaise,” she said urgently. “We have just brought in four more women, one of whom is injured. I must see what is to be done with them, as Jhemar cannot venture into this uproar.”

  “There are already so many here I cannot remember one from the other,” I answered with some resentment, but I stepped aside quickly to be out of her way.

  “Well, girl, there will be many more before this is over. At least twice this number are hidden in places nearby, and there are gatherings that Pell keeps contact with to the north and south of us.”

  I might as well have been gone a year, I thought. As she spoke, I had a sense of the whole land in motion, rising and shifting underfoot, guards and Star-Born changing places in a strange, deadly dance. Then her eyes lit on my pendant. I saw them widen slightly. “Ah, so you are one of those,” she said with a quick intake of breath. She made a slight bow and was gone through the entryway in one long stride. My arm and shoulder ached from the weight of her hand and burned with a strange heat from her touch. The look in her eyes had surprised me. Puzzled, I put my hand over my pendant and felt the familiar warmth filling my palm. I resolved to ask Maireth some questions when I had the chance to thank her for her gift.

  Hoping to be of use, I went to see the injured one. Amelia and another healer were already there caring for her. They had no need of me. As I had already gathered my things, or rather never unpacked them, and no longer knew the workings of the camp, I stood about at a loss for what to do. Suddenly Pell came up and put her arm around me. She had not spoken to me the night before, except in reference to Alyeeta’s message, not one word of affection or interest. I drew into myself, withdrawing from her embrace. With a gesture at the scene around us, I said coolly, “I see much has changed in my time away.”

  She nodded. “And there is more change to come, much more. Things are moving faster and faster now. This meeting with the Witches is only another step. And you, have you learned much? From your own experience, is Alyeeta to be trusted? You yourself seem to have changed in ways I cannot yet understand.” She gave me a hard, calculating look and drew me to her for a rough kiss.

  I pulled away to where I could look her in the eyes. “Yes, Alyeeta is to be trusted, as much as any of us,” I told her. “And yes, I have changed. I have changed in ways I cannot yet explain.” I was not even sure myself all that I meant by those words.

  In the end, after much discussion and argument and some confusion, it was decided that only fifteen of us would ride out to meet with the Witches. Some of the other women were off on their own missions. Maireth, Renaise’s cousin Amelia, and two other healers were to remain with the burned ones. More burned ones were in hiding and expected at the shelter soon. Renaise suddenly found herself freed to go with us when Kazouri said loudly, “I will stay here with Thalyisi to watch over the camp. I have no need to go and be lied to by a pack of Witches.” Zenoria and several others had already left to fetch our horses. Jhemar only came in to join us at the end when Zenoria returned.

  When we were finally gathered, those who were going were in a state of nervous excitement, charged like the air before a storm. Even the horses had caught the fever. They danced about between the trees, tossing their heads and nickering to each other. On sudden impulse, before we were even out of sight of the shelter, I urged Marshlegs forward, pushing my way past Pell and the others.

  “What are you doing?” Pell shouted at me. “You could not find your way here. Do you think to find your way back?”

  “Yes!” I shouted back at her. “I have learned something of the trail from that man I rode with—much, in fact.” I had not planned to do this and was as surprised as Pell, but tried to keep a good face on it all.

  “Do not play the fool,” she shouted again. “You will lead us all in circles in these woods.”

  The sound of disgust in her voice made me shrink back into myself. Though I was about to answer again, in truth I could feel my own assurance slipping away now that I had made that rash gesture. Then I heard Jhemar say, “Let her go, Pell. You push her forward and hold her back with the same hand. With Hereschell’s teaching she surely has learned something of use. Wanderers are the best teachers for the road and Hereschell is the best of the Wanderers, having learned much of his skill from wolves.”

  “Well, see that you do not lose us on the way,” Pell said grudgingly. Then she dropped back to ride with Jhemar, while Zenoria rode up next to me.

  After a few turns of the road, Zenoria leaned toward me. She spoke close to my ear so the others could not hear. “You will be our eyes and watch for the trail. I will be our ears and listen for the guards or any other travelers on the road so that none can come on us unexpected.”

  I nodded, grateful for her kindness. After that I was free to focus on the way. So intent was I on the trail, I scarcely heard a word said around me. My eyes ached from watching for every little sign Hereschell had shown me, and my head throbbed from the strain. When there was confusion ahead and all else failed, I stopped and did as Alyeeta had done, reaching out before me with all my senses, especially those senses for which we have no name. But it was not Alyeeta’s shelter I sought ahead of us. It was Alyeeta herself. I would picture her and hear her voice. I let that pull me forward. The others stopped respectfully behind me and waited till I nodded and went on. Even Pell re
frained from mocking comments.

  In this way we crossed the river, passed through the little valley where Hereschell and I had camped, and finally came to the road. It was clear that a large number of guards had gathered there and camped as well. I rode back to Pell, who was examining the signs. “From here on it is yours,” I told her. “This is as far as I know the way.”

  “Then you have lost us for sure,” Pell answered curtly. “This road is not known to me, nor is any of this way by which you chose to bring us.” She was scowling furiously at me.

  My heart leapt up and my mouth went dry. I looked at all those I had betrayed in my eagerness to take charge. As I was about to grovel apologies, Jhemar rode up and shook Pell’s arm. “Enough foolishness, sister. That is not kind. Praise her for her good work and lead us the rest of the way. That first part may have been new to you, but you know this road as well as I do. Besides, a guard camp is no place to be playing jokes.”

  I looked in surprise from one to the other of them. Pell shrugged and grinned. “Sorry, Tazzi, you were so very serious, I could not resist that bit of wickedness.” She rode up to hug me, then drew away and held my shoulder to look me in the eye. “Well done,” she said with a nod—only those two words, but for me the whole world was in them.

  Later she turned back and asked, “How is it that you learned in one morning what I could not teach you in all our rides together?”

  I was stung by her tone and said sharply, “I learned because Hereschell took the time. He taught me with care and patience and did not mock or belittle or insult me as you did.”

  Jhemar was laughing and slapping her leg. “Well spoken, by the Mother, well spoken! This one is not shy in answering.”