Daughters of the Great Star

by Diana Rivers

  Into the middle of all this, Josleen and Megyair returned, bringing word that a camp was being set up at Yaniri’s. They said we could now begin sending women west. As long as they could stay together, they agreed to continue being guides. Those two seemed to do everything in unison and to gain strength from it. I found them a cheerful contrast to the frequent rancor and bickering of the camp.

  Jhemar came back a few days later, looking troubled. She rode straight up to me and handed me a square of much-folded paper that she had hidden in her sleeve. “Does this say what I think it does?”

  I spread it out on the ground. Another edict! My eyes blurred and my stomach clenched in fear. “It says that any who help us will be put to death,” I told her, shortening the message to its essential meaning.

  “As I am not much of a reader I thought to bring it to you. I found it on a tree at the edge of the woods, somewhere between here and Hamishair.”

  Pell and several other women had gathered around us. Pell was nodding. “It only puts in writing what was already fact,” she said with a shrug, “and it makes our task a little harder.”

  Even in the midst of all the work and hardships and forced learning there were friendships being formed. Of the three escaped Shokarn, Ashai, Sural and Irdris, that Hamiuri had brought with her, only Irdris spoke Kourmairi well, though her speech was strangely stilted and formal, almost foreign sounding to my ears. (For the sake of this story I have shortened their names here from their long, embellished Shokarn ones.) Ashai had some book knowledge and Sural an air of competence, but it was Irdris I was drawn to at once, perhaps because we were so different. She was, I suppose, everything that a Kourmairi dirt-child is taught to fear and hate. In appearance she was the fair-haired, blue-eyed daughter of the Shokarn Uppercaste, looking like the guards or like the Zarn himself from what I have heard, and raised in the midst of every ease and privilege. Yet, instead of hating her, I found myself admiring her. I liked the quiet, centered way she moved about the camp, always watching, observing everything, doing work that must have been new and hard for her. I never saw her complain or try to put her tasks on others.

  We began by exchanging a few words in passing. When she saw I was willing to be friendly and did not treat her as an enemy, she began to relax, occasionally giving me a shy smile. She even offered to teach me some Shokarn if I wished. I think I was the first Kourmairi she talked to for more than necessity. As I discovered later, she was afraid of us, not overly proud as others thought. Soon we found ourselves sitting next to each other by the evening fire, exchanging bits of our so different pasts. I would be trying out my new words of Shokarn, rapidly gaining competence with her help. I felt us becoming closer and closer. It was like having a sister again, or perhaps something more. Who knows where this might have led if everything had not been so suddenly disrupted by the coming of the wild ones.

  Rishka, Rishkaria, Rishkazeel—trouble by whatever name she chose to use. She came soon after Tamara had left us. Poor Tamara, she had ridden in looking about her with such joy and expectation in her face, turning her head from side to side, clearly searching for someone. I was amazed to see her there. When she saw me she called out gaily, “Pig-boy, where is Pell?” knowing me easily enough in spite of my changed appearance. I called back that I did not know, as did several of the others whom she asked. I had just set down the saddlebag I had been stitching to go and talk with her, when I saw Pell striding across the circle. Tamara jumped off her horse and ran into Pell’s arms, joy written plainly on her face for all to see. Pell, as she passed me, had such a mix of love and pain in her expression that it tore at my heart. After they embraced, Pell put her arm around Tamara’s shoulders and walked her out of the clearing. As they left I heard Tamara saying in a high, excited voice, “Oh, Pell, I could not wait any more for you to come. When Zenoria brought us some horses I made her tell me how to find you.”

  Later, when Tamara rode away again, she stayed at the far edge of camp, her head bowed and her face averted. There was nothing of joy or lightness about her any more, nor did she call out to me or to anyone as she left. Soon afterward, Pell walked through issuing orders in a voice like thunder. None of us dared approach her for anything. Looking neither left nor right, she walked on into the woods alone. Afterward I heard that Tamara had been sent west to Yaniri’s camp. She went with Josleen and Megyair, who were just then leaving with their next group.

  All of us were unusually subdued after Pell’s abrupt departure. We went on about our work, but with low voices and no spirit, until suddenly one of our watchers rode in, coming so quickly we all looked up, instantly alert. “There are four women riding fast this way, not even in disguise. They did not stop for the guard, but pushed right past her. The one in front is riding like a demon. They look to be Muinyairin from their dress and style!”

  Muinyairin! Up till now, though many of us had been strangers to each other, at least we had all been Kourmairi, all that is except the two silent ones who were Wanderers and the three Shokarn Hamiuri had brought with her. Though Pell had often spoken of the Muinyairin, still they had not seemed real to me. They had a fearsome reputation. From the sound of it, these seemed only too ready to give truth to it. Amelia was standing next to me. I was about to send her to ring the warning bell when the first of these Muinyairin charged into the clearing, only moments after the sentry herself. This wild thing was brandishing her sword and shouting what I took to be war cries, though of course I could not understand the words. Three others followed after her, almost as fearsome. Women jumped up from their work and rushed about shouting in confusion. The two silent ones ran off into the woods, their terrified screams being the first sounds we had heard from them. In an instant the whole camp was in chaos.

  With Pell’s absence I was the one in charge. I yelled for the riders to stop and tried to grab the bridle of the first horse. I could as easily have caught a fistful of wind. That horse was well trained and swung its head to one side to avoid my hand. The rider swept by so fast the tail of her horse lashed across my face. Now the bell was being run. Many were shouting for Pell, since clearly I was of little use. Even when Kazouri tried to stop them with her great bulk they dodged her hands easily enough and charged on. I looked to Jhemar for some help, but she was doubled up with her arms wrapped around her head as if struggling to shut out a raging clamor.

  Suddenly, just as the wild ones were making their second or third turn around the camp, Pell reappeared from wherever she had gone to hide her pain. The look on her face was one of anger set in stone. With arms outstretched, she stepped directly and very deliberately in front of the first one’s horse. I gasped with fear. That horse reared up and came to an instant halt less than a foot away from her. Only a very skilled rider could have kept her seat. The three companions stopped also. With Pell in charge, the others from the camp moved forward cautiously to watch.

  The first of these wild women shouted rudely to Pell, “Out of my way, fool, or you will be trampled. I am looking for the chief of these women.” Much to my surprise, she spoke Kourmairi. Though her words were arrogant, she looked somewhat discomfited at having her horse stopped so easily by another. She even glanced about uncertainly.

  Pell was shaking her head. “We have no chief here,” she answered coldly. “I was chosen leader a few days ago and could just as easily be unchosen. Now, what do you mean riding in here in this way and disrupting our camp?”

  “Where is your chief? I will only speak to the chief”

  With a look of disgust, Pell began to say again, “We have no...” Then suddenly I saw her stance and her whole manner change. Right before my eyes she became ‘the Chief.’

  At the same time, the wild one seemed to go through some change of her own. Accepting that she had been stopped and bested in this way, she said suddenly, “Then you are my Chief.”

  Pell had drawn herself up very tall. In a voice I did not recognize, she said, “Yes, I am your Chief. You will dismount immediately and act with res
pect in my camp.” Pell took the reins in her hand so there could be no question of compliance and went on in a thunderous voice, “I do not tolerate this sort of insubordination here. And you, also!” This last she said with a quick nod of her head to the other three riders.

  Instantly the first woman leapt off her horse, followed by the others, who had been watching her closely for a sign. To my surprise, this loud savage put her hand over her heart, made a deep bow, and said to Pell with respect, “My deepest apologies if we have troubled your peace. We come to join with the women here. Having been blessed or cursed with powers, we are no longer welcome among our own people. I am Rishkazeel and this is Zareetzi, Daijar, and Noshira.”

  “Well, Rishka, that is better,” Pell said, still trying to maintain a haughty manner, “though here we do not bow quite so low. Now, you and your women are welcome to stay in this camp as long as you obey me in all things. First of all, you are never to ride in on that road again. Also, you are never to go about openly as women in the world out there. You can cut your hair or hide it away, but you cannot wear it long in that manner. And you are never to go mounted in this camp again unless you are riding back with an urgent message. Is that clear? Is all that understood?” Rishka nodded and Pell snapped suddenly, “And who told you of this place?”

  “Heraki-the-Wise,” Rishka said, bowing again.

  “Well, a curse on her wisdom, then. She should have told you to come here quietly and with caution. Perhaps I should send some of my women to visit her wherever she lives. You may have compromised the safety of this place if you have been seen coming here that way and so put us all in danger of our lives.”

  Rishka looked at the ground and bowed again, really low this time. “And stop that cursed bowing!” Pell shouted with extreme annoyance. “Once will do. Here we bow only once a day.”

  Alyeeta appeared suddenly at Pell’s shoulder. “I am glad you came back and stopped her. If she had ridden once more time around my shelter in that way I should have found it necessary to turn her into a bat or a beetle.”

  Rishka stared in surprised at Alyeeta. “You are a Witch,” she said contemptuously. “I had not thought to find Witches here among the star-cursed.”

  “Indeed I am,” Alyeeta answered, staring with open hostility at this newcomer. “I am a Witch, and this is my shelter and my clearing. The very ground you stand on has been spelled by me, so have a care and try to find some manners, if that is possible for a Muinyairin. You are likely more use to us as a woman than as a bat, though who can be sure of anything in these strange times?”

  By now Telakeet and Hamiuri had joined us. Most of the rest of the women in the camp had gathered round, seeing that the wild ones were no longer a mounted threat. In fact, I think all of us were there, all but the silent ones, who were still in hiding, and Ethrin and Irdris whom I had sent to find them, and, if possible, bring them back. Off in the woods that way, they endangered not only themselves but the rest of us as well.

  Telakeet pointed at Rishka, saying in her spiteful way, “Well, the Muinyairin have not improved much since I last met with them, and this one looks to be a good sample of their ways.”

  Hamiuri glanced at the others for only a moment. It was Rishka who held her stare for a long while, so long that Rishka herself was forced to drop her eyes. She asked in a much subdued voice, “What do you search for in my face, Mother?”

  Hamiuri was shaking her head. She said almost in a whisper, seeming not to answer Rishka’s question but some question of her own. “Wounded, so much pain, the walking wounded.” Then to Telakeet she said sharply, “Curb your tongue, Sister. You only add oil to the fire.” Without another word she turned and walked away, bowed over as if by sadness.

  “Witch, I have no need of your pity,” Rishka shouted after her, more daring now that Hamiuri’s back was turned.

  Pell took a deep breath and shook herself as if shaking off some bone-deep chill. “You have no need of anyone’s pity, and be assured that you will get none, but for as long as you are here you will treat our ‘Mother’ with respect or you will answer to me.”

  “Tribe Mother? That dowdy old creature? Where are her marks of rank? She looks more like the rag pickers in towns I have ridden through than like a person of power.”

  “Have you forgotten I am Chief here?” Pell roared. “If you cannot curb your tongue, I will have your fancy sword melted down and reshaped as a chamber pot for all to use. As to power, pray to the Goddess you never give her cause to use that power on you. Now you will come with me and my captains, and we shall decide where to put the four of you to use.” Rishka started to bow again, then stopped in confusion. She stared at the ground as Pell spun on her heel and strode off without a look or another word to any of us.

  “Trouble, nothing but trouble, like a bone caught in the throat,” Telakeet muttered, making a nod of her head in Rishka’s direction as she turned to leave. “They should throw her back out to the wolves or let the Zarn have her. They deserve one another.” For once I agreed with Telakeet, could not have agreed with her more.

  While the rest of the women wandered back to their tasks, the new ones and those of us who were captains followed meekly after Pell. I noticed that one of the wild women, Zareetzi or Zari as she later came to be called by us, dogged Rishka’s footsteps as if for protection, all the while looking about her fearfully. Seeing that, I sensed that under all their bluster, those women might be as wary of us as we were of them. Even that thought did not make Rishka one bit more likable.

  The place where we gathered was a little clearing on the high bank above the stream, well away from the turmoil of the camp. Pell gestured silently for us all to sit. This was my first real chance to look at those wild women, the first moment they had been still for long enough. They were lighter than most Koormir and much darker than the Shokarn, with very dark, straight hair. They were not dressed in dull farm-boy clothes as we were, but in layers of bright, ragged finery: vests and tunics in many styles of embroidery, brilliantly colored sashes, and strings of beads with jewelry flashing at their ears and wrists. They wore their hair long, some in tiny braids decorated with feathers, shells, and beads. Though they looked very strange indeed, still it saddened me that soon all that rough beauty would have to be hidden.

  Renaise was sitting on one side of me, very stiff and tense, staring with hostility at Rishka. Zenoria, on the other side, seemed quite at ease. She leaned toward me and said in my ear, “Save for their style of dress, they do not seem so different from us, these Muinyairin. Perhaps they are the Kourmairi’s wilder side. And then it may be I think that because I am part Muinyairin myself. My grandmother came from one of the northern hill tribes in the Drylands. She even taught me a few words of the language.”

  It was amusing to watch Pell as leader, caught between her usual position of first among equals and that of having to play tyrant-chief for Rishka’s eyes. More than once I had to cover my mouth and turn away or risk being disrespectful to my ‘Chief.’ In spite of all this we managed to make a plan. After much questioning of the new ones and some consultation among ourselves, it was decided that Rishka, because of her great skill with horses, would work with Zenoria. Zari would help there, too. Daijar would join Kazouri as our ‘trainer’ and be her second there. Noshira was to learn more of healing from myself, Arnella, and Alyeeta and also add her store of knowledge to our own.

  Through all this, Rishka acted with some respect toward Kazouri and Jhemar, though I noticed that Jhemar herself kept as great a distance as possible between them. But I saw a look of disgust cross her face when she heard Zenoria was in charge of the horses. No doubt she thought she could do much better. Her expression for Renaise I can hardly describe, only that it made me want to leap up to Renaise’s defense. Worst of all was the look she turned on me when she discovered I was second there to her precious ‘Chief.’ At least in front of Pell she knew better than to match her evil looks with evil words.

  In spite of their outlandish appe
arance, the other women seemed civil enough now that they were off their horses. Zari, in fact, seemed timid, almost fearful, still clinging to Rishka’s side. Daijar struck up an instant rapport with Kazouri. As I went off with Noshira or Noshir as we called her, to look for Alyeeta, I could already hear them comparing training styles. Yes, the others we could deal with in spite of their strange appearance, but not Rishka. Telakeet was right. It was clear that Rishka was nothing but trouble. I would have been glad enough to throw her back to the wolves, though in truth, not to the Zarn’s guards. No, not even Rishka would I have fed to the Zarn’s guards.

  As I walked away I could feel her eyes burning into my back, furious with resentment that I, a dirt-clod, was second to her ‘Chief’ and so to be obeyed. I knew there was to be no easy peace between us. For my part, I wished to the Goddess that this one had found her way into some other camp. Truly, there was some special enmity between us.

  Though on the surface calm and order were restored to the camp, I was never to feel comfortable there again. Always I sensed Rishka’s presence or felt her angry eyes fastened upon me. If she had a chance and Pell was not within hearing, she would say some cruel and insulting thing whenever we chanced to pass, things far worse than any Renaise had ever said. This time I knew better than to complain to Pell. Renaise also came under attack. One good result of all this was that Renaise and I became uneasy allies. We would come together to complain of Rishka to each other as we could not to Pell. Only when I was out of camp on a search mission or sentry duty did I feel free of her. Even then, there was some sort of pull that made me uneasy. It was like having a sore from a saddle that is always being rubbed and so never has a chance to heal.