“I’m sure. Don’t talk now. If you were a Lau, you’d want me to talk to you, if you were awake through all this. The best time for a woman to talk to a Lau man—well, the second-best time—is when he has no choice but to lie still and listen to her. You’re different, but still, why waste the chance? If we all survive this, or at least if you and Aras both survive, it’s time for you to tell him to let you go back to the winter country, Ryo.”
I almost wanted to laugh. Of course Lalani would seize her chance to say something a man might not want to hear. I said, “This would be a disgraceful—”
“Hush! You’ve been good for Aras, Ryo, everyone knows that, but now that I’ve had a chance to see you in the winter country, it’s obvious that you ought to be permitted to go back to your own people. You were different the moment we crossed the river. Oh, you might not have realized,” she added, seeing me roll my eyes to look at her. “But nobody else could miss it. You were born to take an important place among your people. The other young Ugaro men treat you like you’re their warleader—and you behave like you are. Your father wouldn’t have let just anybody talk him into accepting an inTasiyo, I would bet coin on that. Hush, I said. It’s harder when you try to talk.”
I wanted to say that Tano had made that possible with his own cleverness, but I let out my half-drawn breath, relaxed the muscles of my chest and stomach, and lay still.
“Better, yes. That’s really impressive. You’re so relaxed I’d swear you were dosed to the eyeballs, but here you are, perfectly capable of listening. So let me say this too: You ought to marry. There’s that young woman you’ve got your eye on—shh, everyone knows it. Darra inKarano, quite a match, that’s another way anyone could tell you’re supposed to be important among your own people. You ought to marry her and have children. Or if not her, someone. You should have sons. You’ve been wonderful with Tano. Anyone could see that boy’s father practically crushed him. You’ve about got Tano un-crushed, and how long did that take you? Plus your brother misses you terribly, though he wouldn’t thank me for saying so. I mean Raga.”
Of course she meant Raga. I breathed steadily, in and out, keeping my stomach muscles relaxed so that she would finish more quickly.
Lalani went on. “I’m sure Garoyo misses you too, but he’s a busy man and a lot older. It’s different for Raga. You were his older brother who was a warrior, but who also knew all the tales. He respects Garoyo, I mean, who wouldn’t, but Raga looks up to you more than anyone. He would do anything to impress you. You should keep that in mind. All right, last couple. One extra here just to make sure, sorry, but the muscle’s cut and you don’t want that tearing any farther. Next time, Ryo, duck faster.”
She patted my stomach above the rows of stitches and sat back, letting out her breath. “I will never like doing that, but it is so much easier with an Ugaro man who doesn’t even twitch. Sixty-three, Ryo. Are you mad at me?”
I sat up, carefully, rolling to my side so that I did not need to use the muscles of my stomach to push myself up. I still felt those muscles very clearly. The injuries were far less dangerous now that they had been properly closed, but closing a wound certainly does not make the pain less. At least not right away. I got a knee beneath me and straightened, then got to my feet. Lalani offered her hand, and I let her help me, but I did not need help, only to move carefully. Finally, once I was certain I had set the pain at a distance and could speak steadily, I faced her and said, “I am not angry. It is impossible to be angry with you, as you know very well. I will consider your words. Please wash the bandages in the stream and put them to dry. These injuries should be bandaged again to protect your work.”
Lalani picked up the strips of cloth and dashed down toward the stream, so that suddenly she looked younger to me, as Lau people sometimes do. She was actually a little older than I. She had been a talon wife a long time. In that time, she had probably seen many young men and some young women make stupid mistakes. I would have to think about her words to me, but I suspected I would decide she was right about everything.
I wished I knew where my brothers were now. I wished very much that I had any reason at all to believe that Raga or Garoyo were safe. Despite the danger from the Saa’arii warriors and the shiral wind, I wished they had come out of the shadow of the dark tide with Tano. I thought of Hokino and Arayo too. Perhaps Aras had called everyone else to him later ... but he said he had no tie to Raga or Arayo. But he had promised he would try to find them.
I took a breath and let it out. When we found Aras, everything would be better.
I tried not to think of all the great number of things that might go wrong. I did not want to think of those things. Thinking of them would not help in any way.
Lalani came back with the cloth bandages dripping in her hands. She cast a look up at the sky—nothing seemed to have changed; the Moon still stood where she had. The three bright Dawn Sisters still stood near her, out of place. But perhaps they always approached the Moon when they came into the land of the shades.
“The Sun must come to this sky sometimes?” Lalani said, in the tone of a question. “Never mind, it doesn’t matter. Just stay there, Ryo. There’s some scrub willow and other wood down near the stream, so we can have a nice fire and that will dry those bandages. There’s no spare shirt in the pack, that’s one item everyone seems to have forgotten, but I could make you one out of a blanket—”
“I do not need a shirt as much as you need a second blanket,” I told her. “But a fire would be good. There is journey food. You will not like it, but it is the only kind of food we have.”
“I will like anything, I promise you,” she answered, her tone fervent. “I’ll get some wood.”
I picked up the pack, setting aside the pain this caused me, and carried this to a protected place between the boulder and the cliff face. I laid out the blankets. Then I sat down and made myself comfortable. The pull remained steady, which comforted me. But the cliff before us certainly grew no less high while I studied it.
Lalani came back with wood, took in the small preparations I had made, and nodded. “Good!” she said. “I’ll make tisane.”
She had found a packet of dried berries for tisane and was now arranging wood for a fire. Then she found the flint and kindled the fire, set the bowl over the flames, unwrapped a travel stick and gave it to me, then took one for herself and cautiously bit off the end. She chewed for a long time before she swallowed. Then she said, very seriously, “You know, this is exactly the sort of food I’d expect Ugaro to carry on a journey.”
She was trying to make me feel better. I did feel better. I was smiling. “Your crackers are more fit for a horse than a man.”
She grinned. “The horses like our travel bread better than you do, I know that. Tell me how to make this and I’ll prepare some for you next time.”
“It is very simple to make,” I assured her, without commenting on the likelihood that either of us would have reason to concern ourselves with future travel. “It is only dried meat, pounded into powder and mixed with as much rendered fat and some dried berries. A man can live eating nothing but this for a long time. Even a Lau would starve eating nothing but bread. This food is much better than hard crackers.”
“Of course, you’re right, I see that now,” she said mockingly.
I laughed. “I cannot remember ever hearing you say that as though you meant it.”
“Well, I don’t have to. I was more polite when I was a little girl, I don’t want you to think my mother failed to teach me how to behave, but it’s different for a talon wife. We don’t have to be as polite as respectable women.” She bit off another piece of the journey stick. After a little while, she tasted the tisane and then brought me the steaming bowl. This was the only bowl we had. Both Lau and Ugaro customs agreed that a man should drink before a woman, though not for the same reason.
I took the bowl and sipped, enjoying the tart flavor. The air did not seem cool to me, but Lalani had pulled her coat tight aroun
d her shoulders. I held out my arm. Accepting my silent invitation, she sat down next to me and leaned against my side. I put my arm around her and gave her the bowl. “Drink it while it is hot,” I advised her. “That will help warm you. I will drink after you. Lalani, may I ask a question that may be impolite? Would you rather marry one man? I thought you were happy with your file, and you say you are more free to speak as you wish because you are a talon wife.”
She answered at once. “Well, it's true, being a talon wife isn't bad. It's definitely much better than being a one-candle wife, or even a summer wife. For a girl with no dowry, at least for me, it was a good choice, probably the best choice. At least, I wouldn't necessarily have wanted to be a talon wife in some other lord's army, but Lord Gaur's talons are good places for women. After he asked around about that, my father brought me to Gaur across the whole width of two other counties, an expense he couldn't really afford.”
She was smiling a little wistfully at the memory. After a moment, she went on. “And yes, I’m very fond of all my men. I don’t like to think of giving them up, but it's not love, you know. It's better if it isn't, between a talon wife and her soldiers.”
“Geras said this too.” I had not understood several things about his comments, and there were other things I did not understand now, but I was not certain what to ask. I confessed, “I find the entire matter confusing. I do not understand all these different kinds of wives. I have never understood why there should be talon wives at all.”
Lalani laughed. “Oh, now, believe me, setting sensible girls up as talon wives is much easier and safer than turning a blind eye to the sort of wretched drabs who'd otherwise turn up as camp followers. Easier and safer than letting soldiers get into trouble at a one-candle house, too, although nothing can put a stop to that entirely. There's a lot of reasons men in one file don't want to quarrel over a woman—starting with, if the man beside you steps back at the wrong time, you're likely to get a sword stuck through your belly. Anyway, your own brother has two wives, so your people can obviously make things complicated too.”
I had intended to ask her to explain about one-candle wives and one-candle houses—these were terms I had sometimes heard, but understood imperfectly—but now she had distracted me. I said, “This does not seem at all the same to me. A respected man may have two wives, perhaps three. Marrying more than one woman at once, in the way my brother married his wives, is not common. But sometimes it happens. The other way, a woman with more than one husband, is very rare. I have never heard of that.” Then I thought again. “Or, no, I have; there is a tale.”
“About a woman with two husbands? Really? That is like a talon wife, then!” She sounded very pleased. “Your people are so interesting! Go on, Ryo, tell me the story.”
I lifted one shoulder in a small shrug, but I could not help but smile. “I think it was not at all the same, but I will tell you the tale. This was long ago, so this is as we tell it, but it may not have happened exactly this way. There were two young men, cousins and friends, both warriors, both forceful and courageous. Both belonged to a tribe called the inKaraya, which was a dependent tribe, a client of a much stronger tribe called the inSurano. As boys, they had been friends. But when they became men, they forgot this friendship because they both wanted the same woman, an inSurano woman, granddaughter of the lord of the inSurano. It is not easy for young men from a less important tribe to court such a woman. Both these young men sought to demonstrate their courage and win renown, thus bringing glory to their tribe and showing that they would be worthy of this woman. They each performed many daring feats, so that the standing of the inKaraya began to rise among the tribes. But each man won as much respect as the other and both still wanted the same woman. As the inKaraya became more important, it became possible for one or the other to marry this woman, but she had great regard for them both and could not choose.”
Lalani made a disapproving sound. “She ought to have made a decision and stuck to it. Was she playing them off against each other on purpose, to make trouble?”
“That is not the way we tell this story. This inSurano woman did not want trouble, but she could not decide, and neither man would look toward a different woman. You are right: when a problem like this occurs, a woman should choose one man or the other and make her choice clear, or she should choose some other man entirely and make that choice clear. If she will not decide, trouble can come upon the tribe. So it was then.”
“I've known situations a lot like that.”
I smiled. “Perhaps the situations you think of were not exactly the same, because the lord of the inKaraya had come to his age. These two men were not his close kin, but they had won so much renown that one or the other was expected to become lord. Only the people of that tribe could not decide between them. Each of these men was favored by some of the people of the tribe. That one would then be important enough to marry this inSurano woman.”
“Oh, no, definitely just like that, Ryo!” Lalani told me. “There's a famous play exactly like this. A tragedy, of course. I bet one of them killed the other and then himself and the woman killed herself out of grief, right?” Then she said, “Oh, now, wait, what were we talking about? Don't tell me!”
I laughed, enjoying her surprise. “Yes. The aging lord of the inKaraya asked these two men if they could not set jealousy aside. They did not hear him. He asked again, but still they did not hear him. The people of their tribe asked earnestly, but these two men would not hear anyone. Then the inSurano woman asked them the same question. She asked most urgently. When she asked, these two warriors at last remembered they had once been friends. They agreed they would set bitter feelings aside and both marry this woman.”
“Of course, if you say so, I am certain this must have happened!” But then Lalani added more seriously, “You know, I'm not even surprised you barbarian Ugaro might have a tale that goes off in a direction like that, instead of ending with a pile of bodies all stacked up on one bed.”
“That would not be a good ending,” I agreed. “These warriors asked the gods to show which of them should become lord of the inKaraya. Then they each drew their bow at an eagle flying high above, a very difficult target. When the bird fell, they found both arrows in his breast, so close together the arrowheads touched. When they saw that, they said they would share not only one wife, but also the lordship of the tribe. This had never happened before; there is no tale of anything of the kind. But these two men held to their oaths and did not permit bitterness to come between them. When they disagreed, they found one way and another to decide, but they did not quarrel. The inKaraya prospered. Soon the tribe became more important, and then more important again. When the lord of the inSurano died, the inSurano and inKaraya people agreed to become one tribe and took a different name. They called themselves the inKarano.”
“The inKarano! Ah ha. I should have seen that coming.”
“This was a very unusual thing to happen,” I told her. “Usually strong tribes divide, as once inGara and inGeiro divided. They do not usually join together in that way. But, so, that is how it happened. The inKarano were a very important tribe from the first day the people took that name. The sons of this woman, wife of the two lords of the inKarano, said they had two fathers. Certainly they seemed to have twice the forceful character of other men. One of those sons became the first inKarano king of the winter country. His forcefulness lingers in those of their line. The inKarano have only become stronger in all the years since that time.”
Lalani was smiling. “Well, Ryo, I like that ending much better than anything with piles of bodies. How long ago was this?”
I could not tell her in years. I said, “That king was the great-great-great-uncle of Koro inKarano. That long.”
“Well, I like that story.” She smiled at me. “I wonder if your mother would tell it exactly the same way you told it?”
“Women tell every tale a little differently from how men tell it,” I agreed. “You should ask my mother to tell you
that story.” I did not say, If we all live. That did not seem likely, but it would help nothing to express that kind of doubt.
Lalani was silent for a little while, thinking about the tale. After some time, she said, “I like that story very much, but I don't think many Lau men would like it. Although . . .” her voice trailed off.
I nodded. “Suyet would have liked that tale.”
She sighed. “Yes.”
“Would you think of marrying someone else? One man?”
She was silent for a little while. But finally she said, “Yes, I would. Probably. Suyet … I would have wished … but I would marry someone else, probably, if the right kind of man offered. I wouldn't want to marry a merchant or a builder or tradesman, certainly not a farmer! A commander would have been perfect. A commander’s wife has almost as much freedom as a talon wife—at least, if he’s the right kind of man. Best of all if he’ll be a talon commander someday. Suyet might have … I think he might have gone that far. Especially with me to help him.”
She did not sigh again, but she was unhappy. I was unhappy too, but I said, “I think you would be a very good wife for a talon commander.”
She smiled again at that. “Of course I would, Ryo. For the right man, I’d be an extraordinarily good wife.” We had been speaking mostly taksu, but now she added rapidly in darau, to tease me, “Extremely, amazingly, remarkably, wonderfully, astoundingly.” Darau has many more words of that kind than taksu, as darau has more words overall than taksu. I smiled, but before I could answer, her mood had changed again and she went on in a much more serious tone. “Besides, a woman will come to her age better if she’s respected when she’s young. A talon wife won’t ever be a magistra or a headwoman or a memory-keeper or anything important, except if she were married properly for fifty years, the wife of a respected man, well, the years wear away the stone, as they say. People would forget, or at least forget to mind, and then when I was widowed, I might hope to gain an important place like that.” She sighed again, leaning her head against my chest. She had to curl herself down to do that, but she was so limber she made the position look comfortable.
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