Dead Rivers - Freedom's Gate Part 19

"You listened well," Janiya said. "I wonder if your old master realized half the things you were picking up?

It's too bad I can't just send you.'" Her smile was guileless and teasing, and I hoped the darkness of the yurt hid my sick smile and my white face. I excused myself and went back out to the fire, thinking that even the vile k.u.miss would be welcome at this point to soothe my nerves.

I was embroidering a horse on my vest; I was doing it in the middle of the night, by moonlight, but it looked absolutely perfect, not a st.i.tch out of place.

I looked up, and saw Kyros coming toward me. "What do you want?" I asked as he sat down at my side.

"Nice," he said, pointing to the horse. "Did you do that?"

"Yeah, I did that," I said, irritated. "Did you get my message about Sophos?"

"Yes, of course I did."

"And?"

"And I'll deal with him. You can trust me."

"Deal with him?"

"Yes, deal with him. That's what you expect, right? That's what you want?"

I bit my lip, clutching the vest in my fists.

"I can count on you, Lauria, I know I can always count on you..." But Kyros's voice was lost in a swirl of sparks as the needle I'd been using to embroider went deep into my palm.

I woke with a gasp in the darkness of the yurt. I listened carefully, but heard none of the telltale rustling that I'd have heard if I'd woken everyone else up. My palm still burned, and I rubbed it with my thumb.

The pain ebbed away, and I stroked the edge of my vest, which I'd worn to sleep in that night. I smiled a little, closed my eyes, and went back to sleep.

I went with Tamar after breakfast to set up the target. I stretched my stiff muscles, thinking resentfully of the weeks of inactivity and how much weaker I was now than before the fight with the bandits. My ribs still ached, and I knew it was going to hurt to draw the bow. I stretched my side again and then fingered the sore spot.

Ruan strode up to us. "Right," she said, and tossed me a bow and a thumb-ring. "String it."

I strung the bow, and then gave it an experimental tug. It was much too heavy-it required more strength to bend it than I had, particularly with the injured ribs. "I need a lighter bow," I said.

"You need a lighter bow?" Ruan asked with pointed incredulousness. "That's a very light bow, blossom."

"I know. But my ribs still hurt. Surely you have even lighter bows for children learning to shoot."

"There are no children in a warrior camp."

"Well." I unstrung the bow and handed it back to her. "If I can't shoot, I can't shoot. And I can't shoot with this."

"I think maybe you should try a little harder."

"I think maybe I should talk to Maydan; she's the one who told me to take it easy."

"Oh, so now you're going to run to Maydan to whine about how I'm mistreating you?"

"No. But since Maydan knows my injuries better than you do, she can tell me whether I can actually draw this bow without making my injuries worse."

"Fine," Ruan said, and waved back toward the camp. "Go ask Maydan, then. You-" she turned to Tamar. "You can certainly draw your own bow. I think I'd like to see how far you can get from the target and still hit it."

I walked slowly back to camp, feeling ridiculous and a little ashamed, like the tale-bearing child Ruan had pretty much accused me of being. Maydan was sitting in the shade of the yurt, grinding up some dried herbs with a mortar and pestle. She looked up when she saw me coming. "Do you need something, Lauria?" she asked.

"I guess I just wanted your opinion as a healer," I said, and held out the bow. "I'm supposed to practice target shooting today, but it hurts to draw this bow. Should I just, you know, pull through the pain?"

"Well, how much pain?" Maydan bent the bow and released it without even stringing it. "Oh, this is much too heavy to use while you're injured, you're right. I'll find you a lighter one." She strode brusquely into the supply yurt and came out with a slender bow. "This is the lightest one we've got. See what you think."

I strung the bow and drew for a moment. "Oh. That's not nearly as bad."

"Use that one, then." She sat down and went back to crushing herbs.

When I returned to where I'd left Ruan and Tamar, I heard their raised voices before I reached them; the argument abruptly ended before I came close enough to hear what they were saying, and I returned just in time to see Tamar picking up the last of her scattered arrows from the ground. "She pushed me," she said through clenched teeth.

"You need to learn to shoot despite distractions."

"I shot a man in battle. And I'd like to see you shoot arrows while someone shoved you off your feet."

"Take your spot," Ruan said to me, and pointed. She handed me a quiver of arrows.

I remembered to tuck my elbow under this time. The arrows went far astray, and they didn't even all go astray in the same direction. I thought one almost nicked the target as it pa.s.sed, but that was as close as I came. I collected the arrows when I was done and silently took my place beside Tamar.

"Show your friend how it's done, blossom," Ruan said to Tamar.

Tamar shot her arrows. Ruan didn't push her this time, and they thudded solidly into the target. She silently collected them and took her place by me again.

I took my turn. This time one of my arrows. .h.i.t the target, but none of the others did.

Tamar's turn again. Ruan edged toward her. Tamar glanced at her, then resolutely shot at the target. A hit. She nocked another arrow and drew the bow back. This time, Ruan shouted, almost in her ear, "Look! What's that?" Despite knowing that Ruan was just trying to distract Tamar, I glanced to the side.

Tamar didn't even look up; the arrow hit the target, dead center, and she got off another shot before Ruan slammed her body against hers, knocking her off-balance and her next shot wild.

"Get the h.e.l.l off of me!" Tamar snarled, rounding on Ruan.

"This is how training works," Ruan said. "Got a problem with that, blossom?"

"What exactly am I supposed to be learning from this? I suppose you can hit a target when someone slams into you?"

"I'm not exactly as gifted as you are. It's hardly a challenge for you to just stand here and shoot, is it?"

"Then maybe I should go work on shooting from horseback some more," Tamar said.

"Oh, poor blossom. You don't like your training?"

Tamar clenched her teeth, turned back to the target, and actually managed to get two arrows off before Ruan shoved her again.

"Speed," I said.

"What?" Tamar whirled to face me, still off-balance from Ruan's push and ready to spit venom-at either of us.

"She's trying to teach you to shoot arrows quickly," I said. "In a battle, you'd need to seize your opportunities to shoot as many as you could, as fast as you could. If you stood, drew, aimed, and thought about it, there wouldn't actually be time to make your shot."

"Very good," Ruan said, though her voice dripped a distinct lack of sincerity. Tamar's eyes widened, and she turned back to the target and took a shot. Ruan lunged toward her, and she ran a few steps, turned, and shot again. When she'd loosed all the arrows in her quiver, she gathered them up, and then returned, panting for breath.

"I wondered how long it would take you to realize you were allowed to dodge," Ruan said. "If the other blossom hadn't figured it out, how long do you think it would have taken you, little slave?"

The blood drained from Tamar's face. "What did you call me?" she said hoa.r.s.ely.

"You heard me." Ruan turned away to pick up her own bow.

"Put your bow down," Tamar whispered.

Ruan turned back, a slow smile spreading across her face. "Are you challenging me to a fight, little girl?

Little harem girl?"

"Ignore her, Tamar," I whispered. "She's itching to hurt you."

Tamar's lips were pinched and her face was the color of dry sand. I glanced from her to Ruan's smile and felt my stomach churn. Until the other yields, Ruan had said. Tamar couldn't fight-she could shoot better than anyone I'd ever seen, but it didn't even occur to her to dodge Ruan's body-blows until I suggested it. But she was stubborn. She was even better at being stubborn than she was at firing a bow.

Ruan's going to break her arm, I thought, because short of that, Tamar won't ever yield.

"I'll give you one chance to apologize," Tamar whispered.

Ruan just smiled at her, waiting.

"J challenge you," I said, my voice cutting across Tamar's. "Your words insulted both of us."

"But-" Tamar turned to me, her eyes wide.

Ruan just shrugged. "One blossom is the same as any other, as far as I'm concerned. I could snap either of you like dry straw."

I handed Tamar my bow and quiver-the more she was holding, the less she was likely to try to jump into the fight herself. I'll put up a little bit of a fight, then yield. I came home with enough black eyes growing up... Ruan set down her own bow and smiled at me.

"Anytime you're ready," I said.

She began to move in a slow circle around me. "Slaves make me sick," she said.

"We're not slaves," I said, turning slowly to keep my eyes on her.

"Oh, that's right-you 'took your freedom.' But it certainly took you long enough."

I heard a hiss of breath from Tamar.

"You slaves outnumber your Greek masters. If you just one day decided to s.n.a.t.c.h the weapons out of their hands, you could kill them all. Free yourselves and solve a lot of problems for the Alashi."

She used to be a slave, whispered the rational-the Greek-part of my mind, but the rest of me was too angry to listen. "It must seem awfully simple to you," I said. "I suppose in your world, all the slaves in every household would simply rebel on exactly the same day. No planning necessary. No discussion, no risk of betrayal..."

"How long do you have to be a slave before you've had enough?"

"Fourteen years, if you're Tamar," I said.

"Ah yes, but she escaped with you. I heard the story. If it hadn't been for you, how long would it have taken?"

"How long would it take you to gather the courage to flee barefoot through unknown desert with no food and no water?" I asked. "If you don't have the supplies you need to get across, you're almost guaranteed to die."

"I'd die of thirst a thousand times before I spread my legs for any Greek," Ruan spat. "It doesn't get much worse than that."

I heard Tamar suck in her breath, and that was when Ruan charged me, aiming her first punch for my injured side. I'd planned to let her take me down easily, but in that moment, I was so utterly furious all I wanted was to see Ruan bleed. I dodged the blow, caught her wrist, and jerked her off-balance, kneeing her in the stomach as she pa.s.sed. She stumbled and almost caught herself, but I slammed into her once more and knocked her again off-balance, then punched her in the face. She stumbled back, clasping her bleeding nose.

Speed, some part of my mind whispered to me. Don't give her time to recover. She took a swing at me, but it was easy to dodge; she was seriously off-balance now. I caught her arm and twisted as I stepped behind her; she yelled out in pain and kicked at me, trying to get away. One kick connected and I let go, but followed with a hard kick toward her knee. I knocked her legs out from her and she hit the ground hard.

I jumped onto her chest and slapped her as hard as I could across the face. "That was for your insult to Tamar," I hissed. I slapped her again. " That was for your insult to me." Again. "And that was for your insult to my mother."

"I yield," Ruan croaked.

I climbed off her.

Only then did I realize how many of the sisters had gathered at the edge of our target-practice field to watch. One of them was Janiya, and I felt sinking horror in my stomach. Whether this was the normal way to settle differences-as Ruan had told us, I belatedly remembered-or not, I had a hard time believing that it was exactly approved of. No army actually approved of fighting in the ranks.

Janiya jerked her head, and Maydan went over to examine Ruan. I thought I saw the twitch of a smile on her lips, quickly concealed, as she gave Ruan a rag to press to her bleeding nose and helped her to her feet. "I think you'll live," she said, clearly trying to sound sympathetic.

Janiya looked from me to Tamar. "How did this start, exactly?"

"She called me a slave," Tamar said, lifting her chin.

"Ah. Then why weren't you the one who gave Ruan a b.l.o.o.d.y nose?"

"I tried," Tamar said, sounding petulant. "But Lauria-"

"The insult was to both of us," I said.

"I'm sure it was," Janiya said. "Well." She looked from me, to Tamar, and back to me. "I can't approve of fighting in the ranks, no matter how grave the insult. I'm sending you both out on s.h.i.t-pickup duty tonight, to gather up the fresh animal droppings and spread them out to dry for fuel. You can consider that your punishment."

"Yes, ma'am," Tamar whispered.

"On the other hand, it's nice to see you two standing up for yourselves, finally." She handed each of us a blue bead.

"I can't think of a more deserving person to get a b.l.o.o.d.y nose," Zhanna muttered, and she wasn't concealing her approving smile at all. I glanced at her, and then back to Janiya. Janiya was looking at me with a cool, appraising look, and I felt my fear return. No slave fights like that. Well. I hoped I could come up with a good story before she asked me about it. Right now, the elation of having had Ruan yield to me with no more immediate consequence than manure pickup-well, that made it awfully hard to regret the fight.

CHAPTER TEN.