Tarashana by Rachel Neumeier (best novels to read for students .TXT) 📗

That was an odd phrase, but clear enough. “Yes,” I answered. “Garoyo will direct our warriors to take precautions. I am certain he is doing that now.” My eldest brother was not near us; he would be speaking to one warrior and another, setting careful guard over our people and our herds. I went on, answering Suyet. “That tribe has been ruined. Their allies will desert them; their enemies will bring charges against them; if they have dependents among the weaker tribes, those dependents will now refuse their orders.”

My mother, walking near us, nodded when she heard my words. “Everyone will look scornfully at them. Those who are not ashamed yet will see that everyone believes they have reason to be ashamed. That will make them reconsider. More of those people will go every day.” She paused. Then she added, her tone regretful, “Women who wish to leave one tribe can usually find another to take them, but this time the women of other tribes may refuse to accept those women. If a woman of that people comes to me tomorrow and asks me to speak for her, I will have to consider very carefully. A woman should have better sense than to support her husband and brothers in dishonorable actions. Those who did not choose to leave the inTasiyo today probably lack the courage or the wisdom desirable in a woman.”

It was not my place to speak regarding the inTasiyo women, but I added, “Warriors who cannot go anywhere else will go to the inVotaro. Those who do not want to beg for a place will walk away.”

“That’s one thing about you Ugaro,” Geras commented. “You’re tough. Not a man among you would hesitate to just walk off. Your women, too, I don't doubt. All that wild, empty land out there, and it doesn’t scare you a bit.”

He was speaking darau. I answered in taksu to remind him he should speak in that language. “We know how to live here.” I thought of how the Lau lived, in towns and on farms, and understood for perhaps the first time that a Lau on his own probably would not be able to survive, even in his own country. That made some things about Lau more clear to me. Even after all this time, I still learned more.

Hokino, beside us, commented, “I think in another year, the name inTasiyo will be spoken only in tales. People will tell the story of the inTasiyo to warn their children of the fate that comes to a tribe when people do not behave properly. If Duryo inTasiyo has any pride, he will kill himself, but I think this is unlikely.”

“Brutal,” Suyet repeated. He hesitated. Then he said, “I mean no offense, but honor is so important to your people. How can they have been like that, and people did not walk away until today? How could no one have noticed? Or cared, or did anything about it?”

I had to admit I did not know.

Aras said, his voice quiet, “They all participated. That was partly how Yaro maintained his power. He directed his cruelty against specific targets. Not just his son; I expect he did it to anyone who challenged him. He was charismatic enough to get everyone else to join in that cruelty. Anyone who committed shameful acts to earn his approval would find it difficult to stop taking his orders after that.”

My mother turned her head and looked at him, her eyebrows rising.

Aras opened his hands. “I have seen problems like that before. There was the most remarkable cult that appeared in Avaras some years ago; that was something like this. Taking that cult apart required quite a bit of delicate work. This was much easier ... once someone put the inTasiyo in a place where one or two well-aimed blows would shatter them.”

Someone, yes. “Cult is not a word I know,” I said.

“Hmm. I am not certain how to explain it. Something like a tribe that forms around a man like Yaro. The people hold tightly to beliefs no one else shares, and they feel those beliefs make them superior and justify cruel or dishonorable behavior toward other people.”

“Is this caused by the influence of a sorcerer?” Hokino asked him. “But Yaro inTasiyo was not a sorcerer.”

Already, he spoke of Yaro as though the man were dead.

Aras answered, “No, warleader, this is not a matter of sorcerous influence ... well, I suppose it might be, sometimes. But the man at the heart of the cult in Avaras was not a sorcerer. His charisma was something else.”

He said charisma in darau. There is no word exactly like that in taksu. I said, “When people want to follow a man and take his orders, the word the Lau use for that is charisma.”

“Strength of will,” Hokino said. “Forcefulness.”

Both of those words were somewhat close to the meaning. “Yes,” I said. “But more than that. Forcefulness alone will not make everyone think it right to obey.”

Hokino made a gesture conceding this.

Suyet was frowning. “All right,” he said. “If you say so, my lord, fine, but why his own sons? That makes no sense at all.”

“A man has the right to punish his sons as he sees fit,” I explained reluctantly. “Probably it began that way. But when a man handles a son badly, someone should correct him. No one among the inTasiyo had the strength or forceful character to correct Yaro for anything.”

“Someone probably tried, and Yaro probably made an example of him,” Aras said. He added, “That’s a guess.”

“My uncle,” Tano said, very softly. He had been listening to all this, though he had not shown that until now. He glanced at Aras, not at me. Then he lowered his gaze again. “My ... Yaro hated my mother, because she