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

of the avila people. We have this woman in our keeping now, but we can understand nothing of her. She does not speak. She will not write, or perhaps does not have the art. She is very frightened. We do not know what happened in the starlit lands, but we think this woman knows. My husband considers that what happened there could be dangerous to us if it is a thing that could cross the mountains, so he says this is a matter for warriors. I do not like what happened there even if it cannot cross the mountains. Our people traded with the avila and now they are gone. That is a matter for women. The inGeiro and the inGara agree that this is not something we should set aside and forget. We ask you to come and look at this woman of the avila and determine by your arts—I paused there.

My mother had not used the word for sorcery, nor had she used the word for forbidden acts. This would not be chance. My mother was always precise with her words. That she did not use those words suggested to me she had sent a copy of this letter somewhere else as well as sending a copy to Aras.

I read the rest of the letter slowly. We ask you to come and look at this woman of the avila and determine by your arts what happened to her and to her people. My husband suggests that a scepter-holder of the summer king should not come into the winter lands without permission from Koro inKarano, but if the summer king agrees to send his nephew into the winter country for this purpose, then the winter king would not be offended. I think perhaps a nephew of the summer king may agree with me that this is something we should all understand. I ask you to agree and to come.

She had signed the letter with her name, Marag inGara, as she would have signed it when writing to a friend. Lutra inGeiro had signed it as well. That told me something. So did the way she did not write the word for sorcery anywhere. So did the way she was careful to say that she and my father both agreed and that inGeiro and inGara both agreed So did those last lines, where she referred to the summer king. I said to Rakasa, “My mother and your mother sent a copy of this letter to Darra inKarano.”

“She did,” he agreed. “How did you know?”

I shrugged, but I said to Aras, “Will you go? It would be a long journey. My mother and Lutra inGeiro and everyone concerned in this matter will be far north, beyond the forest, far across the steppe, where the great mountains that lie between the winter country and the starlit country sink their roots through the lands of the living into the land of the shades.”

Aras was leaning back in his chair, tracing the gold inlay on his scepter absently with a fingertip. “How long would that journey take, Ryo?”

I thought about this. “Perhaps twenty days to come to the steppe. At least twice as many days to cross the full width of the steppe to the great mountains. It might be faster for a small number of men riding Lau horses. That is good country for horses, but we do not usually ride all that way fast, so I do not know how many days such a journey might require.”

He nodded and switched to taksu, asking Rakasa, “How long did it take you to come from that place all the way to this place?”

Rakasa shrugged, looking at Bara. To Ugaro, this was not an important question. He would not have counted the days.

Bara said, “More than three twenties of days. Maybe four twenties of days. We brought two ponies each so that we could ride fast.”

Aras said, his tone neutral, “This is indeed a long journey. Well. Have you have seen this Tarashana woman? Will you tell us about that?” Avila was not an entirely respectful term; it is a word we use for people who farm and have no cattle or horses. It means dirt people. Aras used the name those people called themselves.

This time Rakasa’s shrug meant he did not know what to say. “That land is ... it is very empty. It is a sad place now. No one is there. The places the avila used to live lie empty. Their fields lie fallow and abandoned. We rode some days, west and then north and then east and south again, but all the land was the same: beautiful and gentle and peaceful and empty.”

Bara nodded. “Few of us had been there before, but Garoyo said the sky made him uneasy. He said when he was there, five winters ago now, the avila were already gone then, but the uncounted stars filled all the vault of the heavens. Now, to the north, there is nothing. The sky is dark that way. Not dark as though clouds had come between the earth and the vault of the heavens. Dark as though the heavens were empty. Garoyo was not alone in finding the sight of that sky uncomfortable. I felt as though if we rode too far north, we might come to the edge of the world and fall off.”

“We all felt uneasy,” Rakasa put in. He was not joking now. Both of them had become serious. “No one wanted to ride beneath that starless sky. No one wanted to come near any place where that sky might rule. Garoyo had intended to press much farther, deep into the starlit lands, but after we saw the dark sky, he changed his mind. No one argued otherwise. We were all glad to turn back toward the pass.”

Aras asked, frowning “How many days' travel had you gone when you saw the empty