Snare (31 page)

‘The spirit command be “light”,’ Water Woman said. ‘Its spirits feed-must on sun, like all spirits. It has power to shine much light and for a long time. You say, light. You say-next, much light, little light. It give-next what you wish.’

‘A thousand thanks!’ Ammadin held the tube in one hand and
with the other fished her gift out of her pocket. ‘And this is a token for you, a thing my teacher in magic gave me.’

‘Very precious!’ Water Woman took the glowing spiral brooch in both hands. ‘Beautiful and precious. I give you a thousand thanks.’

While Water Woman’s servant pinned the brooch onto her mistress’s red scarf, Ammadin examined the tube. The two metal bands sat loosely in some sort of track; they would turn one way for a few inches, then back the other. Under her hands the metal felt cool and almost oily. The servant bowed again, then scurried back to the edge of the clearing.

‘Water Woman,’ Ammadin said, ‘Sibyl must be rich to give away things like this.’

‘Very rich, and she be very eager to meet you. I too wish you come-might see Sibyl. If you want to come, I lead you there.’

‘I want to meet Sibyl, but the comnee, the H’mai I ride with, I can’t just ride off and leave them. I need to find another spirit rider before I can leave.’

‘I puzzle over your words.’

‘My comnee must have a spirit rider to guide them. I am the one, their only spirit rider. I cannot leave them because I am the only –’

‘I understand-now. Then I wait till you find second spirit woman, but I have-not the power to travel with you now. Danger lie-always in the town, Nannes. I go-not there. I go-not close there.’

‘I know that the Cantons don’t welcome your people.’ Ammadin tapped the light tube against her palm while she thought things through. Honesty, she decided, was crucial. ‘Not all of the killing’s been done by the Kazraks, has it? Four hundred years ago, your people destroyed one of the cantons.’

Water Woman moaned, a long, deep throb of her throat sac, so low-pitched that Ammadin felt rather than heard it. ‘Yes,’ she said at last. ‘It be for the sake of our children, who die-then. We had-then no choice.’

‘You told me once that the children are dying now, too. What do you mean?’

‘We be-must on the sea beaches to get our children back again.’ Water Woman paused for a long moment. ‘I tell-next a secret. Please, promise me you tell-never any other comnee person and never never a Karshak. Sorcerers in Cantons, they know, but that matter-not. If Karshaks learn this, disaster!’

‘All right, I promise. You have my word before all of our gods.’

Still, Water Woman hesitated. She reached up and caught the edge of her scarf between her finger and thumb, twisted it tight in an oddly human gesture, then let it go.

‘Our children begin life in the Great Swamp, the one you call the Mistlands,’ she said at last. ‘We birth them in the warm waters. They travel-next to the sea.’

‘Spirit pearls!’

‘You know-then them, yes. We, true Chiri Michi, give birth in the place you call Mistlands. Hundreds of children each, thousands of children we birth there. The rivers take them to the southern seas. In the salt water they change. The pearl splits, they swim out. They stay some few years, but many die there. There are the zalotlan, there are the silamintrinik, our names for the enemies who eat them. Only the best children, the most intelligent, the strongest, survive. One summer they come-then back to us, the strong ones, the smart ones, they who survive-then the sea. Some hundreds, not thousands, come back to us. They are very small, and we need-then greet them. Without us, the kri altri – you call them birds – come to the shore to hunt them.’

‘And they kill –?’

‘Kill and eat, yes. Now, if we be-not there, there be a few children who be smart enough to dodge the birds and reach the trees. But most – they die.’

‘Do you remember any of this? Do you remember being in the sea and breathing water?’

‘Only a few –’ Water Woman paused to wag her pseudo-hands in the air as if the gesture helped her think, ‘– a few broken memories. Like dreams. Your people, they dream not dream? When they sleep?’

‘Oh yes, we dream, too.’

‘Good. Then you know-now what I mean. Water memories they be like dreams, very small and very hard to see, just pictures, pieces of pictures. But the air memories, riding waves and breathing air, yes, they stay-now with me. I remember-too the terror I feel-then, when I see at last how dangerous be the waters. Something inside me said-then, go to land, hurry to land. I remember the sand, and the seeing of my people, and knowing, somehow I know-then they were mine – I have-then-not speech or words, but I know-somehow they be mine, and I run so very
hard and they run to me, waving spears to scare off the birds overhead, the birds, nasty nasty birds!’ She shuddered with a toss of her massive head. ‘So you see, we be-must there when the children, they come out of water.’

‘I do see, yes.’

‘So.’ Water Woman held up one pseudo-hand. ‘We have-must coast land. We have-must roads to coast land. Karshaks took-then the south coast, the north coast. They keep-then us from coast of the west lands. We have-must roads in our east lands, like you see-now.’

‘And the Cantonneurs closed the roads?’

‘Not exactly. Those years you speak of, many earthquakes come-then, and finally the earth give birth to a mountain of fire. The rock blood pour-then and cover-then all our roads. Death air spew-then too. We can-then-not travel-then on old roads. You see? We need-then travel on Canton roads. We ask-then them. They say-then no.’

‘The Cantonneurs say your people never asked them anything. They say they just attacked.’

‘Then they lie.’ Her throat sac swelled out huge, turning gold in fury. ‘They lie and lie. We send-then emissaries to N’Dosha farm lands. Canton people treat-then our people like beasts. They wave-then sticks, they call-then names, they throw-then things.’

It was possible, Ammadin thought, that H’mai leery of the ChaMeech had refused them access to their roads. It was also possible that each side had misunderstood what the other asked, whether out of hatred or contempt or from simple ill-luck and fear. Water Woman stretched her neck and swung her massive face close to Ammadin’s own.

‘We have-then no choice, or so we feel-then. You see not see? No time, we have-then no time to think, talk. They turn-then us back.’ Water Woman moved her head a little closer, her throbbing voice urgent. ‘We try-then to reach the coast lands, where we know our children wait. They turn us back.’ She took her hand away from her scarf and flapped it in the air, a helpless-seeming gesture. ‘The children, they die-then. So: our men call war. Two year they fight-ever.’

‘Two years? I was always told it was five years.’

‘They lie-again. I swear-now to you: they lie and lie.’

‘All right. After two years’ war, what then?’

‘Our men force-then the roads and claim them. The Great Mother send-then females and many males with spears to reach-then the coast land. But they find-then no children alive. They find-then nothing that-year-way-long-back. The children all die-then-before we reach-then them. Next year after they find-then nothing again.’

‘That’s terrible! All your children, dead!’

‘You see-now. Good. The third year after the war, we find-then some children on the coast. Every year next-then we have roads, but they lead-only to a small strip of coast.’

‘You can’t travel down the Rift, can you?’

‘No. Near the sea, it be deep deep river. My people, we swim well, but this river, the current, it pull you way out to sea, and you drown-maybe.’

‘I should have thought of that, yes.’

‘So, some children find us. Others leave water I know not where.’ Her throat sac filled, she tossed her head back, and wailed a long sobbing note that brought tears to Ammadin’s eyes. ‘They find-never us. They die-always.’

‘I’ve seen them.’ Ammadin paused to wipe her eyes on her shirt sleeve. ‘Small grey creatures, all wrinkled, walking on four legs, with little arms, and they have pink gills all round their necks.’

‘Yes. The gills drop-next-soon. They breathe-already air, but the gills cling-still to their necks.’ Water Woman lowered her head and with a twist of her neck looked straight into Ammadin’s face. ‘They come-now up on your coast?’

‘Sometimes. We’ve never harmed them. Long ago our gods marked them as Bane to us. But they just wandered off, somewhere.’

‘They die-then.’ Water Woman pulled her head back and moaned. From their place among the trees her servants added their voices to hers in a long howl of pain.

‘We have to work out some kind of treaty, so you can come take them home.’

‘Be this a real thing? Your men, they agree not agree?’

‘I don’t know, but I don’t see why they wouldn’t. They don’t hate your people. They just like to fight with your young men when they try to steal our horses. The other spirit riders will help me, too. But if Soutan brings the Kazraks to your lands, it won’t matter, will it?’

‘No, it matter-not-then if Chiri and Chur, we all die in the mountains. Please, you come-soon meet Sibyl?’

‘I want to, but it’s likely that I won’t be able to find another spirit rider until we go back to the grass. This will take time. I’m sorry, but I can’t just ride off. The comnee, the families I ride with, they’re like my children.’

‘I understand-now. I wait-next near Rift. You go-next to plains, I follow-next you.’

‘That will work, yes.’

‘Very well. But we talk-next-soon with sky spheres?’

‘Yes. We’ll talk often.’

‘And you come-soon meet Sibyl?’

‘As soon as I possibly can.’

Water Woman held out her two-fingered hands. Ammadin clasped them in hers.

‘You have my word,’ Ammadin said. ‘First we’ll talk with Sibyl, and then we’ll see about the coast lands.’

‘My heart sing-now aloud. I help-next-soon all ways I can help.’

‘Good. And as for Soutan, he’s tried to murder a man who rides with my comnee. We’ll see what we can do about him and his Kazraki friends both.’

‘I be happy, and Sibyl also be happy when she know-soon. We honour-next-soon spirit of Chursavva.’

‘Chursavva was true Chiri Michi, wasn’t she?’

‘She be-then-long-time Great Mother, yes.’

‘And then, when you say, true Chiri Michi, it means?’

‘One who give living children to the rivers.’

‘Ah. I thought so. I just wanted to make sure. And then, the Chur are your males?’

‘Yes, males and females who give-never children to the rivers.’ She turned and waved a pseudo-arm at her servants. ‘They be Chur. But there be true Chur, Chur Vocho, males who –’ She paused, lowered her head, and fluttered her pseudo-hands.

‘I understand.’ Ammadin spoke fast to end Water Woman’s embarrassment. ‘No need for details. So, if I need a name for all your people, what is it?’

‘Chof. In your language, it mean “us”.’ Water Woman stamped a foot to show her amusement. ‘Just us.’

After Zayn took care of the horses and pitched the tent, he had nothing to do but wait. He paced up and down in front of the tent while his imagination wove images of treacherous ChaMeech killing Ammadin or taking her hostage. Finally, when the sun hovered low in the sky, Maradin unknowingly saved him from his black thoughts by joining him.

‘Are you hungry?’ Zayn said. ‘I can cook for both of us if you’d like.’

‘Well, thank you, but they should be back soon,’ Maradin said. ‘The White Ruins aren’t very far off.’

‘You think she’ll be safe there?’

‘Of course. She’d know if something were wrong. She’s a spirit rider.’

‘Of course.’ Zayn managed a smile and hoped it was convincing.

‘While Dallo’s gone,’ Maradin continued, ‘there’s something I want to talk to you about.’

‘All right.’

‘You know an awful lot about Tribal ways, but I wonder if maybe you’ve missed something. You and my husband are great friends, aren’t you?’

‘Well, yes.’

‘I see you together a lot, and I can see how close you’ve become.’ She paused, thinking something through. ‘If you want to have sex together, it’s all right with me. As long as he’s not siring children on someone else, what he does is his business, not mine.’

Zayn felt his face burning. He turned away, realized that the gesture made him look foolish, turned back to find her watching him in concern. She laid a hand on his arm.

‘I’m sorry,’ Maradin said. ‘I didn’t mean to embarrass you.’

Zayn tried to speak and cleared his throat instead.

‘We look at things like love differently out here,’ she went on. ‘Since you’re one of us now you need to know that.’

‘Yes.’ Zayn cleared his throat again. ‘Guess I do.’

‘Now, look, Dallo’s never said anything to me about you or anything. I was just trying to sort of clear things up in advance.’

‘Thank you. I suppose.’

‘Oh gods, I hope I haven’t make you uncomfortable around him or anything.’ Maradin caught her lower lip in her teeth for a moment. ‘Me and my mouth again!’

‘No, no, you haven’t. It’s fine.’

‘All right, then. Don’t men have affairs with each other back in Kazrajistan?’

‘What? No! It’s against the laws of all three prophets.’

‘You Kazraks do lots of things your prophets forbid. Why not that?’

‘Probably some men do. They don’t talk about it, though, especially not with their wives.’

‘What? And let them think they’re off with other women? That must make their wives worry, if you ask me.’

‘Didn’t.’

Maradin tossed back her head and laughed, then patted his arm with a maternal gesture. ‘Poor Zayn! Well, you’ll get used to us sooner or later.’

‘Let’s hope it’s sooner.’ He tried to smile, then gave it up as a bad job.

With one last maternal pat on his arm, Maradin took herself off. Zayn sat down in front of the tent and hoped he could look Dallador in the face from now on.

The Herd was rising in a sweep of silver clouds by the time Ammadin and her guards returned. Zayn was so relieved to see them riding up that his relief turned to rage. Damn her anyway, for making him worry! Ammadin came back to the tent alone, leaving Dallador and his cousin to tend her horse as well as theirs. She was carrying her saddlebags slung over her shoulder, and in her hands she was holding a long metal tube. Zayn held open the tent flap to allow her in, then followed her. She laid the saddlebags down on her bedding, but she kept the tube.