by Kate L. Mary
It was something I had never thought about, not really. When I awoke in my mother’s hut after being whipped, I had asked after Asa, but there were too many other things to focus on for me to even consider how the village had reacted. It had never occurred to me that people had whispered about the Fortis guard who helped me, or what they had thought about it. It should have, though.
“What did they say?”
“That this was the man Bodhi had gone into the city to kill. That you and this Fortis were having relations.” Xandra shrugged as if the words meant nothing. “Foolish things. Or at least I thought so.”
Pain throbbed through me, and it was quickly followed by rage that seemed to warm my blood despite the cold day. My own people believed I had betrayed my husband, a man I had loved with every fiber of my being. I could not fathom it, and yet I had no reason to think Xandra was lying.
“It is not true,” I said, the words coming out harsh, but desperate as well. Even if no one else would, I needed her to believe me.
She nodded once, and then shrugged again. Either she did not believe me, or she did not care, only I was unsure which it was.
“I have never been one to listen to idle chatter.” Her gaze moved past me to the forest like she was searching for Asa. “Although, I cannot lie. Seeing him come into the cave gave me pause.” Her brown eyes moved back to me, but she was quiet for a moment longer before whispering, “Especially when I saw how he looked at you.”
“I knew he cared for me a great deal.” I looked down at the snow, my eyes focusing suddenly on a footprint that was much larger than the others. Asa’s. I swallowed and lifted my gaze so it was once again on Xandra. “I never thought of him like that. Not when Bodhi was still alive.”
“I believe you never did anything to betray Bodhi, Indra. I saw how devastated you were over his death. I will never forget it.” Pain flashed in her eyes, and she hugged herself again, tighter. Only, this time, I did not think it had anything to do with the cold.
The expression in her eyes made my anger melt away the way snow did when it fell in the wastelands, and I let out a deep breath. When the rage was gone, all I was left with was weariness.
“Will he come back?” Xandra asked.
“No.” Snow began to fall in fat flakes, and I looked up like the sky would tell me how much it was going to drop on us. “It is too difficult. Too dangerous. Asa and I do not belong together.”
“Do not let anyone tell you who to love, Indra.” I looked back to find Xandra watching me with a sad smile on her face.
“I do not love him,” I said, but the words had no force. They were like the leaves that fell from the trees in fall, brittle.
“If you say so.” A shiver shook Xandra’s body, and she turned toward the cave entrance. “It is cold, and I know I am not the only one who will have something to say about this. Come inside so we can get this over with.”
Knowing she was right, I followed her into the cave where we found the main chamber alive with activity. Now that Asa had gone, it seemed like things had returned to normal, and everyone had gathered for the morning meal. While most of the woman barely glanced my direction, a few looked at me with suspicion, and even hostility, when I walked in. Emori was the only one with enough courage to address me about it directly, though.
She stood as soon as I entered, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. “You cannot bring him back here again.” Her voice rang through the room, much louder than necessary. “He is a Fortis, Indra.”
“I did what I had to do,” I said, working to keep my voice low and calm. It was not easy. Not when the anger I had just managed to push away had returned. “He was injured, and if I had done nothing, he could have died.”
“Why do we care about one dead Fortis?” she spit back. “How many have we killed over the last year? How many more do we plan to kill? One more is nothing compared to what we want to bring down on them.”
“Asa is not like the others. He helped me, more than once. He saved my life.”
“He is still—”
“I will vouch for him as well.” Mira emerged from the shadows at the back of the cave, pushing her way through the crowd until she was closer to Emori. “Asa protected me even after Indra left the city.”
Emori glared at Mira, but it was only a moment before her fiery gaze snapped back to me. “And what of your husband? What of Bodhi? How do you think he would feel knowing you were with one of the men who killed him? That you allowed him to defile you in that way!”
Heat shot through me like a bolt of lightning and I took a step closer to her. “Bodhi—” My voice trembled, as did my body, and I had to curl my hands into fists. “—is gone. He is dead, and—”
“At the hands of the Fortis!” Emori shot back, raising her voice until it bounced off the surrounding walls.
Her child started crying, pulling my gaze her way. As always, all I could see when I looked at the little girl was Lysander. It took me back to Sovereign City. Back to the humiliation I had endured there. At Lysander’s hands.
Emori was wrong. I had been defiled, but not by Asa. He was different, and no matter what, I refused to back down from this fight. I refused to allow people to treat him like he was no better than the other Fortis guards when that was not true.
I focused on Emori when I said, “Asa did not defile me, and he did not kill my husband. The Sovereign did both of those things. A Fortis guard may have swung the blade, but he was not responsible for Bodhi’s death. The Sovereign gave the order. The Sovereign provided the sword. The Sovereign put my husband in the position where he felt he had to defend me or die trying.” I paused and inhaled, realizing I had said all this in one breath. “The Fortis are not faultless, and we must still work to take them out, but it is not enough. The Sovereign must pay, too.”
Behind Emori, some of the other women nodded, Mira among them, and I remembered what we had talked about after leaving the Trelite village. She had wanted to take our fight to the other tribes weeks ago, had wanted us to find a way for us to work together so we could do more. Only, I had refused because I did not trust them. I had not believed we could work together when we were so different. Yet I had trusted Asa enough to bring him here and risk everyone I had left.
The other tribes were Outliers, too, and just like us, the people inside the city had abused them. They worked as servants just as we had, and their people were now imprisoned just like the Winta who had not escaped the city with Xandra. We had a common enemy, and even though we had never worked together before, it benefited all of us to learn how to do it now.
My gaze was focused on Mira when I said, “We must take our fight to the other tribes.”
Emori scoffed at me. “You cannot be serious. We do not mix with the likes of them. We are Winta.”
“We are not.” Mira pushed past Emori so she could join me, taking her place at my side. “Winta did not allow women to hunt. Winta did not teach us to be strong.”
“What are you saying?” Emori looked between Mira and me, her brown eyes wide. Disbelieving. “You think we should forget our people? That we should stomp on the memory of the Winta who died only a year ago?”
“No.” I lowered my voice, hoping a soothing tone would calm Emori and help her understand what I was trying to say. “But we are different now. We must hold on to tradition, but it is time for us to form a new tribe. Time for us to declare that we are stronger than the Winta told us we were. We keep the parts of our past that matter the most, but work together to create a new tribe. A tribe we are proud of.”
Emori lifted her chin. “I am proud to be Winta.”
“I am not,” Xandra said.
Since reentering the cave with me, she had stood at my side, listening quietly. When I turned to face her now, though, I found her eyes blazing with an emotion I had never seen in them before.
Emori turned on the other woman with wide, angry eyes. “How dare—”
“Let me talk.” Xandra held up her hand. �
�Give me a chance to explain.”
Emori did not argue, but her fiery glare remained. She looked around, perhaps looking for someone to back her up, but around the room the other women were silent. And their gazes were fixed on Xandra.
“Inside the city,” she began, “the house I worked in was very different from most. The mistress was sympathetic to our people, as her family had been for decades. She was working toward change even though she knew most of the Sovereign would reject it. She was not alone either. The tunnel out of the city was in the House of Aralyn, and she was the one who helped us get away that last day. She also helped other Sovereign who refused to obey the laws, and she was instrumental in getting babies to safety when they were in danger. Her strength helped me see just how weak the Winta women were. I saw it before the Fortis attacked, but even more when I arrived in our village and found it burned to the ground.
“Our tribe would have fared better if the women had not been taught to cower behind men. If they had known they could pick up a sword and defend themselves, more of them might have survived. Our people were good and moral, and I will always mourn the Winta, but they are dead. We are not Winta, not anymore, and I agree with Indra. It is time to choose a new Head, and start a new tribe. One that helps us all find our strength.”
“I agree,” Mira said.
Before I had even had time to look my friend’s way, Tris called out, “So do I.”
One by one the women in the room stood and gave their assent until Emori alone was left seething. Even her sister, Isa, who had worked by my side in Saffron’s house, got to her feet. In her arms, the child that was half Lysander and half Emori had calmed, but when the girl’s large eyes focused on me, a shiver moved down my spine.
Emori said nothing, but her expression told me she had not changed her mind. Not that it mattered when everyone was against her.
“It is decided.” I looked the other women over. The firelight flickering across their faces made them appear fierce. Brave and strong. “How do we choose a Head?”
Xandra took my hand, and when I met her gaze this time, I found her eyes burning with pride. “You are the one who brought us here, who taught us to hunt and to be strong. You should be Head.”
It seemed wrong, not because I was a woman, but because I was much too young for such an honor. Xandra was the eldest, and a part of me had always hoped she might one day take the lead. Now, though, I realized that all this time she had had other ideas. Ideas that had me leading a new tribe into battle against the Fortis.
“If this is what you want for our people.”
The cave was silent except the crackling of the fire and the scratching of rodents. When I looked the other women over, the only resistance I was met with was Emori’s. It burned in her eyes, a distrust that was forming into something bigger. Hate. She remained silent, though, perhaps choosing to say nothing because she knew she could not win. Not when everyone was against her.
When I was certain no one was going to speak up, I took a deep breath and said, “I accept the position as Head of our people.”
“We need a name for our new tribe.” The pride shining in Xandra’s eyes grew as she looked around the room. “Something that will honor Winta, but signify that we are not the same.”
“Windhi,” I whispered the word almost reverently. “It is a name that will honor both the Winta people and Bodhi. His death was the beginning of everything. It brought us where we are now. It changed me. It changed all of us.”
“It is a good name,” Anja agreed.
Mira nodded, her blond hair bouncing while the light from the fire flickered over it, making it appear orange. “It is.”
All around the cave, the other women murmured their agreement.
“Indra.” Xandra, still holding my hand, lifted both of ours into the air as the sound of my name bounced off the walls of the cave. “Head of the Windhi people.”
She smiled at me, and something about the expression in her eyes told me she had been expecting this for a long time now. I had not. Even though it had entered my mind a few times that we needed to appoint a new Head, I had never pictured myself in the role. Until last night, I had never even considered forming a new tribe.
“I will get the tebori.” Xandra lowered our hands, releasing mine in the process. “You must have new markings. Something that will signify that you are Head.”
My sister crossed the room and took my hands in hers. She had said nothing to me about Asa’s visit, but she had to be wondering what he meant to me. After the things Xandra had told me about the rumors that had followed Bodhi’s death, I felt like I needed to make time to talk to my sister. To tell her this was a new thing, and I had never betrayed my husband.
“You will be a good Head,” Anja said, smiling down at me as tears shimmered in her eyes. “Our mother would be proud.”
Emotion clogged my throat, like something large was lodged in it, and I had to swallow. “Do you think she would be surprised to see what we have become?”
“No, because she knew how strong you were even before you did.”
“I miss her.” A tear slid down my cheek, but I did not wipe it away. “Sometimes I do not feel like I am the right person for this role. I wish I could talk to her about it.”
“You are the right person,” Anja said. “You are stronger than anyone I have ever known.”
I squeezed her hand as Xandra returned carrying a bowl of dye and the tebori.
My hand was still in hers when Anja turned away. “We must all get passage markings that signify we are one united people,” she said to Xandra. “Markings that establish us as a new tribe.”
“Yes,” Xandra knelt in front of the fire, nodding for me to do the same. “But first, Indra.”
The last time Xandra carved markings into my skin, it had been to signify the loss of my mother, and the loss of my tribe. I had cried then, just as I did now. Only these were happy tears. Tears of pride and hope. They ran down my cheeks as Xandra made a line down my nose, starting between my eyes, followed by two more, one on each side of the first.
As the tool tapped against my skin, my mind wandered from how much trust these women were putting in me, to Asa. Once again, I would have new markings the next time I saw him. How would he react? I imagined him running his fingers over these just as he had with my other markings, his touch light and tender. Just like he was. The thought made me smile.
When Xandra finished the markings that signified I was Head of our tribe, she moved the tebori to my chin, this time starting the design that each and every member of the Windhi tribe would receive. I paid little attention to it, my mind still so focused on Asa that I barely registered what she had drawn until my turn was over and Tris had taken my place.
Xandra copied the design she had just done on me, drawing a line across Tris’s chin that swirled up on each side like a smile. Then she made nine more, each of the lines cutting through the first one. The result was fierce. A marking that would unify us, but one that would also signal to others that we were a tribe of warriors.
That was what we were now, after all. We had been transformed from Outliers, nothing more than Winta women and servants, into warriors and hunters. We were strong, and if things went as planned and we were able to unify the other tribes, we would only grow stronger.
18
There was a time, centuries ago, when the four Outlier tribes were one unified group. Back then, constant discord had plagued the tribe until eventually it fractured, splitting into four separate groups. The first decade following the divide was nothing but war as the Outliers fought for control of the wilds and the meager water they provided.
If things had continued that way, the Outliers might have succeeded in killing themselves off. Luckily, it did not take long for our ancestors to come to this conclusion, and a treaty was made. The land was split evenly, with access to the pond being granted to everyone, and we agreed to never again fight one another. Since then, peace had been the rule of the wilds
and it made sense. After all, the Fortis and Sovereign worked hard enough to destroy us without the tribes helping them.
Still, the four tribes did not work together. We did not intermarry, and even trade was not common among the different tribes. The Huni and Mountari women I had worked with in Saffron’s house had been civil to me, but even within the walls we had done our best to remain separate. It would need to change if we were going to take out the Fortis, though, and eventually the Sovereign.
Once we had made up our minds to approach the other tribes, deciding where to go first was an easy decision. The Huni were not only known for being great hunters, but they were also the only tribe that spent equal time training their men and women to hunt. If they agreed to join our fight, it would not only give us numbers, but would also work as an incentive when we approached the other tribes.
At least that was what we hoped, anyway. I was under no delusions that the Trelite would be easily convinced. They were neither hunters nor fighters, and they did not view women as valuable. The hope, however, was that if we visited their village last, after we had reached an agreement with the other two tribes, we might be able to persuade them it was a worthy cause.
The next morning, when the sun was still low in the sky, I set out with a small group. The Huni village was the furthest from the caves, all the way on the other side of the wilds where the brown of the wastelands met the green of the forest, and when the trees of the wilds grew farther apart and the skeleton trees became more visible in the distance, I knew we were getting close. Here the barren earth melted the snow before it could collect, and the ground beneath our feet remained naked and cracked, dry despite the precipitation winter brought.
Men and women came into view, along with the huts that signified we had reached the Huni village. People turned at our approach, and I tensed, but as far as I could tell, no one moved for a weapon. It was a good sign.
