The Way Into Chaos: Book One of the Great Way

by Harry Connolly

  Cazia had met her type before. The palace was full of dour, judgmental old women. Standing across from her was almost soothing, like being back home.

  Kell said something to the old woman in his rough-sounding language. Cazia reached toward her pocket to touch the translation stone, but Ivy stopped her by clasping her hand. The princess acted as if she was afraid, but her grip had no urgency. Cazia understood: Don’t give them a reason to search your pockets.

  The old woman gestured. “Sit, honored guests.” Her accent was harsh but at least she wasn’t calling them devils. She gestured toward a set of cushions by the wall. Cazia and Ivy shrugged off their packs and sat. The old woman wore a strip of boiled leather over her head like a bonnet, so Cazia gladly left her hat on. She knew that if she took it off, the herders might see the iron cap inside and take it from her.

  Kell stood by the door, his hand near the copper hatchet at his waist. The old woman sat opposite the two girls, then took a crude iron pot from beneath a heavy cloth.

  “You will have tea,” she said, pouring tepid brown water into three horn cups. It occurred to Cazia that, among these people, an iron pot would be a sign of wealth and privilege. Not even King Ellifer had iron equipment in his kitchens. Iron for his soldiers and blacksmiths, yes, but never for his servants.

  Ivy accepted the cup. “Thank you.” Cazia did the same. She’d never had tea before. It was grassy and sour, but she managed to swallow it all without grimacing. Ivy winced at the first sip and set the full cup on the floor. Kids.

  “I don’t like it either,” the old woman said, “but it is clean enough to make drink, and it is part of the life of my people, so while I dislike the flavor, I also love it with my spirit entire.” The old woman downed her own tea in one gulp, then wiped her lips and mustache dry. “We are the Ozzhuack clan. I’m clan chief, Mahz.”

  “I’m Vilavivianna, of Goldgrass Hill.”

  Mahz snorted. “You’re far from home, aren’t you? And what about you?”

  “My name is...” She was tempted to make something up, but Fire take that idea. She was herself. “My name is Cazia Freewell.”

  The old woman glared at her. “You hesitate as though the name should mean something to me, but I have never heard of your clan. I have never even heard of the name like yours. Cazia.” She pronounced it Kye-zerra.

  “It’s a Surgish name.”

  “I have never heard of the Surgish.” Her tone made it clear that whatever she hadn’t heard of wasn’t worth knowing. There was another knock and the door opened. This time, it was Hent and the two younger women who had accompanied her. They all crowded in by the door. The youngest of them had red eyes and a puffy face as though she’d been crying. Mahz paid them no attention. “Now, about your claim to my property—”

  Ivy interrupted immediately. “We have made no claim to your property. We have only claimed our own.”

  Mahz slammed her cup on the floor with a loud bang. “Do not make to trifle with me, child!”

  “Do not call me child!” the princess answered, her tone sharp. The warriors by the door gasped in surprise at her response, but Ivy was too indignant to notice. “Your man spoke first. He had the chance to claim the camp, if he intended to do so, but instead he inquired after my mommy and daddy.”

  Mahz shot a baleful look at Kell, who kept his face stoic even as he flushed red. “You penalize his good manners.”

  “I adhere to tradition,” the little girl said, her chin held high.

  Mahz didn’t like that. She scowled and poured herself more tea. “You adhere to our tradition. You take what is ours and make to twist it to your own ends. Do not pretend you Indregai are any better than her kind.” She gestured toward Cazia with her cup, slopping tea on the floor. Cazia did not react as it splashed against her legs. “Telling me you are Surgish when I can see perfectly well that you wear Peradaini jackets and boots! Two little girls with iron weapons out here in the Sweeps! Just one of those spearheads is worth more than your lives put together. Am I supposed to make treat with little girls forty days after imperial troops collected their tribute?”

  “Taxes, you mean,” Cazia said. Let this old woman glower and threaten. Let her spit out her resentments. If she planned to execute them for a meadow full of torn canvas, Cazia wasn’t going to plead or make nice. She had a little ball of ice in her stomach, right where she imagined the knives going in, and it gave her self-control. “All this land west of Piskatook Pass is claimed by the Empire, and citizens must pay their taxes. You use the sleepstones, don’t you? You trade at the forts, don’t you? You’re part of the Empire, just like the Surgish, the Chin-Chinro, the Muddalan—”

  “Pah! Stupid little devil girl, your head is empty. Yes, the Ozzhuacks make good use of your healing beds, but we know they were put there to insult us. We will not forget! And the clans will never join with your empire—or any other—unless you arrange it in the proper way.”

  Cazia had to ask. “What’s the proper way?”

  “Marriage. Let this King of Italga bring me a son or daughter for my son to marry, then we will be joined.”

  The idea of Lar marrying into this nomad’s life was too absurd to laugh at. Cazia only said, “Oh.”

  “We will make to raise their grandchildren the way men and women are supposed to be brought up. Out in the wind! Tending to the beasts, killing to eat, and taking what you need to survive.”

  Mahz said the last part with a sinister leer. Ivy understood immediately. “If you take one scrap of cloth from that camp, one scarf, one wooden peg, you will be thieves. The camp is ours.”

  Mahz waved that off dismissively. “I have not decided whether I should make to honor your claim.”

  Ivy’s hands were clenched into little fists at her side. Her frustration was building.

  Cazia knew where this was going--where it had been going since Kell shouted at them to drop their spears. She looked the old woman in the eye and said, “We will fight you.”

  The old woman’s eyes widened with anger, and for the first time, she bared her teeth. Fire and Fury, they had been filed into points.

  The princess yelped in shock and terror, sliding away toward the wall. Cazia, too, heard herself gasp, but even as she stared in horror at the old woman’s mouth, a small part of her knew Mahz had kept her teeth hidden so she could reveal them at just the right moment. This intimidation had been carefully planned.

  “How dare you make to threaten me!” Mahz rolled onto her knees so she could look down at the girls. “I was killing devils before your mothers and fathers were squirted into the mud! If you raise one hand against us, I’ll have you beaten black and blue, and if you spill the single drop of Ozzhuack blood, I will slay you myself!”

  This is it, Cazia thought. The knives would be coming out now, and she didn’t know any spell that could save her and Ivy. All she could do was die defiantly.

  “Of course,” she said, her lip quivering. Cazia hated that she was showing her fear, but Fire would take it all soon enough. “You can always judge a warrior by her enemies.”

  There was a moment of silence. Then Hent barked out a loud, long laugh. Kell and the other woman joined in, and Cazia could see that they all had filed their teeth down to points, too. It was ghastly.

  Mahz settled back onto her cushion, scowling at Cazia. Then she glanced over at the younger warriors by the door and shook her head as if to say, Can you believe this?

  “There was once the time,” Mahz said, “when all of the clans of the Sweeps were fierce and feared. Plow-pullers and rock-breakers made to send their families to hide in the wilderness when we strode over the horizon. Then the empire came. The passes were blocked with pink stones. Alligaunts grew in strength and numbers in the west. There’s little room for the free people in the world.”

  “We are a free people,” the princess said.

  “You might be free, little devil,” Mahz answered, wagging her finger. Cazia had broken her performance, somehow, and now she seemed lik
e an old woman with too many responsibilities and too little sleep. “Your hands are soft enough, both of you, and your chaperone does not appear to have ever gone hungry in her life.”

  Cazia rolled her eyes. “Great Way, spare me.”

  “Oh, do not complain! You will make to grow up to be quite the woman! I’m sure you will find the strong husband, the way you look. We might even find one for you here, provided you can prove you know how to work. But you do not make to understand what I am saying, children: we are being driven out. There’s no place for the free people any more.”

  Cazia suddenly understood. “You know what happened to the camp, don’t you?” She glanced over at the warriors by the door. The woman with the red-rimmed eyes hadn’t laughed with the others, and now she looked as though she wanted to hug Ivy to her breast and cry again. “It’s happened to you, too. That’s why you’re so close to the pass and the fort; you’re driving your herd out of the Sweeps to escape from something, aren’t you?”

  “It was not my decision,” Mahz said. “I would have made to stay and die out in the wind. But we have many little ones, and they deserve the chance to grow up. So, we must sell our herd and find new lands to live in.”

  Cazia tried not to think of little children with filed teeth. “You can’t sell your herd at Fort Samsit.”

  “Oh? And why is this?”

  No flying carts had come north through the pass. “Because it’s been overrun. Peradain has been invaded by grunts...by monsters. The fort has been lost. If you take your people there, they will all die.”

  There was a long stretch of silence again, but this time, no one broke it with laughter. Mahz hissed and looked at the floor, her fists clenched at her side. Finally, Kell said, “That news is valuable to us. Thank you for making that kind gift.”

  Ivy looked up at Cazia. Gift? She didn’t know what that meant, either.

  “Of course...” Mahz said, her face turned toward the floor and her expression stormy. “Of course, I will repay such the gift in kind. You have corrected the error that would have ended my clan forever.”

  Cazia watched her carefully. Did this mean they weren’t going to kill her and Ivy? It hardly seemed likely that things could have taken such a sudden turn. What had they done?

  “Can we talk about the camp?” the princess asked. “I would like to make a trade, if you would be so kind.”

  Cazia looked at the little girl with her peripheral vision. She had suddenly become very polite, probably because she was just as flummoxed by Mahz’s change in demeanor as Cazia was.

  “What sort of trade?” Mahz’s accent sounded rougher than before; the words were almost a growl.

  “I would keep any coin found in the camp, and whatever tools or provisions Cazia and I can carry. You would get all the rest--the cloth, clothes, toys, tools, weapons, all of it. In exchange, you would help us bury the bodies.”

  Mahz’s answer was almost listless. “We will not make to touch the serpents.” Something strange was happening here, and Cazia wished she knew what it was. “That is impossible.”

  “If your people will dig the graves--one for each human or serpent--Cazia and I will put the serpents in.” She looked up at Cazia, who nodded to her.

  Mahz looked up at the ceiling. “I agree.”

  “Thank you,” the princess said demurely. The chieftain only nodded without looking at them.

  “Come,” Hent said to the girls. Her tone and expression had become much softer, almost affectionate. “There is stew for you to share. We will make to eat under the stars together, and we will do it before darkness falls. Tomorrow, we will see to the dead.”

  Cazia and Ivy stood. The old chieftain wouldn’t look at them, but that was fine. Cazia wasn’t in the mood to feel sorry for Mahz.

  Hent led them onto the narrow deck beyond the door. She took her long, slender spear from the rack. Cazia and Ivy’s two iron-tipped spears had been placed there, too. No one objected when they took them. They followed Hent across the backs of the herd, heading north.

  Ivy looked back at the camp as though she was afraid it would be gone in the morning. Cazia wished she could say something reassuring, but the truth was that there was nothing reassuring about their situation. The Ozzhuacks had let them take their spears, but Cazia half expected to be murdered during the night.

  “Keep that spear tip up,” Hent said. Cazia was holding her point above the horizontal, but she copied the older woman and pointed it straight up. At the edge of the herd, they leaped down into the grasses.

  “This way to the food,” Hent said, leading them toward the front of the herd. “You do not want to be downwind of the okshim while you are trying to eat.”

  The princess looked at the herd, packed so close together. “Do they step in each other’s...messes, being so close to each other?”

  “Yes,” Hent answered. “When the okshim kicks you, it leaves you broken and filthy. They eat it, too.”

  “What?” The princess’s face turned pale.

  “It is true. The lead animals eat grass, but they can not make to digest it in one pass through. The ones in back--especially the young ones--get more value from plants that have already been through Mommy and Daddy’s guts.” She laughed at Ivy’s expression, showing those horrifying teeth. “Do not worry. We do not make to feed our young ones the same way.”

  “What will we be having?” Ivy asked, her lips pursed.

  “Roast okshim, mostly. More tea as well, and you had better make to drink it. It is the only clean water you are going to get.”

  “We will,” Cazia said.

  Hent gave Cazia a sidelong look. It made her uncomfortable, and she looked away, watching the older woman from the side of her eye. “You really played old Mahz in there.”

  Cazia wasn’t sure if she was being criticized or not. It didn’t seem like it, but with those teeth, everything that woman said seemed like a threat. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Oh, no?” Hent gave Cazia another long look. After a moment, her sly smile showed some surprise. “You are telling the truth, yes? You really do not know what you did.”

  “Are you going to kill us?” Cazia asked. Hearing yes as an answer would have been horrifying, but not knowing was becoming unbearable. “Ever since--Kell, was it?--took our spears, I assumed you were going to kill us. But honestly, at this point, I have no idea what you’re doing.”

  “I wish Mahz could hear you say that. No, girl, we are not making to kill you. I do not know what you are used to down in the southlands, but in the Sweeps, we prize hospitality. We have to, considering the dangers we face. That is why property and gifts are so important to us.”

  Ivy huffed. “Then why was your chieftain pressing us to relinquish our claim to the camp? Why did she threaten us?”

  Cazia was grateful that Ivy kept using we and our, even if it was just because she needed someone older to support her claim. Hent’s response was delivered in a flat tone, “We are desperate. Alligaunts have been bad enough. Grass lions we can handle. But these birds have made things impossible, may they rot from their guts. We have lost six children in the past eight days alone, and four strong warriors.”

  “Great Way, I didn’t know.” Cazia remembered the woman with the red, puffy eyes. How many more like her were there? The image of that huge raptor flying over Samsit flashed through her mind, and she shuddered. “I’m so sorry.”

  “We have not managed to take the single one of theirs in return. At first, we did not even know what was happening. We would wake in the morning and discover the empty flat with ripped bedclothes in the middle of the camp. Just as we figured out what was happening, we discovered the Poalo clan’s cart, fully wrecked like the carts in your camp. The herd was gone, the people destroyed, their goods scattered.”

  “That is why you are hurrying to Fort Samsit,” the princess said. “To sell the herds and the goods you have collected, and try to start a new life.”

  “Whatever life I can find down there,
” Hent answered bitterly. “What freedom does an unmarried woman have in the empire? Do you think I could find a husband with a smile like this?”

  She grinned with those horrible pointed teeth, and Cazia’s first instinct was to say, No chance of that, but after a moment’s thought, she realized she had seen stranger things in the palace. “Well, not a good husband, maybe, but I’m sure you could find someone.”

  Hent rolled her eyes. “The real reason you took the sprint out of Mahz was by the gift you gave her.”

  “Kell said something about that,” Cazia said. “But I don’t understand. How is telling you about the problems at the fort a gift?”

  “Because news is vital, and hospitality is the way of life for us. Mahz didn’t expect… You southlanders always respond to arrogance with threats or pleas for mercy. She expected you to drink her tea and then violate her hospitality; she would have then made free to take the camp. Instead, you shared news that will save all of us and you did not even try to bargain first. You see? If someone gives to you when you are in need, you must repay them.”

  “Ah,” Ivy said. “I think I understand. Hospitality enhances the giver and weakens the recipient. If Mahz can not return a gift of equal value, she will be in our debt, and that is a mark against the honor.”

  “Very good, little girl. And of course it is only made worse by the fact that we have been weakened by these attacks; Mahz is desperate for the way out, ashamed of the way she bullied you, and not only was the bargain you made so much in her favor, it was practically the act of charity itself, but she was forced to balk at the serpents and demand even better terms.”

  It was almost as though Hent was accusing them of manipulation. “We weren’t trying to embarrass her,” Cazia said, trying to hide her resentment. “We were just trying to be decent.”

  “We shall try to return the kindness. Believe it.”