Moongather

by Clayton, Jo;

  The mouscar stayed at the Northwell for three passages then began to trek south, the long leisurely trek from well to well as the grass grew greener and the days warmer—and Yehail grew more jealous, more dangerous. She spied on Serroi continually, and when she wasn’t spying, prodded at her, trying to force her into a hair-pulling fight. Serroi managed to swallow her anger, unwilling to hurt Raiki or further damage her standing with her people. By a combination of luck and close observation, the janja often caught Yehail before she went too far, sending her rolling with one of her backhand swats or cowing the girl into temporary submission with a vigorous tongue-lashing.

  For Serroi this was a time of drifting. She clung close to Raiki as the only certainty left to her. Even her body began changing. She grew several inches taller, her breasts budded and she woke one morning with blood on her thighs. The herdboys took to coming by the janja’s tent, laughing and shoving, until one of them found the nerve to call out to her, then they’d all mill about laughing and joking for a few minutes before they ran off to join their family groups. As the mouscar moved slowly from well to well, working its way south, she grew restless, gradually becoming aware that she didn’t want to continue living the meager life of the Pehiiri. She hungered for the small luxuries she’d had in the Noris’s tower, though she couldn’t endure thinking of him. Clean clothing, daily baths, good well-cooked food, books, beautiful things around her. Above all, quiet and privacy. Raiki was mother and sister and friend; the warmth that had sprung between them from the beginning had grown quietly. Each time she thought of leaving, the nightmares came back. She’d dream of the Noris, wake up sweating, crying in Raiki’s arms.

  When the winter mooncycles had passed and the year was turning to Spring, the Mouscar reached Southwell, the most elaborate of the wells, small fields enclosed within stone walls and covered water pipes leading from the well to the carefully mulched land. As soon as the tents were up, Raiki was intensely busy with fertility rites for the land and planting ceremonies. Serroi was left to herself. She wandered out away from the well, sat looking down the long slope to the lusher valley far below.

  Raiki found her still sitting there late that night, watching the sprinkle of lights in the valley, yellow-gold fires in clusters like a paler starfield on the darkness.

  “You didn’t come to supper.” Raiki settled beside her with a series of grunts as she made her unwieldy body as comfortable as she could on the coarse earth.

  “I wasn’t hungry.”

  “Ah.” Raiki sat silent a long time, then she raised a large arm, bangles clanking like lonely bells, and pointed at the nearest group of lights. “Sel-ma-Carth.” She sighed, the chains around her neck clashing softly. “The Shessel fair will begin in a few days. The men will be going down.” Her hand dropped into her lap.

  Serroi glanced from the moon cluster to the lights of the city. “It’s time.”

  “Yehail?”

  “In truth, Raiki my friend, she’s only one of many reasons.” Serroi leaned against the old woman, slid her hand between arm and body, hugged Raiki’s arm against her.

  “What’re you going to do?”

  “I don’t know. Work my way across to the Biserica probably. I’m old enough finally.”

  “Watch out for them, those lowlanders.” In the silence that followed her words, the rising wind picked up grains of sand and sent them skipping around between patches of brush. Over the plain below clouds were gathering. The lights began going out. “They’re not to be trusted, meto. Cheat you, kill you, rape you.” A big hand patted Serroi’s thigh. Serroi could feel her trembling. With an agitated clinking of chains and coins, the old woman moved away. Serroi heard heavy breathing, more rattling of coins. She turned to see Raiki working three of her coin-chains over her head. The old woman thrust them at her. “Take these,” she urged. “You’ll need money down there.”

  Serroi jumped to her feet, pushed the chains away. “I can’t take that. Raiki, your dowry!”

  “Dowry!” Raiki’s mouth stretched into a broad smile. “More like burying money. Got plenty for that, meto. Who’d I leave the rest to? Yehail?” She snorted. “Not likely. It’s mine, got honest, mine to give where I choose.” She fell silent. The moons floated quiet and silver overhead, dipping one by one into the cloud layer over the valley. “I give where my heart goes, meto.”

  Serroi threw her arms around her friend, pressing herself anxiously against the warm soft body. “I want.…” She started crying.

  “I know, meto-mi, I know.” Raiki patted her on the back awhile, then pushed her away, stood her straight. “I know. Well, that’s enough. Come with me, meto. Something I want to show you.”

  In her tent Raiki opened a chest and pulled out trousers, vest and a loose smock like the men and boys wore. She tossed them on the rug by Serroi’s feet. “You’re a bit of a thing and still flat enough to pass for a boy half your age. Be safer that way with Lowlanders. Don’t trust them, meto. They’ll steal the skin off your face and sell it back to you.” She grunted as she settled her bulk onto a pile of cushions. “Come and see me if you can. You know how we go.” She looked down at her hands. “You’ll stay until the men have left?”

  Two days later, Serroi slipped away from the Well and followed the track the men had taken down the long slope to Sel-ma-Carth and the Shessel fair. After hours of brooding, her goal was set—the Golden Valley, the place where the Noris couldn’t go, the place that had welcomed her.

  THE WOMAN: XIII

  Serroi’s chains clashed softly as she shifted position on the plank bench bolted into the cell wall. Some distance away down the dark stinking corridor she could hear the rise and fall of male voices but couldn’t make out the words. She stirred and the chains clanked again, drawing her eyes down to the iron cuffs tight about her wrists, to the rusty chains looped over her thighs. She shivered then reached down and touched the lump in her boot. The tajicho was cool again. The Norit couldn’t care less about her. She leaned her head back against the damp stone and listened to the voices, to the silence. The dungeons were empty as far as she could feel. Hern, she thought. Wait till Lybor has her way. No. Not Lybor. The Nearga-nor. Ser Noris, Ser Noris, what’s the point of all this? She felt the stone cool and damp through the double layer of vest and tunic. That Norit didn’t know about me. Why? Are you using them too, Ser Noris? Pushing them about without their knowing it? That so, then I’m a rat in the walls going to steal their prize. She caught her lip between her teeth. Half a chance, blessed Maiden, give me half a chance.

  She stood, shuffled to the door. Pressing her body against the hardwood planks, closing her hands tight about the bars, she tried seeing down the corridor; because it slanted a little away from the cell where she was imprisoned she could see dark forms pacing past the end of the corridor. Words floated back to her, cut off as each figure passed out of sight. “… that crazy mare … set up … race … got the legs.… dlebach … beat … decset … three decsets for … the meie … play with her … damn Nor … leave us the bones … no meat on her.…” Finally the two men sat at a table just beyond the end of the corridor and their voices came more distinctly. “Stickin’ around here after they finish with fat boy?” The speaker jerked his thumb at the ceiling.

  “They promised us gold. Who’s gonna stop us takin’ what we want.”

  “Sons, that’s who; too many of them got their noses in this. No drinkin’. Don’t mess with the women, run the hoors outta town with they heads shaved, ever tried a bald-headed woman? I say gimme the gold and I cut out for the Southcoast where they somethin’ to spend it on.”

  “Hunh, better not let ol’ yellow-face hear you talkin’ like that.”

  “Know what I want right now?” The speaker leaned forward and for the first time Serroi saw that he wore the Sleykyn mask. He tilted the bottle over his mug, watching the last drops trickle out.

  “Yeh, and you ain’t gonna get it. Can’t touch the women in these walls, not even that.” The second Sleykyn wav
ed vaguely toward Serroi.

  The first drained the mug and stood, not swaying but holding himself with careful dignity.

  “Nor said to stay here.” The seated one leaned back and brought his hand down heavily on the tabletop.

  “Stingy shit only left us two bottles. Maiden’s tits, I go get some more, he going to be busy, you keep you mouth shut, he won’t know nothin’.” He stalked off, moving out of Serroi’s limited range of vision, his heels stomping harder than usual on the stone.

  The second Sleykyn sat slumped in his chair staring gloomily at the mug in his hand. Serroi watched a moment longer then went back to the bench.

  She reached into her boot and twitched out the lock-picks. Leaning back against the stone, she began working on the cuffs of her manacles. The crude locks were no problem; she caught the manacles as they cracked open and set them on the bench beside her, then dealt with the chains on her ankles. Pick in hand she moved silently to the door.

  The Sleykyn was still alone, head fallen on folded arms, the mug on its side with a small spill of wine by its mouth. His shoulders moved and she heard a sputtering snore. Hastily she began work on the door’s lock; with one Sleykyn gone off somewhere and the other far gone in wine and asleep she had her best chance. No time to waste, no time at all. The door lock was worse because it was bigger and more complex, but she forced it as silently as she could, her breath caught behind her teeth, her heart juddering at each squeal.

  After checking the Sleykyn a last time, she eased the heavy door open just enough to let her slip into the corridor. There was a torch set in a holder by her cell, but that was the only one, confirming her sense that the other cells were empty. She ran on her toes beyond its light, then sank into a crouch, supporting herself on her toes with fingertips touching the filthy floor as the Sleykyn muttered heavily, lifted his head for a bleary look around, then dropped it back on his arms. As soon as he started snoring again, she stood very slowly, making no sudden moves. She drifted like a shadow down the three steps to the cellar floor, then circled around behind the Sleykyn.

  She was halfway across the place of torment when the uncertain light from the low-burning torches and the clutter on the filthy floor betrayed her. Focused too intently on the Sleykyn, she stumbled over a hardwood rod lying beside several enigmatic instruments of torture. It bounced off these with a clangor like the ringing of the war-bells and bounded away across the stone, clattering loud enough to wake the dead.

  The Sleykyn bounced up, swung around, the whip snicking out of its pouch, the tip slashing her arm before she had time to move. She dived behind a rack, scrambled along it, narrowly avoiding a second slash. At the end of the platform, she looked back along the crank and nearly lost an eye to the flickering whip. It coiled around the crank until the Sleykyn jerked it loose, giving her time to scurry away. He was still hazed with sleep and half drunk, his timing just a fraction off. She crossed to the other side of the rack, looked rapidly about, then dashed for a pair of heavy whipping posts. The lash tip caressed her ankle. She pulled free, then straightened, using the thick posts as protection.

  The Sleykyn came rapidly down the side of the rack, stumbling and bleary-eyed. She shifted to keep the posts between her and him, searched frantically about for some kind of weapon, saw cutting tools in a frame on the wall. Ducking and weaving, gasping with pain as the whip found her twice, she darted across the open space and slid behind another article of torment. Flaying knives, high over her head. She dived at the wall. The knife was in her hand as the whip coiled about her hips, cutting through the thick material of her trousers, searing her skin, drawing more blood. Whimpering with pain, the knife held away from her, she crashed to the floor, her weight freeing her from the whip. Before the Sleykyn snapped the whip back, she was up again and running, ignoring the pain, bent low, weaving and elusive in the smoky torchlight.

  The Sleykyn’s boots were loud behind her as she dived once more behind the rack. He drove her from this shelter, chased her a second time around the room, getting closer and closer to trapping her as the drink wore off. While she fled, twisting, weaving, running full out from point to point, she tested the balance of the knife. At the point of exhaustion, bleeding from dozens of cuts, there was no way she could get close enough to use the knife on him. She had to throw it. If she missed, she’d have to try fighting him with bare hands, something she didn’t like thinking about.

  She circled the rack a third time and dived for the twin posts; the Sleykyn was so close she could almost feel his breath hot on her neck. Praying that she read the knife right, she circled the posts, seeking the intangible feel of the whole, forcing herself steady, slowing her breathing. She saw his whip hand go back, saw the triumphant glare in his bloodshot eyes, saw the thick column of his neck rising from his unbuttoned shirt. With a breathed prayer to the Maiden, she threw the knife, saw it turning in a silvery wheel through the air, saw it thud home in his throat.

  Filling the cellar with an absurd soft bubbling sound, he crumpled onto his face, blood running from his mouth, his eyes glazing over. Serroi clutched the post, knees shaking, sick to her stomach, gasping for breath. Slowly the room steadied for her. She pulled herself up, feeling pleased with herself for being alive. She kicked out one leg, then the other, testing her knees. They seemed capable of holding her, so she pushed away from the post and tried standing. She took one step then another, then laughed aloud with the sheer joy of surviving.

  She crossed to the Sleykyn. He was dead. The blood was no longer flowing from his neck. She rubbed her hand across her face, wiping away beads of new sweat, then knelt beside him. Grunting with the effort, she turned him over onto his back and started working on the buckles to his knife belt. She had to have a weapon. With grim distaste she pulled the belt from around him and rebuckled it; it was too big for her but she could wear it like a baldric. Succumbing to a sudden intense curiosity, she drew the blade from its sheath and turned it over slowly, very carefully. A Sleykyn poison knife. The blade was bone rather than metal, the tip discolored for about an inch above the point. She was very careful not to touch the stain. “Enough,” she murmured. The knife back in its sheath and the belt draped across her narrow torso, she leaned over and gently closed the Sleykyn’s eyes. “Maiden give you good rest.” She stood, stretched. “I think I’m very tired of this killing.” Again she rubbed wearily at aching eyes. “I’m a fool; let me get back to the Biserica and I’ll do what they’ve always told me I should, start studying to be a healer.”

  As she neared the exit she heard a rumbling drunken singing echoing down the corridor. Sliding the knife from its sheath, she ran on her toes to the wall, then flattened herself beside the opening. When the second of her guards came unsuspecting through it, cradling a wineskin in his arms like an overplump baby, she slashed a deep cut in the back of his hand, then darted away.

  She watched him die with foam on his lips and twisted horror on his face. The hand that still held the bone knife shook; she looked down at the death-white blade with revulsion, wanted to hurl it away from her; instead, she replaced it carefully in its sheath and crossed to the dead man. After closing his staring eyes and sending him to rest with the blessing for the dead, she picked up the wineskin and walked into the corridor. As the fever from her own poisoned wounds began to work in her, she searched out the panel that would let her back into the maze of passages within the walls.

  In stifling darkness, somewhere deep within the maze of hidden passages, she worked the stopper loose from the wineskin and drank, then drank again. She could feel the heat from her wounds whenever she held her arm close to her face. The lash tip was infected some way, she thought. I hurt, but the wounds aren’t that bad. I shouldn’t be so sick, not so soon. She drank more wine, then settled herself onto the floor and leaned against the cool stone, wondering what she should do. I can’t stay here. Domnor Hern … at least I’m inside the Plaz. She giggled. I told Coperic the Daughter would get me inside the Plaz. Not quite like this tho
ugh. Dinafar. I wonder what she’s thinking. Maiden keep her safe—and don’t let Coperic get tricky with her. She pressed the back of her hand against her forehead. Fever. I wonder what the hell they put on those tips. Domnor, better find him. She got heavily to her feet, drank again from the wineskin, then wandered off along the passage, turning and twisting, stumbling up and down crazy flights of stairs until she had no idea where she was or what level of the Plaz she happened to be on.

  When she was too exhausted to keep moving, she sank down, sat with her back against the wall, her legs stretched out across the width of the passage, the wineskin like a child cuddled in her lap. In a few moments she was deep asleep.

  She woke with small feet pricking over her legs, small wet noses pushing into her. It was too dark to see; she was dizzy, her brain on fire, forgetting where she was, forgetting what she had to do. She reached down and felt about with shaking hands. She touched a quivering snout, slid her fingers past large delicate ears, then down a knobby spine to a hairless tail. “Rat,” she muttered, then giggled, then caught her breath. Rats came pattering along the passage, crawling over her until her legs were covered by writhing furry bodies. They kept coming. She could feel their small wet noses nudging into her, the pinpoint claws scrabbling at her. Given what she knew about rats she should have been terrified; she wasn’t. It seemed to her that in her sleep she’d called them to her—or something had called them.

  Behind her aching head the stone vibrated with tension, the air around her was thick. The rats huddled close to her, half-maddened by it, licking at the blood dried on her cuts, pressing against her, more and more of them as the minutes passed until the passage was full of them. She pulled the wineskin free, heard the rats she knocked loose chittering with fear and irritation. She drank, drank again. Her head throbbed. She reached up, screamed when she touched her eye-spot, it bulged out from her brow, hotter than the fever that coursed in her blood. Something held her; something held it, called the rats to her, was burning her, burning the fever out of her. She blinked, she could see again, her night sight, could see in tones of green and grey and black. Could see the lumpy shifting carpet of small bodies crawling over each other, crouching, trembling, her body was covered by them, covered to the waist, they were behind her, on her shoulders. Warm pulsing vermin. Around and over her. She should have been terrified, she knew that distantly as from a part of her standing far off looking down on herself. She was hot with fever, hot with the thing in her fighting the fever. She couldn’t remember, there was something she needed to remember, she couldn’t remember, it was important … she slept again.