Tarashana by Rachel Neumeier (little red riding hood ebook TXT) 📕

Later, at some time after that, I did not know how long, Geras came there. He came to the house, tilting his head back to look at me because I was sitting on the roof. I had watched him come. I had thought of walking away before he come near enough to speak to me, but the effort had seemed too great and I had not cared enough to do it.

“Ryo,” he called up to me. “Listen, I’m sorry about what happened. It was a bad situation all around. The whole business was bad from top to bottom. I don’t blame you for being upset—in your place, I’d probably have done the same thing, not that a Lau’d dare lift a hand to a scepter-holder, but I’d’ve been tempted, I can tell you that. Anyway. Lord Gaur’s upset too, you know. Or maybe you don’t, and if that’s so, then I can tell you, he’s not happy about anything to do with this. If you come back, he won’t come near you, you know that, right?”

I did not answer. I did not care enough about anything he said to answer him.

“Listen,” said Geras, raising his voice and speaking forcefully. “It was a battle—a war. You know that. In battle, commanders have to make tough decisions. Sometimes they have to sacrifice a man, or a company, or a talon—or a friend. It happens. You know that. You’re not a child, though no one would guess it from the way you’re acting!”

He wanted me to argue with him, or shout at him, or fight with him. Anything. I saw that clearly. I had been stupid to stay and let him speak to me. I stood up and walked away, stepping from the roof of the house and climbing up the hill. If he came after me, that would not matter. He could walk much faster than I could, but now that I had recovered more of my strength, I could walk for a longer time. If he followed me, I would simply walk until he had to stop. I did not care what direction I choose. It did not matter to me where I went.

“Suyet’s worried about you,” he called after me. “So is Lalani. So am I, come to that!”

I did not care what he said. I came to the top of the little hill and went on, down the other side, and followed the stream away. He did not follow me.

Some distance from the house, I found a deep, round pool. Slender silver-barked trees grew around the pool, their leaves long and silvery-green, the long streamers of their flowers swaying gently in the breeze, glimmering with light. I lay on my back on the moss beside the pool and shut my eyes and listened for the faint song of the stars, but I heard nothing save the soft movement of the breeze through the leaves. The flowers had a light, clear fragrance, not exactly like any flower I knew from the winter lands.

After some time, I did not know how long, I went back to the house. Geras had gone. While I had been absent, someone had come and left bread and a plate of sliced fruit I did not recognize, with white skin and pink flesh. I took this food up onto the roof and ate it there, and then lay down and shut my eyes, still on the roof, out in the clear air, where the breeze could come and perhaps blow away some of my unhappiness.

For some time after that, only the Tarashana came and went, very softly, respecting my wish not to speak to anyone.

Then, eventually, Tano came. I had gone to sit by the pool, and when I came back, he was there, waiting at the house. He had found two blunted swords, or perhaps asked a Tarashana metalworker to blunt two of our own swords—if they had metalworkers. I did not know. I had seen almost nothing made of metal in this place. I had not even wondered about anything as simple as that before that moment. I had not cared to know anything of the Tarashana, except that they were quiet and did not trouble me.

When I came, I found Tano sitting near the house with the practice swords laid out on the grass before him. He had brought something else as well. A whip, the kind made of green wood with a short length of braided leather at the tip. He shifted from sitting to kneeling when he saw me, bowing respectfully. He said nothing. It was not his place to speak first.

I did not want to speak to him. I wanted him to go away. If he had only brought the swords, perhaps I might have walked away again. But the whip bothered me. I could not imagine why he had brought that. Finally I said, “Tano. Have you acted in some wrong way? If this is so, you need not come to me. Garoyo should correct you for it.”

He knelt back on his heels, looking up at me. His expression was calm, but I could see tension in his shoulders. “You said that if we both lived, you would consider the matter of my disobedience. I ask that you consider it now, so that I may set that failure in the past.”

It took me a moment to remember the incident. Then, when I did remember, the mistake seemed long ago and unimportant. But anyone could see it was important to Tano. Also, it was true that a young warrior should not be permitted to think too little of that kind of mistake. Nor should a young man ever be allowed to believe that older men do not care whether he behaves well or poorly.

My opinion mattered to Tano. That was why he had come to me. Anyone could see it would be wrong to send