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

enough to the world to hear him. I wanted to go to her myself, but I knew I had to speak to everyone else first, even though I did not want to do that at all.

As soon as Iro moved, Garoyo turned and looked at us, and at once everyone else followed his movement.

Suyet jumped to his feet, stumbling a little in his haste. “Ryo!” he said. “Lord Gaur! I thank the gods!”

Lalani rose as well, not stumbling at all, as graceful as ever. “I did tell you,” she said, but her gaze on my face was questioning.

By this time, Geras was also on his feet. He drew a breath, his shoulders sagging in relief. “All right,” he said. “All right, then.”

“I’m very sorry, Troop Leader,” Aras said to him. “I know it wasn’t at all fair to you, and I apologize profoundly.”

Geras opened his mouth, shut it again, shook his head, and finally said, “It—I—just please don’t do that again, my lord.”

“Right, no, please don’t!” Suyet agreed, his tone fervent.

“No,” Aras said gently. “I very much hope there will be no need to do anything like that again.”

“But, Ryo!” Suyet said. “Are you all right?” He started forward, but then hesitated, the way a man will when he is uncertain his approach will be welcome.

“Suyet,” I said. “Geras. I also apologize.” I looked around at everyone else. Everyone was up now. None of my own people had said anything yet. If the Lau had not leaped up, every Ugaro would have stayed where he was, pretending to take little interest in our arrival. That kind of reticence is meant to make someone uneasy in his approach feel more comfortable. Obviously the Lau had an entirely different idea about how to act.

I said, “I apologize to you all. I permitted my unhappiness to make everyone unhappy. This was disgraceful behavior. I should not have needed the warleader of the inKera to tell me so. I ask that everything in the past be set in the past if ... if everyone is content that it should be so.”

Hokino glanced at Garoyo and inclined his head, deferring to my brother. Garoyo spoke firmly. “Everyone accepts your apology, Ryo. Let us all set everything in the past, exactly as you say. Come, if you wish, and sit with us.”

He meant he did not want any formality. Taking him at his word, I walked toward the others, to take a place there. I pretended to pay no attention to Aras, who stood where he was for another moment before following me, then moved to sit a little distance away, not too close to anyone. Everyone was beginning to settle again. Even though Lalani was present and began to rise, Raga gestured to her to sit down. Then he moved to pour some of the tisane into a bowl for me himself, which was a proper gesture from a younger brother to an elder.

I took the bowl Raga held out to me, sipped the hot liquid to show I accepted what he gave me, set the bowl down, and looked at him. I had no idea what to say to him. There was nothing I could say.

My younger brother sat down beside me. No one was looking at us. Everyone pretended to pay no attention, which is proper manners when something between two people might be difficult.

I said finally, “Raga, I know I asked that everything be set in the past, and I also know that no apology is possible, but—”

“Ryo!” my brother said, gripping my wrist to stop me. “I have wished for many days to say this, so please listen. I set no fault against anyone for anything that happened, not against you and not against Aras. No fault,” he repeated emphatically. “If you feel you must ask my forgiveness, then I will forgive you, but please, I ask you to set aside every memory of that moment, as I do, and let all bad feeling go, as I have. I am very glad you did not kill Aras! I thought you would do it, I was afraid you would do it. I would not have said anything against the act, but I am very glad you did not. That would not have been a just return for his act, and even if it had been, certainly it could never have been right for you to do it.”

Several things in this speech surprised me. I might even have been offended, except that it was Raga who said this. I could not possibly be offended by anything my younger brother said to me. Still, I demanded, “How, not just?”

Raga looked at me in surprise. “Ryo ... he had to help Inhejeriel, not only because this was the only way to bring everyone back into the land of the living, though that was so as well. But all the Tarashana, Ryo! All the starlit country! Obviously Aras had to do everything to support Inhejeriel because doing so was the only way to strike a hard blow against the Saa’arii, who had done these terrible things. Besides, they would otherwise have remained a danger to us all, to the whole winter country! Arayo agrees with me.”

“I do,” the young man said, reluctantly but promptly. “Please do not be angry with your younger brother for speaking in this way, Ryo. Our people would not want the Saa’arii as close neighbors. The Tarashana are much to be preferred. What Aras did to you was wrong. Everyone knows it. What he did to himself was perhaps as bad. Everyone knows that as well. But for very many reasons, his act was still a right thing to do, even if it was also wrong.”

“These words befit the son of a warleader,” Hokino said. His tone was quiet, but unyielding.

Garoyo was looking at me, not at Hokino. He said,