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

curse of sorcery, so that I might have known what was in his heart. I did not allow myself to look at Aras.

Tano said, “I told the warleader of the inTasiyo nothing but the truth. I told him that I encountered Ryo inGara by chance. I told him that I lied to Ryo, telling him I had only fourteen winters, and belonged to the inRasiko. I told him Ryo believed these lies. This pleased the warleader of the inTasiyo, because he saw that I might have killed the son of the lord of the inGara without anyone setting the fault against the inTasiyo. Then I told him that although I had many, many opportunities to kill Ryo, I had chosen not to do it. This did not please him. He declared this a disgraceful failure of courage. I protested, saying it would have been dishonorable to kill the son of the lord of the inGara and put the blame on the inRasiko. This protest did not moderate his anger. He said I should have committed this act. He said my failure to do so showed a lack of courage and resolve.”

A low murmur had risen up here and there as Tano told this story. Koro’s expression did not change. Tano had not looked at me at all as he spoke. He had not been looking at anyone, but straight ahead. He had recited all this almost as though none of it mattered to him. But now he hesitated. Bowing his head, he said, his tone bleak, “When Yaro inTasiyo picked up the whip, I told him he was making a mistake. He did not regard this warning. He did not ask me why his act might be a mistake. This is a true account of everything I said.”

Koro had listened to him carefully. Now he nodded. “What important things did you not explain to the warleader of the inTasiyo? Did you tell him that you had become inGara?”

Tano did not answer that question at once. I waited. Everyone waited. No one spoke, or shifted position, or coughed. Despite the crowding witnesses, the silence seemed immense to me, as though even the earth and the sky waited for this answer.

That moment did not last long, although it seemed long enough to me. Then Tano said, his voice very low, “No, o king. I did not explain that. I did not say that Ryo discovered all my lies almost at once. I did not say that he asked me to take oath to obey him as though he were my oldest brother, nor that he took oath to behave toward me as though I were his younger brother. I did not say that the lord of the inGara was generous enough to permit me to come into his people.”

I exhaled, a long breath, trying not to let anything show on my face.

Koro merely nodded a second time, showing no other reaction to any of this. He said, “The ban between the inTasiyo and the inGara holds. Convocation law has not been broken.”

At this, there was a louder murmur. Some people agreed and some did not and many wanted to argue with one another or with Koro himself, though they would do it yet, not here. People would go away from this place and argue about this decision for many days—probably for many seasons. My father did not move or speak, but a muscle in his jaw tightened and then relaxed.

Yaro said, his tone savage, “The young man tried to make me break the ban. As he is an inGara warrior, this act should be set against the inGara.”

Everyone became very quiet. My father gave no sign he heard this accusation. Koro said, “That may be so. I will consider that later, after this other matter. If the warleader of the inTasiyo wishes to explain why he set fault against a young man he believed to be his son, for failing to break the ban and for failing to murder an inGara warrior, I will hear that explanation. If the warleader of the inTasiyo wishes to explain whether he considers it honorable for a young man to pretend to be a boy, or for the warrior of one tribe to say he belongs to another tribe, in order to break a ban forbidding violence between two tribes, I would be very interested in this explanation.”

I had certainly been right. Koro inKarano understood everything. Everyone watching become silent again, as the whole gathering and the Moon herself waited to hear what Yaro inTasiyo would say.

“I said he was a coward,” Yaro said harshly. “Not that he was dishonorable. The young man lies in setting this accusation against me. For this, his tongue should be cut out. That would be the just punishment for speaking such lies.”

Another murmur, louder this time. Seldom indeed will a man set that kind of charge against his son, even against a young man who was once his son.

“So you would have been displeased if this young man had committed the acts I have described?” said Koro.

“Yes,” snapped Yaro. “Of course I would not approve any such acts!”

Koro nodded. He said, his tone still unchanged, “If the lord of the inTasiyo is here, he is very quiet. The decisions that are made within a tribe are not properly my concern. But if the lord of the inTasiyo considers that his warleader has behaved disgracefully, he should remove that man as warleader and give the sword to a different man. That is my personal opinion.”

I had not even realized the lord of the inTasiyo was present. I followed the direction of Koro’s gaze and found myself studying a man who looked like anyone. I had never before realized a man could be the lord of a tribe and yet not show anything of forcefulness or strength of will. I did not even remember his