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

everything happened at the time the enemies of the Tarashana became our enemies.”

Garoyo and Hokino glanced at each other. Hokino conceded precedence with a gesture. Garoyo said, “I will tell that part. There is not much to tell. We had stayed in that camp with the Tarashana sorcerer when the others of our people traveled along the lake, south. We did not believe enemies would come. She had lived there so many days and nothing had happened. We set a watch, but we did not expect to need to fight. Then our enemies sent their sorcery against us, aware by their arts that our singers had withdrawn—we did not understand that then.”

“Yes,” said Koro. “Go on, warleader.”

Garoyo bowed slightly. “Yes. This dark tide came out of the pass and flooded over our camp. It was not exactly darkness. It was like water, like mist, like the shadow of a cloud, but not like any of those things. It came very quickly, much more quickly than a man could run. We took up weapons, but there was nothing to fight. We stood together to meet this darkness, except for the Tarashana sorcerer, who hid herself by means of sorcery. We did not understand that then. I stood with Hokino, in front of the others, but when the black tide fell across me, I found myself alone, in an empty place. I could not see anything. I could not hear anything. I could not feel the wind against my face. I felt enemies were around me. I could not see anyone or hear anyone or smell anyone, but the feeling stayed with me. For some time, I do not know how long, nothing changed. I tried to walk, I tried to run, but I do not know whether I went from one place to another. Every place in that darkness seemed the same to me. Then, suddenly, I knew where Aras stood. He was calling me by means of sorcery.” He paused, glancing sideways toward Aras, who was sitting on my other side, his head bowed.

“I was very glad to hear him,” Garoyo said. “But this was much later, though I did not know that then. To have the tale in order, someone else should explain what happened between the time the black tide came over us and the time Aras called me out of the shadow of that tide.”

Koro nodded. “The black tide took the warleader of the inGara and the warleader of the inKera and some other people. This tide took forty and thirty and one of the inGara people. Everyone here who was taken by our enemy at that time, stand up.”

Raga and Arayo and Tano stood up, and Suyet and Lalani, and two inGara people—two of my cousins, a woman and a man, both older than I was and well regarded by everyone. I had not known they had been taken and then redeemed, except that they were sitting with us. The inVotaro warrior, Seroyo inVotaro, stood up as well.

“Was this the same for everyone?” Koro asked them.

Everyone said it had been the same. Seroyo and my cousins said they had never heard Aras call them. Aras, not looking up, said quietly, “I had never met them. I found my own people first, and then the Ugaro to whom I had a tie, and then the people I had met. I could not find anyone else.”

“You went into the land of the shades,” Koro said to Aras. “You went there at the request of the Tarashana sorcerer, to help her strike a great blow against her enemies and our enemies.”

“Yes, o king, that is how it happened,” Aras agreed.

“Everyone who went into the land of the shades by means of the paths of the dead through the high tombs, stand up.”

I got to my feet, with all those of us who had made that journey.

“You may all sit down,” Koro said, once everyone had had a chance to see us. “Someone may tell us how this part happened.”

I looked at Iro. He conceded precedence to me, so I took up the tale. When I came to the part where the shade of the tiger had come against us, Koro held up his hand. He said, “The man who died, stand up.”

Geras glanced at Aras. Then he got to his feet. Everyone looked at him. He was plainly not dead. There was nothing to show he had ever been torn down by the tiger.

Koro said, “I ask you to explain to us how that happened.”

Geras shrugged, pretending he was not uncomfortable. “I think maybe the tiger back up. I hope he back up. But we could not fight that beast. If he would not back up, then someone must give him a different reason to leave. This is ...” he searched for the words he wanted and then shrugged. “It was best if I do it. Ryo would do it, but he is too important. He knows the place much better than I do. I jump at the tiger. Then I fall.” He hesitated.

“Into what place? Are there words?” Koro asked him.

Geras answered slowly. “This is hard to say. I fall through light. It is ... I think it is moonlight, then I think sunlight. I fall a long way. Then I stand in a place that is not the Ugaro place. I think it is the place for Lau. The sky is different, the place ... it is a little the same, but everything is different.” He stopped, spreading his hands, shrugging again.

I had not heard this before. Geras had not told this story this before, or not to me. I wanted to ask him to tell the tale again in darau, but this was not the time. Our king gestured for Geras to continue.

He said, “Then I see, I turn and look, everywhere is ... is