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

“Yes,” said my father, which was the only thing he could say.

Koro nodded. He glanced again up and around at everyone watching, which by this time was a great many people. He said in a clear, loud voice that everyone could hear, “Everyone will sit.”

On the slopes above the lake, for as far as I could see, everyone settled to the ground. Here and there someone important, the lord or warleader of a tribe, a singer or a poet, or someone else important, made their way forward so they would be close enough to hear and see everything.

Here, on the lakeshore, no one merely sat down. Everyone knelt, even my father. Only Koro and Royova inVotaro and the inVotaro warriors stayed on their feet. And Yaro inTasiyo, who stayed exactly where he was. A low murmur rose up. If anyone amid all this gathering had not yet understood that Aras held him by sorcery, probably that person understood it now. I could not understand why Aras had not made him kneel, but then I thought, no, to force a man to his knees by means of sorcery would have been even worse than holding him still.

Koro waited long enough for everyone above us to find places and for a little time more. Finally he spoke to Aras, still in that clear voice, “You have taken this man’s will from him by means of sorcery. It is your will that holds him there in that way.”

The murmur this time was louder. Obviously everyone understood this, but hearing it out loud was different.

Aras sighed, almost inaudibly. No one farther away than I could have heard him. But then he answered, “Yes, o king, it is as you say,” in much the same clear tone.

This time, there was silence.

“Royova, take charge of this man,” said the king. He indicated Yaro with a small movement of his hand. “Do not permit him to cause trouble. Bind him hand and foot if he does not have enough pride to keep still on his own account.” Then he said to Aras, “Let him go.”

Aras did not even glance at Yaro. But he freed him. Everyone saw the difference, even before Yaro glared at him, and then at Koro. He declared, with a forceful gesture toward Royova, “I do not need to be tied up like a dog or a sacrifice! I will stand.”

“You will kneel,” Koro told him. “And you will not speak without permission. When I wish to hear your words, I will tell you of that wish.”

For a long breath, it seemed that Yaro would not obey him. But finally, though anyone could see his fury, the warleader of the inTasiyo knelt. He did not bow his head or lower his gaze. But he knelt, and he had at least enough pride that he did not speak or shout or make any other kind of trouble.

“Now, tell me how this happened,” Koro ordered, turning back to Aras.

Before Aras could answer, I jumped to my feet and spoke as forcefully as I could. “Yaro inTasiyo hid here, at the lakeshore. Perhaps he meant to attack my brother or someone else, but he attacked me. I was careless. He took me completely by surprise. He would have killed me, I could not have won that fight, I had already lost. Aras stopped him by means of this forbidden act. In one way, he was wrong to do it, but in another way, he was not wrong. If he had not acted in that way, I would be dead and Yaro inTasiyo would have had time to get away, into the heights.”

Koro listened to me without changing expression. When I finished, he nodded. “Have you anything else to say, Ryo inGara?”

I took a breath. Then I knelt, bowed, and said, “Everything I said was true. But I apologize for the disgraceful manner in which I set myself forward when you spoke to Aras.”

“I forgive your insolence,” Koro said. “I will be lenient only once.”

I bowed lower, touching my face to the earth. Then I straightened, anxious and angry, to hear what our king would say next.

He said to Aras, “You told me once that you had sworn an oath not to do such things with your sorcery. You swore to me you had never done it. Was that the truth then?”

Aras got to his feet to answer. He spoke in a clear voice. “That was true then, o king. I told you that when I had thirteen summers, I swore I would never take anyone's will by means of sorcery. The oath was strong, for I made the declaration absolute. So strong an oath might have been difficult to keep in other matters, but I did not find this oath difficult. Even when I was a boy, I found the whole idea ... appalling. Revolting. I had not done it before I took this oath, and certainly I did not do so afterward. Later, it sometimes became my task to ... to clean up the damage other sorcerers had done, and the idea became still more appalling to me.” He paused.

Then he went on. “Yet I told you as well, Koro inKarano, winter king, that if pressed hard enough, any man would break an oath. Today, I was pressed that hard. I broke my oath and did this terrible thing because that seemed better to me than permitting Yaro inTasiyo to kill the son of Sinowa inGara. I could not endure standing by while a young and honorable man; a son of the lord of the inGara, whose guest I am; and a guest of my own house, was cut down in a disgraceful act of murder, dishonorable in every way.”

Koro nodded, expressionless, acknowledging this statement. He said to Yaro. “You may answer this charge, if you