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

“This is a kind of problem that is probably harder to understand when it has happened to you,” I said, still gently. He did not answer me. After some time, I spoke again. “You have not yet learned anything from sparring me except how to endure humiliation. That is a useful lesson, but it is one you have learned too well already. It is time to set that aside and learn something different. Tomorrow we will spar again. I will give you at least one opening, and you will take it. You will hit me hard enough to leave a bruise I know is there. If you make your own opening, that is even better, but you must take the opening I give you. If you fail in this,” I added, “Then we will spar again the next day, and the next, until you succeed. There are many faults for which I would correct you. If you show me stupidity or carelessness or cowardice or disrespect or deceit, I would correct you for any of those faults. But this problem is something different from any of those things. It is not caused by a fault in you, but by a fault in your training. I will not correct you for failure. But I want you to succeed.”

He bowed, and stayed that way, probably because he was having more trouble now keeping what he felt from showing on his face. I hoped very much that honesty and clarity would be what he needed, but I was not certain. I wished I could have explained this problem to my brother before I tried to solve it. But as that was not possible, I hoped I had done something useful.

I pretended I was certain of myself. “There is another lesson you have learned I wish you to set aside,” I told him. “Tonight, when we come together to eat, do not wait for Lalani to give you food. Go to the fire and take what you want. I am not ordering you to be impolite: you may thank her for preparing the food and for inviting you to share it. But I am ordering you to take food for yourself. Do not eat less than you want. We have plenty of food.”

“Yes,” he whispered.

I picked up my practice sword and rose. “I am going back to the others now,” I told him. “Come when you are ready. Do not delay too long. I would like to travel some farther distance before we halt for the night.”

When I came back alone, no one asked me where Tano was. Rakasa and Bara pretended not to notice his absence. Suyet frowned at me, but Geras glanced at me and then at Aras, and then, seeing that Aras showed no concern, gave me a little nod. Lalani poured me a bowl of tisane and said, “I’m sure you’re warm, Ryo. Sit down and have something to drink.”

She meant, Sit down and let us all wait for Tano. I knew she would not go on without him, but she did not say that.

I said, “In three fingers of time, we will go on.” But I took the bowl Lalani offered me and sat down with her by the small fire she had made.

Before even one finger of time had passed, Tano came to join us. He did not look at anyone, not even Suyet, and drew his horse to the rear of the group when we finally rode on. He did not speak to anyone all the rest of that day.

Later, after we made our camp, as the Moon strolled high in the vault of the heavens and the early stars came out, Tano took food from the pot without waiting for Lalani to bring it to him. He moved stiffly and he did not look at anyone, but he did it. Lalani smiled at him, a swift, delighted smile, and glanced at me, but I pretended I had not noticed and was paying no attention.

Later again, I left the fire, went to the tent where Aras slept, stooped down, and crept within. He was already there. The air was close and warm; he had used a cantrip to warm the air. I did not complain, but sat down on my side of the tent.

He said, “You don’t need my approval, Ryo.”

“I know. I am not asking for it.”

He smiled. I saw the gleam of his teeth in the dimness. Except for that, he was nearly invisible. He said, “If you were a soldier of mine, I’d make you a troop leader. You’d do very well, young as you are.” Then he went on, no longer smiling, “You know, I’ve occasionally wondered whether the relationship between an Ugaro boy and his father might sometimes go wrong. All that obedience and respect. It seemed to me that could be a disaster, under certain circumstances.”

“This kind of problem should not happen,” I told him. “I cannot imagine how any tribe could have permitted this to happen. Sometimes a man does not know how to handle his sons; I have seen that. But then an older brother or an uncle or his father should correct him. If for some reason they do not, then his warleader should correct him. If the warleader himself is at fault, then the lord of the tribe should correct him.”

“What if the fault lies with the lord?” Aras asked.

“Then his people should see the problem and protest, and if he will not mend the fault, they should choose a different man as their lord.”

“It’s probably a complicated situation.”

“To me, the problem seems simple at the heart. Honorable people should not permit a problem like this to go uncorrected. You know I am thinking very hard thoughts of the inTasiyo.”

“I could hardly miss it. What if the man who is at fault is a dangerous warrior, so