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

stopped thinking only of how badly he fought and began to listen to Geras. It was plainly much, much easier for him to learn from Geras than from me.

After a short time, I gave Tano an opening, a chance to hit my arm. Geras tapped his back sharply almost before I did it, and Tano lunged forward and cracked his practice sword hard against my arm, almost hard enough to make me drop my sword. He jerked back at once, startled, or he might have hit me a second time. Geras flicked his sword against Tano’s back and he jumped forward again, and this time he nearly made his own opening. I caught his sword with mine and closed my hand over his to stop him in that moment, so he would have stopped after doing something well. That was something Garoyo had taught me when I was very young. I had not remembered that until this moment.

“Good,” I told Tano, letting him go once I was certain he knew the sparring was finished. “I would have no hand now if the blade had been sharp. This was very much better.” Tano had gone pale this time, not red. I pretended not to notice. I said, “We will stop there. We will all think about what worked best today. Tomorrow we will try this again, or something else, as seems best.”

“I show better how hold place,” Geras said to Tano in terrible taksu. He rolled his eyes at himself and added, “Tell the youngster I’ll work with him on that tonight, drill him against Suyet until he forgets all about backing up no matter who he’s facing.”

I translated this, and Tano bowed his head and said, very quietly, “I thank you for your kindness.”

We began to walk back to rejoin the others. Geras said to me in rapid darau, “Someone’s done a real solid job smashing this youngster right down into the dirt, but I’m thinking it won’t take too long to get him moving forward instead of back.”

I thought Tano probably understood some of what Geras said, but I thought this was good, so I only responded, “You think so?”

“I figured you were worried about that. No, no need to fret, Ryo. Boys as badly taught as this always improve. They can hardly get worse.”

“Yes,” I said. “He is not a boy. He has sixteen winters.” I hesitated. Then I asked, “You have seen this before?” From his manner, I thought he had—and I thought Tano should know that. He was walking a little distance apart, his gaze lowered, but I knew he was listening.

“Now and then, sure,” said Geras. “Boys always need to learn to hold the line, and sometimes they’ve been taught to back up instead. Some men shouldn’t be let pick up a training sword; they’ve got no notion what to do with it. I’ve worked with older boys who started off worse. Not real often, I’ll say that, but you saw how much better he was doing in just one session. He’s not that bad. He sees when he ought to attack, he even sees how, he just needs to learn to do it, even when he’s facing someone who matters to him. He’ll get there.”

I said, “I thank you for your wise advice, Geras.” Then I shifted back to taksu and said, “I thank you for your advice. Any young man would do well to listen to an older man who understands such matters.”

Tano said nothing. But he bowed his head in agreement.

But neither Geras nor I had time to work with Tano again for some days. That evening, a little before we might have begun to make a camp, we saw something I had been waiting to see: a great number of ponies and cattle, uncountable numbers, and traveling slowly among the animals, many wagons. We had finally encountered one of the great inGara herds.

 -9-

They had seen us too, and a dozen of the boys and some of the warriors came to see who we were. I rode out to meet them. I nudged my mare into a full run, drew a wide circle across the steppe as fast as she could gallop, and finally leaned back to draw her down to a canter, though she danced and tossed her head, excited by the speed and perfectly aware we had been showing off. She wanted to run again, but I coaxed her to turn into the midst of the Ugaro riders, brought her to a halt and called, “Gayata! Would you wish to race that fine mare of yours against mine? This time you might not have everything your own way!”

“Ryo!” he shouted, jumping from his mare’s back without bothering to ask her to halt. She was a very good mare, every bone set just as it should be. She had tilted her ears back in a skeptical comment about her rider’s behavior, but she also circled around and come back to see what further foolishness he might have in mind and whether she might be part of it. My second-eldest brother is a very, very good horseman and no ponies on the steppe are better than his.

I slid down from the saddle and strode toward Gayata. He pulled me into an embrace, and I wrapped my arms around him as far as I could and squeezed hard. I had not seen him for more than two years, and I had not realized until this moment how I had missed him.

He pushed me back first. “Such tales we have heard!” he said. He looked past me at everyone else. “And these are your Lau. One of them is your sorcerer, I suppose. The one in front, with the red shirt.”

“Yes,” I admitted.

“Such tales.” He looked at me again and smiled. “You are thinking you should offer to take your sorcerer somewhere else