"You really weren't afraid of him at all."

  "Should I have been?"

  The question hung in the air and Cabari didn't say any more, twisting her hands against one another. Tani carefully placed her hand over the other woman's and Cabari squeezed back before speaking. "You... were right. The Steelbones don't force themselves on anyone, at least I think they don't. But they wait and watch, and if no one distracts them they get drunk..."

  "You don't need to say anything else if you don't want to." Despite Tani's words, and her desire to comfort Cabari, she did want to know the truth.

  "No, I want... no one else will speak of it, and Rubako gets so angry..." Cabari slid a hand over Tani's to keep her arm in place. "I went last year. With Mohuno."

  "You made the choice you needed to make. Was it...?"

  "He wasn't unkind. Not very patient, but gentle. The elders have talked about how it used to be, and some women have said even their husbands would strike them... I've never been with anyone else." Cabari finally looked up at her, eyes heavy with guilt. "But when he looked at you, I was relieved that he'd forgotten about me."

  Though Tani's heart ached for the other woman, a small part of her felt gratification that she had been right. She hated that part of herself, since it only wanted to use Cabari for her own ego, yet she couldn't deny it. Tani tried to tell herself that what mattered was that she understood fully now. Mohuno might not be as cruel as many, and he might not cause harm intentionally, but intentions meant little in this.

  "I should have warned you," Cabari said. "If I'd been thinking, I would have known that you'd catch his eye, since you're so beautiful."

  That made Tani's mind whip around to focus on the other woman. "Beautiful?"

  "Oh yes. All warriors seem so healthy, so alive... and you all have such clear skin." Abruptly Cabari smiled with a bit of her old self and let go of her hand. "But I don't want you to think that I'm trying to draw you into my furs tonight."

  Tani laughed and patted her hands. "Thank you for telling me, Cabari. I wish that I could do something to help you, but..."

  "No, he was right. We would be destroyed if not for the Steelbones. I know you won't be with us for long, but I'm glad that you stayed with us."

  What could be said to that? Tani wished that she could offer some encouragement, yet all the words that swam in her mind would either be false hope or condemn the life the other woman built for herself. It was not her place to tell these villagers how they should live. If she followed the Legend's path, she would simply drift past all these lives, having little impact on them.

  A scream and then a cry of pain. Tani's body was on its feet before her mind fully recognized the sounds.

  Though she hurried out the door, ready to have all of her worst fears confirmed, she forced herself to hesitate and see truly. She saw the body of a raider lying on the ground beside an injured villager, surrounded by more Steelbones carrying weapons. Yet the body wore different, rougher cloths, not like the Steelbones. Those carrying weapons hadn't attacked any villagers, they were defending them.

  Mohuno crouched down beside the corpse, pulling at its cloths and glowering as if he could force it to answer him. "A Hardblood? Maybe a Skullcrusher? It doesn't matter: take the body and string it up at the edge of our territory. We can't let this happen again."

  "What happened?" Tani approached him with her sickle knife still drawn, but when Mohuno rose to his feet he barely seemed to look at her at all.

  "Someone attacked the village... just the village, not us. They'd be fools to attack us with just two scouts. That means this was nothing but chance, and if we had not been here, their raid would have been successful."

  "No. I would have stopped them."

  "Yes, I think you would have." Mohuno smiled briefly at her, then returned to intimidating the body. "Just two couldn't carry back much in the way of plunder. This had to be a statement. An insult to me, coming into my territory and killing my villagers..."

  At that moment, another Steelbone raider stumbled back to the village, panting for breath. Mohuno whirled on him as if he could stare him into talking, but the man still took some time to recover before he gasped out words. "Sorry Mohuno... got away..."

  "Dammit!"

  The Steelbone leader roared out the word at the same moment his leg lashed out at the nearest fence. It was a wild movement born of anger, yet it shattered the beam of wood and left a huge gap in the fence. All of the bicorns could have escaped, though they stayed far away from the man clenching his fists and seething with rage.

  "We need to move quickly." Though still furious, when he turned back to the other raiders his anger burned only in his eyes. "Send someone back for my uncle. Barricade the village in case there's a direct strike. Once the scouts have finished, pull everyone back into two groups."

  "You think this was a trick?" one of the other Steelbones asked. Mohuno shook his head.

  "This was an accident and gained them too little. But the one who survived must have seen our numbers. They'll either strike the village while I'm gone, or try to eliminate me here. Unless the scouts find them, we have to be prepared for both."

  "Do we dig in here?"

  "No. This little shithole is indefensible. Take everyone here and move them back to the village."

  Though the Steelbones started to act, Tani found herself moving to stand in their way. A voice in her mind whispered that this was wasting her life for no reason, that she should leave and simply make her way to Mount Tmil. So she stayed in their path, even when Mohuno glared at her. "Wait. They threaten you here and you immediately flee?"

  "I'm not a fool!" Though he snapped at her, hand on the sword at his side, he didn't threaten violence. "I'll not puff out my chest for someone else to stab. If this is an attack on me, the Steelbones need to respond with everything we have."

  "But if they do mean to attack you, won't they expect you to do that? They'll always have the initiative unless you do something they won't anticipate." As her mind caught up to her principles, Tani began to hope that this wasn't hopeless. At least, she hoped that there could be a slim chance.

  "What are you suggesting?"

  "I have a question first. Whatever clan is attacking, do you stand a chance against them?"

  Mohuno waved the question aside irritably. "They won't send their whole clan, not and leave their own village vulnerable. But they can afford to send their strongest men, and we have only a few. The battle will come down to who can make best use of their strongest."

  "All the more reason to do something unexpected. What if you let them see you pull back your warriors, then ambushed them here?"

  "Bold, but your words mean nothing if you are just a traveler." He stepped directly in front of her, eyes burning down, and this time she didn't step away. "If we let the villagers stay where they are, will you fight alongside us?"

  Tani took a deep breath and stared back. "I will."

  Chapter 20

  -

  "Now, as we close out this survey, scholars from across the Maenhu beg the councils to consider unity in matters that concern all three nations. We need not tell you of the rising threats from Fareshel or Eltar Trathe, or indeed from the growing mansthein presence on our continent. The Maenhu may always remain three nations, but we would better be able to face these threats if we cooperated in such matters as one Maenhu. Please consider this a first step toward such an alliance."

  - Scholars of the Blue Mask

  -

  Slaten winced as Laeri prodded at his shoulder, feeling her sein run through his skin like knives. He could smell fire this time, too, suggesting that her own sein had developed or she was doing something different. Though Laeri looked sadder than when they had left, she also seemed harder. Once she had found it awkward just to treat any chest injuries, but now she poked at him without concern.

  "This injury has healed quite well." She smiled at him and patted the ragged scar across his shoulder and upper chest. "If I had been there I could have prevented this scar, but the muscle all grew back well. The Bloodskins seem to have unusually strong bodies."

  "I think it's an art of some kind." He stopped short of explaining that he had stolen it for his own use. Though Laeri might be able to give him some insight into their skill, she might also carelessly reveal that fact.

  "Oh, it certainly is. We call - umm, I mean we Estronese - we call Corans mudmen because of the brute force they use, but this is something else. I know that there are purely physical arts, as some of the greatest mage warriors use them, but I don't know any details about them."

  "Estronese warriors have something similar?"

  "It's okay to tell you because I don't know very much, I suppose? I hear that the sein of some warriors becomes so powerful that they need to reforge themselves into something more than mere flesh." Laeri giggled to herself. "But it's like the Bloodskins just skipped all of the sein training and made their bodies even more mere flesh."

  Their path might not match Estronese doctrine, but it seemed brutally effective. In any case, Slaten was mostly glad to have Laeri confirm that his injury had healed. Though he'd tried to clean and bandage it carefully, since he didn't fully trust the Bloodskin arts, he hadn't been sure if there were any lingering problems.

  As he stood up and pulled on his new shirt, Laeri lingered nearby as if she didn't want him to go. Slaten glanced out the door toward the great hall, where the feast had already begun, but he didn't truly want to join it. Instead he turned back with another question. "Did you notice anything else wrong with my body? I've been tired and easily exhausted recently."

  Laeri frowned, placed a hand over his heart, then shook her head. "You're healthy, Slaten. Very healthy. Better than the last time I checked you, you know? It feels like you tore open your sein channels in a fight, but your training flow is good, even for Estronn, so they've grown back stronger."

  "It isn't a problem at all times, and I was able to hike back even with the injury. But during combat, I found myself exhausted when I should have been able to fight on for much longer."

  "I'm not sure, but that sounds like simply exhausting your sein. Some people do that when they're first learning and they attempt arts that are too difficult for them."

  The greatest change in him had been the new Bloodskin arts, so perhaps they were to blame. Either he worked them improperly or they were simply too demanding for him at the time. Yet he felt as though there might be something else to it.

  Before he could ask any further questions, one of the younger men of the village appeared outside the door. Though he still seemed to dislike the outsiders, there was a bit of fearful respect in his eyes now. "Chief Bufogu says that you should come to the great hall. Something's going to happen."

  "Alright, I'll come." Slaten managed a smile for Laeri and ducked under the door. The younger Bloodskin quickly departed back into the village, so Slaten simply made his own way to the great hall.

  There, the returning Bloodskin warriors celebrated their victory with a feast. Slaten thought the atmosphere held an air of relief as well, because following their victory they had been forced to creep back to their territory in fear of encountering a stronger force. They had successfully stolen a large amount of food and fine goods, however, so now they celebrated.

  As Slaten sat down at one end of the table and began to eat, he noted that the clan occupied the table more sparsely than before. No one had counted their casualties, to his knowledge, but the Bloodskins had lost more than a few. He wondered if they celebrated so raucously in spite of that or because of it.

  Substantial food had passed his lips before he thought very much about what he was eating. Tani would have been disappointed in him. He noted that there wasn't any Coran bread on the table and there hadn't been for his entire time in the village. They tended to favor meat whenever they could get it, and whatever fruits or vegetables were sweetest. It made for repetitive fare, but it was nourishing enough, and that was what mattered to him in the end.

  Some time after he arrived, Chief Bufogu slammed his drinking horn against the table for attention and then stood. Once every eye turned to him, he began speaking.

  "The scouts we left behind have returned, and everything is as we hoped: the Stormpeaks have been drawn into war." Cheers erupted around the table, and Bufogu let them continue for a time before raising a hand. "The Deathspawn have been drawn into battle as well, so our victory is even greater than we expected!"

  "How soon can we travel to Mount Tmil?" Melal spoke loudly, but for once received little support from the warriors around the table. Having just finished a grueling journey, the Bloodskins displayed little eagerness to throw themselves into another.

  "When the scouts reveal that both sides have mobilized and begun their infighting, we will depart." Bufogu waved the matter aside, recognizing that he had the upper hand for the moment. "For now, the truth is that the Bloodskin clan has lost many warriors. We need to restore our numbers."

  "I volunteer!" Melal struck the table with both hands, pushing himself to his feet. "I have completed your tests and fought in your raids... I wish to become one of you!"

  A wave of wild cheering cascaded around the table, warriors pounding their mugs on the table and shouting. It was more enthusiasm than Slaten had expected, and even Chief Bufogu seemed surprised. His eyes moved over the table quickly, however, and he adopted a false smile.

  "Then step forward, Melal. This is your last day as a lowlander!"

  The entire body of warriors surged upward and Slaten followed, though he wasn't sure what was to come. They moved to an empty space in the great hall and several pushed Melal to stand in the center of a ring that soon formed. Slaten looked at the bloodstain on the floor beneath him, wondering if it wasn't the result of a fight as he'd assumed.

  Someone brought a capra into the chamber, the beast lashing out against its bonds. Unlike the tame capra Slaten knew from the Expanse, this one had long claws that looked suited for gripping rock. Where the domesticated beasts might be ornery at times, this one gnashed its teeth and tried to twist its head to impale the man that carried it with both horns.

  "Kill the capra with your bare hands," Bufogu said, "and let its blood cover you. Then you will be one of us."

  Melal didn't hesitate. As soon as the beast was let free, he reached down to grab its head. Though it tried to impale his hand on one horn, then bite him, Melal easily outmaneuvered and then overpowered the capra. It had never been a real challenge, as the capra was only a simple animal, no match for a sein-trained warrior.

  Once he had it pinned to the ground, Melal looked around the circle and then tore out the beast's throat. When the Bloodskins began to cheer, he hefted the corpse up over his shoulders, letting its blood run down over his head. The cheers grew louder and louder until at last Melal's face and shoulders were covered in the blood and it abruptly grew silent.

  At that time, Bufogu stepped forward and struck him in the chest lightly. "From this day forward, you are a man of the Bloodskin clan!"

  Letting out a triumphant roar, Melal thrust his fists over his head and the Bloodskins roared back their approval. As he watched, Slaten wondered just what those words actually meant. Would Melal truly follow their customs, stay in their village, and fight for their causes? Part of him worried about that possibility, but he remembered the terrible light of past Heroes. Melal might be enamored with the clan for now, but it wouldn't last.

  Even if he was sure he understood what this ritual of identity actually meant, Slaten would not have joined the clan. In turn, no one asked him. He started to retreat from the room when Bufogu shouted out over the clamoring warriors to get their attention.

  "Today we have one new Bloodskin, but we need many more! Now that we have feasted, I tell you to go to your women! Give them the next generation of Bloodskin men!"

  That suggestion was met with more approval and the warriors rapidly left the hall. Slaten glanced back at Melal, wondering if he would simply leave covered in blood like that, but decided that he didn't care. Before anyone could confront him, he returned to his room.

  Other partitioned sections filled with Bloodskin women, but his remained empty. He sat down against the wall and just let his mind cool after the heat of the great hall and the constant cheering. Part of him had hoped that Natala would be waiting and part of him feared it. Though he couldn't forget their previous conversation, in a sense he'd been expecting her to be waiting for him, smiling like before. Would it be better if she simply never came again?

  Unfortunately, his silence was broken when he began hearing doors slam elsewhere in the room. The partition walls were very thin, so he could tell that warriors were rushing into the chambers, some carrying their women with them. The noises that would soon leak through the walls would only worsen his mood, so he rose to his feet.

  Just as he began to leave, Natala's shadow slipped around the corner to his chamber.

  He hesitated, then stepped aside to let her in. As she walked to the corner, she spoke quietly. "Thank you. If you don't need anything from me, I will stay silent and not bother you."

  She shrank in on herself without another word. As he looked back at her, Slaten realized that she would do exactly that, remaining utterly silent unless he spoke to her. If he did nothing, he would get what part of him wanted and never have to address her again. In effect, never have to deal with the question. He would get his excuse and the training he wanted without any trouble.

  Though Slaten knew he couldn't fully trust her and didn't consider himself skilled at mending bridges, he decided that he had to try. He sat down on the bear fur and pulled the Yenith board from his pack. After carefully opening the hinge and removing the pieces stored within, he began placing them on the board. Natala couldn't help but look, then broke her silence.

  "You want to taunt me to speak first? Fine. I'm interested."

  He ignored her taunt and instead asked a simple question. "Have you ever played Yenith before?"

  "No. I've never seen a board quite like that."

 

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