The Brightest Shadow, page 9
Having Slaten along made trekking through the endless grasslands less boring, but he wasn't as much of a conversationalist as she'd hoped. After they spent a while walking in silence, Tani decided that it was worth it to bring up a subject that might be too sensitive.
"Slaten... you weren't always a healer, were you?"
He didn't give an immediate response, eyes meeting hers sharply for a moment and then turning away. Usually she found young men easy to read, but Slaten might as well have been made of stone.
"You don't need to answer if you don't want, but I think you were once a warrior. When someone moves quickly, untrained people either can't react at all or they just flinch. You always set your feet to react, then hesitate."
"You're right." Slaten took a deep breath, his gaze avoiding hers and scanning the horizon. For a long pause she worried that he would say nothing more, that she'd offended him, then he began to speak slowly. "In Oken communities, everyone is tested for competence at a young age and then set on a path. I understand others have many named arts, but for us there are only singular paths. I was set on the Path of the Warrior. But after seeing the war with the mansthein, the violence... there is no future that way."
Tani considered his words seriously, though she was certain there was something beneath them. Usually Slaten was honest to a fault, but this time she thought he was hiding something from her. "It isn't seinshock, is it? I can understand fighting a Catai migh-"
"Sorry, but you may want to reconsider that. If you had seen someone in seinshock, that would be clearer."
"I meant no offense."
"Neither did I." Slaten didn't say more than that, disappointing Tani for a time before she decided that she couldn't let the matter go.
"Did you follow that path only because you were set on it? Are you happier trying to be a healer?"
That took him even longer to answer, then Slaten spoke in a low voice. "I don't know if the world needs more warriors." Only a moment later did he realize that this might seem offensive to her, blinking and finally looking at her again. "Oh, I... do not mean to disagree with your decisions. The world might need warriors, but I don't think I can be one of them."
Tani thought she heard longing in his voice but didn't press further. They walked in silence for a time, Slaten clearly considering his words before speaking again.
"Truly, I have nothing against you. I am actually interested in Rhen techniques. Compared to Corans, both Rhen and Okeni warriors are more focused on speed. You're much more agile than I ever was, and your reaction time is almost as fast as mine."
"Almost? I'm pretty confident in-" Tani cut off without warning, sliding a knife from her belt. She had no intention of actually throwing it, just taking him off guard and maybe breaking the tension.
To her surprise, Slaten's arm swept up, pushing her wrist to the side before she could have thrown the knife at him. Tani's eyes widened for a moment, then she found herself grinning.
"Not bad!"
"I still practice sometimes." Though she had essentially just threatened him, Slaten had a slight smile on his face. He had been trudging forward heavily, but in the moment he had deflected her attempt, his movements had become far more fluid. "But I can't even try to compete when it comes to agility. Ghakin mentioned how you avoided him - I'm useless if my feet leave the ground."
"I've grasped the basics of the Soaring Feet, though I still have a lot to learn."
"We have something similar called the Paths in the Air. But I was trained in a different style, focused on maintaining strong footwork at all times."
As Slaten continued speaking, Tani saw a side of him that she hadn't before. Though he was still reserved and smiled only briefly, he clearly enjoyed the discussion of techniques and was deeply curious about what she knew. Since she had only learned the most basic of Rhen skills, there were no secrets to worry about sharing. Besides, it was more fun than she'd had on their trip yet.
Their conversation quickly confirmed Tani's suspicions that Slaten was at a similar position to her. He had a strong grasp of sein, being able to taste and feel it, though it seemed too personal to ask what those sensations felt like to him. There was no Okeni equivalent to the Farwalk, but he had been on the path toward mastery.
And at some point, he'd abandoned something that he clearly still enjoyed.
She wanted to know why, but decided that his reasons were his own. Tani just let the conversation flow until the sun went down and they had to find a place to camp. The main thing they'd been given for rations was a pot of Coran bread, which Tani was not particularly looking forward to. But Kolanin had given her a small amount of aurochs jerky and Slaten had a container of sauce for the bread, so the meal wasn't unpleasant. By the end of it, Tani felt satisfied but not yet sleepy.
"Melal said you didn't want him to come along." Slaten spoke quietly after a pause. Tani had been gathering her thin blanket around herself, but stopped to look at him.
"Did he tell you how our meeting went?"
"He gave me his perspective. I assume you have your own."
Tani smiled crookedly. "That's one way to put it. I accept that I might have to work with him, but I don't want to be anywhere near him more often than I have to."
"Melal can be frustrating, but he does have a strong grasp on the Coran arts of strength. Since your other skills are well-developed, I thought that might be helpful to you."
"It's true that strength would help me, but I don't want to steal anyone else's techniques. Even if they were freely given, I'm not Coran. When I want to gain physical strength, I'll find a way to do it from within my own traditions - for example, there's a Lanoo tribe that is well known for physical power."
"Hmm." Slaten eyes were already narrow, but they narrowed further, the blue seeming to glint from within. It might have been intimidating if she hadn't known him, but Tani thought he was taking her words seriously. "I respect that, but I'm not sure I understand your reasons."
Tani took a moment to answer, rearranging herself and her blanket a few times while her thoughts fell into order. It all seemed clear and instinctive to her, but her master said that if she couldn't explain something, she didn't understand it. In time she found what she wanted to say.
"I don't want to be just... someone who is good at killing people. I want to be a Nelee warrior. That means more than power, it means discipline and a moral code. It means being an example that younger Nelee can follow." Tani realized she was saying too much and wondered if he thought her naive, but Slaten watched her with his usual neutral expression. "Is it not that way for the Oken?"
"Oh, it is. More about joining the elders and supporting society, but it sounds very similar." His gaze wandered among the isolated stars overhead. "But I need.... I used to need all the strength I could get. I had no more Okeni teachings, so I took lessons wherever I could."
"I think I understand. I didn't mean to judge you for it, I just... have a path to follow."
"You can judge if you want. That's in the past now." Slaten started to pull back, wrapping his blanket around himself, and Tani didn't want to let him withdraw.
"Then you wouldn't object to learning something about Nelee running?" she asked.
As she'd hoped, that got a spark of interest. "You'd share your tribe's arts?"
"I'd be interested to see if I can't gain new insight into myself from Okeni speed, either."
"Then we'll see how tomorrow goes." Slaten turned away from her and lay against the ground, but she thought she saw a smile on his face. Tani lay back and stared into the stars overhead.
~ ~ ~
The long grasses parted underneath her feet, her flowing steps cutting a path over the expanse. Mint burned strong in her nostrils, but Tani didn't let up, trying to drive herself faster. When she ran for its own sake, not to escape anyone, the steps held a simple joy like no other.
Slaten ran some distance away, keeping pace. They'd raced a few times and confirmed that she could definitely out-sprint him, but she admired the way he flowed over the ground tirelessly. Though she lacked the skill to feel how his sein flowed, when they had taken a break he had explained the technique as best he could. Given more time, Tani thought that it would indeed give her new insight into her own running.
But setting aside any practical concern... the rolling grasses were broken by a single boulder at an angle, just before her. Instead of moving around, Tani decided to run straight up the side without stopping. She kicked off the end and shot through the air, letting out a whoop as she sailed back into the grasses.
She felt a bit embarrassed, but she saw that Slaten jumped too and even had a bit of a smile on his face. He didn't seem to find quite the same joy in running that she did, but he had been fascinated every time they compared techniques. And given how good it felt to run with even marginal improvements, she could understand him.
Unfortunately, they couldn't run forever. Their bodies could only move so quickly with sein pumping through them, and sprinting over the grasslands sapped it quickly. Besides, they were getting closer to their destination and should arrive fresh. Tani slowed down to a jog and then eventually a walk.
"How far is it yet?" Slaten caught up to her with his longer stride and shielded his eyes to look forward.
"Very close now. We should start getting ready - there's no reason this should end in violence, but there's also no reason not to be prepared." Tani took off her pack and searched through it until she found the aurochs jerky, stuck one piece in her mouth, and handed him another.
"Not going to stop to eat?"
"After coming this far, I don't want to wait." She chewed on the jerky as she scanned the horizon, trying to find the last landmark. It should be within sight soon, then their trip would be almost over.
And in a sense, her entire Farwalk would be much closer to being over. Tani doubted that anything serious would go wrong, which meant that she could fulfill both her obligations to Kolanin and many of her promises to herself. No one could argue that she hadn't done enough on her Farwalk. While she might not have solved the problem, she had never expected to do that on her own. It was enough that she knew the truth and found some insight about it.
Was that actually enough, though? It was definitely sufficient to allow her to return to the tribe, but Tani found the idea of leaving Bundlin somewhat dissatisfying. Not that it had become a home to her, yet it felt so much more active than the relative isolation of the Nelee villages. Given what she had seen here, what she had thought of as violence was nothing compared to true war.
Then again, given how the mansthein were expanding, that would only be the case for so long. Perhaps it was enough to take what she had learned and prevent war from descending on her own people? That felt simultaneously right and wrong, which surprised her. She wanted to talk to her master, but the old woman would probably just ask her questions until she was even more confused.
"Is there anything I should or shouldn't do during the encounter?" Slaten had already consumed his jerky and was now watching her. Tani finished chewing and answered.
"Since we're not exactly an invading force, we should meet the outer sentries peacefully. I can explain my intentions and they'll introduce us. Stay silent at first, but once we've been accepted as guests you don't need to worry about it. We'll be taken before a master of some kind, who will definitely offer us a meal but might still reject my request."
Slaten nodded. "So you don't think this can go badly unless we cut off someone's head."
Tani laughed, then saw that Slaten reacted with slight consternation. "That was a joke, right? You don't intend to decapitate anyone... right?"
"I have no intention of attacking, but it was not a joke. I am not good at jokes." Slaten blinked at her, then shook his head as if surrendering to it. "What I mean to say is that there should be no violence unless we bring it."
"That's right. They might attack mansthein on sight, but generally the Yevee aren't an aggressive tribe. Even with tensions high, I don't anticipate any problems."
As if to mock her, at that moment she spotted the guards rushing at them.
Some silent signal prompted all of the guards to run at that moment, exploding in different directions from several hiding places to surround them. If Tani had sprinted backwards immediately, she might have escaped the net. Her goal was to meet them, however, so she tried not to flinch as the warriors completed the formation surrounding them.
All of them were faster than her. It was always an unpleasant reminder that she was still a novice, and even if she had talent, there were others with talent who had been working for years longer than she had. Tani tried to take it as a reminder of humility and hoped this wouldn't end in blood.
Fortunately, as they got closer Tani could see that though the warriors carried war masks, none of them wore them. They looked tense, but not prepared to attack. Four men, two women, a mix of weapons including knives like her own. Tani drew her sickle knife and flipped it to hold by the blade to show she meant no harm. Slaten was unarmed and though he stood very tensely, she hoped they would read that as passivity.
When they were completely surrounded, one of the men stepped forward and frowned at her, then spoke in Nelhae. "You have been directly approaching our village for some time. Why?"
"I am Tani of the Nelee, on my Farwalk. I have completed my assignment in Bundlin, but I hoped to gain wisdom before returning." Tani decided to mention Bundlin just in case they had tracked her for longer. No sense making them aggressive with what might be perceived as a lie.
"Check them." The man made a curt gesture and two of the other warriors approached. They seemed to find Slaten unremarkable and checked her over carefully for knives, noting the hidden ones at her thigh and in her boot. This seemed to make the young woman checking her relax a little. Tani let her take the weapons and smiled at her.
"I understand that there are tensions with Deathspawn in the region." Tani turned her smile to the leader and raised her hands respectfully. "I do not ask much of you, only your hospitality and the lessons of children. If you would permit me to study your texts, I would carry my gratitude back to the Nelee."
To her surprise, that prompted several unusual looks and a whispered conversation between two guards that she couldn't quite hear. The leader's frown deepened and he folded his arms across his chest. "Either you lie, or you don't know."
"Don't know?"
"Our master should decide this. Follow." With that, he turned and gave a signal, prompting the other warriors to spread out. They began moving toward the village at a reasonable rate instead of their sprint from before, keeping Tani and Slaten in the center of a large ring.
As they walked, Tani found that Slaten was looking at her and realized that the whole conversation might have been meaningless to him. "Did you follow that?"
"Sorry, but I don't speak any Rhen languages. Not more than greetings."
"Well, I don't know much more than you do. Something is disrupted for them, but they agreed to take us to their master. That's good enough."
Slaten nodded and continued in silence. Though it would have eased the tension to talk, Tani understood why he might not want to. Besides, at least one of the warriors had likely mastered arts of listening and would be following every word. While Tani had nothing to hide, better not to say anything that could be misinterpreted.
Escorted by the warriors, they headed directly to the Yevee village. It was simultaneously familiar and strange, prompting Tani to stare at everything like a child. Warriors practiced with shaped bundles of grass instead of with trees. She spotted two women with babies bound to their backs that could have stepped out of her home, if not for the carved wooden plates on their clothing. Many of the people she saw wore their hair loose instead of braided, but those with braids had woven red beads within them.
The strangest part of it was the tents, of course, entirely different from the houses she associated with home. These were what Corans had in mind when they called her a tent-dweller, yet actually seeing the Yevee village, Tani felt the insult had no weight. The smaller tents were efficient cones, designed to be moved easily and yet beautiful in their quality and the paintings on the sides. And the large tents... some of them rivaled Nelee houses in size.
They were escorted into one of these and told to wait. This tent appeared to be for training, with practice weapons along the walls and several targets in place. If they were allowed in here, that was a good sign. She spotted an old woman sharpening a blade carefully and a man throwing knives at a wooden target.
Only after they had been waiting for some time did Tani realize how natural it felt for everyone around her to be Rhen. After so long in Coran lands, she had immediately grown accustomed to the Yevee village. Though she had felt comfortable enough in Bundlin, it felt more natural to be surrounded by taupe or raven or jet hair instead of shades of Coran blond.
Still, that didn't make waiting easier. Tani found her gaze wandering to the warrior, throwing his knives into the wooden target. He was reasonably accurate but extremely fast, which drew her attention. How did he throw three knives in succession so quickly?
Observing him showed that he held all three knives in his hand instead of drawing them from his waist, which impressed her. Given how much he had to hold, how did he throw so smoothly? Beyond that, how did he focus each throw with sein? She naturally gathered and released her entire capacity with each movement, so unless he could gather it again almost instantly between throws...
At that moment her attention was wrenched away as a group entered the tent. Tani noted the guard leader from before, a middle-aged woman, and a tall man in his prime, but her focus soon fell on the oldest man. His long hair was held back by a headband covered in white beads, which had no direct meaning to her but looked regal. Combined with the staff he carried, there was no doubt that he was the summoned master.
"So, we have a young Nelee who wishes to learn from us." His voice had the strong, ageless quality of those who had spent a lifetime in sein training. He came to stand over them, but his eyes were kind.
