Snare (75 page)

‘Very sad, yes. Our people have lost so much, over the years. A lot of our lore was stored in N’Dosha.’

‘Most likely it be-still there.’

‘I heard that the Chof burned the city.’

‘Not true. You wait till you see N’Dosha. You see-soon that it be impossible to burn.’ Water Woman put her pseudo-hands over her eyes, then lowered them and stamped a forefoot. ‘And wait-also till you see Sibyl. She tell-soon you many interesting things.’

‘Like what?’

‘Wait. You see-soon. I give-not-away the surprise.’

Loy tried wheedling, but Water Woman only stamped a foot and repeated that she should wait. Finally Loy decided that she’d have to do just that and went to her blankets. As she was falling asleep, she heard the Chof booming and thrumming to each other, a comforting sort of sound, as they too settled down to sleep.

The Great Mother and her retinue had set up her justice court just a few miles away from the old Metro station. In the morning Water Woman appointed guards to stay behind in the camp, then led her dependants, H’mai and Chof both, to the appointed place.
The Great Mother was waiting beside a shallow lake, where the red-leaved Midas trees and pale yellow ferns grew thick around the water. A whole squad of servants and the usual heaps of bundles and sacks were sitting among the trees, but the Great Mother herself had taken up a position out in the open. She sat haunched in the middle of a huge expanse of green and white trade cloth, pegged down at intervals to keep it taut.

She was enormous, easily twice the size of Water Woman, and her skin had turned a rich blue with age. With age as well the cartilage that shaped her face had grown long and thick, so that she seemed to have a ridged beak extending beyond her lips. She wore a cloak of green cloth, falling in folds down her back, and an apron or long bib of sorts, an expanse of green fabric, fastened at the back of her neck with a huge silver brooch and pulled between her front legs to tuck into her skirt and cover her stomach. Behind her stood three long rows of spear Chur, kilted in green, and to either side stood grey females, each of whom wore a green skirt around her mid-section.

Off to her left sat another Chiri Michi, as large as Water Woman and the same rich purple colour. Herbgather Woman, Ammadin assumed, and the hissing sound Water Woman made when she saw her confirmed the assumption. Herbgather Woman wore yellow and white striped trade cloth, and her five spear males had yellow kilts. Water Woman arranged her retinue to the right of the Great Mother, herself in front, the H’mai behind and a bit to her right, and behind them her complement of twenty guards.

Ammadin had expected Zayn to keep close to her and Loy, but he stepped back to join the Chur. She was about to ask him why when the Great Mother filled her golden throat sac and boomed, such a low, strong note that Ammadin felt as if her entire body were vibrating in sympathy. Loy shuddered and whistled under her breath; she’d felt it too. Water Woman and her rival both stepped forward and boomed in answer.

‘We be here,’ the Great Mother said in Vranz. ‘We listen-now to each other, and I decide-next what we do-soon.’

Both Chiri Michi lowered their heads to show that they agreed, then walked forward. When they stepped onto the striped cloth, they lowered their heads again, then took a few more steps to stand facing each other in her presence.

‘We speak-now in the language of the H’mai,’ the Great Mother
went on, ‘so they have power to understand what we say here.’

The Chiri Michi lowered their heads and agreed, but in actuality, the proceedings went forward in a strange mix of languages and gestures. The rival females tended to forget about the H’mai and lapse into their own language. At times Water Woman would remember and call for a pause, then hurriedly translate the portions they’d missed, but at others she seemed too angry or troubled to think of Ammadin and Loy. Every now and then the Great Mother would stop the proceedings and with her deep soothing voice summarize in Vranz.

To a large extent, Ammadin realized, Water Woman had been telling the truth. Herbgather Woman had indeed taken hostages because she wished to trade them for the location of Sibyl’s cave. While they both referred to other Chiri Michi scattered throughout Chof territory, apparently Herbgather Woman and Water Woman were the only serious contenders for the role of next great mother. When she remembered to speak Vranz, Herbgather Woman sounded aggrieved, harping on the way she and her people had been excluded from Sibyl’s bounty. She clearly saw herself as a victim of unfair tactics and tried to paint Water Woman as a miser and hoarder, words that made Water Woman stretch her neck to the sky and rumble like a winter storm.

‘I be miser?’ Water Woman snarled. ‘You be the one who get trade goods and share-never. You keep your people in poverty.’

At this point the Great Mother spoke in their own language, but Ammadin could tell from the tone of voice, and the way that both complainants flinched, that she had said something sharp. Through the long arguments, the Great Mother barely moved. At times she seemed to be some natural object, a great outcropping of veined blue rock, rather than a sapient being, until some statement would make her swing her massive head around to look at one or another of the speakers. Each Chiri Michi had a long list of grievances to air, some dating from twenty years back. Finally, however, the Great Mother had heard enough complaining.

‘Stop!’ she said in Vranz. ‘I want-now short answers. Herbgather Woman, what want-now you from Sibyl?’

‘Guns, Great Mother, magic guns to kill kri altri and save our children.’

‘We need-not guns for this. Spears frighten the kri altri.’

Water Woman could not contain herself. She stepped forward
with a swing of her head. ‘She want to kill all the kri altri, Great Mother. She and her people, they smash the eggs when they find them.’

‘I kill-only for our children, our lost children,’ Herbgather Woman said, then lapsed back into her own language.

The debate continued on, breaking now and then into Vranz or Hirl-Onglay with no particular reason or stimulus. Ammadin eventually pieced together that the presence of Jezro Khan deep in Chof lands alarmed the Great Mother.

‘You think to save us, Lastunnabrilchiri,’ the Great Mother said, ‘but you put-then us in worse danger when you steal-then this man on the road. He know-now too much about the Chof.’

‘Then we kill-must him,’ Herbgather Woman said, ‘and all the H’mai who see-now us here.’

‘Kill-never!’ Water Woman turned on her rival and thrummed. ‘I give-them my word, they be safe here. You try kill-now them, my spear servants have power to stop you.’

‘You give-then
your
word. I give-never mine.’

Water Woman raised her head high and boomed so loudly that Ammadin’s ears overloaded with sound and crackled. Beside her Loy clapped her hands over her own ears.

‘Stop!’ the Great Mother said. ‘Stop-now!’

The Great Mother hissed long and hard first at Water Woman, then at Herbgather Woman. She spread her pseudo-arms, then lurched to her feet. Water Woman backed away fast, and Herbgather Woman lowered her head. For some minutes the Great Mother spoke; Ammadin could hear most of her words, though she could decipher none of them. Herbgather Woman lowered her head and whined an answer – a high-pitched wavering sort of sound, at any rate, that to Ammadin sounded like miserable pleading. The Great Mother grunted a few words, and Herbgather Woman knelt to lay her head directly onto the ground cloth. When the Great Mother placed one huge foot on Herbgather Woman’s neck, the younger Chiri’s whines grew louder still, and she slapped her pseudo-hands onto the cloth. With a grunt the Great Mother removed her foot.

‘This looks promising,’ Loy whispered.

Ammadin nodded her agreement. With a toss of her magnificent head, the Great Mother stepped back, and as she did so, her bib pulled free of her skirt and slipped to one side. Ammadin’s
first thought was that the Chiri Michi was carrying something under her body; then she realized that the something was flesh and blood, a tubular protrusion, bright blue, as long as a H’mai man’s arm, that hung parallel to her stomach in a sling of dark blue skin. The servants rushed forward and tucked the errant bib back into the skirt as the Great Mother haunched.

‘Ovipositor,’ Loy whispered. ‘And now we know why my dear ancestors thought Chursavva was male.’

Herbgather Woman stayed kneeling where the Great Mother had left her. Water Woman took the opportunity to step forward again, though she lowered her own head to show respect. For some minutes they talked back and forth in such level voices that Ammadin had no idea of the emotional tone of the conversation. At last, however, Water Woman turned and pointed at the H’mai.

‘Ammadin Witchwoman,’ Water Woman said. ‘You come-now and tell-next what you know about Jezro Khan.’

‘Very well,’ Ammadin said. ‘I’ll be honoured to speak in front of the Great Mother.’

Ammadin adjusted her saurskin cloak to ensure it hung smoothly from her shoulders, then walked forward. At the edge of the green cloth she stopped and bowed, swinging her head low, then straightened up to stand in front of the enormous Chof. The Great Mother inclined her own head a few bare inches to acknowledge her presence.

‘Ammadin Witchwoman!’ She seemed to be pitching her voice as high as she could, but still it rumbled like thunder. ‘I ask-now you to tell us always the truth. I want-not to hear lies in my justice court.’

‘Great Mother.’ Ammadin bowed again. ‘I promise you that I will never lie to you. I’ll tell you the truth as I know it.’

‘Very good, and I thank you. Now. Water Woman say Jezro be a very important man among the Karshaks. This be true or not true?’

‘True, very true. He’s a khan, which means he’s one of the sons of the Kazraks’ last supreme ruler, their king, the Great Khan. His brother is Great Khan now, but he is a terrible ruler. He is cruel, and he steals from his people, then kills them if they object. You can see why they want Jezro to come home and replace him.’

‘Yes. I see-indeed why they want to be rid of this brother,’ the
Great Mother said. ‘So, then, if Jezro die-next, these Karshaks gather an army and march-soon here?’

‘They might. I can’t lie and say that I know they will. But here’s something to think about. If Jezro Khan returns home, he’ll lead a rebellion against his brother. I’ve been told that he has a large army waiting for him. This means the Kazraks will be killing each other. If the war goes on for a long time, then they won’t have the men or the will to cross the plains and come bothering you.’

Herbgather Woman lurched to her feet. ‘We know-not if you lie not lie, Witchwoman.’

‘That’s true.’ Ammadin turned to face her. ‘It’s too bad you didn’t bring Jezro with you. He could tell you himself.’

Herbgather Woman inflated her throat sac and spoke one burst of words, but the Great Mother boomed and stopped her.

‘Speak now so Ammadin Witchwoman has the power to understand you,’ the Great Mother said.

‘I obey,’ Herbgather Woman said. ‘I want-not bring Jezro here. Water Woman have-now many spear Chur with her. What if they start-next a fight and take my hostages away? I have-now only a few of my Chur with me.’

‘Where be the rest?’ the Great Mother said.

Herbgather Woman stared at the ground between them.

‘They guard not guard your hostages?’ the Great Mother went on. ‘In or not in your village?’

Herbgather Woman lowered her head almost to the ground. ‘They guard in the village.’

‘So I think-then,’ the Great Mother said.

Herbgather Woman haunched and stared at the ground. The Great Mother boomed out something in their own language that made Herbgather Woman bend her forelegs and kneel as well.

‘I want-next to speak with Jezro Khan,’ the Great Mother said. ‘Lastunnabrilchiri, I come-next-soon to your village. You keep me out or let me in?’

Herbgather Woman lowered her head to the dirt and whined an answer so miserable that it was easy to understand without knowing a word of her language. No, Ammadin thought, you wouldn’t dare keep her out, and you know it, don’t you? When she glanced at Water Woman, she noticed that the Chiri Michi’s front legs were quivering – she was evidently restraining herself from stamping her feet in joy.

‘We all go-next-soon to Lastunnabrilchiri’s village,’ the Great Mother said. ‘First we rest the night, each in her own camp. Dawn come, we all meet-next-again by this lake. We all go-soon to meet Jezro Khan. I hear-next-soon his answers; I decide-after what to do.’

During the long deliberations in front of the Great Mother, Zayn had stayed back among the Chur. Stronghunter Man had used gestures to indicate that Zayn should stand next to him, at the head of the contingent. Zayn didn’t need to be told that this positioning meant he’d been given the status of a Chur Vocho. Stronghunter Man planted his spear, obsidian edge up, in front of him and kept his pseudo-hands wrapped around the haft. The other spear Chur followed his example. Zayn drew his long knife and held it one-handed, point down but ready. On the far side of the Great Mother’s cloth, the spear Chur belonging to Herbgather Woman planted their spears as well.

While he watched, Zayn was storing every action, every gesture, every word of the scene in his memory. He was shocked at how little he’d understood the enemy he had fought on the border, how easy it had been to dismiss them as animals and little more – not that he felt any deep sympathy for them now or any guilt about the skirmishes he’d fought and the kills he’d made. He did, however, see a certain hope for negotiations, for discussions about territory taken or relinquished, that might replace the endless bloody game of raid and counter-raid.

Stronghunter Man watched without moving, braced on his spear, during all the long discussions, though occasionally he would shift his weight from back legs to front. Zayn began to envy him for having four legs. With just two he had to readjust his balance and take a step now and then, but the feel of possible danger was so strong that he never once considered sitting down. Sure enough, the moment came when he realized why they stood on guard.