'My friend--' Tarma startled Kethry with the phrase; their eyes met, and Kethry saw that loneliness recognized like, '--we are both Clanless; would you swear bloodoath with me?'
'Yes!' Kethry's eager reply left nothing to be desired.
Without speaking further, Tarma cut a thin, curving line like a crescent moon in her left palm; she handed the knife to Kethry, who did likewise. Tarma raised her hand to Kethry, who met it, palm to palm--
Then came the unexpected; their joined hands flashed briefly, incandescently; too bright to look on. When their hands unjoined, there were silver scars where the cuts had been.
Tarma looked askance at her she'enedra -- her blood sister.
'Not of my doing,' Kethry said, awe in her voice.
'The Goddess' then.' Tarma was certain of it; with the certainty came the filling of the empty void within her left by the loss of her Clan.
'In that case, I think perhaps I should give you my last secret,' Kethry replied, and pulled her sword from beneath her bed. 'Hold out your hands.'
Tarma obeyed, and Kethry laid the unsheathed sword across them.
'Watch the blade,' she said, frowning in concentration.
Writing, as fine as any scribe's, flared redly along the length of it. To her amazement it was in her own tongue.
'If I were holding her, it would be in my language,' Kethry said, answering Tarma's unspoken question. ' 'Woman's Need calls me/As Woman's Need made me/Her Need must I answer/As my maker bade me.' My geas, the one I told you of when we first met. She's the reason I could help you after my magics were exhausted, because she works in a peculiar way. If you were to use her, she'd add nothing to your sword skill, but she'd protect you against almost any magics. But when I have her-'
'No magic aid, but you fight like a sand-demon,' Tarma finished for her.
'But only if I am attacked first, or defending another. And last, her magic only works for women. A fellow journeyman found that out the hard way.'
'And the price of her protection?'
'While I have her, I cannot leave any woman in trouble unaided. In fact, she's actually taken me miles out of my way to help someone.' Kethry looked at the sword as fondly as if it were a living thing -- which, perhaps, it was. 'It's been worth it -- she brought us together.'
She paused, as though something had occurred to her. 'I'm not sure how to ask this -- Tarma, now that we're she'enedran, do I have to be Swordsworn, too?' She looked troubled. 'Because if it's all the same to you, I'd rather not. I have very healthy appetites that I'd rather not lose.'
'Horned Moon, no!' Tarma chuckled, her facial muscles stretching in an unaccustomed smile. It felt good. 'In fact, she'enedra, I'd rather you found a lover or two. You're all the Clan I have now, and my only hope of having more kin.'
'Just a Shin'a'in brood mare, huh?' Kethry's infectious grin kept any sting out of the words.
'Hardly,' Tarma replied, answering the smile with one of her own. 'However, she'enedra, I am going to make sure you -- we -- get paid for jobs like these in good, solid coin, because that's something I think, by the look of you, you've been too lax about. After all, besides being horsebreeders, Shin'a'in have a long tradition of selling their swords -- or in your case, magics! And are we not partners by being bloodsisters?'
'True enough, oh, my keeper and partner,' Kethry replied, laughing -- laughter in which Tarma joined. 'Then mercenaries -- and the very best! -- we shall be.'
TURNABOUT
This was the original story I sent Marion which was rejected; I later broke it into 'Sword-sworn' and this one, and sold this one to Fantasy Book Magazine. It was my very first piece to appear in print!
The verses are also part of an original song published by Firebird Arts and Music of Portland, Oregon, which actually predated the story. Can I recycle, or what?
By the way, the song doesn't exactly match the story; that was because I had left the only copy I had of the song with the folks at Firebird and I couldn't remember who did what to whom. So, to cover the errors, I blamed them on the Bard Leslac, who began following the pair around to make songs about them-but kept getting the
