can do anything that Feder and Uncle Olig could do, maybe not as well, but he learned from them.'
Orphan was a clever youth, always learning, the hardest worker Kirya had ever met. That he was a good- looking boy always off-limits to her, and now married to her beloved cousin, must not cloud her judgment. She did not want to become a servant in another tribe where she would be assigned the most arduous or tedious tasks like churning and cleaning skins and smoking meat and hauling night pans out of tents every morning, given the worst cut of meat at mealtime and the last curdled ladle of milk, and left to sleep at the edge of camp under a wagon no matter the weather.
Reluctantly, Kirya nodded her agreement. 'If we can get the children back, we can stay far from the other tribes. With Orphan's skills and our hunting, we can survive until the children are grown. But I don't know how our tribe can grow.'
'I do.' Mari's gaze slid over to rest on Orphan. In Mari's look Kirya saw a softening that abruptly spoke its secret: Mari had also long admired the handsome orphan the gods had tossed into their midst, but she had feared her mother's anger too much to do anything about it.
Now she had him. And Kirya didn't.
'Why shouldn't we take in other orphans?' asked Mari.
'It's bad luck to take in orphans.'
'Bad luck?' Mari gestured to the wreckage surrounding them. 'What does that matter now?'
Outriders met them before they came into sight of the Vidrini camp. That one was the youth who had gifted Mariya with the lapis-lazuli nets was evident from the way he jeered with more blustery force than his young comrades as they galloped in circles around the two girls but did not, of course, make any move to touch them.
'What are those? What are those? Beggars and servants, beggars and servants. Orphan, orphan, will you come out to play? Pick up my boots, grease my harness! Here's the scum from the broth for your licking.'
Kirya and Mariya had ridden for five days on the trail of the Vidrini tribe, and Kirya was too hungry and too exhausted from grief to shout back in kind. Mari kept her gaze fixed forward, ignoring the youths. She might have been a daughter of the Sakhalin, with that proud gaze and contemptuous expression.
People stared as the two girls rode into camp. Here were fine tents, and a blacksmith's portable foundry pouring its rich offerings of smoke to the heavens. The Vidrini had no Singer, but they had churns fitted with copper trimmings, weavings hanging in profusion, men strutting around in brightly embroidered shirts, and women wearing everyday jewelry like bracelets and silver necklaces because they were wealthy enough to show off their riches even as they went about their daily chores. Or perhaps because they had servants to do the chores for them.
Mart's glare cut a passage right up to the awning of the head-woman's tent. Mari dismounted while Kirya remained in the saddle, scanning the camp for any sign of the children.
Shockingly, the Vidrini headwoman was a foreigner. Like
Orphan, she had demon-scratched eyes, not round but slanted as though a demon's claws had raked them into her face. But she had a much more foreign look than Orphan, a real Easterner with hair as black as soot, eyes as black as night, and flat features marked particularly by a cruel mouth. Seated on a plush pillow, she did not rise to greet them. Feder's winged kur was propped on a stand beside her, and a small girl child with similar eyes but lighter hair sat on a pillow next to the kur, dressed in unspeakably rich silk robes.
Mariya marched to the edge of the carpet, and spoke in a clear, carrying voice. 'It is easy to steal servants from tribes that cannot defend themselves. No wonder you Vidrini have become rich.'
Many folk, both male and female, had gathered, but it was women who hissed at Mari's bold insult.
'That which is dying is prey,' said the headwoman, her words clipped off by a foreigner's way of speaking. 'What do you want?'
'My kinsmen returned to me. My tribes-folk released.'
'Those who came of their free will cannot be 'released',' said the headwoman with the scorn wielded by the powerful. A man sauntered out of the crowd and ducked under the awning, to kneel behind her. He was the war leader they had seen at the confluence. He whispered into her ear, and she nodded without taking her gaze off Mariya.
'Then the Moroshya tribe claims compensation for their migration into the Vidrini tribe.'
The Vidrini headwoman laughed mockingly. 'How do you mean to enforce your claim?'
'I am here as representative of the headwoman of the Moroshya tribe, who is my mother. I negotiate on her behalf for the return of two sons of the Moroshya tribe. Furthermore, you have taken two daughters of the Moroshya tribe against their will. That is a grave violation of the laws of the gods.'
'You say so only because yours is the weak tribe, and mine is the strong. Do you mean to trouble me longer, or will you go, so I may be at peace?'
Mounted, Kirya was able to see over the heads of the crowd. Trying to hide around the curve of a tent stood Yara, the bitch, looking anxious as she surveyed the assembly. Over a distance, two gazes may meet. Yara jolted back, vanishing behind the tent.
Betrayed by their own tribesmen.
'The gods will judge in the end,' said Mariya.
'So they will. Are you finished?'
'We have brought ransom.'
The war leader snorted, and people guffawed and chortled.
The Vidrini headwoman smiled. 'Do you mean to return to my cousin's nephew the pretty baubles he gifted you? I see you wear them still. I gave them to him myself, when he told me of his plan.'
Mariya ignored the laughter and gaily spoken taunts. She waited for a proper response.
'What can you offer us? We relieved you of everything of value, except the piebald mare. I hear it bolted when the gelding broke free.' The headwoman ran a covetous hand over the belly of the winged kur. Kirya found her teeth on edge, her jaw tight, wanting to crush that hand and knowing she could do nothing to get Feder's kur back.
Mari said, 'We have cloth worth the ransom of the children. We'll trade it to you, in return for them.'
Her proud expression grew cunning. 'Hu. I doubt it, but let's see. I'm willing to bargain. It would amuse me.'
The man smirked, and Kira had a sudden idea that these two were lovers, even though the headwoman of a tribe and her war leader ought not be engaged in such a way. Desire clouded judgment, everyone knew that.
'I need to see they are safe and unharmed before I make my offer,' said Mariya.
'Very well. Go get them.' Her war leader did not move, but a ripple stirred the assembly as someone else hurried off into the camp. While they waited, Kirya examined the man boldly, knowing he had no right to look directly at her. He was a very good-looking man, with golden-white hair and light blue eyes, an arresting face, broad shoulders, and lean hips. Although not as handsome as Orphan with his black hair and leaner face, he was a man in his prime. Had he lured the foreign woman into the tribes with the promise of power and position? Or had she followed him out of lust, and ripped the leadership of the Vidrini tribe away from whatever hapless woman had held it before her? Feeling the pressure of Kirya's gaze, he glanced toward her and, with a frown, looked away.
'Kiri! Kiri!'
Kirya rose on her stirrups. The gelding sidestepped, sensing her spurt of joy and relief. 'We're here.'
Three children came running, sobbing as they saw Mariya, and tumbled to a halt beside her. Her grim expression never wavered from the Vidrini headwoman.
'Three children,' said Mariya, without acknowledging them. 'Where is the fourth? The older boy?'
Oh gods. Kontas.
The headwoman's smile was meant to wound. 'We traded him away yesterday. Got a good offer for him from an eastern merchant who was passing on the Golden Road, south of here. They liked his gold-silk hair and pretty face.'
Kirya was off the gelding in an instant, but Mari's curt command slapped her.
'Kirya, stop there. Don't move!'
Shaking, Kirya found an arrow in her right hand and her bow gripped in her left. Men had pushed forward. She was not dead only because she was female; a man would have been cut down for the impiety.
'You must have known it was likely we would come after the children to redeem them. It goes against the laws of the gods to trade him away so quickly.'
