joined Vora in following. Women and slaves together made for quite a crowd roaming the corridors and rooms of Dashina and Tashana’s house. This became even more obvious when they left the large, luxurious rooms and entered a plain, narrow corridor, which echoed with their voices and footsteps.
At the end of the corridor Tashana entered a large room containing robust wooden tables and occupied by several slave women, all of whom turned to stare at her and the other wives. Stara nodded to herself. She’d guessed right. But why were they here? She turned to look at Tashana. The woman smiled, then nodded at something over Stara’s shoulder. Turning back to face the slave women, Stara realised that one, a woman with grey in her hair but a sturdy frame, had risen to her feet and was walking towards her.
“Welcome, Stara,” the woman said. Though a slave, she looked Stara directly in the eyes. Neither she nor the other slaves had prostrated themselves before the mistress of the house, either. “I am Tavara. As you can see, I am a woman and a slave. But that is not all that I am.” She gestured at the women beside Stara and those sitting at the tables. “I am a leader of sorts. I speak for these women, and others, who are all bound together by a secret agreement to help other women, in exchange for the help we all need.”
Stara glanced at the wives, who nodded at her, serious but encouraging. She looked at the slaves and saw how they regarded her with suspicion... and something else. Hope?
“Yes. These are the people I asked you not to ask me about.”
Stara turned back to Tavara. “You have Nachira?”
The woman smiled. “Yes. We took her away from your father’s house and nursed her back to health when it was clear nothing else could save her. Save, perhaps, the death of your father.” The woman grimaced. “But we prefer to avoid such extreme measures.”
“And we didn’t think you’d think fondly of us,” Chiara added.
Stara shrugged. “Quite the opposite, actually. Though...to be honest I’d rather not commit patricide, even if he is a heartless monster.” She met Tavara’s eyes again. “So clearly you have the means to, if you need it.”
“Yes. There is much we can do, yet much we can’t. We were all slaves, to begin with. Slaves are invisible, and so can move about, delivering messages, easily. But we came to recognise that free women are often as helpless as we, sometimes even more so since they are not invisible and cannot roam beyond their homes. Yet they do have some advantages that we do not. Money. Access to some places forbidden to slaves. Political influence, through family or access to powerful ears. We came to trust them and they us.”
“And you trust me?” Stara looked around. “You must do, or else you would never have brought me here.”
“We had Vora’s mind read,” Tavara told her. “She trusts you. That will have to be enough.”
“You read . . .” Stara looked at Vora, who shrugged. “Then you must have a magician in your group.”
“Yes.” Tavara nodded. “And hopefully we still do. She was obliged to join the army and left to fight in the war in Kyralia. You will no doubt see that this means we can’t have your mind read.”
“Yet you’re still willing to trust me.”
“We are.” Tavara crossed her arms. “You should also have realised by now that we know something about you that your husband does not yet know – that you are a magician.”
Stara nodded. “I hadn’t quite got to working that part out, but it makes sense, since you read Vora’s mind.” She paused as a possibility occurred to her. “You want me to read minds for you? I haven’t tried it yet. Not deliberately, anyway.”
Tavara smiled. “Perhaps eventually. We do expect that, if you join us, you will work for us. Although you’ll still have the right to refuse a task, if it is objectionable to you.”
“If I’m too squeamish to commit murder, for instance.”
“Exactly.”
“That’s a relief. What else?”
“We are all equal when we are together. Slave, free woman, magician.”
Stara let out a sigh. “Oh, what a relief!”
The woman looked at her oddly. “You may not find this as easy as you think.”
“I spent most of my life in Elyne,” Stara retorted. “You have no idea how hard it has been to get used to having slaves. So when are you going to rise up and end it?”
The woman’s eyebrows rose and she regarded Stara thoughtfully. “It wasn’t among our plans,” she admitted. “All our energies go towards trying to save women’s lives. Your brother’s wife lives in a place outside the city we call the sanctuary. Removing women from their homes is dangerous, but that is not the end of it. We have to transport them there, at the risk of exposing both the sanctuary and ourselves. Keeping the sanctuary stocked with food is difficult. We have plenty of money, but must ensure no transaction is traceable to us. Only a few women can know the location, and those who stay there cannot leave, for if their minds were read our work would be discovered.”
Tavara looked at the other wives. “This is why we prefer not to take women from their homes. We try to make their lives better by other means. Sometimes by manipulating politics. The right rumour in the right ears can kill the emperor, as they say. Sometimes we use trade to change a family’s fortunes. Sometimes, as I mentioned earlier, we are willing to go further: to make someone sick, or even have them killed.” Tavara’s gaze shifted back to Stara. “Knowing this, would you still be willing to join us?”
Stara nodded. “Oh, definitely. But are you sure you want to recruit me? What if my father visits, and reads my mind again? What if Kachiro decides to?”
Tavara smiled and reached into the tunic-like dress she wore. From some secret place within she drew out something that shone silver and green. She took Stara’s hand and dropped the object into her palm.
It was an earring. Silver threads encircled a clear, vibrantly green stone. A thicker circle of wire protruded from the back, turning back on itself to fix securely into the setting again.
“It is a storestone. We buy these from the Duna tribes in the north. They make several types for different purposes, but will only sell us this kind. It protects the wearer from mind-reading – and not just by blocking all thoughts. Once you learn the trick of it, you can feed whoever is reading your mind the sorts of thoughts he is expecting, while still hiding what you don’t want him to see.”
Stara stared at the gemstone in amazement. “I’ve never heard of anything like this before. Not here or in Elyne.”
“No. Magicians do buy stones from the Duna tribes, but they don’t believe they have magical properties. So the tribes only sell them the ones too flawed to be useful. But they sell these to us, the Traitors.”
Stara looked up. “The Traitors? You call yourselves the Traitors?”
Tavara nodded and looked away. “Yes. Twenty years ago the previous emperor’s daughter was raped by one of his allies. She spoke openly of the crime, calling for him to be punished. But the emperor decided that the support of his ally was more important, and he had plenty of daughters. He called her a traitor and had her killed.” Tavara met Stara’s eyes again. “She was one of the first free women to help us. Through her efforts many women were saved. But we failed to save her. So we call ourselves the Traitors in her memory.”
“Even an emperor’s daughter . . .” Stara shook her head, then straightened. “I want to help, but what can I do?”
Tavara smiled. “For a start, there is a simple vow, and we put this earring in for you.”
Stara looked down at the earring and grimaced. “I’ve never liked the idea of piercing my ears, or anything else for that matter. Won’t my husband be suspicious if he sees this?”
“No. Free Sachakan women love jewellery and give it to each other all the time. It will hurt, but it will be over in a moment.” Tavara plucked the earring from Stara’s hand. “Who has the salve?”
From somewhere Chiara produced a small jar. Stara felt her stomach sink as Tavara took hold of her ear lobe. She stiffened, worried what would happen if she moved while the pin went through.
“Repeat after me,” Tavara said. “I vow that I will never willingly reveal the existence of the Traitors, their pledge and plans.”
Stara repeated the words, wincing in anticipation.
“And to help all women, whether slave or free.”
