Tomorrow they will join her to Pirtsi, as if they were giving him a puppy from their best bitch. No one asks her what she would like to wear for her joining, what she would like to eat, let alone if she likes the man. It all goes on without her.' Tillu's outrage broke into her voice as she asked. 'They do not even know who she is. How can they decide what is best for her?'
'They are her parents,' Heckram reminded her gently.
'They do not see her as she is.'
'Perhaps no parent sees when a child is grown. You do not wish to give Kerlew to the najd. You would choose differently for him. But he has chosen for himself that which makes him happiest. I know you do not care for Carp; nor do I. But he is teaching Kerlew what the boy wishes most to learn. There is something I have come to believe. In time, Kerlew will be a powerful najd.'
A coldness came into Tillu's voice. She released Heckram's hand. 'Powerful, yes. He will excel at taking from folk their food and clothes and shelter, by threatening them with his mystical powers. He will trick the clothes from their backs, threaten the food from their children's mouths. What do you think Carp does right now? He has found a weakness in Joboam, a way to threaten him. And he will use it, until he has taken from Joboam all he can give. Or until he finds a wealthier victim. Already he drains Capiam.
Carp is a sucking tick, Heckram. Do you wonder that I do not wish Kerlew to become one?'
Heckram retreated from the bristle in her voice. 'Tillu, I did not mean that ...'
'Healer!' One of the women leaned out the tent flap. 'Ketla bids you come and see!
Kari has tried on her clothes for tomorrow's joining.'
'Tillu,' Heckram began again, but she cut in, 'I have to see to Rolke. Be careful of your fingers. Remember what I told you to do for them.' She rose, and the back she turned to him was stiff and straight.
'I'll be back tomorrow,' he said to the falling tent-flap.
Within the tent, Kari stood like a stretched hide. She wore a jacket of soft leather with half-length sleeves, trimmed with amber beads and Ketla's woven work. Her knee-length woolen skirt was decorated with fringe around the hem. Bracelets of bronze wrapped her arms. Carved bone combs restrained her sleek hair. And her face was yellow and stiff as poorly cured leather.
'Have you ever seen her so beautiful?' Ketla demanded.
Tillu couldn't speak, but her silence wasn't noticed in the general assent. 'I must see to Rolke,' she said, and slipped to the back of the tent where the boy lay. She stooped over him, to trickle willow bark tea into his mouth, while the women clustered about Kari, removing her finery and chattering of tomorrow's joining. Tillu shut them from her awareness. The boy wasn't getting better. He clung to life but each day he was weaker. 'Rolke?' she called gently. His eyelids twitched, but didn't open. The fever burned him like a flame consumes oil. He was melting away before her eyes. Her own pallet was not far from his. She lay down on it, wondering if there was any way she could help any one.
The tent had been long dark, the chants and drum stilled for hours when Kari nudged her. 'Wake up,' she pleaded, tears in her voice. 'Please, Tillu, you have to help me.' No sooner had Tillu sat up than Kari had her by the arm, tugging her to her feet and out of the tent. The flap fell behind them and Tillu rubbed her eyes in the mellow undark of the summer night. The sun hovered still in the sky, making night a pale parody of the day. The camp around them was still.
'Here is the knife,' Kari said, pushing the sheathed blade into Tillu's sleepy hands.
'Do you need a light to do it?'
'What?' Tillu felt trapped in a dream where none of the events were connected.
'My nose. Remember, you said you would help me notch my nose and ears so Pirtsi wouldn't want me. Hurry.'
'Kari,' Tillu began in confusion. 'I can't. I'm a healer, not one who ...'
'No one will help me!' Kari's whisper screamed. 'Not you, not Carp! You will not keep your promise to scar me. He will not say that I am Owl's, and not to be given to Pirtsi!'
Tillu suddenly realized who had refused Kari. Owl, not Pirtsi. 'Is that what Carp promised he would do?' Tillu interrupted. 'That he would say you were Owl's, would give you to Owl?'
'Yes!' Kari sank to her knees on the hides before the tent. Her hands rose to claw at her breasts. 'Yes. He said that if I would do favors for him, find secrets for him, he would see that I belonged to Owl alone. He said that when I served him, I served the spirits and they would be pleased with me. He promised that as long as I served him, I would be safe. But then he left with Joboam! That wasn't my fault! I didn't leave him, he left me. But when I went to him tonight, to ask him to tell my father that Pirtsi must not have me, he laughed at me. He laughed. He said the spirits cared little about women, that I was not fit to be Owl's. He told me to go home and do as I was told. And then Joboam came into the tent. He was angry to see me there. He asked, 'Is this how you keep your promises, Najd?' And Carp said, 'Men do not direct me, Joboam, but the spirits. So far they have asked me to be kind to you. Do not risk angering them with wild words.' Then Joboam got very angry, but Carp only laughed more, and said to me,
'Run back to your tent, little woman. Sleep well tonight, for tomorrow is your joining day.' And Joboam looked so angry that I ran back here. Thinking you would help me.
But you won't.'
'Kerlew. Where was Kerlew?' Tillu demanded, grabbing Kari by the shoulders as she knelt down to face her.
'I ... he wasn't there, I didn't see him. Tillu, you must help me. I cannot be joined with Pirtsi. I will not let him touch me. I can't.'
'Why?'
Kari only stared at her, her eyes going bigger in her face. Then her mouth crumpled like a little child's and she pushed into Tillu's arms. She held the girl, feeling the sobs that shook her. 'Why?' Tillu asked again, gently, but Kari shook her head. The words finally came in hesitant gasps. 'When I was little. He used to say he'd kill me. So I couldn't tell. Then, last time, he said. If my father challenged him about it. He'd kill him.
It would be my fault. Everyone would say I was a liar and a troublemaker. No one would believe me, ever. No one. Joboam was always bigger, always stronger. Rolke knew, but he wouldn't tell. Because of the presents. Never again. Never.'
'Hush. Hush.' Tillu rocked her as if she were a small child. It was the only comfort she could give her. Somehow she had known all along and was not surprised. What bandage could be put on an injury like this? What poultice could draw the poison from the past?
'Listen,' she said, whispering over Kari's sobs. 'Listen to me. Tomorrow morning, I will go to the herdlord. I will speak up for you, I will say ...'
'No! No, then my father would attack him, and he would kill my father. No. No one must know. And I must not be joined to Pirtsi, either. No. No.'
'All right. All right,' Tillu agreed frantically. 'We'll think of something else, then.
We'll think of something else.' She hugged the girl tightly, then released her. 'Kari.
Listen to me. I want you to go inside, and lie down and sleep. Get some rest. By tomorrow, I will have an idea, and we will not let them join you to Pirtsi. Will you do as I ask? Will you?'
Tillu leaned closer to peer into her face. Kari had suddenly gone slack in her grip, as if she had lost all life. Slowly the girl lifted her dark head. Her eyes caught the starlight as she asked, 'Do you think I am unfit to serve Owl? Or do you think Owl might help me?'
'Of course. Of course Owl will help us,' Tillu lied to ease the girl's pain. 'Go inside.
Sleep now. I have much to do before morning. Please.'
'Owl will help me,' Kari said softly. Her voice was suddenly relaxed and trusting. 'I should have thought of it before, Tillu. I can go to Owl and ask for help. He came to me first when I was alone, by my father's fire. Carp was not with me then, yet Owl came to me. And I may yet go to him.'
'Yes, yes. But sleep now, Kari. Sleep.'
Tillu forced herself to be still as Kari rose and lifted the tent-flap. 'It's going to be all right,' she assured Kari once more as she stooped to enter.
'Yes,' Kari agreed, and the tent-flap fell behind her.
