Wind Rider's Oath

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'But aside from your physical training,' Soumeta continued, 'how are you settling in, Leeana?'

'Better than I expected,' Leeana admitted.

'It must have been hard, coming from your family,' Tharnha murmured,

'I imagine it's hard coming from any family,' Leeana said, and kicked herself mentally as she heard the edge of chill which had crept into her voice.

'Tharnha isn't exactly the most tactful person in the world,' Soumeta observed with a grin, and gave the dark-haired war maid a friendly clout on the back of her head. Then the blonde looked back at Leeana. 'Still, she didn't say anything the rest of us haven't thought, I suppose. In fact, we're all wondering about why you came and whether or not you're glad you did.' She cocked her head, gazing thoughtfully at Leeana. 'You have to admit, Leeana-we don't exactly see the heir of a baron wandering around in a chari and yathu every day!'

'Well, no. I guess not,' Leeana said, then shrugged and looked at Tharnha. 'I'm sorry if I sounded offended or something, Tharnha. It's just sort of a sore point with me.'

'Where we came from and why is a 'sore point' for a lot of us,' Tharnha agreed. 'And I should have kept my big mouth shut about it.'

'Well, yes,' Eramis agreed. 'But like Soumeta says, we're all being eaten to death by little bugs trying not to ask you, Leeana.' She flashed a smile at the younger woman. 'I mean, if you tell us to shut up and mind our own business, we will, of course. But you have to know we'll go right on wondering, whatever you say.' She waved both hands over her head. 'We shouldn't, but we're only human, you know!'

'Yes, I suppose I do,' Leeana sighed. She considered it for a few seconds, frowning down into the water of her tub, then sighed.

'Let me put it this way. I didn't leave my family because of anything they did, all right? It was a political-' She paused. 'My father received an offer for me-one I didn't want to accept.' She made a face. 'No one would have wanted to accept it, actually. Father wouldn't have made me, but there would have been a lot of political pressure on him to accept it, or something like it. So I decided I'd rather be a war maid.'

She considered that for a few seconds, frowning, and decided it was accurate enough to go on with.

'As for whether or not I'm glad I came, ask me again in a month or so! I should have at least caught my breath by then.'

Soumeta laughed, and both of the other war maids with her chuckled.

'I don't think it'll take that long,' Soumeta said. 'You seem to be adjusting better than most candidates do. And I hear you've already found some extra work to help pay for your horse?'

'And what a horse!' Tharnha said, rolling her eyes in appreciative envy.

'Well, yes,' Leeana admitted a bit uncomfortably, remembering Mayor Yalith's warnings about resentment from other war maids.

'I envy you the horse,' Soumeta said, as if she'd read Leeana's mind, 'but I definitely don't envy you all the extra work!'

'Of course you don't!' Eramis snickered teasingly. 'It would cut into your . . . social calendar.'

'You can just leave my social calendar out of this, Mistress Gossip,' Soumeta told her with a mock-serious glower.

'Why? It's not as if everybody in Kalatha doesn't know all about your red-hot sex life, Soumeta.' Tharnha rolled her eyes again, as enviously as she had over Leeana's possession of Boots.

'Well,' Soumeta acknowledged a bit complacently, 'I do try to do my bit to balance the scales.'

'Balance the scales?' Leeana blushed as the question popped out of her, apparently of its own volition, and Soumeta's eyes swung lazily back to her. She hadn't intended to say a single word, she told herself furiously. What other people did with their own lives was their business, not hers! But, still . . .

'Sure,' Soumeta said, after a moment or two during which she seemed to find Leeana's blush enormously entertaining. 'Think of all the years and years and years men have been chasing after women like we were mares in season and they were all stallions in rut. Of course, if we ever let any of them catch us-outside a nice, legal marriage bed, at least-then we were the 'loose women'-' she made what Leeana considered was a fairly obvious decision not to use a few other, cruder terms '-for opening our legs for them. And Lillinara help us if we actually got pregnant without a wedding bracelet!'

She rolled her eyes theatrically and her friends laughed, but there was an undeniable flicker of anger under the humor in Soumeta's voice, and the others' laughter had a hard edge.

'Given how long that's been going on,' Soumeta continued after a moment, 'I figure it's time we started evening things up a little. I think we ought to be chasing them for a change. And if one of them decides he wants to spend an evening cozying up to me, well fine. But if he thinks he's going to nail me down like a good, obedient little girl afterwards, he's got another thought or two coming. Funny how few of them seem to realize it's going to be that way, though. And it may show a nasty streak, but I have to admit, I sort of like looking back over my shoulder to watch their faces when they realize I mean 'No' and walk away wiggling my sweet arse at them.'

She'd watched Leeana's face while she spoke, and the younger woman had the distinct impression Soumeta was gauging her reaction carefully. But was that because Leeana was younger, and Soumeta wanted to see how sheltered her pre-Kalatha existence had truly been? Or was there another reason?

Leeana felt a sudden urge to look at Garlahna and see how she was reacting to the conversation, but she decided that wouldn't be a good idea. So, instead, she shrugged.

'I don't think that's something I'm going to have to worry about for a while,' she said lightly. 'I've got my probation to complete, and Erlis and Ravlahn waiting to work my backside off while I do it. Between that, chores, working for Theretha, and mucking out Boots' stall-oh! and helping Lanitha at the school, too!-I'm not going to have enough time to eat and sleep by myself, much less with anyone else!'

'But it's such a waste to actually sleep with someone when there are so many other interesting things you could be doing,' Soumeta said with a wicked smile, then laughed at Leeana's expression. 'Sorry! I didn't meant to tease you. And I think you're probably right about how much free time you're likely to have, at least for the next few weeks. But this is something you're going to have to think about sooner or later, you know, Leeana,' she went on in a more serious tone. 'You're a war maid now-or you will be, when you finish your probation, anyway-and that means the decisions will be yours. Nor your father's, or your family's, or anyone else's: yours. That's the reason most of us became war maids in the first place, to make those decisions for ourselves.'

'I know,' Leeana agreed, remembering her first day's conversation with Johlana.

'And it's the fact that we want to make them which pisses off people like Trisu of Lorham,' Eramis said darkly.

'Among other things,' Soumeta agreed, still looking at Leeana. 'But there's more to it in his case, too, Eramis. You know how hard he's been pushing us about everything ever since he inherited the title. Of course he resents the fact that we don't all ask 'How high?' any time he says 'Jump!' But he's after more than just changing that.' She glowered. 'He's one of those bastards who wants to turn the clock back two or three hundred years and just pretend the war maids never existed. That we never had a charter at all. And until someone kicks him right in those great big balls he's so proud of having, he's going to go right on pushing, and pushing, and pushing until we give him what he damned well wants or-'

She stopped abruptly and gave her head a short, angry shake that sloshed water over the lip of her tub.

'Sorry, Leeana,' she said after a heartbeat or two, with a smile that looked almost natural. 'Didn't mean to climb up on my personal hobbyhorse. It just really pisses me off to see someone like him pushing us around- again!-as if we were all still meek little female mice living in a world full of male cats. Or obedient little puppets waiting till they get around to coming home and hauling us off to bed by our hair! Well, we're not, and it's time someone pointed that out to him . . . and all the men like him.'

'I'm sure D-' It was Leeana's turn to stop herself short. Dame Kaeritha hadn't told her she was free to discuss the mission which had brought the knight to Kalatha in the first place. She hadn't told her she wasn't free to do so, either, of course, but a champion's business was a champion's business, not a subject for bathhouse gossiping.