A Question of Stature

Ceara came to the settlement with us the following morning, although saying she was allowed inside made the process sound simpler than it was.

Waki had sent a runner ahead before we left Harrowford. By the time the carts carrying wounded reached the northern territory, scouts were already waiting along the trail and several more appeared once Ceara's people were spotted. Her riders were halted from continuing shortly after we entered the forest. Only Ceara and Tovan continued with us, and even that required Waki to remind several elders that the captain fulfilled her end of the deal.

When we finally arrived, Keme immediately disappeared into the crowd that had gathered anticipating our arrival. He went first to one family, then another, speaking quietly to people who already understood why someone was missing. A northern warrior did the same while the wounded were lifted from the carts.

Ceara stood beside her injured wolf and watched. She had seen the bodies outside Harrowford. She had stood beside her own dead while they were wrapped. When a child dropped to their knees before Keme finished speaking, she looked away.

Waki was intercepted before she made it three steps into the settlement. Two children ran toward her, and the smaller one wrapped both arms around her leg. She stopped so suddenly that the child almost bounced backward.

Ceara glanced toward me. “Hers?”

“Unless she stole them.”

Waki heard me. The look suggested she was reconsidering whether I needed to remain among the living.

Nimiwa remained near the wounded until Hanwi appeared. The Moon Goddess crossed the river with Tawa behind her, while Kumakun lagged farther back after discovering someone had left something edible outside a house. Hanwi went directly to Nimiwa, caught both of her hands and looked her over. Satisfied she was intact, she next went to the wounded, inspecting each just as carefully. With them all sufficiently taken care of, Hanwi finally noticed Ceara.

The change was immediate. Her head tilted slightly. Her eyes moved from Ceara's hooves to her shoulders, then higher to the horns curving above her head. Ceara endured the examination for several seconds. Hanwi took a step closer. Ceara was one of the few adults I had met who could look Hanwi almost directly in the eyes without kneeling. That appeared to be exactly what interested her. “You are an adult Stonehorn,” Hanwi said.

Ceara stared at her. “Yes.”

Hanwi moved one step to the side. “Female.”

“I hope that was obvious.”

Hanwi shifted to study her profile. “Your crown height is unusually low for an adult female. Horn growth is disproportionately high relative to skeletal development.”

Ceara's eyes narrowed. “I am taller than you.”

“The horns do not contribute to skeletal height.”

“They still count.”

Hanwi ignored that distinction. “Your limbs also show reduced longitudinal development. The most probable cause would be nutritional deprivation during adolescence.”

Ceara looked at me. I raised both hands. “This one is outside my jurisdiction.”

“Repeated trauma would explain the horns,” Hanwi continued. “Both show evidence of prior fracture.”

Ceara slowly folded her arms. “Do gods normally introduce themselves by listing everything wrong with a person?”

“There is nothing wrong with being short.”

“I did not say there was.”

“You appear irritated.”

“I am.”

Hanwi considered that as useful new information. “Is the irritation because I am correct?”

Tawa had reached us while they were speaking. He looked up at Ceara. “I know the answers,” he said. “Do you want it spoken?”

Ceara looked down at Tawa for a long moment. Then she lifted one hand and ran her thumb along the base of her right horn. “The Church enjoys torture.” Her hand remained there. “And I had a brother.” Ceara lowered her hand. “He didn't make it.”

Hanwi's eyes moved once from Ceara's face to her horns, then down along her smaller frame. Whatever conclusions she reached stayed inside her head. “Understood,” she said.

Kumakun chose that moment to arrive and sat in the dirt between them, eating whatever it was he found. Ceara watched him for several seconds before looking back at me. “These are the gods.”

“All three.”

She looked at me, apparently waiting for the joke. When none came, she rubbed both hands over her face. “I need to speak to everyone.” When enough people had gathered, she got things started. “The Imperial force that attacked Harrowford is no longer moving north. What's left of it joined other Order troops farther south. We have riders watching them and it looks like they are retreating to the Church's main territory.”

Aponi stood near the front of the southern group. “Then we can return to the forest south.”

“Not yet.” She put one finger up stopping any interruption. “You can return. I can't stop you. I am telling you it would be a bad decision.”

Aponi frowned. “Our home is south.”

“So is the Imperial Order. They know elves helped take Harrowford. They lost Dozorhold because they came south after you. If your tribe returns now, you're moving back into the first place they'll search when they decide they want an explanation.” Ceara looked back into the forest. “I can protect roads. I can watch crossings. I can put scouts between an army and a settlement if I know where the settlement is. I cannot protect families in unsecured territory while the Order controls the towns around it.”

Aponi looked at the northerners. “This is not our land.”

“No?” Ceara looked between the two groups. “I guess that explains why everyone has divided themselves so neatly.” Her attention moved toward the elves with more fur. “If the north allows you to remain here, remain here. If they allow you to move farther into their territory, that is safer than moving south. Harrowford and Dozorhold sit between this region and the largest Order force we know about. The farther south you go, the less helpful I become.”

Several northern elders began objecting before Waki cut them off. “There is unused ground further east of the river,” she said. “Some of it floods.” An elder beside her seemed to be correcting something in Elvish. Waki answered without raising her voice. His answer became louder as hers became quieter. He eventually sat down. Waki looked at Aponi. “I cannot give you that land. I can ask the families who use the surrounding paths whether your people may stay there until winter. If they agree, we discuss what happens after.”

“Discuss,” Aponi repeated.

They continued discussing in Elvish until Ceara cleared her throat. “Staying creates another problem.” Ceara looked at the ground and stirred the dirt with her hoof. “Harrowford has grain stores collected by the Church. Some belongs to farmers we can identify and it goes back to them. The rest can be used to keep people eating now.” She looked back up at the elves. “It doesn't solve next season.”

Several elves looked confused as Ceara looked around at the forest. “You can hunt and fish. So can most of the people in my company. Put enough hungry people in one place and eventually we become enemies fighting over the last scraps of food.”

One of the northern elders said something while gesturing toward several small gardens beside the houses. Ceara nodded. “Gardens help. Fields help more.”

Waki looked personally offended. “What are you getting at?”

“We can teach you,” Ceara said. When Nimi heard ‘teach,’ her interest in the horns momentarily died.

Aponi looked at her. “Farming?” Nimiwa started scanning her book.

“I know enough to keep soldiers from starving when supply wagons don't arrive. Harrowford has people who know considerably more. Grain. Beans. Vegetables. Storage that keeps half your winter food from becoming mouse food.”

A northern woman objected from behind Waki. Ceara listened to the translation, then nodded. “You don't have to become farmers. Hunt. Fish. Gather whatever you already know how to gather. I'm suggesting you add something that doesn't run away when you approach it.”

Keme spoke quietly. Nimiwa put a finger to her mouth. “He says plants die too.”

Ceara looked at him. “Then I'll teach you to kill them more slowly. Fields don't feed anyone next week. Harrowford can help with that. There are fields around the town that need people working them. By winter, that gives us another source of food.”

The northern forest couldn’t sustain both tribes and adding an army to the equation just made things worse. Neither tribe had been planning beyond getting rid of the other for some time. Having seed in the ground before winter was at least a different kind of problem.

Ceara turned toward Tawa. “And the gods?”

The Sun God tilted his mask. “What about us?”

“If the resistance commits soldiers to protecting them, I need to know what is expected in the relationship.”

Tawa pointed toward Aponi and Waki. “Ask them.”

“They follow you.”

“They worship me.”

Ceara's mouth tightened. “I have spent enough time around priests to know how this usually works.”

That got Hanwi's attention. She rose from beside Nimiwa and approached Ceara. “A blessing does not transfer ownership.” Hanwi continued in the same calm voice she always used. “Tawa grants blessings. I grant blessings. Kumakun grants blessings. A recipient may value our judgment. That does not make the recipient property.”

“The Church would disagree,” Ceara said. Her eyes remained on her for another moment. “If I ask these people for scouts?”

“They decide,” Tawa said.

“And if they make a stupid decision?”

Hanwi tilted her head. “They remain permitted to make it.” She pointed at me as if I was living proof.

Ceara looked at the two gods, then down toward Kumakun. The warrior god was lying on his back scratching his stomach. “He doesn't have an opinion?”

Keme answered. Nimiwa listened and smiled. “Ke says Kuma has many opinions. Most are about food.” Ceara looked at the little bear. Kumakun opened one eye. Then closed it.

The captain put both hands on her hips. “All right. Then you decide.” She wasn't interested in waiting for the decision. Harrowford still had wounded, prisoners and enough work to keep a captain busy for several days. She told Aponi that grain would arrive first, whatever could be spared without emptying the town's stores, and promised to return in a few days with tools and people who knew the farms around Harrowford.

“If some of you want to learn, come there,” she said. “There is cleared land, water and people who already know what grows. Easier to protect you near Harrowford than spread soldiers through half a forest.”

Aponi looked south. “When can we return home?”

“When I can give you a better answer than ‘probably without an army following you.’”

Before leaving, Ceara stopped beside me. “The general will hear about you.”

“I had assumed three gods would eventually attract attention.”

“He'll want to meet you.”

“Eventually.”

“Eventually,” she agreed. Meeting the general was for another day. Right now he had Dozorhold and neither of us was going anywhere quickly.

Tovan was already waiting near the trail. Ceara started after him, only for Hanwi to follow. Ceara picked up the pace and departed before Hanwi could continue to be intrusive. Once Ceara and Tovan disappeared into the trees, Waki took the pipe from her mouth. “Now we decide.”

I began walking back to the others. “Not you,” Waki said. “This concerns both tribes. No outsiders.”

“Try not to restart the war.”

Waki put her pipe between her lips. “Go,” she said. So I did.

From beside the river I could hear very clearly when the admission occurred. Voices grew loud enough to send several birds out of a nearby tree. It went on for a long time but no one came running for weapons. By the time it was over, Waki was surrounded by northern elders while Aponi led the southern families away to talk among themselves. Whatever authority Waki had possessed that morning had developed complications.

Nimiwa found me beside the river after the meeting had broken apart. She did not sit immediately. The dictionary remained tied at her waist, untouched, while she watched the water move.

“Waki told everything,” Nimiwa said.

“I assumed she would.”

Nimiwa nodded. She had probably rehearsed what she wanted to say before coming over. I expected her to be equally upset with me. “When Uri said stay north...” She stopped, frowned and tried again. “Waki planned Uri stay?”

I nodded and tossed a pebble into the river. “I went along with it.”

“Why not tell me?”

I looked back toward the settlement. “Because I was afraid it might have made things worse.” Nimiwa's brow tightened as though that was obvious. “You might have told Aponi. Or Keme. Or decided it was your responsibility to fix everything before anyone else got hurt. I wanted you and the others gone before Waki could put the plan into motion.”

“I stay.”

“I know. I didn't know if I could stop Waki though.”

Nimiwa's eyes dropped to my hands. “So Uri said no guide. Mission accomplished?”

“I knew asking you to leave wouldn't work. So I tried to make you want to.”

Her hand touched her dictionary but she left it closed. “I thought...” She hesitated. “Thought Uri no need me.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I was wrong.”

She stared back at the water. “I knew something wrong. You say road ends. I think wrong. Uri angry. Then not angry. Say Nimi did good. Say no guide.” She shook her head. “Did not fit. Uri lies.”

“One of my traits I can be confident about.”

“I should ask more. North... I still not know enough. Humans too.” She glanced at me. “Uri especially. Uri… Uri stays?”

I looked behind us at the settlement. The southern tribe could not safely return home. Waki had just told both tribes what she had nearly done. Ceara would return in a few days with food, tools and more problems. Somewhere beyond Harrowford was another Red Mage I still wanted to meet. “For a while.”

Nimiwa nodded slowly and she looked down at her hands. “If Uri stays… I can guide?”

I looked at her. “You want the job back? Knowing I lie, ignore good advice and occasionally start trouble while unsupervised?”

She nodded. “That why need guide.”

“If you think I am still a Redborn worth the difficulty, I would very much like that.”

She shifted closer until her shoulder rested lightly against mine and opened a book across her knees.

“What are you doing?”

“Guide studies. I have much to learn.” I couldn’t help but smile at that.

“Co-i-tus. Coitus,” she whispered to herself. My smile quickly vanished. I looked over expecting the dictionary. Instead, the page contained two anatomical drawings that were considerably more detailed than anything the Church would allow.

“Why are you learning that?”

She tapped the page. “What Uri was doing with Waki?”

“Like hell! No! We were doing absolutely nothing.”

“Hanwi said Uri would not tell. She showed me book to learn.”

I snatched the book from her and bonked her lightly on the head with it. “Guide duties do not extend this far.” She puffed her cheeks and tried to take it back. I held it above her head.

“Study,” she said.

“Something else.” Her cheeks puffed a little more. “C’mon,” I said. “Let’s do something more productive and learn how to kill plants slowly.”

I had spent most of my life leaving before anywhere had the chance to become my problem.

For a while, I could stay and see what happened when I didn't.