Tarashana Rachel Neumeier (top 10 motivational books TXT) 📖

a packet of dried berries for tisane and was now arranging wood for a fire. Then she found the flint and kindled the fire, set the bowl over the flames, unwrapped a travel stick and gave it to me, then took one for herself and cautiously bit off the end. She chewed for a long time before she swallowed. Then she said, very seriously, “You know, this is exactly the sort of food I’d expect Ugaro to carry on a journey.”

She was trying to make me feel better. I did feel better. I was smiling. “Your crackers are more fit for a horse than a man.”

She grinned. “The horses like our travel bread better than you do, I know that. Tell me how to make this and I’ll prepare some for you next time.”

“It is very simple to make,” I assured her, without commenting on the likelihood that either of us would have reason to concern ourselves with future travel. “It is only dried meat, pounded into powder and mixed with as much rendered fat and some dried berries. A man can live eating nothing but this for a long time. Even a Lau would starve eating nothing but bread. This food is much better than hard crackers.”

“Of course, you’re right, I see that now,” she said mockingly.

I laughed. “I cannot remember ever hearing you say that as though you meant it.”

“Well, I don’t have to. I was more polite when I was a little girl, I don’t want you to think my mother failed to teach me how to behave, but it’s different for a talon wife. We don’t have to be as polite as respectable women.” She bit off another piece of the journey stick. After a little while, she tasted the tisane and then brought me the steaming bowl. This was the only bowl we had. Both Lau and Ugaro customs agreed that a man should drink before a woman, though not for the same reason.

I took the bowl and sipped, enjoying the tart flavor. The air did not seem cool to me, but Lalani had pulled her coat tight around her shoulders. I held out my arm. Accepting my silent invitation, she sat down next to me and leaned against my side. I put my arm around her and gave her the bowl. “Drink it while it is hot,” I advised her. “That will help warm you. I will drink after you. Lalani, may I ask a question that may be impolite? Would you rather marry one man? I thought you were happy with your file, and you say you are more free to speak as you wish because you are a talon wife.”

She answered at once. “Well, it's true, being a talon wife isn't bad. It's definitely much better than being a one-candle wife, or even a summer wife. For a girl with no dowry, at least for me, it was a good choice, probably the best choice. At least, I wouldn't necessarily have wanted to be a talon wife in some other lord's army, but Lord Gaur's talons are good places for women. After he asked around about that, my father brought me to Gaur across the whole width of two other counties, an expense he couldn't really afford.”

She was smiling a little wistfully at the memory. After a moment, she went on. “And yes, I’m very fond of all my men. I don’t like to think of giving them up, but it's not love, you know. It's better if it isn't, between a talon wife and her soldiers.”

“Geras said this too.” I had not understood several things about his comments, and there were other things I did not understand now, but I was not certain what to ask. I confessed, “I find the entire matter confusing. I do not understand all these different kinds of wives. I have never understood why there should be talon wives at all.”

Lalani laughed. “Oh, now, believe me, setting sensible girls up as talon wives is much easier and safer than turning a blind eye to the sort of wretched drabs who'd otherwise turn up as camp followers. Easier and safer than letting soldiers get into trouble at a one-candle house, too, although nothing can put a stop to that entirely. There's a lot of reasons men in one file don't want to quarrel over a woman—starting with, if the man beside you steps back at the wrong time, you're likely to get a sword stuck through your belly. Anyway, your own brother has two wives, so your people can obviously make things complicated too.”

I had intended to ask her to explain about one-candle wives and one-candle houses—these were terms I had sometimes heard, but understood imperfectly—but now she had distracted me. I said, “This does not seem at all the same to me. A respected man may have two wives, perhaps three. Marrying more than one woman at once, in the way my brother married his wives, is not common. But sometimes it happens. The other way, a woman with more than one husband, is very rare. I have never heard of that.” Then I thought again. “Or, no, I have; there is a tale.”

“About a woman with two husbands? Really? That is like a talon wife, then!” She sounded very pleased. “Your people are so interesting! Go on, Ryo, tell me the story.”

I lifted one shoulder in a small shrug, but I could not help but smile. “I think it was not at all the same, but I will tell you the tale. This was long ago, so this is as we tell it, but it may not have happened exactly this way. There were two young men, cousins and friends, both warriors, both forceful and courageous. Both belonged to a tribe called the inKaraya, which was a dependent tribe, a client of a much stronger tribe called the inSurano. As boys,