Tarashana Rachel Neumeier (top 10 motivational books TXT) 📖

woman a little, so I will explain to your sorcerer the small things I know.”

“Yes,” I agreed. “Do not say sorcerer, Raga.”

“Everyone already knows—”

“Raga,” I said. He stopped at once, bowing his head in apology, and I said, “Call him by his name, or say the Lau lord, or Lord Gaur.”

“I will do as you say,” he agreed. He said to Tano, “I came here too late to eat anything last night, so I will be glad to show you where the food is stored.”

Tano glanced at me for permission and then followed Raga. Once they were too far away to hear, I said to Arayo, “I thank you for your kindness to Tano. I wonder whether Garoyo has said anything to you regarding the young man.”

“Nothing,” Arayo told me. “But he will not say anything until he has decided what to say. This is something he will not decide quickly.”

He looked at me for a moment, measuringly. He was the youngest of the three young men, only this spring a man, but I thought he seemed the oldest. His father, a proud and honorable man, had taught him everything a boy should know, and after that my eldest brother had taken him in hand. Also, for more than a year he had faced every challenge that came of being an inKera boy given to inGara. I was not surprised he seemed older than his years. He said finally, “Raga was kind to me when I first came to the inGara.”

I nodded. My younger brother’s nature was kind, but also, he would not have seen any reason to be anything but kind to a young warrior. Boys close to the same age fight and compete and strive to be first in everything, but a boy who knows young he will be a poet and not a warrior will stand outside all those quarrels and contests.

All this time I had been watching Aras, and now, as he lowered his hands and turned to regard the wakening camp, I tilted my head that way and said to Arayo, “Do you wish to break your fast with us?”

Arayo said at once, “I would be pleased to join you and your Lau, Ryo. This Lau lord met my father in the summer country, is that not so?”

“He did,” I agreed, smiling, and went on as we began to walk toward Aras, “They learned very quickly to respect one another. Aras will tell you how it happened, I am sure.”

“Arayo inKera,” Aras said, smiling in his turn. “I am glad to see you well. Ryo is right to say I respect your father. Hokino inKera is a brave man, and generous. I will be glad to tell you the tale. Part of it my soldiers do not know, so they may be interested as well.”

The other Lau had by now also come to this place at the eastern edge of the camp, except Lalani, who would be with my mother and sister and the other women. Suyet said at once, in his good taksu, “Yes, very interested! Hokino is the inKera warleader we took in that battle, is that not so, lord? You met him again in the winter country? Ryo never said this.”

I had never said anything of that time. Parts of it I did not remember well, and other parts I did not like to think of. But I did not mind if Aras told the tale.

Raga and Tano brought food for everyone, meat from the previous night and bread made of barley with a little wheat. It was not bread such as the Lau make, being flat and chewy rather than made into a round loaf, but it was bread, and the Lau, who preferred to eat more grain than meat, were glad to have it. Everyone sat down to eat.

“So,” Aras said, “I met Hokino inKera when I caught him raiding in the summer country, and then I met him again some days later when he caught me trespassing in the winter country. We both chose to be generous, fortunately, or many things might have happened differently.” He was smiling. Both memories were good ones, now.

Aras made a tale of it, with little emphasis on the difficulties any of us had suffered and much on Hokino’s courage and generosity. By the time he finished, my father and Garoyo and some other people had come to that side of the camp and were waiting for us to join them.

“So I will always be grateful for those boots!” Aras finished. He glanced along the lake, up the broad slope of the mountain, toward my father and the others, and got to his feet to lead the way toward them. The steep wall of the mountain rose up to the north, with the early light of the Sun casting rainbows through the mist where the waterfalls that fed the lake came down in a lively tumult. High above, an eagle drifted through the cloudless sky.

“If Hokino had not been so generous, I probably could not have brought Aras alive to inGeiro lands,” I added, gesturing the young men to come with us.

“You were extremely determined, Ryo. I think you would have managed,” Aras said. “But I grant, the journey would have been even more difficult.” He asked Raga, “How far is the place where your Tarashana visitor lives?”

“Three bowshots, four bowshots,” Raga told him. He added, showing off, “Perhaps a Lau would say something close to a mile, but a little less. Three-quarters of a mile.”

“You can count and figure with our numbers! Very good. Ryo has learned that.”

“I am slow, and I do not like to do it,” I said. “Raga could count in that way when he had half as many winters as he has now. He is vain about it, so you should not encourage him.”

My brother