Joel Shepherd - Sasha

"Lucky flower," she said to Rysha.

"Flower?" Rysha said with a frown. It stood to reason that Rysha understood that word first. But lucky?

"Hmm," said Sasha, thinking hard. Then it occurred to her. She pointed to Peg, looking at Daryd. "Peglyrion," she said and pointed to the sky. She dotted the sky with her forefinger to represent stars, like the Peglyrion stars in the sword pommel of Hyathon the Warrior.

"Ah!" said Daryd and told Rysha, "Esi."

"Esi," Sasha repeated. "Stars."

"Stars," Daryd echoed. Sasha then pointed up once more at the imaginary stars and made the spirit sign to her forehead. The universal Goeren-yai sign for luck. All Goeren-yai believed that stars were lucky and that the star spirits could bless a person's fortunes if one appealed to them. Daryd grinned his understanding.

"Lucky," Sasha explained.

"Lucky," Daryd agreed, nodding vigorously.

"Lucky flowers," Sasha concluded, pointing again to Rysha's ralama blossoms. Even Rysha smiled this time and marvelled anew at the pretty blue colour. It never ceased to amaze Sasha how people could usually manage to make themselves understood, even with no words in common, with just a little imagination and patience. "Pretty flowers," she added, deciding to push her luck.

"Pretty?"

"Pretty." Sasha indicated Peg's flowing, muscular curves and put a hand to her heart, with an expression on her face as if the most handsome man in all the world had just stepped naked into her chambers one evening. Rysha recognised that expression well before her brother and laughed.

"Gadi!" she exclaimed. "Gadi tethlan "pretty"! Pretty flowers!" It was the first time Sasha had seen Rysha look happy.

"Pretty Rysha," Sasha countered.

Rysha blushed shyly. "Pretty Sashandra," she replied.

Around a bend in the climbing road ahead, a scout emerged at a canter, slowing now to a walk as he sighted the column. Sasha turned in her saddle. "Soft'? Is Sofy riding back there? Tell her to come forward, I've a task for her."

There was a moment of commotion behind. Someone offered an instruction… "Just tap him lightly with your heels, Highness. Not too hard, he'll understand."

A second dussieh pony approached and Sasha pulled Peg right to the road verge, where the hill climbed more steeply. There was barely room here for Peg and the two dussieh. Sofy's horse came between Peg and Essey, and Sasha blinked in astonishment.

Seated in the saddle was a girl who looked remarkably like, and yet most unlike, Sasha's younger sister. Sofy wore a sheepskin jacket and a thick, plain undershirt, tucked into a pair of pants secured firmly about her narrow waist with a belt. There were riding gloves on her hands, soft-skin boots on her feet and her shining brown hair was tied in a simple ponytail at the back.

"Where in the world did you get those clothes?" Sasha asked.

"Some of the Tyree soldiers had bought good clothes for their younger brothers in Baen-Tar," said Sofy, in a very subdued tone. "They were very kind to lend me these."

Sasha stared for a moment at this most incongruous of sights-a princess of Lenayin with her hair tied back, in pants, jacket and boots, astride a horse in the Lenayin wilds. And she realised, suddenly, what a shock the first sight of her in such clothes must have been for her family, on her first return visit to Baen-Tar as Kessligh's uma. And she'd cut her hair short, too. And worn a sword on her back, and other weapons besides.

"Hello!" Sofy said cheerfully to the Udalyn children.

"Hello, Princess Sofy," said Daryd, echoed by Rysha. So they'd learned who the new arrival was, then. Both children bowed in the saddle.

Sofy laughed. "Oh, aren't you lovely? And Rysha, what pretty flowers. Pretty flowers!" Pointing.

Rysha nodded and smiled. "Pretty flowers," she agreed.

"Sofy," said Sasha, eyeing the scout requiring her attention. "I've an important task for you. You'll not be merely a passenger on this ride."

Sofy nodded nervously. "Yes?"

"Look after the children," Sasha told her. "See them fed, make sure they don't wander, maybe even learn a little Edu since you're so good with tongues. Can you do that?"

"Yes, of course!" Sofy looked relieved. It wasn't so much a task, Sasha knew, as something she'd have done anyway. But doubtless she was happy to have some responsibility. "I'd love to."

Sasha touched her heels to Peg's sides and rode forward to the scout. Behind, she heard Sofy resuming the conversation with the children.

By the time the scout had departed, the climbing, winding road had arrived at an open shoulder, overlooking the forested valley below. The wind blew briskly, but no longer as cold. Crumpled hills stretched into the distance, the flanks of Mount Tvay barely visible in distant mist. Sunlight splashed golden patches through the clouds, drifting slowly over forested ridges and valleys, interspersed with veils of misting rain. Ahead, the ridge onto which the road ascended fell sharply in a line of ragged cliffs, sheer rock plunging into thick trees below. Above the cliffs, riding the updrafts, an eagle soared.

"Oh, my lords!" Sasha heard Sofy exclaim, and turned in her saddle to see the youngest Princess of Lenayin gazing open-mouthed at the scene, a hand to her chest. "My land is so beautiful!" Her eyes were shining.

"Pretty," Daryd agreed. "Pretty land."

As the column took a brief pause along a stream to water the horses, the first trouble broke out. Sasha ran along the forested streamside, dodging about horses and men as they pressed for space between the trees and waterside rushes, several of her vanguard in pursuit. Ahead, she could hear angry yells and threats, at alarming volume, and men along the stream craned their heads to look.

Sasha pushed her way past the last few horses and found two distinct groups of men in confrontation, each gathered behind their respective leaders. Both groups were Goeren-yai, but one was Falcon Guard soldiers and the other was villagers. Each was shouting in a tongue other than Lenay, yet familiar. Blades were not yet drawn, but hands were threatening on the hilts of swords.

Sasha stepped between the loudest, expecting them to stop. The men kept yelling, leaning around the new, inconvenient obstacle, jabbing sharp, accusing fingers. "Shut up!" she yelled at them. The men simply shouted louder, ignoring her. Sasha drew her blade and whistled the edge past one man's nose, then another, sending them stumbling backward. The men of her vanguard half-drew their blades in case of retaliation, but none came, and the shouting paused.

"What's this about?" Sasha demanded into that brief silence. Men on both sides stared at her, and at each other, fuming. "Speak, or I'll banish you from this column and give your damn horses to someone who can ride without fighting his brothers! What's this about?"

She stared hard at a Falcon Guard corporal who seemed prominent in the argument. "I'm Jysu, M'Lady," the man said, as if that explained everything. "My friends here are Jysu." Gesturing to his fellow guardsmen. "We ride together in the guard. These men are Karyd." Pointing at the villagers.

Sasha blinked at him, waiting for the rest of the explanation. Nothing more came. "And?" she demanded. "So what?"

"The clans of Jysu and Karyd have blood-feud!" a villager announced angrily. He was an older man, at least sixty, with wild white hair about his otherwise bald head, yet he had strength. The expression beneath his spirit mask was ferocious. "Just two years ago two brothers from the Jysu headman's family killed a Karyd boy in a manner without honour! We came just now to join the great battle to save the Udalyn, but men of Karyd shall not ride with murderers!"

"The boy declared immediate challenge!" a guardsman retorted. "Our lad was within his rights!"