Many Roads Home (6 page)

“I, uh, did what you asked.”

She glared up at him, but then to his surprise, her expression softened. “I hate killing them. The little ones. The adults? Easy. But the babies…” She bit her lip.

“You knew it would die? You were sure?”

“It had malformed lungs. It would only have lived an hour or so, and struggled the whole time. Better to ease its pain and give one of my orphans to the mother.”

“Your gift works with people too?”

“Of course.” Her eyebrows drew together in puzzlement. “You know our tongue, but you don’t know about the gifts. Who are you?”

“I’m from Sardelsa, in Tuelwetin. I was travelling with my father to Horches when our ship was wrecked. He…died. I’m trying to finish the journey, to meet his relatives. I mean, our relatives.”

She didn’t notice the slip. “I wish I could go to Horches and study to be a healer. But Father wants me to go to Grekil and take a husband. I don’t
want
a husband. I don’t like men at all, great stupid oafs that they are.”

“Can’t you talk to your father? Don’t you need healers in the village?”

“Not as much as we need children. I can’t do both. Best I’ll get to do is birth these smelly damn things. I like kardips but they’re not very bright.”

“Do you like horses?”

“Never seen one. What are they like?”

“They’re bigger than a kardip, with short hair. Smart and beautiful animals. We ride them in Tuelwetin. They have them in Karvis too. They came from the old home.”

“Old home?”

“The place where the people on this world came from. A thousand years ago or more, they say. They don’t teach you this at school?”

“No. Only reading and writing, the ways of plants and animals, the doings of the gods and the workings of the seasons. It’s all you need in a place like this. I want to leave, see more of Uemire. I’d love to see Tuelwetin. I don’t fit here at all.” She suddenly glared. “And you’re only idling here to avoid work.”

“I’m not! I’m being polite.”

“Well, get on with your chores. My mother will bring lunch for us in a little while, but you won’t earn a bite unless you finish the sweeping out. Understand?”

“Yes, miss.”

She made a face and he grinned as he took off. At least he’d managed to winkle some conversation out of her.

Something to ponder though, that she could be so unhappy at being forced to marry and live where she’d grown up, and yet Yveni had accepted that such would be his fate from the time he was old enough to understand the idea. Even now, he only made the journey to Horches to further the goal of returning to his home and fulfilling the plans his father had laid out for him. Would Raina be so unhappy about her father’s plans if she was forced to leave this village and abandon all who loved her?

Maybe she’d like it. Yveni couldn’t tell.
He
didn’t like it at all because Konsatin could easily be wrecking all that Yveni’s father had put in place. Besides, he missed everyone.

He leaned on his shovel and stared at the pile of manure in front of him. Already a high price had been paid to save his life. Gerd had died, and who could say that Yveni’s life was worth more than his? And what of Serina, betrothed to a man she knew capable of murder? Or Gil, the only protection his sisters had? Even the ministers loyal to his family—how did they fare without the heir to the ducal throne there to rally behind?

He clenched his fists. He should have stayed and stood up to Konsatin, exposed his lies and his plots, and had him arrested. Would it really have been as impossible as Gil said? As Lord Timur had warned? Konsatin was just a man, after all, and not even part of the ducal family. His rise to prominence had been based on very little.

Perhaps he should abandon this plan and return to Sardelsa, take his chances. But if he failed, then Serina would have nothing to hold up against her marriage to Konsatin, and nothing would stop him seizing the throne as her consort.

“Boy, you’re daydreaming.”

He turned. “Sorry. I was thinking of my family.”

Raina didn’t snap at him as he half-expected her to. “Wash up, then come and eat. I can’t leave the youngsters, so it’ll have to be in here.”

The food turned out to be pasties, rich and flavoursome, even better than the ones Sofia used to make. To Yveni, after days of fish and raw beach fruits, it tasted better than the finest court food. He licked his fingers appreciatively. “Your mother’s a wonderful cook.”

“Yes, she is. So am I but I hate doing it for all these men.”

Yveni grinned. “Why do you hate us so much?”

“I said
men
, not little boys.”

“I’m seventeen. Nearly eighteen!”

“Really? You don’t look it. You’re small for your age.”

He hadn’t thought himself particularly short, but Uemiriens were all so tall, he looked like a child beside them. “How old are you then?”

“Eighteen. And a half. Are you really seventeen?” He nodded, trying not to look as offended as he felt. “You’re not so bad, I guess, even if you do have a prick.”

Yveni flushed. He’d never heard a woman use that word. Raina didn’t notice his embarrassment. “Men only want two things from a woman—sex and cooking. And babies, I suppose. They don’t care if we’re smart and prefer it if we’re not, and all they want is for us to shut up and do what we’re told. Like children.”

“Women aren’t very quiet where I come from. They even rule. We’ve had some fine duces in Sardelsa.”

“Duces?”

“A female duc. That’s what we call the ruler of the duchy.”

“Can’t imagine that being allowed here. Not that we have a ruler, but any time someone’s laying down the law, you can bet it’s a
man.
” She spat the word like the worst curse in her language. “And now I’m supposed to go to Grekil, be all quiet and sweet and let someone bid for me. Hah. Why bother? They’ll find out the truth when they marry me.”

“Will that mean you have to leave the village?”

“Wish it did.” She poked gloomily at the ground with a bit of straw. “No, Father will ask too much for a removal. That’s when someone wants to take a wife away from their home. He’s rich enough that he can buy wives for my brothers to come here, but no one will be able to afford to take me away.”

Yveni frowned. “We don’t pay for people to be married in Sardelsa. Everyone gives the couple gifts and money to help them make a new life, but the parents don’t get anything.”

“It’s the other way around here. Sardelsa sounds like a wonderful place. Why are you leaving?”

Damn. He kept forgetting how much he had to hide. “Um, well, my father wanted to build a trading business with his cousins in Horches.”

“And you don’t have family in Sardelsa?”

“My mother died when I was seven. My father’s best friends, who are Uemirien, helped raise me while he was working. That’s where I learned your language.”

“So you’re all alone in the world now? You’re like one of my orphan calves, then.”

“A bit.”

“And you’re still going to Horches? Do you want to work as a trader? What would you do if you didn’t?”

For someone who couldn’t even bother to be polite to him a couple of hours ago, she had a lot of questions. “I thought about being a sailor until I was shipwrecked. Not so thrilled by that idea now.”

She nodded emphatically. “The sea’s a dangerous place. Every couple of years, we lose one of our people to her. But she gives us food and many other things we use, so you could say it’s a fair price. I’m just glad my family aren’t fisherfolk. So you’re going to be a trader all your life?”

“I hope I can make my fortune and go home one day. I haven’t thought that far ahead.”

“Suppose not, with your father dying and all that. You finished?”

He nodded, so she gathered up the cloths the pasties had been wrapped in and stuffed them into the little basket her mother had brought over. “Things will be quieter now for me. All the females have birthed, so it’s just the weaklings and orphans to care for. Still as much shit for you to clean up,” she added with a malicious little smirk.

“I don’t mind. Your family’s doing me a favour, and I want to earn it.”

“You’re strange, Gaelin.”

“I suppose I am. Better get back to work now.”

The afternoon was as hard as the morning, only longer, but he really didn’t mind. It helped when Raina found him a pair of gloves so he didn’t tear up his hands shifting hay bales around.

By the time one of the children at the house brought out mugs of tea and tasty little cakes for the two of them at the barn, Yveni thought he’d done as much as he could for one day, and thankfully, Raina agreed. “You’ll sleep in the barn, same as me.”

Yveni was horrified. “You’re not allowed to sleep in the house?”

She shoved at his shoulder. “Don’t be daft. It’s because the youngsters need to be fed twice in the night. Little and often or they die.” Her face grew sad. “They’re so fragile just now. Of course, they grow up into those great smelly beasts.”

“You don’t mind them being killed when they grow up?”

“No, because they’ve had a good life by then. That’s all anyone wants, isn’t it? A good life before a quick death?”

“I suppose so. I want more from life than a kardip does.”

“We all do. You being a man, you might even get it.”

She reminded him of Serina, though Serina didn’t hate all men, just her betrothed. And as it happened, she had every reason to. Gods, he missed her. He couldn’t even mention her or Olana to anyone. It made it so hard to bear being away from them.

“No need to be all sulky about it,” she said, misreading his expression. “Want another cake?”

“Yes, please.”

She had a much better treat for him when they finished—feeding the baby calves. She lent him a leather apron. He worked out in five seconds why he needed it because the babies were very messy eaters. Together they sat and fed the greedy things, while she explained how some of them had been twins and the mother could only ever feed one, or the mother had rejected them for one reason or another. The mother of the smallest had died in birthing it.

“She was an old beast. Shouldn’t really have been bred but the male had other ideas,” she said darkly. “It’s always the female that pays for the male putting his prick where it’s not welcome. You’ve gone all red, Gaelin.”

Yveni cursed his cheeks for their betrayal. “Have I? Sorry.”

She snorted. “Don’t they—?”

A booming male voice interrupted her. “Raina? Why isn’t the boy mucking out?”

Jako stood with his hands on his hips at the front of the stall, glaring at them both.

Raina stared coolly back, not at all intimidated. “Because I asked him to help me with this. I’ve more orphans than I can handle and he has a deft touch with them. You didn’t say I wasn’t to let him help. You said he was a stable boy.”

Jako grunted. “Mind how you talk to me, young lady. All right. So long as he doesn’t slack off.”

Yveni stood. “Sir, I have one request. My clothes aren’t suitable for this. Do you have any old ones I could wear while working?”

“Oh, so fancy, are we?”

Raina stood, as if prepared to defend Yveni physically. “Father, it’s a reasonable thing to ask.”

He gave his daughter a sour look. “Ask your mother, if you’re so concerned about it. I don’t handle such matters. Boy, you sleep in here.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And you eat here too. You’re not family, whatever that silly creature from the tribe down south says. ‘Spirit brother’, my arse.”

“Yes, sir.”

Jako pursed his lips in irritation and stomped off.

“He doesn’t like me,” Yveni whispered.

She sat down and calmly resumed feeding the calf. “He doesn’t like anyone. I’m amazed he’s letting you stay. I suppose it’s so we can leave one of the men behind. We don’t have enough marriageable people to only manage with them for the drive, but it leaves the village short. So long as you’re not completely useless, he’s bound to take you with us. It’s not like you have to be that bright to herd kardips.”