Freedom's Sisters

CHAPTER ONE TAMAR When I rode into the camp of the Alashi spring gathering, I tried to sit tall and hide my fear. Lauria would tell me I was as good as they were--she'd tell me to look them in the eye. She'd say I had nothing to be ashamed of. And I wasn't ashamed. I was proud of what Lauria and I had accomplished. We had freed over a hundred slaves. The Alashi didn't free slaves because they thought those who deserved freedom would escape on their own. Well, the Alashi might not free slaves, but I did. Lauria and I did. I took a deep breath and raised my head. What did the eldress want from me, anyway? First, apparently, she wanted me to wait. I had ridden back with Janiya, the leader of the sword sisterhood Lauria and I had spent last summer with. The rest of her sisterhood had stayed behind to escort the former mine slaves on foot. Janiya gave our horses to a girl to care for, then we sat down in the shade near the eldress's tent. I watched Janiya, and when she turned away from me, I looked around. Lauria and I had found the Alashi at the end of their big spring gathering, and we'd left right before their big fall gathering. I could smell lentils and rice cooking over fires made from dried animal dung. There were families nearby, with lots of children who weren't old enough to ride out with a sisterhood or brotherhood. Looking at them made my throat ache a little. Janiya looked me over. She hadn't spoken much on our ride. Now she cleared her throat and said, "You look well." I looked down at my muddy clothes and boots. Lauria and I had bought ourselves new clothes when we'd come into some money, but they were worn ragged now. My hands were filthy, and I thought my face and hair probably were, too. "Oh, you could use a bath, but that's not what I meant," Janiya said. "You look very confident. You look like a woman who can stand on her own and defend herself. When I first met you . . . well, you looked like you'd fight until the last drop of blood left your body, but you didn't look like you thought it would matter." I let out my breath in a short laugh. "It's good to see you again," I said. Janiya looked pretty much as I remembered--well, maybe a little more gray in her hair. "It's good to see you, too." Janiya clasped my hand. "I wish . . ." She let the words fade. I thought she'd probably meant to say that she wished she could see Lauria, too. "Why does the eldress want to see me?" Janiya shrugged. I thought she probably knew but wasn't supposed to say. My guess was that this was about the slaves Lauria and I had freed and brought up. Well, the mine slaves really had freed themselves. I had nothing to apologize for. I chewed my lip, wondering if the eldress would like that argument. "How are the others from the sisterhood?" I asked. "Maydan, is she recovering?" Maydan had been badly injured in a fight with bandits, late last summer. "Yes. Very slowly. She had to learn to walk again, as if she was a child, but she's still Maydan. She hasn't forgotten anything about healing, but her hands are very clumsy right now. She's frustrated, as I'm sure you can imagine. She's staying with the clan for the summer, not going out with our sisterhood. We'll have a different healer." I felt a rush of longing at Janiya's words--going out with our sisterhood. I pushed the thought away. I belonged with Lauria. Janiya glanced over at the eldress's tent, then stood. "It's time," she said. The inside of the tent was dim and cool. For a few moments, I couldn't see. When Lauria and I had arrived a year ago, we had been brought to the eldress, who had listened to our story and accepted us as "blossoms," proviKritzer, Naomi is the author of 'Freedom's Sisters', published 2006 under ISBN 9780553586756 and ISBN 0553586750.