Thendara House (23 page)

“No, Margali! No! He surrendered, didn’t you see him raise his sword in surrender?” Camilla’s hand bit into her wrist, a cruel grip that paralyzed her fingers.

Magda came up to her senses, shaking; she looked, in consternation, at the man she had killed, and Shann next to him, groaning in his blood at the foot of the stairs. The third man had backed off and was staring in dismay at a wound in his forearm, from which fresh blood welled up.

Camilla said furiously “You have disgraced your knife!” She pushed Magda down, hard, on the steps, and went down the stairs to the wounded man.

“I most humbly beg your pardon, sir. She is new to fighting, and untried; she did not see your gesture of surrender.”

The wounded man said, “I thought you women were going to kill us all, surrender or no! And this is no quarrel of mine,
mestra
!”

Camilla said, “I have honorably sold the service of my blade for thirty years, comrade. My companion is young. Believe me, we will so deal with her that she will not so disgrace her blade again. But are you not Shann’s sworn man?”

The mercenary spat. “Sworn man to that one? Zendru’s hells, no! I’m a paid sword, no more. It’s no business of mine to lose my life for the likes of him!”

“Let me see your wound,” Camilla said, “You shall have indemnity, believe me. We have no quarrel with you.”

“And I have no quarrel with you, and no blood-feud,
mestra
. Between ourselves, I’d say that if his wife left him he’d given her cause four times over, but my sword is for hire, so I fought while he fought. But he is no kin or sworn comrade.” Awkwardly, with his unwounded hand, he thrust the sword back into its sheath, and pointed to Shann. “I’ll go find his housefolk and his paxmen to haul him home; he’s nothing to me, but when I fight at a man’s side, I don’t leave him to bleed to death in the street.” He looked regretfully at the man Magda had killed. “Now
he
was a pal of mine; we’ve been hiring out our swords together for twelve years come midsummer.”

Camilla said gravely, “Who grudges his blood to a blade had better earn his living behind the plow.”

The man sighed, made the
cristoforo
sign of prayer. “Aye, he’s laid his burdens now on the Bearer of the World’s Wrongs. Peace to him,
mestra
.” He looked at his wounded arm. “But it goes hard to have blood shed after surrender!”

Mother Lauria came down the steps. “You shall have whatever indemnity a judge names as fair. Camilla, take him to the Stranger’s Room and bind up his wound.”

Camilla turned angry eyes on Magda. She said, with savage contempt, “Get inside, you, before you disgrace us further!”

Puzzled, feeling betrayed, Magda managed to stumble inside. The wound in her thigh, which she had hardly felt at the time, began to throb as if it had been burned with fire.

She had fought for the house. She had done her best - had the man truly surrendered before she struck him?

In the mountains I disgraced myself because I was afraid to fight, then when I fight I disgrace the Guild House… She felt sobs choking her, and braced herself against them; if she let herself cry now she would break into hysterical crying and never be able to stop…

“
Breda
- ” said a soft, troubled voice, and Keitha’s pale, tear-stained face looked into hers. “Oh, how cruel she is! You fought for us, you are hurt too - and she cares more for that soldier’s wound than yours! And you have shed your blood for us! Come, let me, at least, look after your hurt - “

Magda let herself lean heavily on Keitha as they went up the stairs. Keitha went on, indignant, “I saw it all - how can Camilla be so unjust? So the man had surrendered - what of that? I wish you had killed them all - “

Magda’s leg had begun to hurt so badly that she felt dizzy. Blood was dripping on the floor. Keitha drew her inside the bathroom on their floor, pushed her down on a little wooden bathing stool and gently pulled off the slashed breeches. The cut was deep, blood still welling up slowly from the bottom. Magda clung to the stool, suddenly afraid of falling, while Keitha sponged the wound with icy water. While she was working on it, Mother Lauria came slowly up the stairs and stepped inside.

She looked coldly at the two women. “How badly are you hurt, Margali?”

Magda set her teeth. “I don’t know enough about wounds to know how bad it is. It hurts.”

Lauria came and examined the slash herself. “It is a clean wound and it will heal; but painful. Did you get it from a surrendered man fighting for his life?”

Magda said clearly, “I did not; it was the first man, the one I killed, and I was fighting myself for my life, since I suppose he would not have stopped at killing me.”

“Well, that’s something,” Mother Lauria said.

“How can you blame her so!” Keitha cried. “She fought to defend us, she is hurt and bleeding, yet you let Camilla bully her and call her harsh names, then you come and bully her further, before her wound is even bandaged - “

The Guild Mother’s face was stern. “To kill a surrendered man is
murder
,” she said. “If Camilla had not struck down her sword, she could have killed a defenseless man and brought blood-feud on us. As it is, we are fortunate that he was only a hired mercenary; had he been one of MacShann’s sworn men, they would be bound to avenge him! Thendara House would have had to answer challenge after challenge, and it could have destroyed us! Fortunately, his wound is not disabling, and Camilla has been a hired mercenary herself and knows their codes of honor. She is dressing his wound in the Stranger’s Room, and she hopes he will accept a cash indemnity for the wound so shamefully given.”

Magda lowered her head, accepting the guilt. Yes, she had lost control, she was to blame. She remembered Cholayna Ares, in Intelligence school, warning them.
Never lose control, never lose your temper; never kill unless you wish to kill
. To keep her fear at bay, she had clung to her anger, and it had disgraced her. She sat trembling, feeling that Mother Lauria’s anger was a tangible thing, a sort of red glow around the woman. And then she wondered if she were going mad.

Lauria turned on Keitha in angry scorn.

“And you, you have not even inquired whether he who was your husband is alive or dead! Are we to be assassins for your grudge?”

Keitha said furiously, “I care nothing, truly, whether he lives or dies! Am I to return good for evil like a
cristoforo
? I have renounced him forever!”

“Not true,” said Mother Lauria. “If you had truly renounced him, you would not fear to know whether he lived or died, and could tend, like Camilla, the wounds of a fallen foe without hatred.”

“She had not suffered at his hands - ” Keitha began.

“What do you know of what Camilla has suffered at the hands of men?” Mother Lauria demanded, and Magda remembered what Camilla had told her… had it been only this morning? It seemed so very long ago. Mother Lauria sighed.

“Well, Margali’s wound still bleeds; fortunately, Marisela is still in the house, though I hate to wake her like this when she was up all night. Margali, do you realize what you have done?”

Magda was still fighting the urge to hysterical crying.

“I didn’t know - I did not see that he had surrendered - “

“When you take sword in hand it is your business to know,” said Mother Lauria grimly. “There is no excuse in this world, or the next, for striking down a surrendered man. Name your oath-mother!”

It had the force of a ritual demand; Mother Lauria knew perfectly well what the answer was.

“Jaelle n’ha Melora.”

“You have disgraced her too,” Mother Lauria said, “and when you are well again, she shall deal with you!” She went away, and Magda sat sobbing on the bench. Her leg hurt fiercely, but in her distress she hardly felt it.

“Well, what have we here?” asked Marisela cheerfully, as she came in, and Magda looked up, frightened; would Marisela too think it her duty to scold and browbeat her? She deserved it, whatever they might say or not say. And they would hold Jaelle responsible, and that was the worst!

But Marisela only knelt to examine the cut with gentle, experienced hands. “Nasty, but it will heal; the muscle is not much damaged. I will have to stitch this. Can you help me get her to her room, Keitha? It will be easier to do it there, and afterward, I fear, she will not be in much shape for walking, poor little rabbit.” She stroked Magda’s cheek and added, “This is a miserable thing to happen when you first take sword in our defense. Help her to her room, Keitha, while I fetch my things.”

It was a nightmare of pain and effort, but somehow Keitha got her to her room and into her bed. Magda felt a twinge of fear through the pain, when Marisela came in - in the Terran Zone, she knew, a cut this deep would be sewn under anesthetic! Marisela sponged it with some icy stuff that numbed it slightly, then quickly and skillfully put in several stitches; Magda was by now so unstrung that she could not be brave, but disgraced herself again, she felt, by sobbing like a child. Keitha hugged and comforted her, and Marisela held some kind of fiery cordial to her lips; it made her head swim. Afterward Marisela kissed her on the forehead, said, “I’m sorry I had to hurt you so,
breda
,” and went away. Keitha sat beside her, holding her hand.

“I don’t care what they say! To me it is no disgrace! They should not bully you that way!”

But now it was over, and the hysteria subsiding, Magda knew what Camilla meant. She had disgraced her steel.

I can’t do anything right, she thought. I was a failure in the Terran Zone, a failure as a wife - I couldn’t even give Peter the son he wanted - now I have failed here too, disgraced Jaelle, disgraced Camilla who taught me - I have failed here too, she thought.

Keitha held her, whispering, “Don’t cry, Margali.” She turned Magda’s head between her hands and kissed her; and to Magda’s dismay and horror, she felt no impulse to push the kiss away; instead her awareness was strange, intense, frighteningly sexual; she felt herself returning it, pulling Keitha closer, even though, in that sudden overwhelming awareness, she knew Keitha had not meant it that way, had meant only to comfort her as she would have kissed her own child, that Keitha would have been horrified if she had had any idea how Margali had interpreted her gesture. She could feel Keitha’s compassion and kindness as a warm flood of soft colors wrapping her, just as she had felt Mother Lauria’s rage, a red halo surrounding her and lashing out to strike…

What was in that stuff Marisela gave me, anyhow? I am drunk, drugged, I am going mad
… was this why she had failed with Peter, was it this Camilla had read in her the other night, was this what she really wished for when her defenses were down? Had Peter been right, when he accused her of being half in love with Jaelle herself, and jealous of him?

But she was too exhausted to be afraid. She let herself float, remembering the moment at Ardais when she had been
inside
the matrix. The bed was floating, it was like being far out in space, swirls of light tracing themselves round and round inside her eyes, faster and faster. For a moment she was back there at Ardais, with Lady Rohana looking up at her, troubled, and saying,
If you have trouble with
laran
you must promise to tell me at once
. But how could she, Magda wondered, when Rohana was
there
and she was
here
! It seemed that Keitha was calling to her from very far away, but she thought, Keitha is my friend, I do not want to upset or frighten her as I was frightened of Camilla that night, so she hid herself and did not answer. And then there was another face in the darkness, a beautiful woman’s face, pale, surrounded in a cloud of pale reddish-golden hair, and all blue as if she saw it through the color of a pale blue fire, and at the last, yet another face; round, calm, practical, a woman’s face under close-cropped greying hair, an Amazon, saying quietly,
We must do something for her, she belongs to us and she does not know it yet
.

A Terranan?

She is neither the first nor the last to claim a heritage in an unknown world.