Naomi Kritzer - Dead Rivers 3 - Freedom's Sisters

Freedom’sSisters

CHAPTER ONE

T AMAR

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.”

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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,” provisional

members. This time, eight old ladies and five old men sat in a circle. The eldress I had met a year ago sat across

from the door on a pile of cushions. Braided white hair wound around her head. She wore a long dress, a vest so

covered in embroidery I could barely make out the black cloth underneath, and a necklace that looked like a spell-

chain, though when I looked for a piece of karenite that would imprison a djinn, I didn’t see one. These had to be

the clan elders. Janiya and I bowed respectfully. The eldress pointed to a spot near the door and Janiya and I sat

down.

“Good afternoon, child,” the eldress said, her voice kinder than I expected. “You’ve come a long way since I met

you a year ago.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I nodded, then said, “Yes, ma’am.”

“I apologize for bringing you back against your will. Zhanna has told me the information that you and your blood

sister have passed to her, but I wished to speak with you face-to-face.” She fingered her necklace. “Zhanna said

that when your blood sister was trying to bind djinni, you were able to stop her. Is this true?”

This was not the question I had expected. “For a little while,” I said. “First I slapped her with a wet rag, so she

hid from me. So then I went to the borderland and waited for her there. I was able to force her back out. Though

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later she tried again and was able to do it.”

Murmurs, around the circle.

“I was a shaman’s apprentice. Zhanna’s, and before that, Jaran’s.”

“Yes. Jaran.” The eldress raised an eyebrow, and now came the challenge I had expected. “The Alashi do not free

slaves.”

“I am not Alashi. I left when you exiled my blood sister.”

Janiya, who was the one who actually had exiled Lauria, bit her lip and looked down.

“You chose to leave,” the eldress said. “You could choose to come back.”

“Why?”

“To teach.” That was one of the other clan elders, a man I didn’t know. His voice was a soft growl. “To teach the

shamans how to guard the borderland and the djinni, so that we can lay siege to the source of the Sisterhood’s

power.”

“I’m still not convinced that’s a good idea.” That was a clan eldress with only one eye, and a scar that stretched

from forehead to chin. “That will just prove to them that we are a threat, and that they must move against us.”

“They’re coming whether we act or not.”

“You don’t know that.”

“They’re moving the army up! What else could it…”

“…just guarding against our raids, and the bandits…”

“…strike at the border, not the borderland, that’s what I’ve…”

“…could move all our herds north, find new grazing grounds, just get out of their way…”

The eldress sat back and let the others argue. I looked at Janiya. She gave me a quirk-lipped smile and a slight

shrug.

“Let them come!” one of the eldresses said. “We’ll back off and let the desert do our work. They’ll never find our

wells.”

“They’re not fools; they’ll use their djinni to bring up water. That’s why we need to barricade the borderland.”

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“So what if they can’t make new slaves? That won’t stop them from using the ones they’ve got. They have

thousands, tens of thousands! More than enough…”

“All right,” the eldress said. “I’ve had enough of this. Back to your clans, all of you. I want to talk to Tamar

alone. No, Janiya, you can stay. Sit down. The rest of you…” She gestured, and after a moment or two, they rose

and went out, still arguing. The tent was very quiet with them gone.

“It’s been like this for days,” the eldress said. “I’m sure you can imagine. Now. Tell me. Do you think you can

teach other shamans to do what you did?”

“I don’t know. I wasn’t trying to close off the whole borderland, I was just following Lauria. I could never keep

all the sorceresses out.”

“The djinni must have wanted you here for some other reason, then,” the eldress said.

“The djinni told you to bring me here?”

“Yes. Evidently, they thought you’d be useful.”

I raised my chin. “I don’t want to stay here. I want to be with Lauria. Are you going to keep me here by force?

Or…” My voice faded, and I swallowed hard. “Or are you going to let her come back?”

“You have great faith in your blood sister.”

“Yes.”

“Though you know she was a spy.”

“Was. Once. Not anymore. And she tried to undo what she did.”

“Alashi do not free slaves.”

“I’m never going to stop trying to free slaves, eldress, even if you make me Alashi. What did the djinni tell you

about me, anyway? And Lauria?”

“They just said to bring you here.”

“Why not Lauria? She can free bound djinni by touching them. If they come close to her, she can send them back

to the borderland. That’s what I wish I could learn to do.”

The eldress became very quiet for a moment, her eyes still fixed on me. Then she said, “Perhaps her path is

separate from yours, because the djinni said nothing about bringing her here. They told me to bring you. They

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said that you would know something that would help us.”

“I know something that will help you?” I shook my head. “I don’t know what they’re talking about.”

“Then tell me what you’ve done this past year. Tell me what you’ve learned. Perhaps when I hear about your

journeys, I will know what the djinni were talking about.”

A barefoot girl brought in cups, a kettle of tea, and a tray of salty little fried cakes. She ran in and out several

times to get all of it. She bowed to the eldress as she brought in a white sauce to dip the cakes in, and left for the

last time. The eldress watched her without speaking, a faint smile on her face. Janiya poured tea.

As we ate, I told Janiya and the eldress where Lauria and I had gone, and what we saw and learned. I told them

the Sisterhood of Weavers was running short of karenite. I told them about the rogue sorceresses who called

themselves the Younger Sisters, and the Servant Sisterhood that wanted control of the Empire. I told them about

freeing Nika and Melaina, Uljas and Burkut, Sophos’s harem, Prax and the others from the mine. The eldress

listened to my story without interrupting. Then she looked at Janiya. “Do you think the djinni were right? Did she

bring us something we need?”

“Information,” Janiya said. “Our enemies have enemies of their own.”

“We can’t trust the Younger Sisters,” I said. “Any more than we can trust the Servant Sisterhood. We have

karenite. They all need it.”

“But perhaps we could persuade them to fight among themselves,” the eldress said. “Perhaps we could offer an

alliance to the Younger Sisters—a gift of karenite, provided they move now against their ‘elders.’ ”

“The Younger Sisters would become their own problem, in time,” Janiya said. “But in the short term…”

“Who would we go to?” I asked. “Do you know who the leader of the Younger Sisters is?” Janiya and the eldress

both looked at me. “Oh, no. I don’t know. I wouldn’t even know where to start.”

“With the corrupt steward of the Weavers’ farm, Lycurgus,” the eldress said. “Lauria tangled with the Younger

Sisters when she went to rescue Burkut. Or perhaps the sorceress you approached in Daphnia.”

“We almost got ourselves killed in Daphnia!”

“Last time. Surely you’d know how to be discreet if you went again.”

It would have been disrespectful to shout “you’re mad!” at an eldress, so I bit my tongue and lowered my eyes.

“We can give you karenite, enough to enslave an entire army of djinni if that’s what the Younger Sisters choose

to do,” the eldress said. “Use it to sow discord among our enemies.”

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My stomach twisted at the thought of all those new spell-chains. “I don’t want to help anyone enslave an army of

djinni.”

“Even if it saves the Alashi?”

I looked away again. I had tried my hardest to keep Lauria from binding a single djinn, even though she was sure

it was the only way to free Prax. I knew I should refuse now. But I also knew the Alashi really were in danger. So

instead I said, “Alone? I’d be robbed by bandits.”

“Of course not alone. Janiya can go with you.”

Janiya’s head snapped up. She hadn’t expected this. “But my sisterhood…”

“I will arrange for another to lead it in your absence. You walked among the Penelopeians once, Janiya. You can

do it again.”

“We’ll need a third,” Janiya said. “Someone who could pass as Greek.”

“I will consider it,” the eldress said.

“You’re forgetting something.” I raised my chin. “Lauria.”

The eldress narrowed her eyes. “I did not forget your blood sister.” She rose and opened a wood chest. From

deep inside, she drew out two black felt vests. Mine, and Lauria’s. “I had Zhanna give these to me some weeks

ago.” She handed both to me. “Yours is yours again, if you want it. Lauria’s can be hers again, if you give it to

her. Her fate is yours to decide.”

“She can come back?” I asked, just to be sure.

“Yes. She can come back. As eldress of all the clans, on my authority, I grant a pardon to Lauria. She came

among us as an enemy, but I believe she had turned against her old master and was ready to become one of us in

truth.” She leaned back and looked at me appraisingly. “You will be initiated as one of the Alashi before you go.

If you choose, Lauria can be initiated in absentia, just as Burkut was.”

That night, I held Lauria’s vest and tried to find her in my dream. I’d tried to find her while traveling with Janiya

and hadn’t been able to. Tonight I saw her, but far away. She looked like she was made from smoke. I feared

she’d blow away before she heard me.

“Come back,” I said. She didn’t hear me, so I shouted. “Come back! Come back to the Alashi, they will take you

back!”

Lauria shook her head. I couldn’t hear her words, but I thought I saw her lips move to say, too late.

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“I’ll help you free Thais, but come up to the steppe first,” I shouted. “You can come back. The eldress has

pardoned you.”

The wind whipped across the steppe. I saw Lauria stop shouting and close her eyes in concentration. For a single

heartbeat, the wind died, and I found myself in Sophos’s courtyard. Lauria stood before me as I’d seen her the

night Sophos raped her—shaking with cold, her torn clothes bloody. She looked into my face and her lips parted.

“I love you,” she said, and vanished from the borderland like the flame of a blown-out candle.

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Freedom’sSisters

CHAPTER TWO

L AURIA

Tamar,” I whispered, though I had found myself in mist and shadow and had searched for Tamar in vain.

Someone was nudging my ankle. Kyros.

“We’re almost there,” he said. “I thought you might like to see Penelopeia from the sky.”

I blinked and looked around. I’d nodded off against the cushions of the palanquin sometime during the afternoon.

I’d started out feigning drowsiness to avoid talking to Kyros, but I must have fallen asleep for real. I sat up and

stretched. The cushions under me were damp from sweat. All the curtains were drawn; Kyros feared flying and

hated looking out of the palanquin. Well. He doesn’t have to. I drew the corner of the curtain aside and peered out.

We were still high up. Looking down, I could see golden fields. Farther away, something vast and dark caught

the afternoon sunlight in rippling sparkles. I caught my breath and squinted, wondering what it could be. Blowing

sand? Some sort of shiny rocks?

“It’s the sea,” Kyros said, though he hadn’t looked out, only at my face. “Penelopeia is near the shores of a sea.”

“That’s all water?” I stared at the glittering expanse.

“Salt water,” Kyros said. His voice was a little amused. “You can’t drink it.”

Still. I looked out again. All that water.

My thoughts drifted to Thais. After the Alashi had cast me out, I’d resolved to free the slaves I’d returned to

slavery. I’d finally found the last of them, Thais, but instead of accepting my offer, she’d raised the alarm, and

I’d been handed over to Kyros. Thais’s master was one of Kyros’s officers; she’d run away to be with him, and

after I’d brought her back, Kyros had sold her to Casseia to punish both of them. It hadn’t worked; he’d found a

way to get down to Casseia and had bought her and brought her home. And I’d gone to free her anyway, not

knowing, and now I was with Kyros. Come back, all is forgiven, Tamar had shouted when we’d touched in the

borderland, but it was too late. We were going to Penelopeia, for me to plead my case before the magia, and

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probably be executed.

“How much farther to Penelopeia?” I asked.

“We’ll be there soon,” Kyros said. “Before sunset.”

It was difficult to believe that in less than a day we had traveled a distance that should have taken weeks.

Kyros had his feet kicked up on a bolster. I glanced at him again, wondering if he was going to ask me questions,

but he appeared to be deep in thought. I looked out the window again.

I thought I could see farms now, below us. There were houses, surrounded by fields. The dark ribbon that ran

alongside the farms was not, I realized, a river, but a wide, well-kept road; there were people traveling along it,

with horses, wagons, camel trains. I had been studying the ground for so long, trying to pick out details, that I

was startled to see movement out of the corner of my eye, in the air; I looked, expecting a bird, and saw

something that looked like a flying barn, or a very large flying box. An aeriko caravan, I realized, shipping apples

one direction and grapes the other. It was painted to look like a bright yellow bird, with eyes and feathers

outlined in black.

“Your mother would be shocked by your hair,” Kyros said.

I touched the cropped ends. “It’s grown out a lot.” I scratched an itch. “I think if my mother saw me now, she’d

want me scrubbed raw and picked free of lice before she’d let me kiss her.” I’ll certainly look the part of a bandit

if I get taken before the magia like this. I glanced covertly at Kyros. I’d found out near the end of my summer

with the Alashi that Kyros was my father. Had he always spoken of my mother so casually? I couldn’t remember.

Kyros chuckled a little and fell silent again. I sat back against the cushions and tried to practice, in my mind,

what I would say to the magia, but my thoughts kept skipping ahead to when she didn’t believe me. Would she

have me executed? Or tortured like a captured spy? Like the captured spy I am?

What did I know? The camp locations of the Alashi camps, last year. But even a djinn could find that out; they

didn’t need me for that. How to infiltrate the Alashi—the tests I’d had to pass. The beads. I grimaced inwardly at

the memory, but I was almost certain that the precise tests varied depending on what the leader of the sword

sisterhood or brotherhood thought you needed to learn. Or the clan elder or eldress, if you joined the Alashi in the

winter, or were too young or too old to go fight.

I knew that the Alashi had karenite, but the Sisterhood of Weavers knew that already. I knew something about

the karenite trade in Daphnia—the names of the two sorceresses who bought, or tried to buy, my karenite. I could

turn them over, I suppose. I knew about the Servant Sisterhood and the Younger Sisters, but little beyond the bare

fact of their existence. There was Zivar, of course. Zivar, who’d been born a slave and then managed to pass

herself off as a Weaver’s apprentice. The green mouse, she had called herself, because there was no one else like

her in the world—well, other than me. I flinched at the thought of having information about Zivar wrung from

me, but I doubted that the Weavers particularly cared where Zivar came from. She made spell-chains for them on

command, at least for now, so she was useful. Her origins were unimportant.

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I could tell them about Lycurgus. Lycurgus, Kyros’s cousin, was supposedly the steward of a farm owned by the

Sisterhood. Tamar and I had taken Uljas there, looking for Burkut. Lycurgus had been drunk most of the time,

and I’d realized while there that he’d been skimming farm profits to help the Younger Sisters. That’s the sort of

information I could give Kyros to convince him that I really was on his side all along. I didn’t really care whether

I condemned Lycurgus or not; I had no fondness for the man. Solon had been kind, and far more competent. And

loyal to the Sisterhood.

If I were talkative enough, could I convince them I really had stayed loyal to Kyros?

They’ll believe me. Of course they’ll believe me. I knew it was the cold fever whispering in my ear, but I

embraced it because the alternative was despair. They’ll believe me because I am the one meant to free the rivers.

I can only do that if I’m alive.

“Can you see the towers yet?” Kyros asked.

“Towers?”

“Well, you’ve been to Casseia, you know the sort of thing I’m talking about. Casseia has one tower, built very

tall by aerika. Penelopeia has over twenty towers like that. You should be able to see them soon.”

I leaned a little farther out the window and squinted. I could see something, up ahead, barely visible against the

blue sky. As we got closer, I could see the towers more clearly—first two, then six, then more. They spiked up

toward the sky like glittering needles, and as we grew closer I realized that some were partially shod in polished

copper and brass. They must have aerika who do nothing but polish the metal. It was an appalling display of

power. Zivar had told me once that she never felt that she had enough aerika, though she lost a bit more of herself

every time she did a binding. I was certain that the metal-polishing aerika had not been bound by women like the

high magia, but by their apprentices and lesser sisters, acting on orders.

The sun was low in the sky. We were slowly descending now, and I thought I could see the Koryphe—the palace

where the high magia and some of the other most highly placed Sisterhood members lived. White marble walls,

partly clad, like the towers, in polished metal. A half dozen of the towers rose from within the outer walls; one

had a glowing light inside like a beacon, and I wondered if the fire was tended by a human or a djinn. An aeriko;

I need to remember to use the Greek words. My ears ached and felt as if they were filled with water; then I

swallowed, and they cleared with a jolt of pain.

The aeriko set the palanquin down gently in the courtyard. Slaves were already waiting to help each of us out. I

felt a little light-headed and accepted the arm offered to me. We were in an inner courtyard of the palace, large

enough to accommodate several more palanquins. A fountain splashed lightly in the center, and the walls were

decorated with mosaic pictures of olive trees.

Kyros was having a quiet conversation nearby; then he stepped over and said, “I’ve arranged for you to have a

bath before you’re presented to the magia.”

Presented to. Like a gift. I followed a slave who led me to a room of warm water and herb-scented steam. If I had

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Naomi Kritzer - Dead Rivers 3 - Freedom's Sisters

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