Shay Tal’s face crumpled. She said in a small voice, ‘I do not wish to fight you, Aoz Roon. I’m sick of it. But what you say is not true. We prosper in part because of applied knowledge. The bridges, the houses — those were ideas the academy contributed to the community.’
‘Don’t anger me, woman.’
Looking down at the ground, she said, ‘I know you hate me. I know that’s why Master Datnil was killed.’
‘What I hate is division, constant division,’ Aoz Roon roared. ‘We survive by collective effort, and always have done.’
‘But we can only grow through individuality,’ Shay Tal said. Her face grew paler as the blood mounted in his cheeks.
He made a violent gesture. ‘Look about you, for Yuli’s sake! Remember what this place was like when you were a child. Try to understand how we have built it to what it is now by united effort. Don’t stand in front of me and try to argue differently. Look at my lieutenants’ women — tits swinging, working in with everyone else. Why are you never with them? Always on the fringe, mouthing discontent, whining.’
‘No tit to swing, I’d say,’ Eline Tal said, chuckling.
His remark had been intended for the delectation of his friends, Tanth Ein and Faralin Ferd. But it also reached the alert ears of the young hunters, who burst into jeering laughter — all except Dathka, who sat silent, hunched in his saddle, alertly surveying the participants in the momentary drama.
Shay Tal also caught Eline Tal’s comment. Since he was distant kin to her, the remark stung the more. Her eyes glittered with tears and wrath.
‘Enough, then! I’ll stand no more abuse from you and your cronies. I’ll worry you no more, Aoz Roon, I’ll argue never again. You’ve seen the last of me, you thickheaded, disappointing, treacherous bully — you and your little pregnant cow of a bed-mate! At Freyr-dawn tomorrow, I leave Oldorando for good. I shall depart alone, on my mare, Loyalty, and no one will ever see me more.’
Aoz Roon flung out his arm. ‘No one leaves Oldorando without my permission. You’re not going from here until you grovel at my feet, begging to leave.’
‘We’ll see about that in the morning,’ Shay Tal snapped. She turned on her heel, clutched her loose dark furs about her body, and made off towards the north gate.
Dol was red in the face. ‘Let her go, Aoz Roon, drive her out. Good riddance. Pregnant cow, indeed, the juiceless creature!’
‘You keep out of this. I’ll settle this my way.’
‘I suppose you’re going to have her killed, like the others.’
He struck her across the face, lightly and with contempt, still looking after the retreating figure of Shay Tal.
It was the night period when everyone slept, though Batalix still burned low in the sky. Although slaves twitched in the dreams of dim-day-sleep, some of the free were still about on this occasion. In the room at the top of the big tower, full council was met, consisting of the masters of the seven old corps, plus two new masters, younger men from newly constituted corps, the harness and lorimers, and the outfitters. Also present were Aoz Roon’s three lieutenants and one of his Lords of the Western Veldt, Dathka. The Lord of Embruddock presided over the meeting, and serving wenches kept their wooden cups filled with beethel or small beer.
After much argument, Aoz Roon said, ‘Ingsan Atray, give us your voice on this question.’
He was addressing the senior master, a greybeard who ruled over the metal-makers corps, and who had as yet said nothing. The years had curved Ingsan Atray’s spine and turned his scanty hair white, so that the great width of his skull was emphasised; for this reason, he was regarded as wise. He had a mannerism of smiling a great deal, though his eyes, barricaded behind wrinkled lids, always looked wary. He smiled now, squatting on the skins piled on the floor for his comfort, and said, ‘My Lord, Embruddock’s corps have traditionally protected the women. Women, after all, are our source of labour when the hunters are in the field, and so on. Of course, times are changing, I grant you that. It was different in the times of Lord Wall Ein. But women also serve as channels of much learning. We have no books, but women memorise and pass on the legends of the tribe, as is seen whenever we tell the Great Tale on feast days—’
‘Your point, please, Ingsan Atray…’
‘Ah, I was coming to it, I was coming to it. Shay Tal may be difficult and so on, but she is a sorceress and learned woman, widely known. She does no harm. If she leaves, she will take other women with her, and so on, and that will be a loss. We masters would venture to say that you were correct in forbidding her to leave.’
‘Oldorando’s not a prison,’ Faralin Ferd shouted.
Aoz Roon nodded curtly, and looked about. ‘The meeting was called because my lieutenants disagreed with me. Who agrees with my lieutenants?’
He caught the eye of Raynil Layan, nervously stroking his forked beard.
‘Master of the tanners corps, you always like to air your voice — what have you to say?’
‘As to that—’ Raynil Layan gestured dismissively. ‘There is always the difficulty of preventing Shay Tal leaving. She can easily slip away, if so disposed. And there is the general principle… Other women will think… Well, we don’t want discontented women. But there’s Vry, for instance, another thinking woman, yet attractive, and she gives no trouble. If you could rethink your order, many would be grateful to you…’
‘Speak out and don’t mince your words so,’ Aoz Roon said. ‘You’re a master now, as you wished, and don’t have to cringe.’
Nobody else spoke. Aoz Roon glared at them. All avoided his gaze, burying their faces in their cups.
Eline Tal said, ‘Why are we worrying? What’s the odds? Let her go.’
‘Dathka!’ the lord snapped. ‘Are you going to grant us a single word tonight, since your friend Laintal Ay has not put in an appearance?’
Dathka set down his beaker and looked directly at Aoz Roon.
‘All this debate, this talk of principle… it’s rubbish. We all know you and Shay Tal long wage great personal war. So you decide what to do, not us. Kick her out now you have your chance. Why bring us into it?’
‘Because it concerns you all, that’s why!’ Aoz Roon pounded his fist on the floor. ‘By the boulder, why does that woman always have such a grudge against me, against everyone? I don’t understand. What rotten maggot chews at her harneys? She keeps on the academy, doesn’t she? She sees herself in a long line of female troublemakers — Loilanun, Loil Bry, who became Little Yuli’s woman… But where would she go? What would happen to her?’
His sentences seemed wild and disconnected.
No one answered. Dathka had spoken for all of them; all were secretly aghast when he said what he did. Aoz Roon himself had nothing more to say. The meeting broke up.
As Dathka was slipping away, Raynil Layan grasped Dathka’s arm and said softly, ‘A cunning speech you made. With Shay Tal out of the way, the one you fancy will head the academy, won’t she? Then she’ll need your support…’
‘I leave the cunning to you, Raynil Layan,’ Dathka said, pulling away. ‘Just keep out of my path.’
He had no trouble in finding Laintal Ay. Despite the lateness of the hour, Dathka knew where to go. In Shay Tal’s ruined tower, Shay Tal was packing, and many friends had come to bid her farewell. Amin Lim was there with her child, and Vry, and Laintal Ay with Oyre, and several other women beside.