Page 101 of The Summer Pass

Otoni frowned down at her finished arrow for a moment, then set it aside. “I do, as it happens—though you might have asked me that before you told Khatu what to do.”

“Yes, I might.”

It had never occurred to her. Just the way it had never occurred to her to consider Auxshna’s feelings when Halza was courting Susami. The same way none of the women in her own family had considered her feelings when it was time to arrange her marriage to Faru.

Otoni said, “I had half a mind not to tell Khatu this baby was his, for fear he’d insist we marry. But he took long enough to think about it that I decided he must really want it.”

Gurti nodded. She had already known that she liked her daughter-in-law, and here was more reason why.

“Well, I have told Tirtu that this is how I feel, and so he has not asked me to marry him.”

“Oh, you … you actually know this.”

She did, though she had not wanted to think about it. She knew it was eating at Tirtu that he couldn’t offer to help her. But he wasn’t doing it, because he’d believed her when she said she didn’t want it. And the thought of having a husband who cared about her feelings as much as that, who listened to her as much as that …

How were they to solve this?

Gurti and Otoni were sitting at a table in the gathering place, where the light was better for working than anywhere inside the great house. Otoni was the expert at making arrows, having made her own when she’d lived by her bow on the mountain. Gurti only knew how to cut the feathers according to her instructions.

Presently Susami and Atari came out of the great house, followed by the young blacksmith, Nakhana. He hung around Susami like her shadow, that one. He could talk to her, unlike Halza, and he certainly paid attention when she talked, but he never seemed to have much to say in response. What was he doing? Did she know? Did he know?

The girls stopped by the table so Atari could ask if she could help with the arrow-making.

“I am going to report for duty at the gate,” Nakhana signed to Susami while Otoni began showing Atari how to trim feathers for the fletches. “Can I take any message for you?”

“Thank you, no.” Susami smiled at him, but it was a serene, polite smile. Gurti couldn’t imagine that it was all he had hoped for from her. “You should ask Na Gurti,” she added. “She signs.”

Nakhana looked flustered, and Gurti wondered if he even knew her name sign or who Susami was talking about. The poor man.

“Thank you,” she signed, making no secret that she had seen their conversation. “Will you pass the message that we have plenty of materials for making arrows here, and we could use more hands to help.”

“Of course.”

“Will you be going out to join the reinforcements with my father?” Susami asked the blacksmith.

“No. He’s only taking a few men with him,” Nakhana said. “My cousin among them, for some reason.”

“He can interpret,” Susami pointed out. “He signs well.”

Nakhana shrugged. “For a hearing person, I suppose.”

“I am glad you’re not going,” said Susami. That might have made the blacksmith’s heart leap hopefully, Gurti thought. “I wish that my father did not have to go. But it is important that he does. His men have the best chance at victory if he leads them.”

“Indeed they do,” Nakhana agreed eagerly. “I am glad to be able to stay here and help defend the fortress. I tried to assist at the forge—I thought there would be extra work—but the blacksmith here refused my help. He’s an unfriendly—man.” He’d started to sign a different word. Gurti assumed it would have been impolite.

Susami shook her head, but whether in sympathy with Nakhana or shame at his failure, Gurti couldn’t tell, so she doubted Nakhana could either. He went away, which he had to do since he’d said he was going. Gurti turned back to the feathers on the table, realizing she’d just spent quite a long time eavesdropping. As if she had any cause to concern herself with the young people’s entanglements. She had trouble enough of her own.

Atari had got the knack of trimming feathers by this time and was doing it more neatly than Gurti. Susami sat down and joined them too. They worked away as the morning wore on, conversation mostly suspended now because the deaf girls couldn’t talk while their hands were busy with work.

Nakhana must have passed on the request for arrow-makers, because several more people arrived. Barda came by, still nursing a headache, or at least pretending to, and offered his service. Firuduna followed him. By this time the benches were full, and there was no longer a surplus of materials, so Gurti got up to make room for Firuduna at the table.

“I will go see how they are faring in the kitchen,” she said, excusing herself.

As she went inside, she heard Barda and Firuduna having a version of the same conversation as Nakhana and Susami, about who was going with Lord Vanu and who was staying. Though she supposed it was a coincidence and with the two of them it wasn’t any question of romantic longings. Was it?

The plan was to leave Tagra Degra at dusk. The enemy had been quiet all day—rethinking their assault strategy, Firuduna supposed, or working on whatever they meant to try next. Lord Vanu planned to strike early next morning, after disturbing the besiegers’ sleep with sorties in the night.

Firuduna was beside himself with eagerness. Getting this chance, at last, to ride out with Lord Vanu—it felt like having the past to do over again. He tried to explain it to Barda, but it was hard without sounding like he was gloating. Harder still to explain why having Barda to share this with added to his excitement.