The Speculative Short Stories of Sydney J. Van Scyoc by Sydney J. Van Scyoc

Author:Sydney J. Van Scyoc [Scyoc, Sydney J. Van]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science fiction, Short stories, Manners and customs -- Fiction, Man-woman relationships -- Fiction
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Tehla turned, moonlight filling her oblique eyes. "I thought you would learn why you must not take redmanes to your valley.”

"You—” The spell of the teaching dissolved under Tehla’s moon-filled gaze. Lara stared after the retreating redmanes, shivering. Make work beasts of animals who had known the life she had shared with the eldest mare? Set herself as their master when they had always been their own masters? How could she even think of it?

But how could she return to the valley without redmanes? She remembered her father’s face as she had last seen it and her determination returned. She stared up at Tehla, challenging her. "If you didn’t want me to take redmanes, why did you bring me here? Why didn’t you send me away—last night, when you caught me harnessing the mare?”

Tehla pulled her heavy cloak close. Her voice was distant. "Would you have gone? Without coming back again and again, until I grew tired of seeing you and let you take your pairs?”

Lara hesitated. "No.” If she could think of taking redmanes now, with the eldest mare’s teaching so freshly in mind, certainly nothing would have turned her back before.

"Then what good will it do me to speak directly? There are reasons you must not take redmanes. When I was young, I tried to explain them to another young breeder who came as you’ve come. She didn’t believe me. She didn’t understand.” Frowning, Tehla gazed into the distance.

Lara stirred restlessly. Reasons—reasons beyond those that already troubled her? "What happened?”

Tehla’s attention lingered afar, then returned. "She took three pair of redmanes and left our campment. It took her two days to reach the mountains from here. It should have taken her seven more to reach her valley, but she never returned there. Instead she came back here—to the campment, to the herd. For a while I was glad, because she became my friend.”

The pain in her voice dismissed Lara’s other concerns, made her mouth turn dry. "And then?”

"She lived here long enough to realize her mistake. After that she died.”

"But—how?”

"Her spirit died and finally, a few years later, her body stopped breathing.” When Lara did not speak, Tehla went on. "If I thought you would listen, I would tell you just one thing: go—tonight—and don’t come back. The plain is not a place for a valley woman. This is not the life you are bred for.”

"But I don’t intend to live here,” Lara protested. "I’m—I’m going to take the redmanes to my guild master, in the valley.” Yes. She was going to do it. She had to do it, no matter how the teaching haunted her. "We’ll work with their bloodlines together. We’ll breed the redmanes to live in the valleys, to help with the heavy work there. We’ll adapt them.” How could Berrel refuse, when she presented him with the nucleus of a herd?

Tehla shook her head. "Lara, that is a breeders’ misconception—oh yes, there have been others over the years, besides my friend and you—that they can work with the bloodlines of the redmanes.

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