White Mare's Daughter by Judith Tarr

Author:Judith Tarr [Tarr, Judith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: prehistorical, Old Europe, feminist fiction, horses
ISBN: 9781611383560
Publisher: Book View Cafe
Published: 2014-01-28T08:00:00+00:00

II: THE LADY’S OWN

50

Sarama had thought herself with child in the autumn, but just as she was sure of it, her courses came and swept away whatever life had begun in her.

That was the Lady’s will and her doing. Sarama could accept that. But she could not stop grieving for the child who would never be.

She did not speak of it to anyone. Danu might have grieved with her; and she did not want him to do that. He was too well content to be in Three Birds again. He was happy, even in the thing that she made him do, the instruction in fighting and in the ways of war.

For his sake she kept her sorrow to herself. He was greatly preoccupied between the ruling of his Mother’s house and the barest raw beginning of a fighting force.

It was bare indeed, and as raw as Sarama had ever seen. These people looked on fighting as a thing that only animals did. Men—human creatures—settled their differences without blows or bloodshed. They could only with difficulty bring themselves to strike, and then without force; and if by chance a blow fell hard enough to sway an opponent, the one who had struck the blow was tearfully apologetic.

Yet as hunters they were admirably skilled. They might mourn the prey after it was dead, but they pursued it with implacable purpose and slew it both swiftly and cleanly. If they could learn to think as hunters, hunters of men, they might begin to have some defense against the war that was coming.

That winter was the gentlest Sarama had ever known. Except when she was traveling from Larchwood to Three Birds, she was warm, out of the wind, in comfort unless she chose otherwise. There was enough to eat, and a great plenty in the feasts of the dark of the year and of midwinter and, most wonderful of all, in the very early spring, when the snow began to melt and the rivers to run free again. They had their flocks and herds and a great store of the grain that they planted and encouraged to grow. Hunger was a thing that few of them knew.

In the spring her courses paused again. She did not hope or even think much on it, as if the thinking itself might cause the child to slip away. It almost frightened her, how much she wanted this child to live. Better not to turn her mind to it at all; to let the Lady work her will.

Every morning unless it rained or snowed, Sarama went to an open field just outside of the city. There gathered the ones whom Danu had chosen, who might make warriors. They were the hunters, the runners and messengers, the tenders of herds who had defended them well against wolves. Most knew the bow and had some skill with the spear. They would happily shoot arrows and cast spears from sunrise to sunset, but when it came to fighting hand to hand, they took to it badly.

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