the Year the Horses came by Mackey Mary

Author:Mackey, Mary [Mackey, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2011-10-26T11:00:00+00:00

As she had suspected, Stavan didn't particularly like the idea of a summer vow, but he was relieved that she was willing to make any kind of promise at all, especially since the drums of the Snake Dance were still beating. "I want you all to myself," he told her, "and if that means I have to promise not to have other women — well, I've been thinking it over, and I've decided it's worth sacrificing some of my pride so we can have peace. It's not the kind of bargain any warrior in his right mind would make with a woman, and I'd be the laughingstock of my whole tribe if they found out, but I have to face the fact that things are different here and you're no ordinary woman, so, by Han, I'll do it! By winter I'll have persuaded you to take a longer vow, and sooner or later..." He didn't finish the sentence, but she could see he was still hoping she would take him as that thing he called a "husband." Well, let him hope. How did she know what she would feel by the time the rains came? They could be in Shara by then, and everything might be different.

That evening the two of them went into one of the small egg-shaped caves beneath the Eastern Temple and took their summer vow in front of a small statue of Hessa, the little Snake Goddess.

"This is our wedding day," Stavan said. "Back in the Sea of Grass all our relatives would be here, and we'd be having a great feast. You'd be wearing a white shawl and covering your face like a modest young woman" — he laughed and kissed her — "and I'd ride up on a fine stallion and carry you off while you screamed and scratched — or, rather, pretended to. Afterward the women would dance and the men would drink until dawn while we made love in a special white tent decorated with my father's clan signs."

As usual, when he spoke of the ways of his people, Marrah was puzzled. "What would be the point of pretending to steal me?" she said. "It sounds unpleasant and certainly unnecessary, and that long shawl would get in the way. I'd rather take vows as my people always take them, alone with only the Goddess to hear us."

Stavan couldn't explain why his people did what they did. Kissing her formally on the forehead, he took off one of Achan's gold bracelets and slipped it on her arm. "We'll do whatever makes you happy," he promised. And putting his hand on Hessa's round, coiled belly, he swore to love Marrah all summer, first in Hansi and then again in Shambah so she'd understand.

Things went well after that, and they were happy again for a long time.

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