The Secrets of Jin-shei by Alma Alexander

Author:Alma Alexander [Alexander, Alma]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2010-08-10T04:00:00+00:00

Four

Tammary fled, first for the anonymity of the fair crowd and then through and beyond them into the woods behind the village. It was cooler here under the boughs of the pine trees, and there were still patches of snow in sheltered spots behind the larger trees. Tammary’s shawl was still on the bench where she had laid it down when she had maneuvered Raian to the closest free table at the picnic area so that she could eavesdrop on the conversation between her aunt and her two interesting companions. But it was more than just the chill of the shadowed forest after the warm spring sunshine out on the open fairground that made Tammary shiver as she hugged her shoulders with her hands.

All her life she had known that she did not quite belong, that she had been touched by a breath of scandal. But no more than that. She was different, yes—her dark eyes and her bright hair set her apart from the rest of the Traveler children with whom she had grown up. No secret had ever been made of the fact that she was not her aunt’s natural child, and that had been enough for the children, themselves aware of only whispers and rumors, to taunt her with her differences and take the usual childish glee in finding a victim they could torment. The more Tammary had tried to immerse herself in the culture of her mother’s people, the more pointed the references to her chayan ancestry had become.

“Your family has always run away,” some of the older ones had goaded Tammary. “Your cousins go away to the chayan cities, and your mother went and had a chayan man get you on her.”

“You don’t think you’re good enough for us, you always go looking for something better.”

“You aren’t really one of us,” the younger ones would chime in, unable to understand the innuendoes but all too happy to join in with whatever they could muster. “You ought to be keeping a yearwood stick with the Imperator beads! Pol-chayan! Pol-chayan!”

Half-chayan. Half-breed. Outcast.

She sought solitude when she could, growing up wild in the mountains. She had climbed rugged mountainsides by herself, had taken a near-grown falcon chick when she was only eleven or so and had trained it to come at her call, and ridden half-wild horses bareback, her skirts hiked up to her hips like a hoyden’s and her bright hair flying like a banner behind her. She had watched her peers learn the steps of the Traveler dances, and had gone off alone into the ruins of the Summer Palace and practiced them until she knew that she could outdance any of the village girls. But she knew that, should the clans go out again on the summer trails, she would not be one of the dancers who would do the shows for the applauding crowds, she would not be the one who would train a wild thing and show off her mastery to the admiring people of the cities on the plain.

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