Read Online Shadow of the Horsemen (Kalie's Journey) by Sandra Saidak - Free Book Online Page B

left. There was to be a great feast that night and Kalie’s labor was needed. Varena had already collected the day’s fuel supply. Now she helped Kalie dig a pit that would be used that night to roast the goat that Altia had butchered. The pit would be lined with stones, heated by a fire above it, and the goat stuffed with vegetables, all of which Kalie and Varena were to gather.
    As they scoured the area around the camp for wild foods that hadn’t already been stripped by other women on the same errand, Kalie noticed a number of women busy with nets near the lake. She asked Varena about it.
    “Most of the nets belong to Leja,” said Varena, delighted as always to be the one Kalie turned to for information. “The rest to the other chief’s wives. Men sometimes hunt ducks and geese with spears, but that’s mostly for target practice. With those nets, Leja can sometimes bring down…” Varena apparently couldn’t count that high.
    “Mmm, sounds delicious.” Kalie tried to remember the last time she’d eaten roasted duck with fruit sauce or goose stuffed with oysters. “Will that be part of the feast?”
    Varena shrugged. “Maybe. Some of the women will make a special dish, if their men like birds. Most men prefer deer or boar—game they hunt themselves. But Leja and the other chief’s wives will feast while the men are away.”
    While Kalie liked the sound of celebrating the time away from the men, she wasn’t happy with the ever-present hierarchy. The chief’s wives owned the nets; the chief’s wives decided who got to eat bounty that should be shared by everyone.
    “Varena, is there any rule against individual women hunting for ducks and geese?”
    “I don’t think so. But only chief’s wives have nets—and they don’t share.” Varena looked pointedly at Kalie, as if fearing another speech about the weird customs of her people. “How could anyone hunt birds without a net?”
    “Come with me,” said Kalie, a smile sliding across her face. “I’ll show you.”
    Kalie led Varena to the huge waste trench that was, mercifully, dug downwind of the crowded camp. While each camp had its own privy for human wastes, this trench was for all the garbage accumulated in the course of nearly two thousand people gathered in one place for an entire season. As much as she hated the endless traveling, Kalie had to admit that even this tough corner of the earth couldn’t survive the abuse of beastmen living in one place year round.
    As smelly as the trench was, it held a wealth of useful objects, if one knew how to look. Kalie noticed that she was not the only forager here today. Ragged women sought scraps of food and pieces of hide to patch shoes, clothing and other necessities. Shadow women, they were called. Women without protection.
    Kalie recalled what she had learned of them before winter set in, when they had to find a tent to stay in, or die. They were women who had been cast out of their tents and families for various reasons, and had to live as best they could, begging and selling their bodies. There were never more than a few at any one time. Cassia had said it was because most Aahken women were honorable, and unlikely to merit such punishment. Kalie suspected it was because most who did were quickly killed, and that allowing a few to linger this way provided entertainment for the men and a warning to the women.
    She finally found what she was looking for: a section of sheep skeleton with several ribs still attached. Two of them had the right shape, so Kalie took them both.
    It was a busy day, and only Cassia’s long nap that afternoon afforded Kalie the time to shape the curved bones into throwing sticks. As Varena watched in fascination, Kalie turned the discarded ribs into simple weapons of deadly efficiency.
    That evening, with preparations completed and the warriors of the tribe busy with some esoteric business of their own, Leja and the other chief’s wives set their nets and waited for the