The Armageddon Blues | Page 3

before she had even reached the hills beyond the forest. The little girl had fallen asleep beneath an old willow, at the edge of the grassy meadow that led up to the foothills. Ralesh, a woman of early years, awoke the five-year old unceremoniously, and ran the child the kilometers back to the Clan House without comment.
She whipped the child publicly. Five lashes; she was not a severe mother. When the punishment was over, she took her daughter back to the Girls' House. She put her daughter to bed; kissed her on the forehead, and said gently, "Child, the woods are dangerous for children. There are bears and Real Indians. There is nothing at the end of the Big Road; the stories are lies."
Her daughter stared up at the oak planks of the Girls' House. She did not speak.
Ralesh sighed. "Daughter, understand this; I will catch you. You cannot run so far nor so fast that I will not find you. Remember that." She left, and left the girl alone.
When she was gone, Jalian d'Arsennette, the straight-line female descendant of Dilann d'Arsennette, finally let the tears come. It was strange, though; the tears were external, they tracked down her cheeks and she could hear herself sobbing, but inside none of it mattered.
Inside she was as cold and calm as an elder Hunter. They would be watching her now; but now was not always. Summer would come again.
Ralesh's words stayed with her, though, like a curse that would not be shaken.
"You cannot run so far nor so fast ... I will catch you."
Jalian's hands clenched into fists. Summer would come.
They gave Jalian few duties on the day the Hunters came back; she finished them early, and slipped out of the Clan House when nobody was watching her. She wandered through the village aimlessly, stopping to play a game of strike with one of the boys. (She was only beginning to understand that boys were not fit company; she had not yet learned why that was so, except that in all the stories it was the boys who caused the Fire.)
By the time the watch was preparing to change, she had reached the clearing that separated Selvren village from the forest. She squirmed into what cover she could find at the south end of the clearing; brown-haired and brown-clothed, she would have been hard to see in any case. Against the brown summer meadow grass she was next to invisible.
The clearing was a ten-second run for Jalian, from one end to the other, and it was in clear view of the Clan House. Out in front of the Clan House the men were tending the fires that would be used to smoke the catch the Hunters returned with.
Ten seconds.
The watch's replacements arrived. The women stood together, gossiping for a few moments, before the new guards assumed their posts.
Jalian drew her legs up under her, checked her knife to make sure the sheath was securely tied down, peered toward the Clan House one last time....
She ran.
Ten seconds was a long time; long enough to think of exactly what Ralesh would do to her if she was seen, if she was caught. Run, and run, and run.... Jalian reached the trees at the north end of the clearing, running as fast as she had ever run before. Her foot caught in a tuft of the long brown grass at the last instant and sent her tumbling. She did her best to convert it into a roll as she had been taught, but still the wind was knocked from her lungs and she had trouble breathing when she regained her feet. Fighting silently to pull air into her emptied lungs, Jalian squirmed up to the edge of the decent cover and peered out. There was no unusual activity over at the long wooden Clan House, nothing out of the ordinary for early morning in the late thaw-time ... she had not been seen.
Jalian grinned fiercely. It would be late afternoon, now, before she was missed, and by then she would be long gone. They would know where she had gone, when she failed to show up to help with the preparation of the Ceremony meal, but by then, with luck, it would be too late. If the Hunters started out after her the instant they became aware of her absence, Jalian would still have a third-day start.
With luck, before nightfall Jalian would be in the land of the gods and demons that was at the end of the Big Road. She did not think that anyone but Ralesh would try to follow her there--and perhaps not even Ralesh.
Jalian turned, her long brown hair swirling out behind her, and vanished into the trees. She left no trail.
None.
Her name is Jalian. Yes, Jalian d'Arsennette, except that there