Lioness Rampant by Tamora Pierce Page B

BORDER, THE ROAD BEGAN TO climb. The nights were cold, although it was May; Alanna was glad for Liam’s warmth in their bedroll. Thayet was the first to don a fur-lined cloak, but the others soon followed suit.
    Thayet and Buri joined the Dragon’s morning exercises, learning Shang hand-to-hand combat. Alanna was surprised at how well she herself did. Evidently the years of training for knighthood helped her now. She could feel the difference in her body when they practiced, as her muscles took hersmoothly from kick to blow and back. Filled with the optimism that comes from being physically fit, she mentally dared the Roof to do its worst.
    The farther Thayet got from home, the more relaxed she was. She spoke about her childhood so frankly that Alanna thanked Coram for his affectionate, if gruff, raising of her and Thom. Thayet was the daughter of a ruler who wanted a son; only Kalasin made her feel loved. It was Kalasin who taught Thayet K’miri ways, Kalasin and Buri’s family.
    â€œI could never be as good a queen as my mother,” Thayet said. She grinned. “Not that it makes a difference now. I won’t be a queen at all.”
    â€œAre you sorry?” Alanna wanted to know. She had been terribly frightened when Jon asked her to be his wife, knowing someday she would have to be his queen.
    â€œA little,” Thayet admitted. “I’d like to change things. In Sarain, for instance, women have no rights—just those our husbands or fathers grant us. Estates and fortunes are held by men. Women can’t inherit.”
    â€œThat’s barbaric!” protested Alanna. “At home women inherit. Not titles, but they have lands. I’m Myles’s heir by law—it isn’t common, but it happens.”
    â€œTortall sounds wonderful,” sighed Thayet.
    â€œYou’ll find out when you get there,” the knight promised. To herself she added, We’ll all find out a thing or two when we get there, especially Jon. She grinned in spite of herself.
    As the winter snows began to melt, traffic picked up. The roads were thick with miners, trappers, and merchant caravans. Alanna’s company passed herdsmen driving flocks to the markets in the south. Farmers waved as they went by, their wagons filled with cheeses, brightly woven cloth, and chickens. Only the Doi tribesmen remained aloof. They were a people like the K’mir, though less fierce than their western cousins. They were expert at survival in the Roof; the most experienced guides were Doi, and the best furs came from their hidden villages.
    The travelers rode deeper into the highest mountains in their world, where snow still lay in scattered drifts and patches along the road. Alanna battled rising impatience. For some reason, she felt that she ought to be on the way home. It would be foolish to turn back when they were so close, but she wanted to find the pass and do whatever it demanded, then leave.
    She tried to reach Thom or Jonathan with hermagic, but it was impossible. Too much distance lay between them. She hadn’t been able to show Coram his Rispah since they’d left the convent. Perhaps Thom had the power to reach across the continent—she didn’t.
    Several days after they had crossed the border, she fell in beside Coram and signaled him to drop back with her. When they were out of their friends’ hearing, she asked abruptly, “Have you been joining with the Voice?” She referred to a Bazhir rite: Each day at sunset all who were Bazhir by adoption or birth entered into a magic communion with the Voice of the Tribes. The Voice heard news through this link, judged disputes, counseled his people. Since their adoption into the Bloody Hawk, both Alanna and Coram were able to enter into the joining, but Alanna had never done so. At first she refused out of a reluctance to let anyone, even someone as bound by duty and obligation as the Voice, into her mind. Later, after Prince