Chapter 63:

Four sunrises later, Rajani and Kebet were out on the training ground, preparing to return to the urb. As they shook the dust off their ballistas, Kebet turned to Rajani. “You ready for the open meeting tomorrow?”

Rajani shrugged. “It’s not like I have to do anything except stand there and look repentant. It’s Bharan who’s giving the proposal.”

The library meeting had occurred a week and a half ago. Since then, the lodge mother moot had decided to postpone their vote on the Jinkari Table’s ostracism. “Most of the lodge mothers want to give you another chance,” Mamai explained. Bharan had said the same. “My lodge mother pushed hard for you, said you wanted to atone for caring about the wrong things. She told the moot about my proposal. Urbiya wanted to ostracize you anyway, but the other lodge mothers overruled her. They want to wait and see how you behave.”

Wait and see how you behave. Scowling, Rajani kicked her sheathed boots against the sandy soil of the training ground. Only Kebet had seen the postponement for what it was: a threat. “The moot wants to see you carry out Bharan’s proposal. I bet they won’t vote against your Table’s ostracism until after the Gather’s Children are all dead.”

Well, if the lodge mothers wanted conformity, they had it. For three diurnals now, Rajani had behaved. She had visited Sukren in the castra-dome only once more. When Chief boasted about emptying the Gather’s Children ditch, she’d said nothing, merely glared. And that one time she’d shoved Pratap during training had been an accident.

Inside, though, Rajani felt like she was suffocating. The lodge mother moot, the Cursed at large, her Table, all of them were like weights pressing down on her. Lainla especially was no comfort. The sisters had spoken only once during the past three diurnals, and then, only to argue. “If all you care about is our Table, why are you so protective of Mayah?” “I care about people I know, Ni.”

Thinking about Lainla was making Rajani upset again. She looked out at the rain and sunlight falling together onto the az hedge field. Twenty-five more hours until sunset. Twenty-five more hours until Bharan gave his proposal. Twenty-five more hours until her fate was sealed.

“I wish open meetings were more often,” she said out loud.

“It’s the way we’ve always done it,” Kebet replied. “Every seven diurnals, trials are held during eventide on sunstir, and open meetings during eventide on sunwake.”

“It’s not really fair though. The lodge mothers get to submit proposals to each other every week. The rest of us have to wait until open meetings to make suggestions.” She gave Kebet a sidelong glance. “Maybe it’s the lodge mothers who have too much power.”

Grinning, Kebet shoved her. It was a slight push, but it was a warning all the same. Careful, Ni. Don’t start down that path.

Especially not with the open meeting tomorrow.

“Do you think the moot will really pass Bharan’s proposal?” she asked Kebet as the two began making their way south through the east forfend. Several other hunters had gone on ahead already; Rajani and Kebet were part of the second wave returning to the urb.

“Yes,” Kebet said. “What else could they do? They have no other solution.”

“I don’t know. Something else. I’m not convinced the lodge mother moot wants to pass a proposal that calls for trials and adoptions for overbelters. They want blood. The Cursed want blood.”

“Just don’t make trouble, Ni, and things will work out fine.”

Rajani managed to keep her voice even. “Everyone keeps telling me that.”

“That’s because it’s true.”

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Rajani looked away. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Nehik, Pratap’s cousin, walking alone through the east forfend. She frowned. The Vadyan Table did everything together. She had never seen a single one of their Table members by themselves.

Come to think of it, where was Pratap? She hadn’t seen him all sunstir.

She nudged Kebet. “Look.”

“Hm,” Kebet said. “He’s alone.”

“Did you see Pratap at all during training? Or any of the Vadyan this past diurnal, for that matter?”

“No, I didn’t.”

Odd. Hunters couldn’t miss training without Chief’s permission, and Chief Bikash almost never gave such permission. Lainla had had to argue with him at length when Rajani had been darted by the overbelter soldiers.

“I’m going to…” she stopped. What did it matter if the Vadyan Table members didn’t attend training? Why was it her business? Don’t make trouble, Kebet, and Lainla, and Mamai, and all the Cursed, had told her.

All at once a raw and writhing bitterness rose up inside her. I’m not making trouble, Rajani wanted to cry out. I’m just doing what makes sense!

“Ni…”

Rajani knew what Kebet was thinking. “I won’t make trouble,” she said. “I mean it. I just want to find out what’s going on. Maybe… maybe there’s a way out. Maybe these are the gods, giving me a way out.”

“I don’t think that’s how the gods work.”

Rajani thought Kebet was probably right. But then she glanced at Nehik. Something was wrong. Seeing him alone made her uneasy. Were the Vadyan planning something? She hesitated. Let it go, or dig deeper?

“Don’t do it, Ni.”

She glanced at Kebet. “Chief inspects the rubber forge after training every day, right? I’ll go ask him if he knows where the Vadyan Table members are. I won’t do anything else. I promise.”

Kebet looked skeptical, but he shrugged. “I’ll be down at the dais. I want to see if anyone I know is being put up for trial.”

Rajani nodded, feeling a pang of curiosity herself. Trials, weddings, funerals and open meetings were the only entertainments available to the Cursed outside of Gather’s Days. During the rainsoon season these events were held before dinner but after training so that hunters also could attend.

Where the east forfend opened up into the urb, Rajani and Kebet separated. While he made for the dais at the southern end of the atreola, Rajani went west toward the rubber forge. The meal benches she passed were empty. It looked as if almost everyone was clustered down at the other end of the atreola, watching the trials. If Rajani strained her ears she could almost hear a lodge mother indict the accused party: So be it.

Rajani peeled open the rubber forge door and stepped inside. Chief was standing in front of the shallow curing pool in the middle of the floor. Another hunter stood next to him. They both looked up when Rajani came in.

“You may go,” Chief said to the hunter after a glance at Rajani. “I’ll arrange for someone to replace your shift.”

The hunter nodded and brushed past Rajani. Only after he was gone did Chief address her. “What do you want?”

“Where are the Vadyan Table members?”

Chief looked at her. He gestured her towards him. Rajani approached him warily, stopping well before she was within arm’s reach. But Chief didn’t seem to notice. “I have a proposal to make as well,” he said to her.

“To the lodge mother moot tomorrow?”

“Yes.”

“What does that have to do with –”

He cut her off, and his voice was as it usually was when he wasn’t angry: calm, confident, and full of authority. “Pratap and his Table members are inside the castra-dome. Not just them, either. I sent several other hunters into the castra-dome as well. At tomorrow’s open meeting, I’m going to propose that we order them to kill all the Gather’s Children.”

Rajani caught her breath. In a flash she saw how Chief had bested her in a game she hadn’t even known he was playing. The Gather’s Children all inside the castra-dome, contained, would be easy prey for armed hunters – hunters that were already inside the castra-dome. The lodge mother moot would look at Bharan’s solution, then at Chief’s, and think: oh, yes, this one is much easier, and much less work, and much more final.

Her chest was heaving. After all she had let go of – after all she had suffered to stay true –

“No!” she shouted.