Travel Diary of Khushi Cheraim, 4

selday

Written in the bed of Commander Moyri of the Order of the Sworn in Essle, with as little light as I can possibly make to write by And I’m not alone in this bed. She is here, too, Moyri, I mean. Only now she’s fallen asleep I begin to realize how crazy it was of me to try to seduce the Commander of the Order of the Sworn — during a fencing match, too! Still, I succeeded, didn’t I? Directly after the fencing match was over, I’d won, and she’d ticked me off for trying to make love to her in her mind during the fighting… We went to bed, and then we went to take a bath in the nearest Síthi bath house, some food and then back to bed. It was rather terrifying, to see the appetite for sex someone who usually doesn’t have it can have, when they finally can have sex. It was lots of fun, too. Still, the little mind-kisses I sent her during fencing must’ve been welcome, right — otherwise she should should have been able to kick me out of her mind like snapping her fingers. But I’m wondering why I’m doing these […]

A party!

nalenay

In the morning I told Ashti what the neighbours had said but she said it was nonsense. “They were born on the Feast of Timoine, we’ll name them on the day of Anshen!” So I went into town with Lady Rava’s purse. First to the Apple, where the landlord was just opening shutters and putting stools upright that had been on the tables. “Hey, you’re early!” he said, then recognised me. “You’re the painted woman’s man, right? How is she?” “Splendid, and so are the twins! We’re having the name-giving tomorrow. I’d like a barrel of apple wine, and a barrel of beer. Our eldest kid brews these days, but not nearly enough!” He laughed. “And pie?” He started writing on a slate. “And pie! There are a lot more people coming than we’d thought. Dozens.” I rattled the purse. “I can pay, no problem.” “Oh, we’ll send you a bill, If it isn’t what you expect –” “I’ll pipe up,” I said. “No, you won’t,” he said with a grin that made it clear that the bill would probably be too low rather than too high. “Do I get sweets in the Síthi quarter?” I asked. “Yes, the best […]

Travel Diary of Khushi Cheraim, 3

selday

Written in the house of Hylti and Arni, in broad daylight Well, I’ve found a way to give Aldan the bread he wants instead of pancakes. One night, after he had gone to sleep, I’ve made a sourdough starter with flour, water and spittle, and cradled it between my breasts to keep it warm. The next morning, before he woke up, I divided it in two, and used half to mix with more flour and water, and made lumps and put them in the fire. When Aldan woke up, they had become quite edible buns, so with a little fried salted bacon and pease, it was a good breakfast. I’ve kept the starter between my tits ever since until we arrived in Three Hills, when I could put it in Hylti’s kitchen and care for it. It’s warm and bubbly, so I don’t mind much. But I wish Aldan would make up his mind, because after a couple of days he was asking for pancakes again! In any case, we arrived safely in Three Hills after about a week of travel, and there we had a surprise! We were right in time for the Festival of Dayati! In fact, this […]

Visitors

nalenay

Having new babies in the house is exhausting! Only the babies got enough sleep. Ashti and I didn’t, and not even Arni who did all the shopping and most of the other work we didn’t get round to. Thank the gods for the neighbours who were in at all hours with food and drink and clean laundry! Just as we thought it was finally quiet there was a knock at the door. More visitors! The children were just back from school so Raisse ran to open. We heard her voice, “You are the lady who we stayed with and you said we couldn’t live in your house forever.” “Yes, I am,” we heard Lady Rava’s voice say, “and I see you now have a house of your own to live in!” “And you are the lady that everybody had to make a seal so the whole town wouldn’t hear you fuck,” Raisse said. “Yes, that’s who I am,” we heard Doctor Cora’s voice say. And then both of the ladies came in and cooed over the babies. Neither of them had ever had twins, though Lady Rava had eleven children. “You know, I think I’m pregnant again,” Doctor Cora said, […]

The Feast of Timoine

nalenay

With all the things Maile had told us to get for winter, and what people gave us, we had a really good winter! Now winter is always warm here, but Halla’s hens kept laying almost until the Feast of Naigha and she thought that was unusual, too. And then the Ishey also gave us a jar of pickled eggs to use when Halla’s eggs ran out. Raisse and Arni learned to brew so well that we always had some beer, mostly good enough, sometimes really excellent. The Ishey hadn’t only given us eggs and caught a boar, but they’d also made a crib, all carved wood! Two very black young men came to bring the pieces and put them together. They took the two small cribs apart and stored them in our attic so there was room next to the big children’s bed, and the crib was on wheels so we could easily move it wherever we wanted. The more I looked at the carvings, the more I was sure they’d used Ashti’s skin paintings as a model, even the hedgehog and fox mothers were there! “Perhaps you can make a little straw mattress to fit,” I said to Raisse. […]

Ferin writes to his mother

nalenay

Dear Ma, First I didn’t dare write because there were still people around who wanted to catch me, and then I was too busy to even think of writing, but now I  have news that I must write to you: you are a grandmother! Twice over! Because my and Ashti’s daughter and son, Lysna (called after Ashti’s grandmother) and Doran (called after Da), were born on the Feast of Timoine. Yes, that’s not a day that priestesses of Naigha’s children are born, but Ashti isn’t a priestess any more and we’re getting married at Midsummer. We also have Ashti’s other children, Arvin and Sidhan, and Raisse, a little girl we adopted in Valdis when her mother and sister died of the measles, so we’re the parents of a large family though Ashti is only eighteen and I’m only just fourteen. I don’t know how much of the news from Nalenay reached Ashinay but I’m sure you know that I haven’t been with Master Rhanion for a year now. I think the queen had him hanged! Because he and his sister and some other people did a lot of horrible things. They made kids younger than me who should really be […]

A letter to Nalenay

nalenay

Dear Grandmother, dear Mother, dear replacement-who-sleeps-in-my-bed-and-who-I-will-call-my-Sister, I should have sent my letter to you all months earlier, but then I thought, well, nobody can get letters to Nalenay in winter anyway, so who not wait until spring? And so here’s this letter… My dear Sister, first a word for you: Grandmother told me she and Mother had taken in a girl who wanted to become an acolyte, who was now sleeping in my old bed. I do hope so very much you are still sleeping in my old bed and helping out Grandmother and Mother. Though live in the service of Naigha means poverty when it comes to food, furniture and other fussy things, it brings rewards that I know and feel I’m missing. And that I will feel missing from life the rest of my life. Because, Grandmother, Mother, Sister, I have to be honest and truthful, and the honest truth is, I am not going back to the temple. There was not one day, one moment, when I decided to stay with Ferin and the children, here in Turenay, but it came gradually, and then, there was one moment where I decided how I would tell myself, my […]

Travel Diary of Khushi Cheraim, 2

selday

They’re getting to know each other! Written in the house of Jeran, by the light of my own anea. This morning we left Turenay! We first went to Master Mernath’s workshop, to collect my sword and knife. He even had a sheath for me. Cynla’s girlfriend, Halla, was opening the shutters of the butcher’s where she works, and I surprised everyone by buying a small barrel of salted bacon. Had they not seen that I’d eaten of the pie last night, which had meat in it? At home, we don’t eat meat, of course, it’s forbidden, as is walking over the head of another person by mounting to the first floor of a house. Have I not been in the library at school, which is on the third floor? Really, people should use their eyes, memory and mind before they declare themselves surprised. Well, with sword, knife, scabbard and bacon, we went to the West Gate. At the West Gate Mother, Baran and Bachche were waiting for me! Hugs and kisses and tears! And Mother had brought me a packet with sweets to take with me, too. Outside the gates, we first mounted our mounts. I had been brave and […]

Travel Diary of Khushi Cheraim, 1

baby runners, selday

She was surprised to be sent but it’s all for the best. For now, anyway.   Written in the hay loft of the school’s stables by the light of my own anea. Today I was truly set free! Before noon, a first-year told me Lady Rava, our principal, wanted to see me. Immediately. Quickly I went through what I’d been doing in the past couple of days, but apart from spending a night in the hay with the stable hand, nothing naughty that I could think of. Dayati knows, I try to be the most obedient and helpful student and daughter that could exist in the entire world, and cheerful, eager, hard-working and diligent student and daughter as well. Everything for a peaceful life! And it’s not wrong to kiss boys or girls, at least not to my Valdyan side: I am already seventeen, after all. Of course, Father has only allowed me to attend the Guild School because it confers prestige on him; parents of children who attend the school led by the Mother of the Queen are not invisible! And only as long as I also helped Mother and Baran in our confectionery shop just as much as […]

Lessons

nalenay

The day after the Feast we all went back to work again. If I’d really wanted to see the wrestling I could perhaps have got a couple of hours off for it, but Master Mernath had told us that the first week after the Feast of Mizran was when the Ishey sent their twelve-year-olds to learn about iron. “And we teach them as much as they can learn but they never put that knowledge and skill into practice,” he said with a scowl. “Why not?” I asked. “They’ve never used iron, it’s not what Ishey do. But they send us their boys to learn that they can master the power of iron, it makes them into men. They’re strange people. But they pay well, and teaching someone who has to learn the very beginnings of the craft is one of the best ways to learn.” When I arrived at the workshop Jichan was opening up, and I saw with a shock that there was no fire at all! The whole forge had been cleared and swept out. Just as the master came from upstairs five young people came into the workshop, all dressed as Ishey men in blankets though at […]