"The Tinganjani Seal"
Part 1
by Osiris Brackhaus

 

"I hope for you that this is just a joke, Soraya! Are you trying to poison me?"

Most appalled, the honorable Shona Sirdai tossed the small piece of food the young warrior had handed her into the campfire.

"Answer me! Do you seriously believe you could pass this off to me as food? A shameful waste it was, nothing else."

"I am sorry, honorable Sirdai." How hard these simple words were to the young woman, and yet Soraya kept her meek stance despite the fire smoldering inside of her. Looking at the remnants of her berry-cake charring in the embers, she suddenly found it impossible not to reply caustically: "But I have warned you, Shona, I can't bake. I asked you to demand anything of me but to make anything that requires flour. And that's what you got. If at all, then it was you who wasted the food."

The old Sirdai's eyes turned into narrow slits as she blinked up at the young woman. "For a girl in the middle of her fifth-braid testing, you are amazingly insolent. You should learn to think before you speak, especially in such important situations. And now go and get me something decent to eat. Try to catch a rabbit. A young one, preferably."

And before Soraya could be tempted to give another hot reply, the old woman turned her piercing gaze back to the fire, the warrior at her side all but forgotten. For a moment, nothing of the old woman moved, her many-braided hair white and motionless as the snow on the border mountains.

"What's it?", the Sirdai then suddenly hissed without turning towards Soraya. "You're not gonna catch a rabbit like this, I hope you know that."

"Yes, honorable Sirdai. I know." She had pressed out the words between her teeth, and forced herself to leave for her horse before she could say more.

This was supposed to be her testing as a Warden, Soraya wondered as she called her horse by whistling on her fingers.
No running and fighting, no wise conversation, neither the history of the tribes nor her skills with the sword seemed to be of any interest with the old Sirdai. Instead, the 'Wise Woman' had turned out to be moody, arrogant, careless, and on long distances outright mean.
And of course, of all her little cooking skills had to offer, Shona Sirdai had had to pick out baking. And like every time, calling her tiny cakes 'very crispy' would have been undeserved flattery. Her father once had said to Soraya that she was able to burn things on a fire no one else would have been able to cook on.

Was it really worth all this?

If all Sirdai turned out to be that unbearable as soon as they were not out in the public any longer? Was she really willing to spend her life bonded inseparably to one of them?
Would her will to live be even strong enough to survive the ritual, knowing that all that waited for her was a lifetime of being bitched at?

With a deep sigh, the young Tinganjani warrior greeted her horse as it cantered out of a small thicket close by. There had been no signs of predators earlier on, at least none of the large ones, and therefore Soraya had decided there was little danger in having their horses run free. Patting the huge animal on the shoulder, she lithely jumped on its back, seeing no need for a saddle for such a short distance as she wanted to go.

Riding like the wind out onto the open plain, stringy grass high enough to brush her feet even now to her sides, she felt the tension flow away from her like ice on a mountain thawing in spring. This land was like her, wild, untamed and full of dangers, yet beautiful and glowing with health.
It was a good thing to be out again, to be away from that old Hag for a change, Soraya thought. And now it's a young rabbit that she wants. Fine, then it’ll be a young rabbit she gets.
Probably, she's making it doubly hard for me because I am a woman. But I will pass this bloody test, and I swear to the wind, I will be the first woman warden ever.

Even if I have to please this monster to get there.

----

Not even two hours later, when Soraya returned to the place where she had left Shona Sirdai, she found the old woman sitting at the fire, snoring. Or better, close to what was left of the fire.

Even though the young woman had thought herself sobered up and strong enough to face another night together with the old hag, her first instinct was to slap the Sirdai, and twice just for good measure.
Not even a child watching over a fire would dare to let it burn down like this! Has no one ever taught this incredible person anything of her duties?
The Sirdai were our priests, our judges, but apparently, there was a good reason they needed someone to watch over them.

Apparently irked out of her slumber by Soraya's furious thoughts, Shona Sirdai coughed and blinked, then looked up at first the fire, then the warrior next to her and the three young rabbits she was holding, then back to the fire and then to Soraya again.

"What actually made you think you were suited to become a Warden?", the old woman asked completely unexpected, and for a moment, Soraya was too stunned to reply.
"No, tell me girl, I am trying to understand." Both the fire and the rabbits seemed to be utterly forgotten, genuine interest sparkling in Shona's old eyes. "You were basically born with your first braid, as I have been told. You gained your second together with a spanking as you rode a Teja on your neighbor's horse when you were ten. Five years later, on the Seven Stones Junction, you earned your third one properly, only two years earlier than anyone else is tested on his spear. All the three-braids flocked to you like to a pack-wolf, you broke more arms of suitors than of enemies. Three years ago, you earned your fourth braid, with all recommendations, as I can see in your hair."

Unconsciously, Soraya brushed away the beaded red braids at her right temple that told so much of her skills and history. All the spirits, she thought with a cold feeling in her stomach. She's going to let me fail.

"Not a single person, man or woman, would question your qualification when it comes to leadership. You're a high-tempered, spirited girl with a heart of a mountain lioness. Why don't you marry? You could become your tribe's first woman chieftain."

"I could become the first woman Warden", Soraya replied flatly, feeling as if all she had worked for so hard in the last years was suddenly turning to dust.

"But why should you?", Shona Sirdai retorted sharply. "You're a fighter, not a servant. You have no feeling for the needs of a Sirdai. It's probably your father's fault at having given you such pointless dreams. He never really got over your mother's death."

"How can you dare!", Soraya hissed, throwing the rabbits at the old woman's feet. "You can treat me like dirt and still think I am not good enough for you, fine. But you have no right, no single right under the sky to talk like this of my father!"

"Cut it, girl, you're forgetting yourself!", the old Sirdai warned, but her words could as well have been a twinkle of starlight for all that it changed.

"No, you'll cut it now!" Throwing her mane of red hair over her shoulder, she pointed at the woman on the ground. "You can let me fail, that's your thing. But you now just stop it. I'm not your toy, but a renowned four-braid. I can lead troops into battle, and I'm not afraid to lose this one. My father never gave me any encouragement on my course, not for many years. That he does now is because he knows I'm doing things the right way. He's proud of me, as is my whole tribe. And if you don't see my worth, old hag, then you're simply rotting mistaken!"

Shona Sirdai opened her mouth to reply something, but Soraya cut her off, adding: "Just think of what you say. Your Warden's far away, and I could think this a great opportunity to give you the spanking you apparently have needed for a long, long time. And worst of all, while we're arguing here, the fire's burning down!"

The Sirdai's heavily wrinkled face seemed to change, somehow, and it took the young warrior a heartbeat to realize that Shona was grinning widely, for the first time ever since she had arrived at her tribe some days ago. Without looking away from Soraya, the woman gestured at the dull embers, and suddenly, they burst into flame, clear and smokeless as if they had never been burning low.

"Finally." No more explanation seemed to be necessary, and noisily, Shona Sirdai rose from the ground, brushing twigs and leaves off her pale robe. "Come with me, Soraya!"

"What..." Once again feeling at a loss on how to deal with this person, the young woman asked: "And what about the fire? And your rabbits?"

"Take the food with you, if it calms you. But now come, I've got to show you something."

To say that Soraya was severely doubting the old woman's state of mind would have been a polite way to put it. But there was a certain distinction in Shona's voice that hadn't been there before, and so the young four-braid followed the Sirdai up a nearby hill.

On its crest, between shrubs and small, wind-bent trees, huge boulders were looking out of the ever-present grass, and Shona Sirdai motioned the red-haired warrior to sit down on one of them. A light breeze was stirring the grass in front of her, and from her high seat on the hill, Soraya could look for miles onto the rolling hills and plains of her home, dotted here and there by thickets or single trees. A sight that never failed to catch her breath.

Gently, the old Sirdai move behind her, old hands resting like little birds on Soraya's shoulders. "Tell me, Soraya, what do you see?"

Soraya looked over her shoulder when asked this mad question, but a light touch of the Sirdai's hands bent her head back, herding her thoughts out towards the grass, the wind, the water that were spread out at her feet.

"Tell me, what do you see?"

Asked like that, there was only one answer in Soraya's heart she could truthfully give:

"Home. Our home."

Behind her back, Shona Sirdai made a noise that could have been a wheezing breath or a chuckle, but the young warrior had long ago given up trying to figure out what that woman was thinking.

"Yes, our home. The Tinganjani plain, though it's neither plain nor the Tinganjani's even where we stand on it."

Now even Soraya had to smile at the old woman's sharp observation. THIS was the kind of conversation she had expected upon leaving her tribe to be tested on her fifth braid.

"You've got so wonderful hair, girl. Would you let me brush it?"

"I, well, ... of course?" Soraya definitely was not seeing any sense in the old woman's jumping thoughts, but there also was definitely no point in arguing. So Shona started to brush out the warrior's waist-long hair strand by strand, and for a long time, no word was spoken.

Then, finally, it was Shona Sirdai again in the middle of her work who asked: "What do you think, Soraya? Who guards our home?"

"I - the tribes. Who else?" Soraya was not sure she knew where this was going to end. Was she being told of her failure in a very convoluted way? Or was the Sirdai giving her a last chance? But then, why should she?

"Yes, the tribes. Of course. But who tells the tribes what to do?"

"The chieftains."

"Yes. And who ensures the chieftains are doing their job properly?"

"The tribes!" Laughing loud by now, Soraya added: "We'd whack them black and blue if they didn't!"

Joining in the young woman's laughter, Shona Sirdai took her time to calm down before she said: "Right, girl, absolutely right. But let me ask differently: Who guides the chieftains when they look for advice?"

"Their advisors, I'd say", Soraya snapped, then stuck her tongue out at the Sirdai. "But I can see where you are going. It's the Sirdai guiding the chieftains, that's what you wanted to hear, isn't it?"

"It's not what the chieftains want to hear, huh? But I asked you your opinion, not what I wanted to hear. And as you can already see where this is leading, go there on your own. I'll be contend with your hair."

Soraya blinked, angry at her own over-quick comment. Taking in a deep breath, she braced herself to try and understand what this riddle was about.

"I think that if a chieftain thinks himself guided by a Sirdai, he's either chasing spirits or the Sirdai has done a terribly sloppy job."

A soft chuckle, this time clearly distinguishable, was all the encouragement Soraya needed to go on.

"So it is the Sirdai guiding the chieftains." Shona had been guiding her along a path ever since they had come up onto this hillock, and there must be an obvious next question. Suddenly, Soraya noticed the pattern in the previous questions, and the conclusion was almost heretic in her eyes. "Who's guiding the Sirdai?", she whispered softly, feeling hard pressed to accept that even the wise women of the tribes would need someone to watch over them.

But then again, she had thought so several times today herself. The Sirdai were travelling from tribe to tribe, both as there were never enough Sirdai for each of the twenty-four of them and also to exchange news and knowledge that otherwise would travel far too slow with the Tinganjani along their perpetual routes. They were travelling alone, only accompanied by their individual Wardens.

They had no tribe to watch over them, to warn or rein them in should they ever run out of hand. A Warden was all the tribe a Sirdai had...

"It is the Wardens guiding the Sirdai! To prevent them from becoming such grizzled old hags like - " Soraya bit her tongue in the very last moment, but the gleeful laughter behind her back told her it had been too late anyway. Surprised at the Sirdai's companionable reaction, the young warrior turned around only to look in Shona Sirdai's widely grinning face, her wrinkled skin speaking of many summers with harsh sunlight, blistering winters and most surprisingly, many hours of smile and laughter. "Oh you...!", Soraya exclaimed as it finally dawned to her. "You've only been playing the monster all the time!"

Shona Sirdai nodded, beaming like a child who had pulled a prank on his tribe’s council of eldest. Yet she didn't speak, apparently waiting for Soraya to put together some more pieces on her own.

"But... why?" Soraya asked bewildered, and before she could think of any reason, something odd on the fringe of her vision caught her attention. Almost violently, she grabbed the braids dangling down from her temple, staring at the latest addition in utter disbelief. "Five...?"

"All the spirits, the girl can't bake, but at least she can count." Shona Sirdai walked around, taking her into a tight hug. "Congratulations, girl. Now rise, Soraya of the Stone Forest tribe, first woman five-braid in the history of the Tinganjani. Your tribe awaits you."

"I have passed?" Soraya couldn't really grasp it. "Are you sure?"

"Now don't make me think twice, girl", Shona Sirdai said with a wink. "Yes you have, and the braid won't disappear once you let go of it. I have to admit it was pretty close at times, but you have passed. Without recommendation, but still. Remember what you have learned about a Warden's duty today. You're smart enough yourself to know that telling would do more harm than anything else."

With a pat on Soraya's shoulder, the old Sirdai started to walk down the hill again, only to turn around, looking at the young warrior with a sad note in her eyes. "You'll be one of the best Wardens ever, girl. When the call comes to you to be bonded, there will be very little time to decide whether you want to marry and stay with your tribe or go with your Sirdai and life alone. Make up your mind now, girl, before you walk down this hill. There might be no time later."

Soraya nodded, still stunned by the unexpected success and the sudden reality of having to make up her mind about a question she had until then only seen as distant possibility.

"I'll be down, packing camp, waiting for you. Take you time, girl, there might not be another chance." Shona Sirdai winked at her again, and then disappeared among the shrubs. "Once you've made up your mind, we'll be on our way to your tribe."

With a deep sigh, Soraya looked out onto the rolling plain again. It had always seemed an obvious conclusion of her life to become a Warden. She couldn't imagine having a man for the rest of her life, or leading a tribe as a chieftain.
But was walking the plain alone with a Sirdai really the better choice? And what if the call never came?

And yet, whatever doubts Shona Sirdai might have brought up, they still seemed weightless. Her place was to be a Warden, Soraya thought, at the side of my Sirdai, living without a tribe and yet with all of them.
Even if other grass might look greener now, it's not my place.

 

If you enjoyed this story, please send feedback to: Osiris Brackhaus

go to PART 2

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