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.”Well, that last was how the western folk thought of the Vanyar.Was there a people so vast in numbers that even the Vanyar thought them uncountable? Yocote shuddered at the thought.“They are hard, these centaurs?”“Very hard; they show no trace of pain, and delight in slaughter and in rapine—or so said our grandmothers; we ourselves have never seen them.” Masana shuddered, too.“Pray to all gods that we never shall!”“So your grandfathers needed to conquer new lands in which to live.” Yocote frowned.“But why do you continue to do so?”“Because the centaurs might come again,” Masana said, “and because by the time our mothers were born, we Vanyar had filled the lands our grandfathers had conquered.If we were to live, we must needs do so by conquering more.”“You must bear many babes.Do your women bring them forth three and four at a time?”“Litters like those of dogs?” Masana scoffed, but her eyes brightened with anger.“No.We only know it is a woman's duty to bear as many children as she can.”Yocote was astounded.“What blasphemy is this? Women die from too much child-bearing—their bodies wear out!”Masana shrugged.“There are always more women to take their places—or so say Bolenkar's priests.They tell us a woman must always be willing, no matter whether she wishes it or not.” Her tone was becoming bitter.“If she is not willing, so much the worse for her! I wonder if those priests would say this if they had themselves been raped—but rape is all to the better, they say; Bolenkar would rather have rape than have the woman knowing pleasure.Thereupon he tells us another reason to conquer—to capture unwilling women and beget children upon them by force.If a man wants slaves, says Bolenkar, he should get them himself—get their mother by conquest, then get them upon her!”“So your men have many slaves.” Yocote shuddered.“Axe the children reared as slaves, or as Vanyar?”“The boys are Vanyar.The women are slaves.” The sardonic set of her mouth told him that even the full-blooded Vanyar women were slaves, but she dared not say it.“But children require food, clothing, warmth, and shelter,” Yocote replied.“How is a Vanyar warrior to gain them?”“By conquest,” Masana replied.“And if he fails?”“Then they die.”Yocote shuddered.“It is otherwise among the western peoples, even among us gnomes! Among humans a man may not wed until he has built himself a house, cleared land to farm, and proved his ability to provide by raising crops and bringing home meat from the hunt for a year or two—and must prove also, of course, that he can slay a bear who threatens them, or even a bandit.”“And how many children does he sire before he weds?”“Some do,” Yocote admitted, “but they must bring home food for the babes nonetheless, even should they marry another—and they are viewed with contempt for years after.”Masana nodded slowly.“That is better for the women, yes— but once they are wed, how many children do they bear?”“As many as the Creator gives them,” Yocote replied.“Some have none, some have fifteen—but most have only four or five.”“Four or five in a woman's whole lifetime?” Masana said in disbelief.“How comes this?”“I am still a bachelor,” Yocote said sheepishly, “so I do not truly know—but our shamans say that a man must not lie with a woman, even his wife, unless she wishes it.” He could not help a sly smile.“Of course, I am told that many men are quite skilled at bringing their wives to wish it.”“A wondrous law!” Masana cried.“Is this what Lomallin teaches his people?”“Lomallin's ghost, and the still-living Ulin woman Rahani,” Yocote told her.“But if what you say is so, a man who has four or five wives would father only twenty or twenty-five children!”“Twenty-five?” Yocote stared.“Where would he find food for so many? No, most of our folk wed only one wife—or only one at a time, at least; there are some couples that divorce and find new partners.”“Only one wife?” Masana said with surprise.“How could he be content?”“Ah.” Yocote smiled.“Therein are our women skilled.You might as well ask how a woman can be content with the same husband for a whole lifetime, and I must admit that some cannot, even as some men cannot—but most of our men seem skilled at keeping their wives content with their lot, and with their men.”“Rahani must teach them both wondrous things,” Masana muttered.“We are told that this is better for the children,” Yocote added.“They are secure in their parents' love, and in having the attention of one man and one woman, whom they know to be their mother and father.”“It is true, it is very true! For a child to have to struggle for the father's attention, against the children of the favorite wife, is as cruel as the mother struggling for some small part of her husband's regard! In fact, many have no more attention than he gives his cattle, and less than he gives his horse!”“Even so,” Yocote agreed.“Thus we limit the number of marriages, and folk wed later—and thus are there fewer children born to our folk.That is sad in itself, perhaps, but happier in that there is more assurance that none of the children will starve.But we boast that more of our women are happy than among the city-folk of the south, and that more men are happy, too.”“I think that I like your notion of happiness,” Masana said.“But what happens when a father dies in war?”“Then all the other folk of the tribe band together to see to it that his wife and babes do not starve, or go too badly in want,” Yocote told her.“Still, wars are rare among us, and generally nothing more than a hundred men or so in one single battle.”His face darkened.“At least, so it was until Bolenkar's emissaries came among us.”“I shall be his emissary no longer,” Masana said, with sudden and total conviction.“I shall match my spells against those of his priests, and if I die, I die—but if I live, I shall free the Vanyar from his tyranny!”Yocote stared, amazed at the transformation he had wrought.Masana saw, and smiled.“Do not be so surprised, little shaman—you have told me things I never knew, given me knowledge that Bolenkar and his priests have withheld from us! Of course I have embraced a teaching that could so bless me, and all my kind! It is not you who have persuaded me, but truth itself—and the truth shall free us all! Come, let us go back to the world of men and women, and I shall sing the Vanyar this song of freedom! Away!”With that, her form seemed to melt, to vibrate, and to harden again into the shape of the hawk.She climbed aloft in a crackling of wing beats and shot off toward the World Tree, then began to slip and slide through the air in a spiral about it, descending.Yocote hurried to follow her, changing back to the form of the badger as he did.Singorot stood panting, and Culaehra could visibly see the man summon the last of his energy.He swung his huge broadsword with a convulsive heave, and Culaehra ducked under its path with ease.The Vanyar tried to change the direction of the slash at the last moment, and Culaehra, with a flash of inspiration, rose just enough for the blade to catch Corotrovir and slam it back against his helmet—and he could have sworn the sword snarled at him for it
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