Quibble, 65. Nahli-qah

Caught in the Aht-nah's trap, the jah Asreh fears for her life.

65. Nahli-qah @Quibble

“I am glad of this!” Asreh told me as we walked with Nuah in im-li-suhl towards the mouth of the box canyon, heading for the Aht’s communal fire. “You seem wise, Qeht-uhn-far-jah-im-li-djer. I believe you will understand how I feel. And of course I want my father’s advice.”

“Your father?” I said.

“Me,” Nuah said.

Lurah had said they were kin, but I had assumed distance – cousins, perhaps. It was somehow unsettling to learn that, as Nuah, the vision had been a father long before I met him. I thought again of my father, whom I abandoned when I went Without, with a pang of regret. Fearful it would cause him trouble, I didn’t tell Quandary what I was doing. Now, recalling his tears when I returned from the Large Spiral and we reunited, I knew without a doubt I’d left him in pain.

“I have not betrothed myself for a reason,” Asreh went on. “You mentioned the Uhn-far’s law, confession. Far also have laws of marriage, though Salah and Itay seem to forget it. They and the few others still above my shield call me their jah, but I am also nahli-qah. When my mother the jah died, her shield should have passed to me, but the nah adopted me until once I have married. Until then, Sen-aht-nah-lapi claimed, I am a jah only in name. She went on to present me with a series of suitors, all men I judged of bad character. The nah says I am making trouble because I try to be like Nefri, doing just as you said, Qeht, following my own dictates. But when she presents me with sah-uhn-say, what am I to say but no?”

I looked at Nuah. “Sah-uhn-say?”

“Uhn-say have no tribe. Sah-uhn-say are mercenaries who hire themselves. The men riding with the nah when we met the Aht are sah-uhn-say. Jah, when did the nah begin to retain sah-uhn-say?”

“After you disappeared. She cited the law of the Isleh to make sah-uhn-say her nahli-sah. My mother the jah opposed it. I think the Aht-sah were on her side, but the nah had her way, and over time the force of nahli-sah grew. Two years ago, when we journeyed north, Halim-uhta-nah-qasreh implored Nefri to become her nahli-qah, for she was old and knew she would soon find the sea. But Sen-aht-nah-lapi recruited many more sah-uhn-say on the journey, and of the most roguish sort – not honorable people such as Lurah. The jah would not hear of abandoning her people to their mercy. As we returned south, things were rapidly coming to im-hel-qah. Then the jah died suddenly, carried off to the sea in great pain. I believe the nah poisoned my mother. And now I am caught between four shields. On one side, the families above my shield urge me to marry soon, lest the shield itself be lost. On another side, I am above the nah’s shield, and I cannot get her to free me to court on my terms. The third shield is mine. I am Nefri’s daughter, and my mind and my body are my own!”

“Why can’t you free yourself?” I asked.

“Nahli-qah!” Asreh repeated. “Because I was orphaned before I betrothed, I am the last of the Wahn. The nah says I am hers to command. Jahli-ri, your arrival defeats her scheme, if only she will admit you are my father. She insists you are dead.”

“The Aht-sah recognized me.”

“That may be the only reason you are alive. At the nah’s fire, I would like you to tell the Aht how you became Djer. I believe that is how the nah will attack you. Already, at last night’s fire, she spoke evil of the Djer.”

While Nuah brooded on this, I brooded on home and Nish. By asking for say with the Aht, we’d unwittingly embroiled ourselves in the tribe’s intrigues. I was jahli, though, and as I understood im, if I wanted Asreh’s help, I had to give her mine.

“You needed our advice, jah?” I said.

“I am afraid, Qeht. I do not like to say it, but this nah is bad, much worse for the Aht than her warlike mother. Because she bears the whispering sword on her lap, she thinks she is her mother. But Sen-aht-nah-lupah only waged battles she could win. Sen-aht-nah-lapi speaks of raiding in the North, warring on Qehb and Sqoh and even Uhta. She even speaks to her nahli-sah of war against the Djer! She is Sen, and she remembers what the Djer inflicted on that tribe. You will see anxious faces tonight. The nah raised an army to sate her bloodlust, but the Aht have had enough of the Sen’s wars, and now we want peace with our neighbors. People look to me to lead dissent. That is the fourth shield. I believe the nah poisoned Nefri to avoid a fair fight and now she has put me between these shields to provoke me to im-hel-qah. I am trying to avoid it, for I know I will lose, and then I will die. By the nah’s whispering sword or my qahli’s dagger, I will find the sea! That is the nah’s game of bones.”