Where the Wind Takes Us
Her father’s loud call was like a sudden flash of lightning in the darkness. Rumina awoke to the call, trembling finely from fear and covering her face with her hands. Her heart felt like it was about to pound out of her chest. Euroka Tahn meant “Valley of the Forest King” in the language of her people.
The last light of the sun poured through Rumina’s window, warming the thick, textured rug beneath her feet. If she strained her hearing, Rumina could make out the bleating of goats outside. The young goatherds were guiding the flocks home for the evening. She’d fallen asleep in her chair some hours before, but now, she was wide awake.
Rumina’s dream troubled her. She rubbed at her elbows to comfort herself in a gesture that she’d copied from her father, who was long since dead.
We’re heading to Euroka Tahn!
Rumina was relieved that those were words heard only in her dream, and not in reality. She could still remember the day when her father departed for the Valley of the Forest King. She buried her face in her hands and prayed.
“Rumina?” Rumina’s brother, Kumu, was at the door.
“Come in,” Rumina said.
Kumu opened the door and entered the room. He wore a white, finely woven sleeveless undershirt and leather boots that were a little too big for him. His cheeks and nose were red from exertion and he was sweating all over.
“The herd by Sanzu Forest was attacked by wolves,” Kumu said. “What are the wolf hunters doing, anyway? I thought they were ordered into the western forests to protect the flocks better, but...”
Kumu told Rumina that five goats had been devoured by wolves yesterday. He’d gone to Sanzu Forest to verify those deaths for himself, though he was only thirteen and it wasn’t his place. The Agachi would investigate the wolf attacks as they saw fit.
“I’m glad you weren’t hurt,” Rumina said. She smiled, and her brother smiled back.
“Are you feeling all right?” Kumu asked. “You don’t look well.”
Rumina shrugged. “I’m all right. I just had a nightmare.”
“A nightmare? What was it?”
Rumina told Kumu about her strange and terrifying dream. Kumu listened, then asked quietly, “You’re not having doubts, are you?”
Rumina didn’t answer. Kumu put himself at her elbow in two steps and said in a tone of alarm, “Are you? Maybe you shouldn’t go on with the wedding, then. If you saw dad in your dream, maybe he opposes you marrying into the Magua clan. Our family’s honor is at stake. We can’t mix our blood with a family that’s so lowborn--and certainly not Rotans.”
Rumina’s eyes widened. I had no idea Kumu was so racist. When did that happen? Their family was the Aru clan of the Tahsa people. The clan had clung to power and influence in Rakul Province for hundreds of years in a small, wooded region called Aru. The Magua clan were prominent lords in northern Rota and had been for many generations.
Kumu’s attitude was entirely incomprehensible to Rumina. Their mother was descended from the Magua clan through their grandfather. They celebrated her grandfather’s birthday together as a family every year with a party and lavish gifts. A match between Rumina and a member of the Magua clan wouldn’t be unusual in the slightest.
Rumina and Kumu’s grandfather was the lord of Rakul Province; his name was Gilliam. His manner was somewhat gruff and stern, but Rumina always enjoyed visiting him because her mother’s brother Azal was also in attendance. She liked her uncle Azal more than many of her relatives.
Rumina’s grandfather was tall and still strong despite his age. Azal, too, was tall and practically towered over him. At a distance and side-by-side, they seemed very much alike, but while her grandfather’s mood never softened, her uncle always smiled when he was talking to his sister. When they were younger, Azal brought toys for Rumina and Kumu based on what his own children liked.
Uncle Azal inherited the rulership of Rakul Province, but that wasn’t what he wanted. Her grandfather had made him his heir. After that happened, Azal smiled a lot less than he did before.
Azal proved less stern than Gilliam. He made more trade deals and opened Rakul Province’s borders to travelers. The province was much more prosperous now than it was during the rule of Rumina’s grandfather.
The Aru clan that Rumina and Kumu’s father was descended from was in a decline. Both the Aru clan lords and the people serving them had suffered a decades-long run of bad luck. No one knew why, though rumors abounded. Rumina considered most of them ridiculous. Rumors were just that, and in her experience, people would believe just about anything if it made them feel better about themselves.
Rumina ran over the details of several of these rumors in her mind and understood why her brother was speaking against their mother’s clan, though she didn’t like the reason. There was a rumor about the Aru clan and the Magua clan that did touch on their family’s honor, but she’d never thought her brother would buy into it.
Not that stupid rumor again.
Rumina was old enough to remember her uncle Azar before he’d become the lord of the province, but Kumu wasn’t. He spent his days among Azar’s retainers, some of whom had Aru blood like they did. He’d absorbed their malformed sense of pride and felt that their mother’s family made him inferior in some way.
Teenage boys really could be incredibly stupid.
***
Rumina glanced out the window. She and Kumu were alone in the house now. Their parents had perished together in an accident that destroyed their wagon with them inside it.
So much had changed since their parents’ deaths. Her grandfather had lost his eldest son suddenly and collapsed from shock and grief scarcely four days later. As his health failed, the leadership of the Aru region of Rakul Province was taken over by the Aru clan, her father’s people, though they could not claim official lordship, only stewardship. Other members of her grandfather’s family and the lords of other northern Rotan clans stepped up to fill the power vacuum caused by his illness.
Rumina and Kumu’s fates were tied to the Aru region because of their father, who’d been part of the Aru clan. People worked hard and were poor. Their herds of sheep and goats were harried by wolves and bandits roamed the forests at night.
Rota’s war with Talsh hadn’t helped matters. Most of the damage caused by battle was in the south, but taxes on everything from food to clothing to medicine had risen sharply in recent years. The Aru clan had little enough to spare to start with, and now they had nothing.
When she was old enough, Rumina was granted control of this portion of Rakul Province. Like her uncle Azal, she’d never wanted to rule anything. She didn’t know how. The problems she’d been given would have cowed an experienced ruler and administrator. She tried her best to keep existing trade routes open and to negotiate new deals, but as hard as she tried every day, she felt like she was constantly lost. She wanted her parents to be alive.
Though Rumina was young and inexperienced, she knew that the problems in her part of the province were only getting worse. Nothing she did seemed to fix them. Her grandfather had died at the end of summer this year, increasing the burden on her and the other lords who had stepped in to govern his territory. She was starting to learn that pride was expensive. Though Rakul Province was poor and getting poorer, the Magua clan and other lords of the region had insisted on throwing a grand state funeral as a display of wealth and power to the neighboring provinces.
Building the tomb for her grandfather took the better part of half a year. Because Gilliam was her grandfather and his oldest son was dead, Rumina’s family had borne the expense of the funeral. If her uncle Azal hadn’t swept in to spare her and Kumu that burden, they would be destitute now.
After the funeral was over, Azal investigated Rumina’s circumstances and told her that he would pay the additional taxes incurred by the war with Talsh on her behalf. She was his niece, and he had loved his sister. He would do his best to support his sister’s children.
To that end, Azal proposed a match between his son Ohru and Rumina. The wedding would take place next spring. Rumina didn’t object to the match itself, but she would have to relocate after she was married, leaving her brother in charge of their home and this part of the province. He was only thirteen, and she wasn’t sure he was ready.
Kumu’s entire future was uncertain. The law of Rota meant that if she married into the Magua clan, her brother would become the head of the Aru clan, by Prince Ihan’s decree. However, Azal hadn’t confirmed that this would happen, and that lack of confirmation disturbed Rumina. She suspected that her uncle would use the Aru clan’s weakened position to unite the Aru clan and Magua clan under the law, with the justification of her marriage.
“Would that really be so bad?” her uncle had said to her. “This land can’t support itself. The Aru clan needs the Magua clan’s help if the people living here are going to survive. You are wise enough to know that the good of the people outweighs petty political games.”
Rumina had agreed with him in public, but privately, she considered him to be playing political games, himself. But that didn’t matter. The Aru clan was in a state of decline, and there was no way to reverse that now. She and her brother were the last representatives of the clan left in Rakul Province.
Perhaps part of her brother’s pride came from the idea that the Aru clan were indigenous--they’d settled the Aru region before the first Rotans came over the mountains from Kanbal. Back in those days, their people were called the Tahsa. The clan was called Aru by the Rotans, after the name of the region they controlled.
Many centuries had passed since that time, and now, all of the Aru clan’s neighbors were Rotan. Their mother was Rotan. Rumina and Kumu were Rotan people, whether Kumu liked that or not.
Other members of the Aru clan still lived, but all of them had married into Rotan families. This development could be seen in two vastly different ways. One was as further proof of the Aru clan’s weakening power and influence, and the other was to see this relatively gentle merging of the Aru clan into Rotan society as an inevitable side effect of outside pressures. The Aru region wasn’t the only place that was suffering after the war with Talsh. All the clans had to work together if they were going to regain Rota’s former prosperity.
Rumina sighed. She remembered when her parents were young and the Aru clan was still wealthy and numerous. The tragedy that the intervening years had wrought filled her with a feeling of profound grief.
By all accounts, the marriage of her parents had been a cause for celebration throughout the province. It marked the beginning of trying to forge stronger ties between the Aru clan and the Magua clan. New trade deals were made as a result. The hope was that the marriage would make both clans stronger. Maybe it would have if her parents hadn’t died.
Her grandfather’s stubbornness also played a role in worsening relations between the two clans. The Aru clan had a long, proud history, and Lord Gilliam had considered that an inconvenience and a potential threat to his own position. His attitude hadn’t pleased her mother at all. Rumina remembered hearing about fights between her mother and grandfather from Yurima, an attendant who served the Magua clan.
Rumina was old enough to understand what her mother was complaining about at the time, but Kumu wasn’t. She understood even more about the situation her parents were facing now that she’d assumed their role. She visualized the conflict between her mother and grandfather as a fight between two trees, one old and gnarled, the other youthful, supple and just starting to grow. Her grandfather had chosen to overshadow the sapling her mother was trying to tend, all but destroying the alliance between the Aru clan and the Magua clan.
One of Rakul Province’s only resources for export was wood. The Magua clan out-competed the Aru clan for logging and shipping contracts, building up a firm foundation for themselves in both industries when Rumina was still a child. There was no doubt in her mind that her uncle--now the leader of the Magua clan--was skilled at negotiation. They were trading with southern Rota again after the war and the long years of resentment that had slowed many profitable trade routes. The Aru clan didn’t do business with Rota’s southern lords, and everyone knew that southern Rota had far more natural resources than the north.
From Azal’s perspective, the Aru clan must look like a withered sapling clinging to life. There was no saving it now.
“You and your brother are my precious niece and nephew,” Azal had said to Rumina. “The blood of the Magua clan flows in your veins. The ancient Aru domain is now poor and withered and is unworthy of your efforts. All you need to do is return to your family here and accept the help and protection of the Magua clan. I am certain your people would rejoice if you did so.”
Rumina didn’t think that her uncle was trying to be selfish or stubborn like her grandfather. He wanted Rakul Province stable and at peace, and folding the Aru clan into the Magua clan seemed like a good way to achieve that. The Aru clan had once been as strongly rooted in its alliances and favored industries as the Magua clan was now, but now it was just barely hanging on. Rumina wondered if that had been her grandfather’s plan all along. Maybe he’d only allowed her parents to marry so that he could use their union to meld the Aru clan firmly into the other Rotan clans once and for all.
There were benefits for Rumina and the Aru region if she went through with her marriage to Ohru. Her people would be under the aegis of the Magua clan and would pay fewer taxes. Despite this, Aru clan retainers vehemently opposed her upcoming marriage. Losing their clan identity was more important to them than lifting their families out of poverty.
The Aru clan was descended from the ancient Tahsa people. They had agreed to marrying into other clans before as a way to maintain peace, but the clan’s proud retainers weren’t about to give up their heritage completely without a fight. Rumina understood how they felt, but...
“Rumina!” Kumu shook her shoulder. “Do you really think our people and retainers will be happier just because they increase our seed allotment from the jano?” The jano was a seed pan used to measure out a season’s worth of seeds for a region. “They’re treating us like they don’t respect us. Like we’re paupers!”
Rumina said nothing in response.
“Come on, sis, we’re not kids anymore! I know our father shamed us by marrying a Rotan and that we suffer under our clan curse, but doesn’t that make it our responsibility to make things better? Even if we die impoverished and alone, we will at least die as ourselves.”
Rumina’s eyebrows drew together. “Is that what you actually believe?” she asked.
Kumu frowned. “Why are you asking?”
“The sheep are bearing fewer young than in past years. The Magua clan’s land borders ours, and their flocks continue to increase in size. Their wheat fields are rich and plentiful, while our fields eke out meager harvests. And the wolf attacks keep getting worse. That’s a lot of bad luck, I grant you, but do you really think it all happened because mom married into the Magua clan? Doesn’t that seem ridiculous to you?”
When Kumu didn’t say anything, Rumina put a note of challenge in her voice. “If that’s really what you think, where’s your proof? All you have is hate-barbed rumors to back up your view. I’m much older than you; I’ve heard mother’s family slandering the Tahsa people since before you could walk. That doesn’t mean that any of what they say is true. What is true is that our land is dying. Your groundless beliefs shame our family and our mother, who loved us both.”
Kumu gritted his teeth. “They’re not just rumors,” he spat.
Rumina gripped the armrests of her chair to steady herself.
“It’s been almost twenty years since our parents were married. Any curse laid on our clan is sure taking its sweet time to obliterate us.” It would be exactly twenty years this year. Rumina hadn’t remembered that before.
The night that she’d accepted the terms of the Magua clan’s marriage proposal, the family’s butler and house servant Agachi pulled her and Kumu aside. There was a secret that they didn’t know—that he’d kept for all these long years—and he’d decided to tell them.
“Lord Shisal loved Lady Oria, and it is out of love and respect for them that I have refrained from telling the secret they asked me to safeguard.”
Rumina felt a chill go down her spine as she remembered those words. What could her parents possibly have to hide from her?
Agachi was a sensible man who put about much stock in rumors as she did. Because he was habitually honest, the discomfort on his face made Rumina equally uncomfortable. He had to tell her and her brother something—something true—that he didn’t want to say. It was a strange tale concerning her mother and the Valley of the Forest King. It wasn’t clear what their mother had done, but Agachi didn’t seem pleased by it. Kumu guessed that she had cursed their land.
“It’s sad to me that you don’t remember our mother,” Rumina said. “But I knew her very well, and I know she would never seek to harm our land. That would be the same as harming us, and she’d never do that. I don’t doubt that mom did something to make the Aru clan retainers suspicious, but they were always going to be suspicious of her. Our father never was. They loved each other and wouldn’t betray one another.”
Kumu frowned. “I want to believe you, but…”
Rumina reached out and rested a hand on her brother’s shoulder. “I know you want to. And you should.” Her eyes drifted out the window, taking in the beautiful yellow-orange sunset. Light and shadow shifted together in the tall grass of the fields.
“I hope the voice I heard in my dream wasn’t our father’s,” she said. “I couldn’t stand it if it was.”
We’re heading to the Valley of the Forest King.
The voice had struck her like thunder—like a flash of lightning followed by a shaking of the earth.
“Our parents are no longer with us,” Rumina said sadly. “There are so many things I wish I could say to them… I’m sure they didn’t tell us everything they wanted to. But it’s too late now.” Sometimes misfortune was simply misfortune. “If I don’t marry Ohru, everything will go from bad to worse. I don’t see another way to save us. I’d tell you if I did.”
Rumina sighed. When she spoke again, her voice was quiet. “I know mom did her best to support the Aru clan and our domain. What kind of daughter would I be if I didn’t try to preserve her efforts in some way?”
Kumu’s gaze wavered. He was so young, and looked younger now. “Maybe you’re right,” he said, “but we have no idea what mom did or didn’t do. If dad was here, he’d tell us to fight to the end, and that’s what I plan to do.”
Rumina looked out the window again. “Well, there’s one way to get more information. The Sadan Taram are coming soon. We might ask their leader, Sari, for answers. She might be able to tell us more about what Agachi said.”
Kumu tilted his head. “Do you really think she’d tell us, if we asked?”
“I’m sure she will,” Rumina said. “All we want is the truth.”
It was a good plan, asking the Sadan Taram. For the first time since waking from her nightmare, Rumina’s eyes gleamed with the light of hope.
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