Reclamation

Aria bit her lip and debated about whether to speak the thought she'd kept from Eric. It wouldn't actually be lying. Mother saw everything in terms of the Words anyway, and it was absurdly appropriate.

Besides, in the bizarre twisted logic of this time, when the Words were turning into reality, it might even be true.

But may the Servant forbid he ever find out that I said it.

"Mother, your daughter thinks they already have." As best she could, she explained about Eric Born.

Mother drank it all in, rearranged it to suit, and nodded. "Yes. Yes. It is so. Well then, you must be guided by him."

Well, I don't know if I'll go that far.

Then Aria bowed her head and rubbed the backs of her hands.

"Mother," she said. "What…where's Trail?"

"I sent her to the Skymen," Mother told her. "We were hoping she could find you." Her blind eyes gazed across the marsh. "She will not be pleased that you came home before she did."

Aria fumbled with the mouth of her pouch and, trembling, pressed Trail's namestone into her mother's hand. Eyes Above ran her fingers around the edges and, with each motion, the lines in her face deepened a little farther.

In halting phrases, Aria told her how they had found it.

"Stone in the Wall dena Aria Born of the Black Wall," said Mother. "I lay on you this charge. You will find out how your sister lost her name."

"Mother…I don't know if I can…"

"You will," Eyes Above said firmly. "I must know whether I can still call Broken Trail dena Rift in the Clouds my daughter."

"Mother!" cried Aria. "Trail is probably dead! Our home is being invaded by Skymen who want to use our children, our CHILDREN, as experiments or livestock and all you care about is did Trail hold to the Words when they killed her!"

"You speak as if this was a small thing. Does my daughter doubt her place?"

Yes! Yes, I doubt! I've seen beyond the World's Wall! I've heard the words of the Skymen! There's so much else out there! It can't matter that much how Trail died! It can't!

"No, Mother." Aria stood up and climbed down the ladder. "Your daughter does not doubt."

"My daughter should get some rest for herself," said Mother. "She is weary from her service, and more will be required of her."

"Yes, Mother."

Aria turned away and shouldered her way through the bamboo, so lost in thought, she didn't even see the form that blocked her path.

"Stone in the Wall."

She looked up automatically. Branch in the River stood foursquare on the path in front of her, folding her skinny arms across her bosom and glowering.

"Good greeting, Cousin," said Aria wearily. Please get out of my way, woman. I don't have any patience left.

"I have no greeting for you," Branch said darkly. "How dare you try to claim my children? And in front of the clan? I should have your namestones and your head for this insult!"

Aria turned her face away. "I have tried to claim nothing. Ask anyone."

"Then why do my children cry that their real mother has returned?" Branch shouted. "You are not their mother! You are childless and without husband! You are nothing! I am the wife of Nail in the Beam and the mother of four living children! You would be thief of mine! You will give me apology! You will do it now, in daylight!"

Aria's hand cracked across Branch's cheek before she could even think to stop it.

"You dare call me thief!" Aria cried. "You are the one who stole from me! Stole my husband, stole my children! You barren, useless, bloodless…" She couldn't see. She couldn't think. Anger roared through her mind blocking out everything else. Let the whole clan hear, she didn't care. "You are unfit to have even a Notouch's scars on your cold hands!"

Aria marched past Branch, blundering through the Crookers, blind as her mother. She fell against the corner of a house and slid into the mud.

A man's hands caught her. She still couldn't see, but with a shock, she recognized the touch. Eric Born raised her to her feet. "Come on, Aria," he said in the Skymen's own language. "You've gone too far today."

No, her mind whispered. I haven't gone anywhere near far enough.

Branch watched the Skyman and Iron Shaper lead Stone in the Wall away. Her cheek stung painfully from the blow.