Lioness Rampant by Tamora Pierce Page A

and the older girls have been stinting themselves for days. They can’t keep that up.”
    I bet they aren’t the only ones who’ve gone short of food, Alanna thought, watching Thayet’s too-thin face. We have to do something, soon. But how, if we can’t live off the country?
    â€œWe have t’find humans, then.” Coram was matter-of-fact. “If the land’s picked over, let’s find the pickers and clean them out.”

    Alanna gave Moonlight’s reins to Thayet for the afternoon. Sliding a quiver over her shoulder, she took her longbow and ranged up and down the road, watching for game. She bagged two squirrels, which told her more than Thayet’s words how bad off Sarain was. At this time of year game should have tumbled into her lap.
    Buri came to join her, with no better luck. After an hour’s hunting, Alanna asked something that had been on her mind. “Why is Thayet roaming the mountains? Why isn’t she with her father?”
    â€œIt’s because of Kalasin,” Buri said after a moment’s consideration.

    â€œHer mother?”
    Buri nodded. “The most beautiful woman in the world. She was … amazing.” Her black eyes were sad. “Kalasin asked the Warlord to deal fairly with the K’mir, because we’re her people. Lowlanders take us for slaves; they steal our horses—” The dark girl stopped until her anger was under control. “ Jin Wilima hates us—he’s a lowlander completely. So he signed laws forbidding us to meet in groups of more than five people at a time. There’s more than thirty in the Hau Ma clan, and they’re our smallest! How can we honor the dead or a marriage or a birth if the clan is forbidden to meet?”
    â€œGo on,” urged the knight when Buri stopped.
    â€œI’m sorry. What Kalasin did was a great thing, but it hurts to remember. She and Thayet tried to make the Warlord stop. They even pleaded —a K’mir never begs! But he signed the law.
    â€œKalasin knew what she had to do then. She sent Thayet to the convent, far away. My mother and my brother, who served Kalasin, kept the guards from breaking into her tower room. Kalasin stood at her window and sang her death chant, about her shameat jin Wilima’s laws. A crowd was there to witness: nobles, commonborn, and slaves. My mother and brother were killed, but they held the door until it was too late for the Warlord’s men to stop her from jumping. Mother and Pathom are buried at Kalasin’s right and left hands. The Warlord will lie in his tomb alone.”
    â€œI’m sorry,” Alanna said quietly.
    Buri shook her head. “They had the best deaths any K’mir could have. My people did what was right, and so did Kalasin.”
    â€œBut they’re gone,” Alanna pointed out, disturbed. “Being dead doesn’t help anybody.”
    â€œThat depends on the kind of death.” Liam had drawn even with them. “If your death’s wasted, that’s one thing. By her example, Kalasin woke up a lot of folk who thought it was all right to abuse the K’mir. Buri’s mother and her brother made it possible for Kalasin to tell why she killed herself.”
    â€œDead is dead,” Alanna snapped. “You can’t do anything from a grave, Liam!”
    The Dragon and K’mir exchanged looks that clearly said Alanna didn’t know what she was talking about. Disturbed by their agreement, knowing she would rather change things while she was alive, Alanna moved ahead.

    When Coram found signs that bandits had been in the area recently, Liam decreed it was time to stop for the night. Faithful found abandoned caves above a stream, where Thayet briskly set up camp. The children gathered firewood as Buri and Coram went fishing; Liam cooked. Once again Alanna got baby duty—diapering, feeding, and burping—this time with no mishaps.
    Taking her bowl of thin stew