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she offered. "You couldn't do anything like stripes, but it would be a start."
"I'd love to learn," Alanna admitted. "It looks like fun." Kourrem grinned.
"It
is fun when it goes right," she said. "I really shouldn't start you weaving
right away. We always had to learn to card wool you know, comb out all the
dirt
and tangles and spin a good thread before we were let near a loom."
Alanna laughed. "It's just like every fighting art I studied," she explained
to
her surprised audience. "We had to learn how to make our weapons before we
got
to use them."
"You have to understand how a thing is made before you master it," Kara said
wisely. Suddenly her face brightened. "That's what you've been teaching us
about
magic!"
"So if you know how the crystal sword is made, you can command it!" Ishak
added.
Alanna fought down a trace of alarm. "That's not all of it, Ishak." She fixed
his eyes with her own grim ones. "To command things of nature, you need to
understand how they are made, and you must want to command them. With things
of
magic, you develop your will until you are stronger than your Gift. Otherwise
the power will turn on you. Do you understand me?" she demanded.
Ishak met her eyes defiantly, then looked away. "Of course I understand."
Alanna frowned, worried for him, but there was no sense in pursuing the
matter
now. She examined the loom she held. "What do I do with this thing?"
Kourrem explained the device, naming the different parts and describing what
they did. When she finished, she worked the shuttle until a row had grown on
the
threaded loom. Then she handed it to Alanna. "Your turn."
The loom was clumsy and awkward-feeling to the knight, who was far more used
to
weapons. At last she drew a breath and started the shuttle.
The moment the thing began to move, she realized she didn't understand what
was
supposed to be happening. Within seconds the threads were impossibly snarled.
Kara choked back laughter; even Kourrem had to smile. Ishak looked bored.
Alanna put the loom down, feeling younger and more ignorant than she had in
years. "Perhaps I need to learn the other things first. My teachers were
right for real skills, there aren't any shortcuts."
"I'll teach you," Kourrem offered, "if you still want to learn. Though it
seems
silly for you to go to such trouble when the things you do are more
important."
"What's more important than the clothes I wear?" Alanna wanted to know.
"Kourrem's right," Ishak remarked scornfully. "Why should you fool with looms
and women's things when you can fight and do magic?"
Alanna didn't miss the scorn in Ishak's voice, or that both girls had flushed
with embarrassment and begun to finger their veils. He needs a lesson, she
thought, picking up a thread. This time I'm going to give him one. "So you
think
weaving is stupid?"
"Women's work." Ishak yawned, very much a Bazhir male. "It's all right if you
have nothing better to do."
Alanna swiftly tied a knot in the thread. Ishak fell as the carpet he stood
on
yanked itself out from under his feet, dumping the young man on the ground.
The
carpet then sailed around the tent frantically. "Did I understand you
correctly?" she asked as the girls ducked and Faithful hissed and spit. "Is
working with thread less important than talking to demons and seeing the
future?"
When Ishak opened his mouth to reply, Alanna swiftly tied a second knot. The
carpet stopped its mad journey, coming to a halt directly over Ishak's head.
"While I have your attention," Alanna went on, "I'd like to say a few things
about thread magic. I've never used it; I learned what I know from our
village
healing-woman, when I was young, and from the palace Healers. I do know that
a
woman with a bit of string in her hands can bring down a troop of armed
knights,
if her will is strong enough. Men Healers, mostly use thread magic, too; but
women acquire it more easily. I guess that's because most women know how to
weave and spin and sew. You owe your fellow apprentices an apology, Ishak."
She loosened the second knot, and the carpet began to lower itself onto
Ishak's
head. "You can't treat Kara and Kourrem as the men of the tribe treat the
women.
These women are your equals. What they do what they learn is just as
important
as what you do and learn. Frankly, in some areas they're better at it than
you
are."
She untied the first knot, and the carpet whisked itself around the tent,
stopping in front of Ishak this time. Alanna undid what remained of the
second
knot, and the carpet trembled. "You're in its way," she told the young man.
Startled, he moved aside, and the carpet settled gently into its former spot.
"I
hope I've made myself clear."
Ishak gasped, his eyes alight with discovery. "Will you teach me how to do
that?" he demanded. "I want to learn women's magic or not!"
A hand painfully squeezed Alanna's heart: for a moment he sounded exactly
like
her willful brother. "I believe I mentioned an apology."
"I'm sorry," Ishak told the two girls. "I keep forgetting."
Kara was looking at the thread in Alanna's hands with awe. "You mean Kourrem
and
I could do magic while we are weaving and sewing? Just by making knots?"
Alanna sighed, suddenly feeling tired and old. "I'll teach all of you in the
morning," she promised. "For now, let's turn in."
Obedient as always, they left, chattering eagerly. Once they were gone,
Faithful
jumped onto Alanna's left shoulder (his favorite perching-spot). That was an
interesting display of temper, he commented. Why don't you pick on someone
who
can fight back?
"He's got to learn," Alanna replied, dousing the lamps. "Otherwise he's going
to
insult some little old wrinkled lady shaman who will tie him in knots."
Perhaps, the cat replied.
"Not just 'perhaps,' " Alanna demurred. "You know as well as I do that there
are
traps for sorcerers in the strangest places. At least I know I mean no harm.
Someone else might not be kind."
You won't always be able to stand between another person and his fate,
Faithful
warned. You mustn't think you can look after the world.
Alanna chuckled and tugged her pet's long black tail. "Who will look after it
if
I don't?"
Faithful gave a disgusted mutter and stuck his cold nose into her ear,
surprising a laugh from her.
To the new lessons in knot-magic, Alanna added the names and powers of herbs,
stones, and metals. Ishak and Kara complained about the added memorization,
but
they studied hard. Ishak now kept Alanna up at night; he was quicker than the
other two, and he had a feel for the Gift, but his eagerness to learn
dangerous
things frightened her. He did not have the self-discipline of the girls. Was
it
because he had been more accepted by the tribe? Often Alanna caught him
staring
at her crystal sword; she feared one day he would ignore her command and try
to
wield it.
As an apprentice weaver, Alanna was all thumbs; the girls were baffled. She
reminded herself that she had not been even a passable swordsman when she
first
began to train; but such thoughts didn't soothe her hurt pride. Making things
worse was the fact that there was no way she could teach Kourrem the advanced
skills the girl lacked.
"I can't do it!" Kourrem cried while working one night. A mass of knotted
threads, like a giant spider, sat on her loom. "I'm stupid and ignorant "
"You lost track of the pattern," a dry voice said from the opening that led
to
the temple part of the tent. Alanna and her apprentices turned to stare at
the
tiny old woman who stood there. Alanna recognized her. Halef Seif had pointed
Hakim's mother out to her before, the woman Kourrem said was the tribe's
finest
weaver.
The old lady lifted an unlit stick of incense. "I was about to pay my
respects
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