Oh man.

All eyes remained on me and not a sound was made.

Damn, now what did I do?

Then someone suddenly shouted, “Kah rahna Dahksahna hahla!”

“Kah rahna Dahksahna hahla!” another shout rent the air.

Then another. And another. Then a chant. Then they started the clapping.

Jeez. It was just the Heimlich maneuver.

I looked at Diandra who was beaming ear to ear and Narinda who was looking at me funny but still smiling huge. Then I rolled my eyes at Diandra which made her break out into laughter.

Then I turned to the crowd and lifted my hands and pressed palms down to get them to stop chanting. It took a couple of palm presses but I was their queen, my husband could kick anyone’s ass so they shut up pretty quickly.

I started to walk away but my hand was grabbed and I looked down to the mother who still had tight hold on her child but she was kissing my hand.

“Shahsha, shahsha, shahsha kah rahna Dahksahna hahla. Shahsha,” she whispered against my hand and I did a knees closed squat next to her, gently twisted my hand from her grasp and touched my fingers to her lips.

“It was nothing, everybody knows how to do that where I come from,” I said and heard Diandra close, translating. “And it was my pleasure,” I added, Diandra interpreted then I smiled and finished on a whisper, “Nahrahka.”

She nodded to me, eyes big and grateful. I nodded back, got up, nodded to my, uh… people, then Diandra, Narinda and I went back to Narinda’s cham.

Chapter Fourteen

The Breaking Point

It was night and I’d talked Diandra into wandering the chams because it felt nice to be out in the cool air, the torches stuck into the earth every six or seven feet that lit the pathways between the chams cast a cozy glow and I wanted to stretch my legs.

It had been a nice day. Another day with the Korwahk, another day waking up in this world, another hint that this may be my life, my old life might be lost to me forever and unless I could do the impossible, figure out what had happened and reverse it, I was going to have to get used to it.

And in it I now had Narinda and Nahka. We’d spent some more time in Narinda’s cham where she asked Diandra more questions, Diandra answered and then Diandra gave us both some Korwahk language lessons. Then we heard a “poyah” from outside the cham and Nahka, the mother of the child who had been choking came in and offered us dinner.

We accepted because Diandra knew Nahka and informed us she was lovely; because it was seriously doubtful Narinda was going to get swept from this world in her dreams and it would be good for her to get to know her neighbors; and because it was beginning to dawn on me that this might be my life and these my people so I’d need to get to know them.

Even with the language barrier and Diandra having to translate, dinner with Nahka was what dinner always was amongst girls. Lots of food, lots of wine, lots of talk about the men in our lives (Nahka was a warrior wife too, her husband’s name was Bohtan), Nahka spoke of her son (the child who was choking) and newborn daughter, Narinda and I spoke of our lands and last, there was lots of laughter.

We left with promises to do it again soon, Narinda hugged me and Diandra after we returned her to her cham and I talked Diandra into taking a walk. She agreed so we were strolling through the torchlight in our normal way, bodies close, my hand wrapped around her elbow, her other hand covering mine.

“Uh… Diandra?” I called.

“Yes, my dear,” she replied.

“Do all the Korwahk think they have a spirit or is it only the warriors?”

“All Korwahk believe they have a spirit,” she answered.

“So… uh, they’re spiritual?”

Her hand squeezed mine and she cut to the chase. “What are you truly asking, Circe?”

I smiled at a woman at a firepit outside a tent and replied, “Do they believe in God?”

“God?”

“Yes, God. A higher being, an omnipotent power, a divine creator, that kind of thing,” I explained.

“Just one?” she asked and I looked at her.

“Sorry?”

She looked at me too and her face was confused. “In your land, do you have just one god?”

I looked back at our path and shook my head. “Yes and no. Different people believe different things and some of them have more than one God they pray to but me… I believe in only one.”

“Unusual,” she muttered.

I lifted my other hand, placed it over hers on mine and squeezed. “So? Do the Korwahk believe in a god or gods?”

“They do, my dear. They have many and for each person they choose which god will be their erm… higher being. There is the Lion God, the Snake God, the Horse God, the Jackal God, the Tiger God and the True Mother. Most women pray to the True Mother. I would suspect,” her hand gave mine a pat, “your king prays to the Tiger God.”

I would suspect that too.

She kept talking. “They do not have shrines, they do not have alters, they do not have churches. They have no holy men or women and they don’t carry talismans. They do not invest any spiritual significance in a person, place or object. The spirit is inside, prayers are silent, worship is individual and personal. Adults do not discuss it with adults. It is parents who pass down the teachings of the Gods and inner spirits and they allow their children to adopt their own form of devotion.”

Interesting. And kind of cool.

“So, if they’re spiritual, um…” I trailed off.

“Yes?” Diandra prompted.

Shit.

Here we go.

“Well, you said something earlier I haven’t been able to get out of my head. Something that doesn’t um… sit right if the Korwahk are spiritual. You mentioned something about Lahn taking a woman in plunder –”

I stopped talking when she halted us and turned to me but didn’t let go of my hand.

Oh man. I knew this meant something not good.

I looked in her eyes and she spoke.

“The Horde is revered,” she said softly, “even more than any god. This is because they protect the Korwahk nation and because they rain riches on it. And they do this through marauding.”

Yep, this was not good.

“Marauding?” I whispered.

She nodded. “Korwahk is a warring nation, as is Maroo, Keenhak and other neighboring nations close and far. But Korwahk has riches that the others do not have. Veins of gold and silver. A vast wealth of diamonds in the earth. Mines of emeralds and rubies. These other nations covet these things and often wage war in order to take it for their own. The Horde rides against these armies that invade our land, murder the Korwahk people, rape our women. And The Horde never fails, Circe, ever in driving these armies back and bringing peace to the land. The Korwahk owe great debts to the blood of warriors.”