Madra learns all she can

Madra watched the Shalla’s back – the stoop of her shoulders, the nod of her head, the shuffling of her steps – seeking to gauge the old elf’s strength on this day. Saralla did not seem weak – she never did – but she seemed preoccupied, and Madra thought that meant she already knew. What the Shalla knew, Madra intended to find out.

Though everything had gone wrong, and though it seemed absurd to carry on as if nothing had, Madra was not bold enough to defy the laws outright. She had no way of getting to Vash, but by some great gift of fate, Dara was also attending the Shalla on that day, and Dara would tell her husband whatever she would hear. And Shosudin would tell Vash.

“It is permitted for the elf Madra to take the slippers of the Shalla,” the old elf said as she sank onto her couch, almost wearily it seemed.

Madra stepped forward and knelt at the Shalla’s feet.

“May the earth welcome your footsteps, Saralla,” she murmured as she slipped off the tiny shoes and arranged them neatly before the tiny feet. She could almost feel the gaze of the keen eyes upon the top of her head, and so she dared not look up.

“It is permitted for the elf Madra and the elf Dara to sit in the sight of the Shalla,” Saralla intoned. “It is permitted for the elf Ria and the elf Miria to sit in the presence of the Shalla.”

Madra was delighted. She did not know what whim of the Shalla’s had led to Dara being seated before Ria, but it meant that Dara too would be able to speak. She could only hope that Dara would be interested in learning all she could. She could only hope that Shosudin had dared ask her to try.

“It is permitted for the elf Madra and the elf Dara to speak.”

Madra hurried to speak before the chatty Dara could open her mouth.

“The elf Iylaina must have had her child,” she observed.

Madra could not see the two ladies who sat opposite her behind the screens, but she heard Ria gasp.

Even her own daughter beside her, who had known that she would mention this subject, seemed startled at her directness.

The Shalla turned on her a look of cold displeasure. “Yes, she must.”

But this was not a direct answer, and so Madra was obliged to continue. “Have we had evidence of it?” she asked.

The Shalla hesitated as if debating whether to speak of it at all. Finally she said, “The elf Polin and the elf Osh heard the cry for air.”

If Polin had heard, he must have told his wife, but Ria, of course, had said nothing to Madra or the other ladies. It was no wonder Ria was the lady of her generation most celebrated in song: the prettiest eyes, the tiniest ears, the fairest hands… and the narrowest mind.

“Is it a boy child or a girl child?” Dara asked.

Madra would have smiled at her if they could have seen one another. Dara was from the latter generation, and somehow – due to Vash’s own influence perhaps – these young ladies were not as ladies had always been.

“Naturally, it is a girl child,” the Shalla said angrily. “What else could it be with such a father?”

Madra saw her daughter’s pleading eyes out of the corner of her own.

It might be many moons before Madra would be invited again into the Shalla’s chamber, but that only meant that she had to learn all she could now.

“Have we evidence of it?” she asked.

“What else could it be?” Saralla repeated.

“Did the elf Polin and the elf Osh see the child?”

“No. But its father is a man.”

“The boy child whose name means ‘Wolf’ in the language of men has a father who is a man.”

The Shalla’s eyes were now hotly angry. “What does this elf know of these things?”

“Is it not so?”

“Naturally, its father is some elf,” Saralla snapped.

“It has water nature like its mother,” Madra pointed out.

“Has this elf seen it?”

“The Khir has held it in his arms. He says it is the son of the man.”

“Does this elf speak for the Khir?” Saralla cried.

“No, Saralla.”

“Its mother was kisór. I would not have been surprised if slugs and spiders had crawled forth from her womb. I do not doubt the creature did not know who the father was.”

“But if it has water nature – ”

“Naturally,” the Shalla interrupted coldly, “the elf Iylaina has had a girl child with fire nature. She is not such a one. But its father is a man.”

“Will it be named, Saralla?” Dara asked.

“Naturally, it will not be named!” Saralla cried in disgust. “Would you have it marry your son? What does a girl child avail us?”

“What would a boy child avail us?” Madra asked.

“A boy child with such a father would avail us nothing.”

“That is not true, Saralla,” Madra said.

“Does this elf say the Shalla lies?”

“No, Saralla. But if the elf Iylaina has a boy child with this man, it means that what we have been told about such matters is untrue. And if that is untrue, what other things might not be as well?”