Jaelle considered that for a moment, frowning. Magda noticed, incongruously, something she had not seen until that very moment; Jaelle, standing there so secure and confident, was wearing nothing but her underwear. They all were. And somewhere at the back of her mind, the trained anthropologist, never off duty, was making notes: So that’s what Free Amazons wear for underwear.
Old Camilla’s voice was sharp. “Don’t listen to a word she says, Jaelle. Men’s boots, with a knife in them? And who let her out of the Guild-house in this shape, to disgrace us all? Any girl from the Guild-house, even a girl of fifteen, would know how to defend herself against rape, even unweaponed. There is something wrong here!”
“Yes, very wrong,” said Jaelle. “Someone has behaved irresponsibly, allowing her to go about alone before she knew how to behave. You shame whoever took your oath,” she said to Magda. “Who was she? Name her to us; she is responsible for your conduct!”
THE SHATTERED CHAIN
151
God help me, now I’m in for it! Well, the woman is dead, so Rohana told me, and it won’t involve any living person in trouble. She said, “I took the oath at the hands of Kindra n’ha Mhari.”
“You lie!” Jaelle raised her arm and struck Magda a blow that made her head ring. She slapped her again and again across the face. “You lie, you bitch,” she said, trembling. “Kindra n’ha Mhari was my foster-mother; I dwelt with her seven years before her death, and every one of her oath-daughters is known to me by face and name! How dare you slander a dead woman? You lie, lie, lie!”
Magda’s head was pounding with the pain of the blows. What now? What now?
Old Camilla thrust her face at Magda; she was white and shaking. She said, “If you were a man, I would call challenge upon you. Kindra n’ha Mhari took me in when I was alone and desperate; I have been a member of her band for thirty years, and I loved her as a twin sister! I don’t know who or what you are, that you think you can misuse her name, but you will not do so again! Rayna, Gwennis, get her saddlebags; we will see if there is something in them to give us a clue to this filthy bitch of an impostor!”
Rayna got down and started-to go through Magda’s belongings by torchlight. Finally she pulled out the safe-conduct, handed it to Jaelle.
“It bears the Lady Rohana’s name and seal. A forgery, no doubt, but you had better see it, Jaelle.”
Jaelle turned it curiously in her hands, held it closer to the fire to see better. “Light the lantern, Rayna; we need light for whatever is going to happen,” she said. “I cannot read in this murk.” When the lantern was lighted she stood examining it for some time and finally said, “It is not a forgery; I know my kinswoman’s handwriting too well for that. And the seal is genuine.” She read aloud: “ . . . Call upon all those who owe loyalty to the Domain of Ardais to give such aid as is in their power . . .”
“Stolen,” said Camilla, her mouth lifting in a sneer.
“No, for it bears her name and a good description.” She went to Magda and handed her the safe-conduct. “Did my kinswoman truly give this to you?” “She did.”
“No one can force Rohana to do anything she does not want to do,” Jaelle said, “and I have never known her to lend her name to any wickedness. Are you truly on a mission in her name?”
Magda nodded. Jaelle said, “But you are not an Amazon, are you? How came you to try to pass yourself off as one, Margali-if that is truly your name?”
“It is the name I bore as a child.” Magda blinked, for a moment afraid she would cry. But she spoke without faltering. “My mission is an honorable one, and it was the Lady Rohana who suggested to me that I dress and bear myself as an Amazon.” She raised her head, still stinging with Jaelle’s blows. “I have disgraced no one! If I had avoided your camp, no harm would have been done; but in this storm I did not want to sleep out of doors.”