unburied, you shall in all wise, bury it and not leave the dead uncovered. If you desire to kill, refrain from killing. Nevertheless, if you fight your enemy and he dies, you will cover his body that the land may not be polluted; Your enemy is the Child of the Creator, as you are;
If at any time, the night brings you to a place where you find your enemy’s landmark, you shall in no wise remove it, for other clans are Children of the Creator as you are. You shall in no wise allow Samat to convince you otherwise. If the night tosses you to an unclaimed place, you may reclaim the land by fire, water, or axe. But only that which you can reclaim in a single day shall be yours. All that fire, water, and axe have not claimed within each day shall not be included within your landmark. The land, fire, water and even your strength belong to the Creator and it is He who creates each day and apportions your lot;
You shall in no wise lie with or marry a woman born in the same longhouse as you. Whether your longhouse contains ten or ten thousand, she is your sister, and your daughter, and your aunt, and your mother. If at anytime you war and find among your enemy’s clan a woman your heart longs for, you shall take the woman but for her sake, you shall spare those in her longhouse. You shall ally yourself to them, or you will destroy their crystals that their tower be night-tossed. But you shall not in any wise slay her kinsmen, for your children will be her children and they will rise up against you. The woman shall grieve forty-nine days. Then you shall take her to your bed; If the day brings you a woman, living alone without a clan, if she has no child and desires one, you will give her a child. Nevertheless, in no wise shall you force her to lie with you. Nor will you refuse her request to lie with her. If you desire another man’s woman, refrain from taking her. If you desire another woman’s man, refrain from seducing him. The man and the woman are Children of the Creator, as you are;
If the night brings you to a fertile place and the animals of that region threaten to over-run you, you shall in no wise kill one kind of animal and let all others roam free. You will study the numbers and the kinds, then you will apportion and kill. For the Creator has set one kind of animal against another that all Odunao will live in harmony;
The Firstborn of your clan shall be unto you as the Greater Light. You will bring all disputes and grievances to him and he will resolve them. The law from his mouth will be like the law from the Creator’s mouth. If there arises among you, one who disobeys the Firstborn, that one shall be cut off from the people. You shall not kill that disobedient one but you shall make him outcast because he has disobeyed the Firstborn who is your Greater Light. If there arises one among you who willfully and continually murders, then the Firstborn—the Heir of your clan—shall mark such a one and judge him, for all judgment has been given to the Firstborn, the Heir of your clan. You shall not kill the murderer but you will send him into the cold dark climes or cast him into the night that his Creator might unmake him.
“Are you thinking of the enemy marriage Principle? or the Principle concerning Firstborns?” Psal asked when Lan had finished. “When I met him on the hill just now, I spoke of both principles. He would not heed my counsel either.”
The young warrior sleepily opened his eyes. Psal stroked his patient’s forehead.
“Aythan, you have awakened in time for today’s so-called battle. But, resist the urge to maim and kill until your arm heals. And today you will miss a most ignoble battle.” Kneeling, he helped the boy sit up. “See, now it is all over.”
Aythan nodded and while Lan warned the boy against looking at his arm and nursing any ideas of wasting away in a steward longhouse, Psal called for Satima. She came running immediately.
Empty-handed. “Didn’t I tell you to bring water and cloths?”
“Firstborn, I forgot.”
“Of course you forgot,” Psal sneered. “You’re too busy laying a trap for innocents. Does it satisfy your soul to scheme? You were not born among us, Satima. You were a foundling, rescued and wedded. Why then do you delight in returning vengeance to those who have not personally hurt you?”
“Firstborn!” She lifted her fingers to her mouth and peered nervously toward the gathering room. “Lower your voice. What if they understand you?”
“Then I would raise my voice even higher. Get me water to wash in. Now!”
She muttered some inaudible defense, hurried past the gathering room, then returned later with a basket of cloth in one hand and a bucket of water in the other.
“Where’s Daris?” he asked.
“I don’t know, Firstborn.”
“Find him!”
She dropped the bucket and basket and hastened away, tripping in the hallway in her attempt to escape Psal’s wrath. He watched her struggle to get up. You and the rest of these Wheel Clan women are much too pleased with your treachery. He washed his hands, doused the sick room hearth, then walked with Lan into the keening room where Ephan waited for him. Daris had arrived, and was chewing a piece of grilled honeycomb with bee larva.
“Daris, where were you just now?”
“With the warriors, Chief Studier.”
“You left your mother’s side?” He slapped Daris hard against the left ear. “You’re a studier. You should not stoop to cruelty and deception.” The redness on the child’s cheek and the boy’s tears brought Psal back to his senses. “I’m sorry, Daris. I shouldn’t have hit you.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t a good studier, Chief Studier.” Daris hastened, crying, from the room.
“Go to your mother, Daris,” Ephan said. “You’re becoming like Nahas, Storm. Striking those who anger you. The child is still young. He yearns to be like the others.”
“He’s a studier, he can’t be like the others.” Psal turned to the tower. “And you, when you realized their tower was coming to a Wheel Clan region, why did you not warn it?”
“The listening tower of the Iden branch lacks crystals,” Ephan said.
“Don’t excuse it!” Psal shouted.
A war whistle sounded. If the Peacock women visiting the Nahas longhouse heard it, they probably thought that in the distance a bird struggled in a water-logged nest. Or that seabirds skated on waves of some far-off river, or night-birds were welcoming the second moon atop high-hanging branches.
“Is there nothing that can dissuade you from this integrity of yours?” Lan asked, walking toward the corridor.
“Nothing.”
Lan bowed and left.
“We cannot remain here long.” Ephan entered the base of the tower and began taking several keening crystals from a shelf and putting them inside his studier’s pouch. “Even if we do not kill, we should be beside our warriors. As a kind of—”
“Compromise?”
“Not compromise. More like…well, I suppose I really don’t know. Today I’ve found myself thinking about the old master and what he said as we journeyed with him night-tossed.”
“He said many things. About women. About valor. Nobility. The stupid Principles.”
“True, he was rarely quiet. But, I was thinking of what he said on the day he named us. You argued with him when he called you ‘Coming
