“She is not the chosen of Mida!” rang out another voice even as my thoughts whirled with the agreement to be seen in the eyes of the war leaders. I had not expected so effortless an acceptance, and indeed was it not meant to be so. Kalir stood not far from our set, her chin high, her feet widespread, fury blazing in her eyes from the words she had clearly heard Ennat speak. Deliberately had I avoided seeking out the Selga, as what lay between us was meant to be settled in the presence of her sister war leaders and Keeper; although not all of the war leaders had as yet made an appearance, enough were present to see the thing properly done.
“Kalir of the Selga, your actions have disgraced us all!” said Ennat at once, anger seemingly causing her to again forget her place as Keeper. I had been asked what circumstances had kept me from appearing to face challenge, and my reply had filled Ennat with the rage of humiliation. “To force the helplessness of sleep upon the one you challenged, and then to give her over into the capture of those of a village—your actions speak clearly enough of your cowardice, as well as your lack of fitness to be a war leader of Mida! ”
“There was no cowardice in doing such things to one whose blood would have sullied my blade!” snapped the Selga, deliberately seeing naught of the shocked outrage evinced by her sisters. “It was my determination that another trial was called for, therefore did I see to it. Well pleased am I that that trial, too, was circumvented, for it has now become clear that I have been chosen by Mida to end the impostor. When her foul blood covers my blade and she lies lifeless at my feet, then will it be equally clear to all of you that Kalir is the chosen of Mida, not some worthless Hosta!”
“I now see the direction in which the lellin wings,” said Faris to me in a soft voice as I loosened the blade in my scabbard. “Kalir wishes the leadership of all the Midanna to be hers, and will dare anything to see it so.”
“Her wishes are of no consequence,” I said, feeling the anger and battle desire rise up in me. “Should one wish a thing, one does not sully that thing with acts of dishonor. It is completely fitting that the final thing she dares is to face me.
“She wears the sword and dagger given you by Mida!” exclaimed Tarit with great indignation, the first words ever addressed to me by the Samma. “Will the weapons not give her Mida’s blessing as well?”
“Mida’s blessing is in the skill of the arm wielding the weapon, sister, not in the weapon itself,” said I, giving answer to Tarit in a voice that easily reached Kalir. Unwavering was the gaze I sent to the Selga, and higher did her anger flame when I stepped out toward her.
“Mida’s blessing is indeed in the arm which wields her weapon!” snarled Kalir, nearly beside herself. “Also is it to be found in the great magic of her sign, the life sign which once was yours and now is mine! I, too, was born beneath the sign of the hadat, another clear indication that Mida has called to me! She may perhaps have used this one to carry the life sign to me, yet now is it mine and her life as well! The mother of all has spurned you, Hosta trash; behold the one fated to lead her Midanna in your place—and behold the beginning of your own ending!”
Rabidly did Kalir scream out these words, and her fist rose high with the leather of my life sign clenched tight therein. The crystal hadat gleamed in the brightness of the fey’s light, drawing my eyes, forcing me to wonder if the words spoken by Kalir were indeed truth. Much had I felt that Mida was displeased with me, and this, perhaps, was to be the time of her taking another chosen. A chill of dread touched me at the thought, for Kalir would scarcely see to the freeing of the Hosta once battle with the strangers was done, and then dread was thrust aside by the fires of rage. Should Mida take another as chosen, that other would not be Kalir! A craven was Kalir, unwilling to face me in battle without the sword of Mida before her, thoroughly unfit to be called Midanna, not to speak of chosen. First would this Selga and I cross blades, and then would the matter of chosen be seen to.
“You continue to mean to face me!” said Kalir as her eyes gave her knowledge of my decision, a good deal of disbelief in her voice. “I hold all of Mida’s gifts and you hold none, and still do you mean to face me! You are the greatest of fools, Hosta, even greater for this than for believing you might bring males here among us! First will I see to you, and then will I send my warriors against these males, for true Midanna can wish no part of them. All of you will fall, and it is I who will see to it!”
I drew my sword at the venom Kalir spewed forth; however, the Selga was not yet prepared to do the same. Rather than draw and step toward me she took my life sign, opened the leather, and drew it on over her head. No attempt did she make to pull her dark hair through the leather, instead she grasped the crystal hadat and pressed it to her breast. Her face wore a look of great triumph—and then did all those about us cry out in fear at her scream of agony. Smoke arose from her hand and breast, a gentle graying which was then quickly lost in the flames which engulfed her, flames which seemed to arise from her very body! The screams of her agony rose higher and higher, freezing me in the deep-set shock where I stood with slackened jaw and slackly held sword, and then was the sword snatched from me by Ennat, who strode past where I stood, to Kalir. The heat of the flames nearly made her flinch back, yet determination brought her forward again, and with a single swing did she cut the head from the Selga.
The sound of agony ceased abruptly then, and also did the flames immediately recede from blackened flesh. Headless body followed bodiless head to the heat-shriveled grass of the ground, and Ennat looked down upon it in silence for a moment before turning to send her gaze to those who had not yet found themselves able to utter a single sound.
“There are many times when the will of Mida is unknown, few times when it is made unarguably clear,” said she in a strong voice which nevertheless shook some small bit. “We have all of us been blessed this fey by having her will shown to us so clearly, taking from our shoulders the burden of the necessity to judge truth from lie. All of us have seen the life sign given by Mida hanging passively and protectively upon the breast of the Hosta; need we ask any further questions upon the point of who Mida’s chosen might be?”
No single voice rose to give disagreement to Ennat’s words, and truly do I believe that most were unable to utter a sound of any sort. All in view of the Keeper’s tent had witnessed Kalir’s manner of ending, and nearly all were surely filled with the same illness which attempted to twist my insides free. Death comes to us all, with some fortunate enough to find it in the midst of the glory of battle, yet none I had ever met had earned an ending such as Kalir’s. To be consumed alive in the flames of sacrilege, to have no least hope of defending oneself! the illness rose up with even greater force within me, sending me down to one knee, sending the flames of imagination racing through my own body. The heat I felt was sickening, there in the brightness of Mida’s fey, and nearly was I overcome completely.
“Jalav, what ails you?” came Ennat’s voice as though from afar, and then were there hands upon my arms, and exclamations in the voices of males.
“Her flesh burns as though she, too, were afire!” came the voice of Mehrayn, a wildness in it. “How does this come to be? What are we to do for it?”