Fish Tails by Sheri S. Tepper Read Free Book Online

was no longer at all useful to the powers that be (or powers, perhaps, that had been), there were places where Lillis and Trudis could live out their lives in less dangerous surroundings. Through her long, compliant ser­vice—­and more important, by a certain admission of guilt among the powers that be, as they had been managing things and one or more of them must have made a mistake —­they owed support for Lillis and for any other child she bore.
    It was spring when Lillis made her decision. Though baby girls were generally ignored, if ever a beddable or nearly beddable female tried to leave the valley, the men hunted her down. Lillis decided to leave at Midsummer, both because it would be warm and because Midsummer was celebrated with three nights of bonfires and beer. Everyone in Hench Valley would be drunk and stumbling for at least three or four days, during which time no one would notice Trudis and Lillis had gone. If they left well after dark on Midsummer Eve, they would be able to get so far gone that the men of Hench Valley could not follow. Trudis could not be told they were leaving, however. Some other attractive reason for going into the forest would be invented for the occasion: maybe a neighboring village having a pig roast, or a crop of certain mushrooms showing up in a nearby valley. Trudis liked food . . . and drink, and she already liked sex.
    The plan was made, the packs were ready and hidden. Shortly before Midsummer, lending a whiplash of panic to an already compelling motivation, Trudis experienced her first “womanlies.” Lillis was so flustered by the event that when she explained to Trudis what was happening, Lillis actually used the word “womanlies,” which was current in Hench Valley. If she had been thinking in her usual analytical manner, she would not have done so. Trudis heard “womanlies” and remembered it. Woman lies meant she was now a woman, and there was a rule about women .
    Lillis didn’t notice. She was busy with vital details of their disappearance, details assuring they would not be followed, not be caught. There were certain things of hers that had to be hidden or destroyed. Or, in the case of certain very rare and valuable herbs and roots, bottled or packaged so she could take them with her.
    By the morning of Midsummer Eve, Lillis had everything ready; the packs were well hidden in the forest on the way they would go. She planned to leave as soon as it was well dark and the festivities were at their height. She had told Trudis they had been invited to a pig-­roast feast at a neighboring village where Trudis had never been; a pig feast with cake and ale. Also, there was a certain herbal extract she would give Trudis just before they left, one that would make her biddable. Lillis allowed herself an extra hour’s sleep that morning. As she was sitting over her tea mug in the all-­purpose everything-­including-­the-­kitchen room, however, someone fell through her kitchen door. The woman stumbled exhaustedly to her feet, babbling that she had run all the way from Gortels, a ­couple of miles north. Rotten, a woman of Gortles, was giving birth and seemingly dying of it. Rotten had begged—­screamed—­to her friend to fetch the Healer Ma.
    â€œDid you call Ma Beans? She’s good help with birthing!”
    â€œMa’s dead, Lillis. Ma got ’erself kilt.”
    While listening to the details of Ma Beam’s late-­night fall from a cliff road, Lillis was gathering up her kit, and she walked quickly to Gortles, thinking to be back in plenty of time to leave that night.
    During the subsequent day and night, as she battled for the woman’s and the girl baby’s lives—­successfully in the one case, though not the other—­her plans for Midsummer Eve were driven from her mind. Only when she started for home in the morning did she remember with exhausted horror what