The Archery Master's Children (2/?)

Someday soon S’toh was going to be in B’den’s situation when he went to be the student of, and be fostered by, the Archery Master for the North. S’toh thought he would have an easier time of it, though. Because the hair of the people in the North liked to lie down flat, instead of rising in tightly curled springs like the people of the South, it was their custom to braid it away from the face. Men of war, in particular, wore special braids to indicate their status. Even B’den, with his pale sunlight hair so very different from everyone else’s including the other Northern students (for they had hair as dark as any South-dweller) wore a braid on either side of his head. Like the armguards and the finger-gloves that even Sothi and H’tsi wore, in the North they were signs that B’den belong to the Northern Archery Master’s house, and that he was a student there. For that reason he had been allowed to keep both braids, though the rest of his hair had been cut close to his head. The other three Northern students, none of whom were in any way related to the Archery Master there, had a single narrow braid at the base of their skulls.

When S’toh went to be fostered by B’den’s father he would follow the Northern province custom of allowing his hair to grow long, but in deference to his own father’s house he would be allowed to braid it as close to his head as he could manage. Though that time was at least a year away, possibly even two, S’toh was already collecting stories of great warriors, North-dwelling as well as South, to weave into the braids when he plaited and re-plaited them. That was the Southern Province custom for plaited hair. It was a way to teach children the stories of their people—the great exploits and sometimes even the failures. The stories were woven into the plaited hair, one braid for each warrior, or one braid for each exploit if the warrior had been a great and adventurous man. There could be braids also for the great kings who ruled the provinces and for their Sister-Queens, or even the consorts married to the brother-sister co-rulers.

When H’tsi had been very little, Sothi had braided many braids in her sister’s hair, telling her the stories of Sister-Queens and Kings’-Wives who had done great things at the sides of their brothers and husbands. Now that H’tsi was growing old enough to remember, Sothi only made as many braids as her sister had stories. Often that meant only two fat plaits on either side of her head that were nearly all undone by day’s end. Sometimes Sothi would be merciful and plait half-finished braids for half-remembered history. Sothi’s own head was always full of small, tightly plaited hair. The woman who cleaned the house for their father, Assua, also did Sothi’s hair once a week. She would sit on a stool while Sothi sat on the floor, H’tsi in her lap, reciting history and the exploits of the great Sister-Queens, co-rulers with their Brother-Kings, and the exploits of the Kings’-Wives, while S’toh stood in the door listening. From what he could tell Sothi particularly liked the King’s-Wives that defied convention and stood up to their husband’s sister-Queens. At least a dozen braids were dedicated to them alone.

S’toh planned to have as many braids as Sothi when he was in the North, if not more. There were certainly more stories to choose from among the Brother-Kings and Queens’-Husbands. He wondered if anyone in the Northern Archery Master’s house knew the history of the Southern provinces well enough to correct him if he recited them wrong.

-tbc-