Sword-Maker(113)

Alric shook his head. “Impossible,” he said. “I’m a Northerner, yes, but I’ve lived in the South for years. I don’t think anyone could unite all the tribes, for all the reasons you’ve given.”

My turn to shake my head. “It’s a matter of language,” I said. “All you have to do is find the sort of message that appeals to every individual tribe, and then use the proper language.”

“Religion,” Del said flatly.

Now I nodded. “Religion, stripped of faith, of belief, is nothing more than a means to enforce the will of a few upon the many. Don’t you see? Tell a man to do something, and he may not like the idea. He refuses. But tell him his god requires it, and he’ll rush to do the task.”

“If he believes,” Alric cautioned.

“I don’t know about you,” I said, “but I’m not a religious man. I don’t think there’s much use in worshiping a god or gods when we’re responsible for our own lives; relying on something—or someone—you don’t know is a fool’s game. But a lot of people disagree. A lot of people arrange their lives around their gods. They talk to them. Make offerings. Ask them for aid.” I looked at Del. “They make oaths in the names of those gods, then live their lives by those oaths.”

Color flared in her face. “What I do is my own concern.”

“Yes,” I agreed. “I’m not arguing that. What I’m saying is, the tribes are full of superstitions. If a nanny bears twin kids, the year is supposed to be generous. And when it isn’t, if it isn’t, something else is blamed.” I sighed and scratched at scars. “If a man discovered a way of uniting the tribes in a common goal, he could claim the South for himself. That’s what I’m saying.”

Alric was frowning, considering implications. Thinking about tanzeers, who would want the jhihadi dead. Who would want the Oracle dead. And all the sword-dancers they could hire in order to win a holy war.

Del shook her head. “Would it matter? How do you know it wouldn’t be better for the South if one man did rule it, instead of all these tanzeers?”

“Because who’s to say what this one man will do?” I countered. “For one, if he’s got the tribes on his side he wouldn’t need to hire sword-dancers. We’d be out of a job.” Del’s expression was sardonic. “All right,” I conceded, “aside from that, what if the tribes decided the rest of us didn’t deserve to live? That we profaned the South? What if this jhihadi declared holy war and made the rest of us his enemies, fit only for execution?”

“He wouldn’t,” Del declared. “An entire people? An entire land?”

Alric’s tone was odd. “The Vashni are killing foreigners.”

Del’s color faded.

“If the sand is changed to grass,” I said, “the South becomes worth having.”

Del frowned, thinking. “But if the South is changed so drastically, it alters the way the tribes live. Would they want that? You yourself said they’re trying to protect their way of life.”

“There is that,” I agreed. “But there’s also the knowledge that, for his god—or gods—a man will do many strange things.”

Alric nodded slowly. “The khemi, for instance. How many men do you know would willingly give up women?”

Del’s tone was disgusted. “I know about khemi,” she said. “Giving up women is one thing … claiming we are excrescence and not worthy of speech, of touching, of anything is carrying things too far.”

“They interpret the Hamidaa’n a bit too literally,” I agreed. “Those scrolls don’t really say women are completely worthless, just inferior to men. If you talk to anyone of the true Hamidaa faith—not the khemi zealots—they’ll tell you how things are.”

Del’s brows rose. “And that makes the opinion right?”

“No. What it does is prove what I’ve been saying: religion is a method of control.”

Del tilted her head. “If you allow it to be. It can also offer security, a focus for your life. It can make your life worth living.”

I looked at her harness, lying next to mine. At the intricate, twisted hilt of a dangerous, spell-bound sword. “You worship that. Does it make your life worth living?”

Del didn’t even blink. “What it promises does.”

Alric dismissed our argument. “If what you’ve said is true, something should be done.”

Del overrode me before I could get started. “What if what the Oracle has said is true? Do you mean to argue with a messiah?”