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“That will be fine!” Garlahna had agreed, and Dalthys had looked back at Leeana.
“Most of the people in Kalatha own their own homes, or rent, just like in any other town,” she’d explained, “but any war maid is entitled under the charter to one full year of free housing and meals when she first joins us. For someone like you, Leeana, who has to serve a probationary period first, that’s extended to a year and a half. And we also try to look after our own people if they find themselves unable to pay their own way through no fault of their own, of course.” She’d shrugged. “At any rate, the town owns several dormitories where that free housing is provided. In addition, we rent rooms in the dormitories at what I like to think are very reasonable rates for war maids who’ve used up their free months. That’s what Garlahna’s been doing for several years now.”
Leeana had nodded her thanks for the explanation, and Dalthys had chuckled.
“Don’t get to feeling too grateful for your room till you see it,” the administrator advised her. “It’s adequate, but not all that huge. Although, now that I think about it, the fact that we’re giving you a double with no roommate will tend to offset that somewhat. But however ’free’ it may technically be, I assure you that you’ll do more than enough work to compensate us for our generosity.”
“I understand … Dalthys,” Leeana had said with a wry smile.
“Well,” Dalthys had said with a slow smile, “if you don’t now, you will after your first night working in the dining hall!”
She’d chuckled again, then found the key to Leeana’s new room and shooed both young women out of her office.
The next stop had been Housekeeping.
Ermath Balcarafressa, who held the title of Housekeeper, was like no “housekeeper” Leeana had ever met. Leeana rather doubted that Ermath had done any manual labor in years, because hers was an administrative title, like Dalthys’. “Housekeeping” was apparently one of Kalatha’s larger municipal divisions, with responsibility for a wide range of maintenance, cleaning, and service duties—including the dining hall.
It had been apparent that Ermath discharged her duties efficiently, but Leeana had been unable to warm to her as she had to Dalthys. Physically, Ermath was the antithesis of the Town Administrator in many ways. She was much older, with hair so white it was probably painful to the eye in direct sunlight, and thin as a rail. She was also sharp featured, and had a tongue to match, with little of Dalthys’ lurking humor.
“So, you’re the one,” she’d said as soon as Garlahna delivered Leeana to her office.
Leeana had obviously looked more taken aback then she’d meant to, and Ermath had laughed. It sounded more like a cackle than a laugh, especially compared to Dalthys’ warm chuckle.
“The one all the fuss is over, girl!” the Housekeeper had told her. “Lillinara! There hasn’t been this much excitement over a new candidate in— Well, in as long as I can remember!” She’d cackled again. “This’ ll hit that bastard Trisu right where he lives. Don’t you think for a minute it won’t!”
Leeana hadn’t had any notion of how to react, so she’d watched Garlahna from the corner of her eye and taken her cue from her mentor’s lack of expression. Since she was the one actually talking to Ermath (or, at least, being talked to by Ermath), she’d settled for noddingpleasantly and saying as little as a she possibly could in response to the Housekeeper’s comments and questions. It hadn’t actually taken very long, but it had seemed much longer, before they got out of Ermath’s office with the required vouchers for bed linens, towels, washcloths, and the one year’s worth of clothing the charter required the town to provide to any new war maid.
At least Leeana had grown up accustomed to being measured, poked, and prodded by dressmakers and seamstresses. That had helped at their next stop, when Garlahna delivered her into the hands Johlana Ermathfressa.
Johlana’s face would have made it obvious she was the Housekeeper’s daughter even without her war maid matronym. But she was no more than half her mother’s age, and the bright, humorous intelligence behind her eyes softened her sharp features remarkably. Leeana had been grateful for the difference between mother and daughter as Johlana discussed her wardrobe needs with a cheerfully earthy pragmatism that carried over into things like monthly cycle choices, and from there to homilies about sex, contraceptive techniques, and young women away from watchful families for the first time, even as she measured busily away. She’d seemed mightily amused by Leeana’s obvious reservations about the chari and yathu she was expected to wear, but she’d also taken pity upon her.
“Oh, for Lillinara’s sake—you won’t be expected to wear them all the time, Leeana!” she’d scolded. “I know. I know! Scandalous—simply scandalous!—until you get used to them. But you’ll find they’re more practical than you might think just yet. And, when you’re not ’in uniform’ for physical training or some sort of heavy labor, you can wear whatever you want. In fact, we’ll actually provide you with a couple of pairs of trousers and shirts or smocks in the colors you’d prefer. And once you find a way to earn a kormak here or there—and all of our girls do that eventually, don’t they, Garlahna?—you can spend them on whatever you want. Including something nice to wear. We may be war maids, but we’re still females, too. Trust me, there’s always a market for pretties of one sort or another here in Kalatha!”
Garlahna had nodded in enthusiastic agreement, and Leeana had smiled. Then Johlana had gathered up her jotted-down notes on Leeana’s measurements and needs.
“You’re a tall thing,” she’d observed. “Good thing charis and yathus are fairly easy to fit!” She’d shaken her head. “The biggest problem’s going to be lacing a yathu tight enough until you fill out, girl! At least holding the chari up won’t be a problem. Good breeders run in your family?”
Leeana had turned an interesting shade of red—again—at about that point, and Johlana had laughed.
“Don’t pay me any attention, Leeana—no one else does, that’s for sure! Just run along now. I’ll have something for you to face Erlis in tomorrow morning.”
She’d made waving motions with both hands, and Garlahna and Leeana had made a hasty escape.
Leeana had been astonished as they emerged from Johlana’s office to discover that the sun had already set. But her surprise had faded quickly as she realized just how tired she was. She and Kaeritha had ridden hard all morning to reach Kalatha, and she hadn’t really stopped moving from the moment she dismounted here. None of which even considered the sheer emotional stress of all she’d been through in the last twelve hours or so. “Worn out” was a pale way to describe her physical condition, and she’d wanted to weep in sheer exhaustion as she realized she and Garlahna still had to drag her bed linens to her assigned room and make up her bed before she could tumble into it.
She’d concluded later that Garlahna had known exactly how she felt, but her mentor had allowed no sign of that awareness to color her voice or her ma
Somehow, she’d managed—with a lot more help from Garlahna than she suspected a “mentor” was supposed to provide—to get her room more or less ready for occupancy. But then Garlahna had refused to allow her to collapse across the thin, hard mattress of the narrowest bed she had ever contemplated sleeping in. Instead, she’d marched a staggeringly tired Leeana to the meal hall, sat her down on one of the benches, and bullied one of the kitchen workers into providing a huge bowl of thick, delicious vegetable soup despite the lateness of the hour. Leeana had never tasted anything so wonderful in her entire life … she only wished she’d been awake enough to remember it later.