Free The Woman Who Rides Like a Man by Tamora Pierce Page B

could see that she spent as much time unraveling mistakes as she did weaving.
    "I just don't know enough," she told Alanna one night, as Kara and Ishak argued nearby over the use of a scroll of spells. "I was little when I was taught, and I haven't practiced for a long time." She sighed, looking discouraged. "You remember Hakim Fahrar, the man you fought?" Alanna nodded. "His mother is the best weaver in the tribe. I'd ask her to teach me, but—" She made a face. "The women think Kara and I have forgotten our place because we sit with the men."
    "And it doesn't help that I wounded Mistress Fahrar's son," Alanna said shrewdly. Kourrem nodded; Alanna tousled the girl's hair. "I'd give anything to be able to help you, but I don't know how to weave."
    All three apprentices—even Ishak—stared at her. Finally Kara whispered, "You don't know how to weave?"
    "Warriors don't learn such things," Ishak told the girls scornfully.
    Kourrem stood abruptly. "I'll be right back." She hurried from the tent.
    "I just thought—all the girls are taught when we are very young," Kara explained. "You don't know how to card wool, or spin thread, or—?" She stopped, baffled.
    "I don't know how to bake, either," Alanna confided. "The only cooking I know is the kind soldiers do on the march."
    Kara shook her head. In many ways she was a very proper Bazhir maiden; Alanna often puzzled her. She was trying to explain the process of weaving when Kourrem returned, bearing a lap-sized model of her big loom. The girl knelt beside Alanna. "I can teach you the simplest kind of weaving, if you want to learn," she offered. "You couldn't do anything like stripes, but it would be a start."
    "I'd love to learn," Alanna admitted. "It looks like fun." Kourrem grinned. "It is fun when it goes right," she said. "I really shouldn't start you weaving right away. We always had to learn to card wool—you know, comb out all the dirt and tangles—and spin a good thread before we were let near a loom."
    Alanna laughed. "It's just like every fighting art I studied," she explained to her surprised audience. "We had to learn how to make our weapons before we got to use them."
    "You have to understand how a thing is made before you master it," Kara said wisely. Suddenly her face brightened. "That's what you've been teaching us about magic!"
    "So if you know how the crystal sword is made, you can command it!" Ishak added.
    Alanna fought down a trace of alarm. "That's not all of it, Ishak." She fixed his eyes with her own grim ones. "To command things of nature, you need to understand how they are made, and you must want to command them. With things of magic, you develop your will until you are stronger than your Gift. Otherwise the power will turn on you. Do you understand me?" she demanded.
    Ishak met her eyes defiantly, then looked away. "Of course I understand."
    Alanna frowned, worried for him, but there was no sense in pursuing the matter now. She examined the loom she held. "What do I do with this thing?"
    Kourrem explained the device, naming the different parts and describing what they did. When she finished, she worked the shuttle until a row had grown on the threaded loom. Then she handed it to Alanna. "Your turn."
    The loom was clumsy and awkward-feeling to the knight, who was far more used to weapons. At last she drew a breath and started the shuttle.
    The moment the thing began to move, she realized she didn't understand what was supposed to be happening. Within seconds the threads were impossibly snarled. Kara choked back laughter; even Kourrem had to smile. Ishak looked bored.
    Alanna put the loom down, feeling younger and more ignorant than she had in years. "Perhaps I need to learn the other things first. My teachers were right—for real skills, there aren't any shortcuts."
    "I'll teach you," Kourrem offered, "if you still want to learn. Though it seems silly for you to go to such trouble when the things you do are more important."
    "What's more important