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 No one can force Rohana to do anything she does not want to do, Jaelle said,
 and I have never known her to lend her name to any wickedness. Are you truly on a
mission in her name?
Magda nodded. Jaelle said,  But you are not an Amazon, are you? How came
you to try to pass yourself off as one, Margali if that is truly your name?
 It is the name I bore as a child. Magda blinked, for a moment afraid she would
cry. But she spoke without faltering.  My mission is an honorable one, and it was the
Lady Rohana who suggested to me that I dress and bear myself as an Amazon. She
raised her head, still stinging with Jaelle s blows.  I have disgraced no one! If I had
avoided your camp, no harm would have been done; but in this storm I did not want
to sleep out of doors.
 No, said Jaelle.  You narrowly escaped frostbite as it was. So you thought you
could get through the night without betraying yourself 
 And then it seemed to me that those men knew something of importance to my
mission. Something so important that nothing else seemed to matter.
 What prompted you to wear men s boots? Was it only ignorance?
 Lady Rohana provided the boots, said Magda,  but I knew no better.
Camilla laughed suddenly.  I told the Lady Rohana that her ignorance of our
customs would make trouble sometime; but it came many years later than I thought it
would! Well, she meant well; I suppose if you had met no real Amazons you might
have passed, indeed, as one of us.
Jaelle said curiously,  But, were you not afraid to travel in the Hellers, alone, and
with winter coming on?
A few hours ago Magda would have said,  No, I was not afraid. Now, having
tasted fear, she was more honest with herself.  I was afraid, yes. But it seemed to me
that my mission was more important than fear.
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r r
For the first time Jaelle s eyes were, a little kinder.  So you felt the dress of an
Amazon would protect you? Well, the disguise even deceived us, for a little while, and
it seems to me that in general you tried to conduct yourself in such a way as to bring
no disgrace upon our dress and name. It is not your fault you failed. But what put it
into your head to come alone on such a mission, my girl? Was there no man to whom
you could turn, no relative, no father, no warden, overlord or guardian? What is the
mission on which you must travel alone?
Having no better idea, Magda told the truth; or as much of it as she dared.  A
near kinsman  (A husband is related, damn it, related by marriage at least& )  is
held at Sain Scarp for ransom. If he is not ransomed by midwinter, he will be tortured
and killed.
 And no man in your family or household would help you? But I do not
understand this, Jaelle said.  If you had the right to appeal to the Lady Rohana, you
would have had an equal right to appeal to her husband or to her sons for their aid.
Magda said steadily,  I have no right to appeal to the Lady Rohana. She aided
me out of kindness and charity, because I had none other to help me.
 Ah, that is like her, said Jaelle.  No lame dog of the mountains ever came
limping in vain to her doorstep. She sighed and yawned, covering her mouth with a
small hand, so graceful it was hard to believe she had wounded a man, had beaten
Magda with those same small hands.  Well, I am not your guardian, and your affairs
are none of my business; normally I would feel bound to help anyone under the shelter
of my kinswoman s patronage. But there is a more serious point at issue here. It seems
to me, truly, that you have shown a spirit almost worthy of a true Amazon, venturing
alone into the Hellers in the decline of the year, instead of calling upon some man for
protection. You were stupid, yes, and you were unlucky; but if stupidity were a crime,
half the human race would be outlawed at every crossroad, and how says the proverb?
If ill luck were Cheese, dairywomen would go wanting work. Just the same  she
frowned  no one may be allowed to impersonate a Free Amazon. Camilla has told us
how one such impersonation was punished!
Magda shuddered, but forced herself to say boldly,  You have said it yourself: I
did nothing to disgrace you. And I know that Lady Rohana was allowed to travel with
your band, dressed as one of you.
 True. But the law requires that before this is allowed, the woman must have the
permission of the elected leader, and the consent of every one of the women who is to
travel in their company.
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r r
 Then give me such permission, Magda challenged, and Jaelle broke into an
unexpected smile.
 I almost wish the laws of our Guild permitted it, she said half aloud.  A
thousand pities Rohana did not know how inflexible is that law. Had she sent for me,
and asked that leave, before you had shown yourself in Amazon s dress, I almost
believe  She sighed, and said,  Well, the law does not allow me to give you that
permission once you have invaded the privacy of my women in disguise: unknowing,
perhaps, in ignorance of your crime, but invaded nonetheless. There was a day and if
we are not vigilant it could come again on Darkover when we were invaded
constantly by enemies, spies, seeking to learn something of our ways and weaknesses,
or to carry tales about us, hoping to slander us to our disadvantage. The penalty for a
man who invades us in disguise is death or mutilation, as we may choose and as
circumstances dictate. For a woman the penalty never changes. Before you depart from
us, the lie must become truth: You must take the oath of the Free Amazons, here and
now.
Magda s first reaction was, Oh, is that all? Jaelle saw the relief in her face, for her
voice hardened.  Don t dare to take it lightly, she said,  for if you swear it, and later
betray it, any Free Amazon on Darkover may kill you where you stand; you are a dead
woman the moment you put your nose out your own window!
It flashed across Magda s mind: An oath under duress is not valid. That was the
Terran Magda; in the next moment the Darkovan girl Margali, who had grown up at
Caer Donn, absorbing the way of life, the codes, the beliefs of her Darkovan playmates
almost more deeply than those of her parents, thought, An oath I cannot betray; how
can I do this?
The conflict was terrible; she felt as if she were being wrenched apart. I have
come and gone between two worlds with impunity; now I must pay the price, and I do
not know if I can! She put her hands over her face, in a futile attempt to conceal her
emotions. If I refuse, will they kill me here and now?
 Will you take the oath?
Magda said,  What choice have I?
 None, I fear. I owe it to my women, and to every woman of the Guild, that
none shall invade us and carry our secrets outside. If you will not swear, we will simply
have to carry you, as prisoner, back to the nearest Guild-house, and there keep you
until you are willing to be sworn, or until midwinter-night when all our Guild meet in
reunion and our judges can hear your story and decide what is to be done with you. It
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