Authors notes: The story you're about to read is the work in progress of three authors, MandereLee, 1221Bookworm, and Booksrgood4u. We all took turns writing a paragraph or two after a discussion about all the things that might have happened after Forging the Sword. We hope that our readers have as much fun reading this as our writers had writing it!
And, no, none of us own the Farsala Trilogy or any of the characters who you're about to read about.

Chapter One

Soraya

Soraya squinted up at the figure coming down the ridge. She had been expecting a messenger for the last few days to bring news of her mother and Merdas. She waited for the news with mixed emotions, wondering if she would find her mother much changed. Soraya knew from experience how time spent as a slave could change a person's perspective. And what about Merdas? Would he remember her?

Abab squeezed her hand. He had insisted on coming with her to meet the messenger even though she had originally wanted to go alone. 'Moral Support,' he'd said. Soraya had no doubt that whatever came of her family's reunion, she would need all the moral support she could get. She gave Abab a grateful smile before turning back to watch the messenger. He was close enough now to make out his features, and Soraya recognized him instantly - Jiaan.

He dismounted his horse a few paces away from them. She remembered when he called her sister the day she left with the Suud. Soraya wondered briefly if the closeness they had was still there, was still accessible even after so many months apart.

It was good to see him, though. He was turning out to look more like her father - *their* father - more and more. For a minute, she didn't know what to say, how to ask the questions that haunted her since she'd heard of the news that the captured Farsalans were starting to return.

Jiaan must have seen her hesitation, and decided to get to the point, without the formalities. So much like a Commander. "Your mother decided to wait in the nearest town from the cliff. She said something about how appalling it would be for a deghass to be forced to cross the dessert," he added with a small smile.

Well, that sounded just like Sudaba.

"And Merdas?" she asked.

"He's with her," Jiaan said. "The town's not far. You can go today if you want."

She glanced at Abab, who shrugged. "You said you missed him."

"Alright," Soraya said. "I'll go as soon as the horse has rested."

They were so close. Her heart ached knowing just how soon she would be able to see them. (Leng)

Abab insisted on joining Soraya as she left the desert.

"Stay cool, and keep your tongue in your head," Maok reminded her with a hug as she left. Maok had decided to stay behind, partially because the Suud would have sent an escort with her, and nobody thought Sudaba would be happy to be surrounded by Suud. Soraya also thought that Maok wanted her to handle it on her own.

Jiaan had waited a few steps ahead, and now fell into step beside her. He smiled at her.

"Have you heard much news from Farsala?" he asked.

"Not recently, but everything I've heard has been good," she replied.

"It is good," Jiaan said enthusiastically. "I've yet to hear complaints about Kavi's council. They've been fair with disputes, and haven't set taxes to high."

"I've even heard that Kavi wants to send people in the desert to help the Suud - teach them to irrigate the desert so they can grow more food," Soraya said.

"Well, yes," Jiaan said, "He wants to, and, well, I'm supposed to ask you if you will talk to them about it. He wants to talk to you about it, and decide what would be best and stuff."

"It would be good repayment for all their support in the war." Soraya replied. "I'll see what I can do. I want to take care of Merdas, first."

"Of course." Jiaan said, taking his cue to pick up the pace.

Jiaan led them into town, a small collection of peasant houses on the outskirts of the fertile fields, before the soil turned into the dry, dusty rocks of the dessert. They stopped in front of small house, though it seemed to be the largest at the area.

Soraya came forward, heart thudding in her chest. She took a deep breath, and concentrated on her shilshadu, and on the shilshadu around her, just so she could calm herself down. And with one final breath, she knocked tentatively on the lopsided door of the house.

There was a commotion inside, a few voices seemed to argue for a minute. Then the clatter of furniture as someone rushed to the door, and opened it. For a minute, Soraya thought it was her mother, changed so drastically by one year's experience of slavery, but the wavy brown hair could not have been a result of washing chamber pots or chopping onions.

The woman looked beyond her and noticed Jiaan. She smiled and opened the door wide. "I guess you are here for you mother and brother," she said, scanning Soraya's straight black hair. Soraya had cut it again to shoulder-length.

Soraya stepped in through the door, and the small figure eating by the table was the first that captured her attention. Merdas looked up from the bread he seemed to be crumbling into little pieces, and grinned up in recognition.

Soraya ran to him, as he slid down from his chair. She scooped him up in her arms. He was heavier, taller, but a little skinnier. His face lost a little bit of its chubbiness, but everything that she remembered about him, the wide wondering eyes, the small nose, were all still there.

"Merdas, you still remember me?" she pulled away from him, and settled him down on the floor.

"Yes!" he said, and pulled on her short hair. His voice changed too. Less squeaky and high. She held him tightly again, milking all the affection robbed from her by one year's worth of separation.

"Djinn!" Merdas exclaimed suddenly, and Soraya turned to where he was pointing. Abab had shed his hood and his robe now that they were in the safe shadows of the house.

"Silly, that's not a djinn!" Soraya pinched Merdas's cheeks. "He's a Suud. I'll tell you all about them later. After you've told me all of your adventures."

"Adventures would not be the exact word I'd call them," a smooth voice came out from the other side of the room, and Soraya found her mother standing there.

"Look, Mama, its Raya!" Merdas squealed. He tugged on Soraya's hand, pulling her towards her mother. Soraya went forward willingly, glad for an excuse to approach her mother.

"Yes, Merdas, I see," Sudaba said coolly.

"Mother - Madam my Mother," Soraya corrected herself. She hesitated a moment before deciding to take the initiative herself and embrace her mother. Sudaba returned her embrace, and Soraya felt tears in her eyes. For the first time she could remember, her mother's affection felt sincere. Sudaba stepped back to look her over, though Soraya thought that it was just as much a moment to regain her own composure.

"What have you done to your hair?" Sudaba asked touching a strand of Soraya's short hair. Her tone was not as sharp as it once would have been, and some of Soraya's apprehension left her.

"I cut it." Soraya winced at the obviousness of the statement even as she said it, and she saw her mother's mouth quirk. "It was a disguise," Soraya said in a rush, wanting to gauge her mother's reaction a bit more before launching into the details of hiding as a servant and a slave, and disguising as a boy, and spying on deghans. "Anyway, I'm so glad to see you both," she hurried on, "I've been so worried about you."

"I'm glad to see you too, Raya," Merdas said, apparently having decided that no one was paying enough attention to him. "Mama said that you would be all right."

"Why don't you all sit down," the young woman who had opened the door asked. "Is there anything you would like?" she added to Soraya.

"No, thank you, I'm fine," Soraya replied as she slid down into the chair Merdas had abandoned.

"Who is your Suud friend?" Sudaba asked, gracefully settling herself in a chair. Soraya noticed she wore long sleeves to cover the Hrum tattoo. Or maybe it was just the weather.

Soraya bit her lip. She wasn't sure just how to introduce her mother anymore. Certainly she should not include the titles.

"Mother, this is Abab, he's one of the young men from the Suud tribe that helped hide me from the Hrum." She turned toward Abab, "This is my mother, Sudaba, and my brother Merdas."

"Much happy to meet you. Soraya talk much about you," Abab said, smiling jovially at them each in turn.

Merdas climbed into Soraya's lap, and snuggled there contentedly. "I thought he was a djinn. He looks like how Mama describes them."

"He is not a djinn, Merdas." Sudaba said. "He is a Suud; they live in the desert that borders Farsala." She turned her gaze back to Soraya. "You lived with the Suud?"

"Yes, Mother," Soraya responded. "I met them while I was staying at the hiding place Father arranged for me -"

"Jackal girl got herself up on cliff face and couldn't get down." Abab interrupted. Soraya felt the color rising in her cheeks. She didn't need that humiliating experience brought up right away.

"Anyway," she said quickly, "they offered me shelter after the battle at Sendar Wall" "It wasn't even that close to Sendar Wall" Jiaan muttered. Soraya ignored him. "When the army needed a good base, I helped in the negotiations with the Suud." (Bookworm)

Soraya watched her mother closely as she related the rest of the tale about her dealings with the Suud. She was careful not to mention any hints about her time as a servant and a slave; that would have to come later. By the small wrinkle beginning to form between Sudaba's brows, and the grim line her lips were forming, Soraya knew that even the Suud were enough to overwhelm her mother. Not that her mother was unchanged by the year's difficulties. Still, even if she had been quite rudely removed from her pedestal, it would not be easy for Sudaba to accept that the daughter she left behind had spent almost the whole year with "barbarians".

"I see," Sudaba whispered as Soraya finished off her story with how the talented Suud young men helped with creating swords that would not break against the Hrum watersteel. The reluctance in her voice made Soraya doubt the extent of her understanding, and yet there was a resigned undertone that made the young girl realized that, maybe, her mother stopped caring. She doubted that the past was something her mother wanted to dwell on.

"Why didn't you return?" asked Sudaba.

Soraya blinked. She had feared this question. Of course her mother would wonder why she needed to be fetched from the desserts even though the war was over.

"Why haven't you restored our household? Our home?" Sudaba pressed, but again there was that resignment in her tone.

'Because I don't know if it's my home anymore,' Soraya thought, but she knew it would break her mother's heart if she said that. Would she have to choose now? Now that Merdas and Sudaba were back, did she need to come back as well?

-o-

Thank you for reading Chapter 1, please leave a comment to let all of us know what you think!