Character Analysis
Salata isn't the most welcoming of folks. She's the first person Tilja and Co. meet when they arrive in the Empire after washing up on shore in their raft:
She was square and sturdy and very differently dressed from the women of the Valley, with a skirt that reached to her bare feet and a long scarf that wound twice round over her head, framing her face, and its tasseled ends dangling at her waist. She held herself like someone used to carrying loads on her head. Halfway to meet them she stopped and waited for them to reach her, her face expressionless. (5.30)
Salata is suspicious. She regards this group of oddly dressed foreigners with skepticism:
"You have come far?" said the woman.
"From beyond the forest," he said.
The woman's face became blanker still.
"All men die in the forest," she said.
"We came quickly, on a raft down the river," said Alnor. "But indeed I and my grandson nearly died." (5.43-47)
Salata is also very traditional. She holds to the customs of her people at all times. Like here:
"This is not good news," she said. "But you are a stranger and I must welcome you. It is our custom, here in the outlands, though I have little to offer a guest since the soldiers took my husband." (5.49)
She also gets ticked off when Meena does her own thing:
[…] but when they tried to offer her some of their food in exchange, she became offended and insisted it was not the custom. (5.53)
Mainly, Salata is overly cautious because of the oppressive society she lives in. Her hubby was drafted into the army and she's a single mom—in other words, she's positioned to encounter the worst parts of her society's oppression on a regular basis. So when she says how corrupt the Empire is and Meena disses the Emperor, Salata gets angry:
"A bird may fly to Talagh with your saying. A wind may carry it there. The Emperor keeps great magicians at his court, who listen for all such whispers. If your words come to his ears, you who spoke them, and your friends and I and my daughters who heard them, will be thrown into the furnaces. If you were not my guests I would set my dog on you and turn you from my tent." (5.83)
Pro tip: Don't get on Salata's bad side.