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Chapter
26
Reconciliation
“That was a shot,” said
Larra.
“Sure was,” Sawatis
agreed.
“And damned close to
here. Jean and I will
check it out. He pointed to Larra
and Melissa. “You two stay
here.” Noticing Larra’s
frown at being ordered about her added: “You don’t have a weapon,
Larra, and neither does Melissa. A
few hours ago you were too injured to
move. Stay here and see if you
can figure something out with these
people. I understand you speak
a little of their language.”
Larra
nodded. She couldn’t always
give the orders. Sometimes it
was best to let others take the lead.
And in their physical condition, she and Melissa would just hold up
the two men. She motioned for
one of the Suruani to come over to her.
She would try to figure out a little more of their
language.
Ayashe led the dark-skinned woman toward the
woods. She had to help her most
of the way. It was apparent that
her attempt to escape from the two men chasing her had used up the last of
her strength. As they gained
the shelter of the trees, Ayashe felt herself feeling a little
sick. Her body began to tremble
and she had to let the dark-skinned woman sit down, no longer being able
to support her. She knew what
the problem was. In spite of
her boasting to Sawatis and Lemaire, she had never killed another human being,
although she had often killed game animals when out hunting with her
father. She had been too excited
when she had rescued the dark-skinned woman to think about what she had
done. Now the realization set
in. She sat down with her back
against a tree. A few feet away
the woman she had rescued looked at her with dark eyes that seemed to harbour
a deep sadness.
Ayashe let out a deep
breathe. She was feeling a little
better. She thought about what
she had done. She had killed
two men who were beating up a defenceless
woman. A woman
who was encumbered with a crude restraint so that she could not fight back
or avoid their blows. She
had done nothing wrong. Those
men had deserved to die.
Ayashe looked across at the dark-skinned woman
who was still watching her intently.
She decided that she might as well try to communicate with
her. Tapping her chest she said
“Ayashe.” She said
it slowly and then repeated it.
The woman’s sad eyes brightened a
little. Tapping her own chest
she said “Takla.” Ayashe
nodded and repeated the word. So
the woman’s name was Takla.
Now what else could they talk about?
She raised her
rifle. The woman’s eyes
widened with apprehension and her body
tensed. Clearly she seemed to
understand its use.
“Rifle,” said Ayashe, tapping the
barrel.
The woman was visibly
relieved. “Ray fal,”
she said.
Ayashe shook her
head. “Ri full,” she
corrected.
The woman gave a
frown. Something had confused
her, but then she repeated the word
correctly. For the next while,
Ayashe and Takla exchanged vocabulary.
They went on to body parts starting with her hands and face and then
naming the arms and legs. Takla
seemed to enjoy the exercise and each time Ayashe named a body part in English
she named it in her own language.
Clearly she expected Ayashe to learn her language as
well.
After half an hour, Ayashe was out of body
parts, or at least she thought she was.
There were some parts of the body she left
unnamed. But to her surprise
and slight embarrassment, Takla wanted to keep playing the
game. She pointed to her left
breast and named it, then looked expectantly at Ayashe waiting for her to
repeat it and then supply the English
version. The Dene girl found
herself blushing furiously. She
was caught in her own trap. She
could not ignore the woman without seeming rude, so she named her
breast. Then to Ayashe’s
mortification, Takla pointed to her vulva and named
that.
Ayashe did not know what to
do. She certainly was not going
to point to her most private of places and name it, but how could she get
out of the embarrassing situation?
It was obvious that in Takla’s culture no part of the anatomy
was considered taboo. She realized
that this probably made sense, but could not bring herself to point to the
area between her legs.
Takla sensed something was
wrong. When she had first been
rescued by the white girl she had been very
afraid. After all, the girl had
just killed two men with some sort of magical
weapon. But when the girl had
begun to play the name game, she had
relaxed. There had just been
that little bit of confusion when the girl had shaken her head when she had
mispronounced the name of the rifle.
Then she realized that the headshake meant
no. It was a strange
custom. Head shakes always meant
yes in Suruani culture. But once
she had figured it out things went
smoothly. That is smoothly until
now. The girl was not as
light-skinned as the other two women had been,
but. She was brown rather than
white. But now her skin had
darkened. Takla wondered what
she had done. The girl clearly
looked uncomfortable, or at least what Takla thought was
uncomfortable. Her facial expressions
were a little different from what she was used
to. If Takla had not known she
would have guessed that the girl was embarrassed, but embarrassed about
what?
At that moment, she saw the girl
start. Moving into a crouch the
girl seized the deadly rifle and turned toward whatever sound she had
heard. Takla had heard nothing,
but nevertheless was alarmed. The
girl turned toward her and placing her finger on her lips, signaled for her
to be quiet. Then she moved her
hand toward the ground. Takla
understood and ducked down. For
a few seconds the girl remained perfectly still and then gave a little
cry.
Jumping to her feet, the
girl pushed through the bush shouting words in her own strange
language. Takla started to follow
but halted dead in her tracks a look of pure terror on her
face. Coming toward her, escorted
by the girl were two of the male demons that had helped the Lelawabi destroy
her army.
She turned to flee, but was so overcome by
fear that she tripped and fell instead.
Terrified she did not even bother to regain her feet, but tried to
scrabble into the woods on her hands and
knees. And then Ayashe was placing
her hand on her shoulder. The
girl’s words were soothing although Takla understood almost none of
them. Just one word came
through.
“Friend,” and its Suruani
equivalent. Remembering her training
as a queen, she forced herself to remain
calm.
“Who is your friend, little one, and
what are you doing here?” asked
Lemaire. He tried not to look
too stern. Secretly, he was quite
happy to see the girl again. She
had been a lively companion. Also,
he did not want to frighten the Suruani woman who was cringing on the
ground. She was quite clearly
frightened. As she watched, she
straightened herself and stood up to face him
squarely. The sight of her exquisite
body almost took his breath away.
“Incredible,” he thought, “she is as beautiful as
Larra.”
Sawatis was following right
behind. He too was pleased to
see Ayashe, although a bit miffed at the fact that she had disobeyed
him. But he too saw that the
Suruani woman was afraid and did not want to do anything to further frighten
her.
“She is a woman I
rescued. She was being attacked
by two men. Her name is
Takla. As for what I am
doing here, well I had to come. I
didn’t want you two getting into any trouble.”
“Then it was you who fired the shots?”
Sawatis asked.
“Yes,” Ayashe went a little
pale. I had to kill two
men. But they deserved
it. They were beating up this
poor woman.”
“Well, we already have quite a few of
her tribe with us. One more
won’t make a difference. Can
she walk?”
“She’s pretty beaten
up. Looks like she may have
been…Well, you know. I think
those men might have done something bad to
her.” Ayashe could not bring
herself to say the word “rape.”
Lemaire went over to
Takla. She shied away as he reached
for her, but he gave her a warm smile and she let him take her
arm. Then he took off his shirt
and used the sleeves to wrap it around Takla’s
hips. Seeing the curious look
from Ayashe he explained.
“These women don’t wear much in the way of clothing, but
they don’t go around completely naked
either. I think she will be more
comfortable this way.” As
if to prove him right, Takla gave Lemaire a smile of
thanks. It was the first time
Ayashe had seen the woman smile.
“Now,” said Ayashe, “you must
tell me about what you have been doing.
Did you ever find
“See for
yourself,” answered
Sawatis. “I’m sure
that she will be pleased to meet you.
We have mentioned you to her.”
Ayashe
nodded. Taking Takla’s arm
she guided her after Sawatis and Lemaire as they led the
way.
Takla followed a little
apprehensively. She sensed that
the two white men could be trusted, especially the one who had given her
part of his clothing. But she
remembered what the other white men had done when she had first seen
them. The main thing was that
her new friend, Ayashe seemed to know
them. They were walking fairly
slowly so that she could keep up, staying in the trees to avoid being
seen. She was glad of
that. Her escape might have been
noticed by now and the trees would shield her from any
pursuers.
Suddenly, she heard a noise ahead of
her. It sounded like many
voices. But the white-skinned
men did not seem at all concerned, and the girl did not pause as she strode
along after them, still holding her arm.
They emerged from the trees into a farmstead cut out of the
woods. It was typical of all
Suruani farms. A small house,
and few outbuildings, and neatly tended
gardens. But it was the crowds
of people near the farm that surprised
her. There were hundreds of her
people. As she and the three
white people emerged for the forest every eye turned toward
them.
Takla’s legs
buckled. Standing only a few
feet away was the white woman with the violet eyes that she had sent to the
thoth, and a few feet behind her was the brown haired
girl she had subjected to the rope
torture. With a cry of despair,
she threw herself on the knees, her head bent to the ground, and her arms
crossed over her head.
Larra’s mouth fell
open. The last person in the
world she had expected to see was the Suruani queen who had sentenced her
and Melissa to brutal torture. So
stunned was she that she did not even noticed the presence of the Dene girl
who was with Lemaire and Sawatis.
She had been talking a Suruani warrior called Zana when the party
had emerged from the brush. She
had been trying to learn more of the Suruani language and more about the
strange world she found herself in.
Recovering from her shock, she turned to Zana,
who seemed just as stunned and amazed as she
was. “Zana, what does this
mean? Why does she prostrate
herself before me?”
“Her actions can have only one meaning,
she surrenders herself to you. She
has given herself as your slave to do with as you
wish.”
Of all the refugees of the Suruani city, Zana
alone knew what Takla had done to Larra and
Melissa. As a member of the
queen’s personal bodyguard she had been present at the humiliation of
both women. She was now a bit
emotionally overwhelmed by the shock of her tribe’s defeat, and the
sudden appearance of Sawatis and Lemaire.
The surprising return of her queen had left her badly shaken and uncertain
of how to respond to the situation.
Larra and Melissa stared at the prostrate
queen of the Suruani. It was
clear that she had been cruelly treated.
He back was covered with half-healed welts, and her body had been
beaten black a blue. It was obvious
that she had been badly treated.
But this was the same woman who had sent Larra and Melissa to brutal
punishment and had smiled cruelly while they suffered, clearly enjoying the
pain of her victims. Larra thought
of the men she had killed for similar crimes against
her. Under normal circumstances,
she would not even have second thoughts about treating the dark queen the
same way. But these were not
normal circumstances. The Suruani
were now a defeated people and it was clear that their once mighty queen
had been humbled.
She turned to the dark warrior standing beside
her. “What was done to your
queen, Zana?”
Zana told her, having been forced to observe
much of Takla’s humiliation before she left the
city. She was not a witness to
her degradation at the hands of the quarry gang, but she knew of it and explained
in exquisite detail what the ordeal would have been
like.
Larra took a deep
breath. Stepping forward, she
placed her hand on Takla’s shoulder.
The queen still had her forehead pressed to the
ground. “Rise,
Takla. No one debases herself
before me. Go with Zana and find
a healer. I will speak with you
later.”
Larra turned
away. She did not entirely trust
herself not to change her mind. But
somehow, she knew that she had made the correct
decision. Cruelty was a learned
behaviour. Suruani society was
cruel because its people had been taught to be
cruel. Perhaps by showing mercy
to the leading member of this society she might be able to effect a
change. Only time would
tell.
Her brief excursion and encounter with the
Suruani queen had left her tired.
She was still feeling the effects of her severe
ordeal. Now she wanted to rest,
but first she had to meet the newest member of her
expedition.
Ayashe was standing nervously in front of
her, shifting her weight from one foot to the
other. The girl was somewhat
in awe of the beautiful violet-eyed woman whom she had been told so much
about by Sawatis and Lemaire.
Larra, of course, knew nothing about Ayashe and was most curious to
discover what a native of northern
For the next hour, all of the adventurers
exchanged stories, bringing one another up to date,
then Larra called for
Zana. The female warrior trotted
up to her. Larra gave her a
smile. It was interesting how
in only the short time she had been among these people that they had come
to accept her authority. They
had done the same for Sawatis and Lemaire, also, but Larra sensed that was
out of a sense of fear. The two
woodsmen were regarded with awe and fear by the women because of their impressive
size and the weapons they carried.
But they were not comfortable taking orders from
men. Despite the fact that only
two days before they had been torturing her with enthusiasm, they gravitated
toward her in a way that they did not for Sawatis and
Lemaire. Larra found this quite
amusing. Sawatis and Lemaire
found it confusing and a little
irritating. It was a total reversal
of the norms in western society.
The female warrior fell to her knees before
Larra. “I’ve got to
stop them from doing that,” she
thought. It was amazing how quickly
things could change. The Suruani
were now treating her as some sort of goddess instead of a
demon. “Please get
up, Zana. I am not a
goddess, I am a woman like
yourself.” She and Zana
had gone over this before.
“As you wish, my queen,” Said Zana
rising.
“I’m not your queen
either. Or
the queen of anyone else.
Please just call me Larra.”
“But, my queen…Larra, How can you
command the make demons if you are not a queen?”
“They respect me as a woman,
Zana. I have proven in my world
that I can be as good as a man.”
“Of course you would be as good as a
man,” said the warrior, confused.
“All women are superior to
men. That is why they serve
us.”
Larra shook her
head. It was going to take awhile
to change the attitudes of Suruani society, and she doubted she had the
time. “I want you to tell
me about Queen Takla. I think
I understand why she abused me and my companion, but I would to know more
about her.”
“That was a mistake,” answered
Takla. “She believed you
were a demon because of your huge size and strange skin
colour. But she has paid for
her error. She is no longer
queen.”
Larra started to
smile. She did not think of herself
as “huge” or possessed of “strange” skin
colour. But the last part of
Zana’s remark made her frown.
“What do you mean she is no longer
queen?”
“She is no longer a
virgin. Only a virgin may be
queen of the Suruani.”
“What happens when a woman wishes to
marry or have a child?” Larra asked.
“Then another virgin from the royal family
is chosen to rule. And the old
queen steps aside.”
Larra
nodded. That explained why Takla
was so young. “Who will
succeed her now that she has lost her virginity?”
Zana shook her head
sorrowfully. “There is no
one of rank left to succeed her.
Normally her successor would be selected from the royal guard, as
all members of that body are related to the queen, but most members of the
guard were carried off by the Lelawabi.”
“But were you not a member of the
guard?” asked Larra.
Tears suddenly came to the warrior’s
eyes. “Yes,” she said,
bowing her head. Her lower lip
quivered.
Without a word, Larra took the Woman in her
arms. Zana wept quietly, her
head bowed against Larra’s chest, as if ashamed of her
weakness. Larra stroked her
hair. “There is no shame,
Zana,” she said. “When
you are taken against your will, the shame is on those who defiled
you. You must believe in
yourself.”
Zana did not reply, but cuddled in more tightly to Larra’s shoulder. At that moment, Melissa showed up. She raised her eyebrow, giving Larra a silent look of inquiry. “I need to speak with the dark queen,” said Larra, speaking in English so that Zana would not understand. “And I need you with me.”
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