Bunduki (Bunduki Series Book One) (15 page)

‘
Yes
,’ Dawn confirmed truthfully, putting the phenomenon aside
to be considered and discussed when she was reunited with
Bunduki.

‘
Are your people nearby?’
At-Vee asked.

‘
My—husband—Bunduki isn’t too far
way
,’
Dawn answered. While she believed that she could trust the man, she
also felt it was advisable to let him think she was married and her
“husband” was in the vicinity. ‘He is one of the greatest hunters
and fighters of the “Apes”.’

Much as At-Vee would have liked to
satisfy his curiosity regarding the girl’s weapons, he refrained.
All of them, including the knife (if the ease with which it had cut
out the arrow was anything to go by), were far superior to anything
he had ever seen. The point was verified when, changing the
subject, he inquired about her escape from the Mun-Gatahs and
learned she had killed one by sending an arrow through his leather
breastplate. According to the Telonga legends, such a garment was
so strong that its wearer could not be harmed. However, among his
people, the matter of the mysterious ‘Suppliers’ was taboo except
to the Elders of each village and must not be discussed by anybody
else.

On reaching the banks of the small
stream, Dawn helped At-Vee to seat himself and, while he was
dangling the injured foot in the water, sought for a means of
treating it. Finding a plant with broad leaves, of a kind which she
had never seen before, she gathered some of them. Then she
collected some of a moss-like growth and thin reeds, using them all
to make a cold compress which she applied to his ankle.

With his ankle bandaged by the
plants, At-Vee accepted Dawn’s offer of a meal. He was puzzled by
the
pemmican
and
biltong
that she produced from her quiver, but after tasting them
admitted they were good. Then he told he what had brought him to
that part of the woodland.

On learning that the Mun-Gatahs’
People-Taker had claimed his intended wife, Joar-Fane, in his
absence, At-Vee had set off to try to rescue her. However, he had
found tracks which suggested that she had escaped from her captors
and fled into the jungle pursued by some of them. Following, he had
crossed what he called the Big River which served as a boundary
between the Telongas’ country and that of the ‘Hairy People’. The
previous evening he had lost the tracks due to a herd of elephants
passing over and obliterating them. Knowing that the Mun-Gatahs
lived somewhere on the plains, he had been heading in that
direction hoping to pick up the trail again.

There were a number of questions which
Dawn would have liked to have put to At-Vee, but the opportunity
did not arise. Faint noises came to their ears, causing them to
stare in the direction from which they had come. The girl’s eyes
turned to meet the man’s. Although the sounds were still a good
distance away, both knew that they were hearing hooves and human
voices.

‘
It must be the Mun-Gatahs!’
Dawn breathed. ‘They’re following my tracks.’

‘
How many of them are
there?’ At-Vee asked, glancing at his injured ankle.

‘
At least
nine, if they’ve all crossed the river,’ Dawn answered, speaking no
louder than the man.
‘There may be even more for all I
know.’

‘
We can’t
fight them, even if there are only nine,’ At-Vee declared bitterly.
‘And with my ankle like this, I can’t run fast enough to escape.
But you must go. They’ll show you no mercy now you’ve killed one
o
f
them.’

Dawn did not reply for several
seconds, but she was thinking fast. As At-Vee had pointed out, they
could not hope to beat off a determined attack by the Mun-Gatahs
and she still retained sufficient of her civilized upbringing to
want to avoid further killing if it was possible. Although she felt
sure that she could escape from her mounted pursuers, given that
much of a start and in wooded country, flight was out of the
question for her companion.

There was, the girl realized, only one
answer.

‘
Take my bow and arrows,
At-Vee!’ Dawn said urgently. ‘Then go and hide in the
bushes.’

‘
What are you going to do?’
the man asked.

‘
Draw them away from you,’
Dawn replied.

‘
But—!’ At-Vee
began.

‘
It’s
our only chance,’ the girl declared, and smiled confidently. They
might be riding, but I can travel faster than them through this
type of country. Particularly as I won’t be hampered with my
bow.’

Without waiting for any further debate
on the matter, Dawn darted off towards the sounds of the riders.
She wanted to come into contact with them before they found the
tiger’s body and discovered that she had a companion. If they were
following her trail, whoever was doing the tracking would be able
to deduce that At-Vee was injured from the signs he and she had
left and might guess what she was trying to do.

Clearly the Mun-Gatahs were not
travelling at any speed. That was only to be expected. Although
Dawn had not made any determined effort to hide the signs of her
passage, following the marks left by her bare feet would not be
easy. Travelling at a fast walk, wanting to conserve her strength
and energy for the flight that would come when they saw her, she
had gone about fifty yards beyond the tiger when she received her
first sight of them.

Halting behind a tree, Dawn studied
the composition of the party. Neither of the quagga riders were
present, but that still left two women and five men to contend
with. The eagle’s attendant was in the lead, walking and studying
the ground, with his zebra following on his heels like a
well-trained dog. All his companions were mounted and, although the
girl could not hear what was being said, the women appeared to be
talking in low but heated tones. She wondered whether she was the
topic of their conversation and concluded that it was
likely.

There was no time for Dawn to
dwell on such futile speculation. Although the Mun-Gatahs were
still about a hundred yards away, the terrain through which they
were passing would still favor them. She had known it when making
her suggestion to At-Vee but was willing to
take a chance if it would
prevent them from finding the helpless hunter.

Drawing in a breath, Dawn walked from
behind the tree as if she did not know her pursuers were so close.
Hearing a shout, which informed her that she had been seen, she
threw a look at them. Then, as she turned and started to run, she
wished that Bunduki was in the vicinity. She also hoped that,
wherever he was, he not in any kind of danger. Hearing the
commotion behind her, she put all such thoughts from her
head.

The chase was on and she would need
all her wits about her if she was to avoid being captured, or
killed!

At
about the time that Dawn was starting
to run away from the Mun-Gatahs, Bunduki and Joar-Fane were
finishing their meal.

While the blond giant could have made
a fire easily enough, even though he had no matches, he had not
wished to do so. The rising smoke would have been a sure indication
to any hostile force such as the Mun-Gatahs’ People-Takers—whoever,
or whatever, they might be—or other human beings in the vicinity.
When he had explained this to the girl, he had discovered that it
would not be necessary. Delighted at being able to talk after the
silence which he had insisted upon as they were walking, she had
said that her people frequently ate raw meat. So had he, on
expeditions when his adoptive family had reverted to living in a
primitive fashion.

‘
Never have I
seen such a beautiful man as you, Bunduki
,’ Joar-Fane purred after they
had eaten and washed their hands and face in the stream. She smiled
at him in a way that had never failed to win over any man she was
trying to attract.

‘
That’s what Dawn tells me,’ the blond giant
replied.

‘
Do you already have a
wife?’ Joar-Fane asked, sounding disappointed but not unduly
perturbed. ‘Or have you many?’

‘
I’ve never needed more than
one,’ Bunduki stated, hoping to kill off any notions that the girl
was harboring.

‘
She isn’t as good a lover
as me,’ Joar-Fane declared. ‘I can make love better than any other
Telonga maiden. Shall I show you, Bunduki?’

‘
Not right now,’ the big
blond growled hastily, for her hands were hooking under the
monkey-skin halter.

‘
At-Vee has told me many
times how well I can make love,’ Joar-Fane protested.

‘
Who is that?’ Bunduki
inquired.

‘
A hunter,’ the girl
replied, pouting but refraining from removing the garment. ‘The
best in our village—but he is not as great as you.’

‘
Is he your
husband?’

‘
No!’

‘
Does he want to
be?’

‘
Of course,’
Joar-Fane confirmed, sounding as if that was a foregone conclusion.
‘He has brought much meat to my father’s house and many skins. We
have made love many times
.’

‘
Have you had children?’
Bunduki asked.

‘
No!’ the girl yelped,
displaying shock at such a suggestion. ‘That would not be proper
until we are married. How many children have you and
Dawn?’

‘
None yet,’
the blond giant admitted, hiding his amusement at her indignation.
He decided that, in view of her
reply, a change of subject might be
advisable. ‘Did the People-Taker claim At-Vee too?

‘
No. He was
away from the village, or the Elders would have put him away with
the rest of the hunters
,’ Joar-Fane answered, moving closer and reaching
to take hold of Bunduki’s hands in her own. ‘Must we talk about
such things?’

‘
Dawn is very
good at talking and always explains the things I want to know,’ the
big blond said craftily, freeing himself and sitting down. ‘That is
one of the reasons why I love her
.’

‘
I’m very good at explaining
things,’ Joar-Fane declared, looking at him in a calculating manner
and doing as he had hoped she would. Sitting by his side, she went
on, ‘What do you want to know?’

Guided by Bunduki’s questions and
determined to prove that she was superior to Dawn—who she assumed
was his wife—the girl started to tell him about her own
people.

The Telonga were in general a
pleasure-seeking nation much given to such peaceful pursuits as
singing, dancing and making love. In all of these, particularly the
last, Joar-Fane claimed to have no equal.

When her hint failed to elicit the
response she was hoping for, the girl continued with her
description. Her people lived in several large villages scattered
through an area of jungle bounded by the ‘Land With No Trees’, two
wide rivers and what, from her account, was either a large lake or
an ocean, possibly the latter, as she said men who had been there
claimed the water tasted salty.

With the majority of their
needs in life supplied by a bounteous nature, most of the Telongas
were content to follow a leisurely existence not overburdened by
hard work. There were, however, a few hunters in every community.
Restless, active men, they were regarded with suspicion by the rest
of the population despite having such uses as suppliers of meat and
skins, or defenders
against any wild beasts which plagued the villages.
Joar-Fane declared that, as they were excellent lovers when so
inclined, on the whole she approved of them.

From what she said when Bunduki
brought the matter up, there was no kind of organized fighting
force for the protection of their homes and territory.

‘
We
don’t need such a thing,’ Joar-Fane insisted. ‘We don’t have any
enemies.’

‘
How about the Mun-Gatahs’
People-Taker?’ Bunduki challenged.

Apparently the Telonga villagers, with
a few exceptions, took the periodic visits by the People-Taker and
his escort for granted, regarding them as a small price to pay for
an otherwise untroubled existence. They came, selected several—but
never too many—maidens and young men, departing without disruption
of the remainder’s pleasures.

Only the hunters were inclined
to resist the levy, but they were invariably put away’ by the
Elders before the People-Taker arrived. Joar-Fane neither knew nor
cared how the putting away’
^xxxii
was accomplished. The hunters
were always returned alive, unharmed, and in good loving condition,
which was good enough for her even if the subject had not been
taboo as a matter for discussion.

Nor did the girl have any idea
why the People-Taker collected the young men and women. It was
obvious to Bunduki, from what she said, that she had hoped the
selected maidens were destined to become the wives of handsome and
lusty Mun-Gatah men; but she had been disillusioned on that point.
At first, having had a quarrel with At-Vee because he had insisted
on leaving the village instead of remaining and attending a dance
that was being given by one of her friends, she had been delighted
at being among those selected. However, once away from
the village, she
had found that the male members of the People-Taker’s escort were
not interested in making love and her attempts at stimulating such
a desire had been thwarted in a painful manner by one of the
Mun-Gatah women.