Hope of Earth (9 page)

They turned over the valuable swatch, and got to work on the fire. Ned took the stones, and banged them together, but no spark came. Blaze took them back and showed him how: two shiny sections had to strike each other to produce the spark. Ned took them again and finally got a faint spark, not nearly as big as the ones the boy routinely made. It would take practice. But it was clear that it could be done, with experience, time, and patience.

Ned questioned Blaze about where such rocks could be found, and learned that they were actually stones with flint embedded, from the same mine as the flint used to make tools and weapons. Ned hadn’t known about this aspect; he would certainly explore it when they returned to their home band. This was a most significant discovery. While their band had been learning to make fibrous strands and netting that would support moss, fern, and other insulating substances, so that they didn’t have to depend entirely on animal pelts for warmth at night, Blaze’s band had been learning to make fire, so that they didn’t have to depend on cultured embers. That knowledge was at least as important as net, Ned thought.

“May Ned and Jes share Blaze fire?” he asked.

The boy was glad to agree. But he had a qualification. “Root small.”

Jes smiled. She got up, looked around, and went on a root hunt. She had sharp eyes, and she had always been good at foraging, as well as finding faint paths. The home band used similar roots, gathering them and bringing them in to the fire, because they were too tough to eat raw. She knew what she was looking for. And soon she found several, and used her pointed staff to pry them out of the hard ground.

Blaze was amazed. “Man good forage,” he said as she brought them back.

Jes smiled again. “Secret,” she said. “Do not tell.”

Blaze looked perplexed, but crossed his arms before his chest, promising to keep the secret.

Jes opened her net cloak, showing her small breasts and furred memberless cleft.

“Woman!” Blaze exclaimed, astonished. “Thought boy.”

“Secret,” she repeated. “Woman forage.”

Blaze nodded. Men typically hunted, while women foraged, so women had the better eye for plants. She had explained her ability to find roots. But she often hunted with the men, and she could use her staff as a weapon when she chose to. But she made no point of that now, as that was a secret of another sort.

They cooked the roots, and shared water from their water skins, and talked, keeping the words slow and distinct. Blaze told how he was his band’s fire tender, despite being young, because he had a natural way with fire. He touched his forehead by way of explanation: he had been born with the fire mark. He told how he had a friend who was a girl named Ember, who also liked fire. He liked her a lot, but knew he would not grow up to mate with her, because they were band siblings. That made him unhappy, but he couldn’t change it. Jes said she sympathized; she expected not to mate, because she was too ugly to dazzle a man.

Blaze laughed. “When Blaze man, Jes come,” he said gallantly, touching his forehead again to remind her that he was ugly too, and also touching his bare penis, not yet furred.

Then Jes did something Ned had not seen before: she blushed. She was touched by the boy’s offer, because there was no artifice in it; Blaze liked her. But of course their bands were distant from each other, and it would be two or three years before Blaze was a man, and that was a long time. Nothing would come of it.

Ned explained how they had come to trade net for flint, the precious weapon stone. “Band have flint?”

“Yes.” But the boy frowned. “Bub Green Feather band have pelts.”

Ned felt a chill. Their band had encountered the Green Feather band once before, long ago, when they were traveling. Bub had raped Flo and then driven them away. But he did not reveal his recognition. He and Jes were unlikely to be recognized, because the episode had been brief, and the two of them had grown since then.

So Bub might not want to trade, as a pelt was better than netting. It was where pelts were rare that net was useful. “No trade, Ned Jes go other band,” Ned said.

Still Blaze was uneasy. “Secret.”

Ned and Jes exchanged a meaningful glance. There was something they should know. Then both crossed their arms in front, agreeing not to tell.

“Man come, have salt,” Blaze said. “Bub take salt, no trade. Man go.”

So Bub had been true to form. He had robbed the visitor instead of trading for his wares. Some bands were like that. They might trade fairly with nearby bands, because those were capable of attacking in force, but would cheat individuals from more distant ones, who were powerless. If such a person protested, he could be beaten or killed. This was a grim warning.

But Ned had an idea. “Flint mine near?”

Blaze smiled. “Blaze show path,” he said eagerly. He pointed out the direction of the place where the flint was found, and described how it was mostly in scattered chunks amidst chalky rock. They didn’t actually need to try to trade with Bub’s band; they could find their flint directly.

Ned was pleased. “Let’s give him more net,” he said quickly to Jes. At that velocity he knew that Blaze would not be able to understand it. He spoke this way so that Jes could demur if she disagreed, without embarrassing either of them.

Jes smiled. “Thank Blaze,” she said slowly. She drew a full length of netting from her bundle and presented it to him. “Keep.” And she kissed him.

This time it was the boy who blushed, overwhelmed by the gift and the manner of its giving. “Blaze happy,” he said, looking dazed.

Now it was late, and they had to go their ways. Blaze doused his fire, with sand, and Ned and Jes set out for the flint mine. They would probably never meet again, but it had been a pleasant and profitable interlude.

But they did not go far. “The ashes of that fire are very fine,” Ned remarked.

“But cooling,” Jes said. “Too late to save any of that fire.”

“I want them cold.”

“Ned, I’m not stupid, but I can’t follow your mind.”

“Good. Then others won’t follow it either.”

So they went back to the site Blaze had left, and found the ashes warm and dry under the sand. They took several handfuls and put them in their tightest leaf-shielded net bag. They smoothed more sand over the place so that there was no evidence that anything had been taken. Then they resumed their trek toward the mine, ferreting out the best paths.

They were cautious. This was unfamiliar terrain, and it was possible that Bub’s tribe would have a possessive attitude about the flint mine, though obviously no person had authority over any feature of the land other than the game it supported. So they left the main path and approached the region from a different direction. Here their ability to locate faint paths really helped, because they did not want any stranger to be able to follow them. But darkness was closing, so they found a secluded large tree and climbed into its branches for the night. They put on extra layers of dry grass and leaves bound by netting to shield themselves from the cooler air of night, and from the mosquitos.

“How she feel, being woman?” Ned inquired. Their own more sophisticated language had words that stood for other words, and these were surprisingly useful in two ways: they eliminated the need to constantly name people, and they made it less intelligible to outsiders. When he had suggested that they give “him” more netting, Jes had understood that he meant the boy. This time “she” meant Jes.

“Nice,” she said. Normally no man looked at her as men looked at Flo, because of the angularity of her body, the smallness of her breasts, and her homely face. But the boy Blaze had accepted her as a woman, once he had seen the proof of it. There had been a subtle shift of attitude, perhaps unconscious. A softening of tone, a hesitation of gaze, as if she were a person he wished he could impress. And of course the blush when she kissed him. “Young,” she added with regret.

For if Blaze had been older, and if his judgment of her were not different when he had the passions of a man, he would have been a suitable prospect to bring to their band. But as it was, his destiny was elsewhere. So her chance to feel like a woman was fleeting, and she would continue to masquerade as a boy. Ned regretted that, for Jes was capable in the things required of women, and deserved to be treated as one.

In the morning they foraged as they explored the mine area, eating berries that were handy. They found where bits of flint had been pried from chalky sections. When they came to a likely spot, they used their staffs to pry at the stones, and in due course did find several fragments of flint. These weren’t useful in their present form, but some careful pounding would produce pieces with sharp edges. They put these in a finely woven net bag. They had accomplished their mission.

Then they set out for home. But they were still cautious, so sought the slightest paths that would allow them to pass unscathed. “Think Bub knows?” Ned asked. They were lapsing increasingly into the full range of their language, no longer needing to school themselves in pidgin so as to be clear to others.

“He saw Blaze with net,” she said. “Make him tell.”

And the boy would have to tell of his meeting with the two of them. He wouldn’t tell that Jes was female, but the rest was regular information. If Bub were inclined to intercept them, he would do so at the place where they had to use a narrow pass between mountains.

But Blaze had also told them of a more devious route from the mine. One that he had explored with his friend Ember. It wound up the mountain much higher, and could be cold, but it was possible to get to the far side using this path.

“Alternate route,” Ned decided, and Jes nodded agreement.

They moved swiftly—but not swiftly enough. Because as they found the alternate path, they saw a man on it. Right where it narrowed between rocky ledges so that there was no other way to pass. He had a stout staff, and was not foraging. They did not need to inquire his business. Obviously Bub had anticipated this alternative, and acted to block it as well as the main path.

They exchanged a silent glance. Bub was evidently dangerous, because he was smart as well as unscrupulous. But was he smart enough?

They retreated quietly, until they were safely out of earshot. “We do not know how many men there are,” Ned said. “One in view, one or two in ambush, I think. We must make them show themselves.”

“They will stop us,” she said. “And beat us, or kill us. We can communicate better, but we can’t fight better.”

“I want you to do two things,” he said. “It is warm enough. Give me your netting and bag. Take this.” He handed her the small bag of fine ashes.

“You want me to walk naked past those men?” she asked, not pleased. “They may not find me beautiful, but they will put the bag over my head and rape me. Remember Flo.”

“Yes, I think they will. Walk in the manner of Wona, so that there is no doubt of your nature. Stand erect and take deep breaths. I will walk behind.”

“Ned—”

“Must I explain?” he demanded with mock severity. “Remember what Lin did?”

A light dawned. “When Bry teased her about her hand? Now I understand!” She quickly removed her net cloak and folded it so that he could carry it. “But I can do better than naked. Fil don the net skirt.”

“Wonderful!” he agreed. He helped her wrap the band of netting around her, forming a skirt that hung low on her hips and covered just a bit more than her bottom. “You look truly evocative.”

“Thank you,” she said, pleased. Then she took two hand-fills of ashes.

Soon they resumed their walk, proceeding heedlessly up the path. Jes was bare except for the string skirt, which concealed absolutely nothing. Of course that was the point of it; only available women wore them, to enhance their sexuality. She was swinging her closed hands and her hips with seeming abandon. Her small breasts bounced, calling attention to themselves, and the tassels on the skirt flounced, drawing eyes to her belly, thighs, and bottom. She was not well endowed, but her motion and the provocative skirt made her extremely sexy. She was his sister, yet when he squinted so as to fuzz her familiarity, those strings over her twinkling buttocks almost made him hunger for her. In fact he had to unsquint, lest he suffer a reaction. So Ned followed, several paces behind, carrying all the nets over his shoulders, and their two staffs with them. Obviously the two of them had no thought of encountering anyone on this remote path; they were complete innocents, perhaps looking for a suitable place to indulge in mating play.

The man in the path came to attention. He stared at Jes.“Woman!” he exclaimed in amazement. Obviously Blaze hadn’t told that aspect, as he had promised.

A second man lurched out of hiding. “First!” he cried, staring similarly: first hands on the woman. They hadn’t even noticed her homely face, as Ned had hoped. But maybe they wouldn’t have cared anyway, as obviously they just wanted to rape her and throw her away.

Ned looked wildly around, as if surprised. “No!” But he seemed to be too stupid to drop his nets and grab his staff; he just watched the two men advance on Jes. They didn’t seem to regard him as any kind of a threat.

So there were only two. Jes had sprung the trap. Good.

The first man grabbed for Jes, the second coming at her from the other side. She shrank away, not having to feign alarm, but both of them pursued her. She raised her hands as if to ward them off with her little fists.

Then she flung both hands out, swiping at their faces. But her hands didn’t touch them.

Both men cried out and staggered back, clutching at their eyes. She had scored on them with the fine ashes. She ran on past them and up the path. Ned followed with his burdens. The men didn’t even try to stop them.

Ned knew that by the time the men got their eyes clear enough to see again, it would be too late for any effective pursuit. Probably the men would report that the quarry had not passed that way, concealing their embarrassment at being duped. Bub might not believe them, but it wouldn’t matter; the escape had been made.

When they were sure they were safe, they paused, and Jes donned her more solid netwear and took her staff and her share of the burden. “That was almost as much fun as making Blaze blush,” she said. “You do make me feel like a woman.”