The Tattooed Tribes (33 page)

What he would
do when he found him was a source of some grim and enjoyable day
dreams.

But none of
this seemed to count with anyone else and, although knowing Jon was
on the road to recovery was a source of happiness, it did not
prevent his ego from feeling a little bruised, and he was inclined
to brood as a result.

He found Vlic
also sulking and for much the same reason.

“
I thought dad would be pleased with me …
us!” he said. “But instead he gave me a right bollocking for going
off without permission.” He glowered at the memory.

“
I guess I’ve got that to come,” Lucien
replied.

They reflected
on the injustice of it all for a while.

“
We did though, didn’t we,” Lucien said at
last, a grin breaking out.

“
Yeah,” Vlic replied. “We sure
did.”

They whooped
about for a while and decided it would be fun to go fishing by way
of celebration, only to be thwarted by Iesgood. He told them they
had done nothing to deserve a treat and made them spend the next
week chopping wood, hoeing truck gardens, turning compost heaps
and, if his imagination failed to come up with anything more
physical, babysitting.

By the end of
it, all ideas of heroism and the acceptability of defying orders
had been fully exorcised.

They might
have sulked even more if they had not met up with Stacey. She was
still subdued by grief, but was also highly indignant at being made
to spend her time on the maidenly pursuits of hemming shirts,
preserving huge piles of fruit and making soap under the
supervision of a couple of stern matrons.

The boys had
smelt the soap making and were prepared to be sympathetic as a
result.

Lucien removed
himself from Vlic’s family home as soon as he possibly could.
Feilda had shown marked signs of wanting to mother him, and thus he
had taken up residence in the men’s house.

Vlic would
have joined him, but found to his utter disgust his promised
divorce had not gone ahead and he was required to once again go and
live in his father-in-law’s house and finish his education on bow
making.

Every protest
and reasoned argument fell on deaf ears. Even the irrational
loathing his wife felt for him was answered by the news she had
promised to behave herself. Vlic treated this pronouncement with
the cynicism it deserved.

In the absence
of entertainment Lucien was reduced to spending his evenings
reading the TLG rule book. He was highly amused to discover how
often he had broken the instructions concerning the conduct of
apprentices, but his face burned with shame when he came across the
one forbidding any master to allow his charge to go into obvious
danger.

He was alone
and cleaning his rifle when Jon limped in. He still looked a little
haggard and his arm was in a sling, but he was mobile and obviously
recovering his strength.

“
Should you be up?” Lucien asked
anxiously.

“
I’m fine,” Jon replied. “I was getting
bored and I thought it was about time we had our talk.”

“
It can wait,” Lucien said. “There’s no
rush.”

Jon grinned.
“Bad luck, son, you don’t get out of it that easily. Tell me
everything that happened after I left you. I’m a bit hazy on
details.”

Without
vainglory or exaggeration, Lucien recounted the events and Jon
listened in silence.

“
And I know I disobeyed you,” Lucien
concluded, defiantly. “But I don’t really care.”

Jon nodded
thoughtfully. “Don’t you? We might have to see about that. Is there
any way I’m going to get you to obey me?”

Lucien went
crimson, but he sat and gave the matter a little thought.

“
Probably not,” he replied at last, chin up
and brave. “At least … I’ll do as I’m told as far as learning is
concerned and I won’t go off on my own again without permission,
but I won’t be left behind while you go off somewhere you might be
killed.”

Jon never took
his eyes from Lucien’s face. “What if I sack you?”

The
possibility of Jon sacking him had been keeping Lucien awake at
night. It not only bothered him during the hours of darkness, but
at odd moments during the day when there was nothing to occupy his
mind.

“
Then you’ll have no right to tell me what
to do and I’ll follow you anyway,” Lucien replied.

Jon nodded.
“That’s what I thought.”

He was silent
for a while and Lucien carried on cleaning, trying to keep his
hands busy and stop them from shaking.

“
Are you going to sack me?” he asked in a
small voice.

“
I should,” Jon replied. “But as you saved
my life it seems a touch ungrateful.”

“
What are you going to do then?” Lucien
asked, avoiding Jon’s eye.

“
Oh, I think I might drag you off some
place where I can teach you exactly what will happen if you ever
dare defy me again,” Jon replied cheerfully.

Lucien
swallowed. “I guess I deserve that,” he said. “Where?”

“
I thought finding the sea of flowers I’ve
heard talk about might be a good place to start.”

Lucien’s head
came up. “Do you mean it?” he demanded, eyes blazing with
excitement.

“
We’ll have to wait until I’m fit,” Jon
replied, laughing at him. “And we’ll have to go home first to get
permission.
You
might be
able to get away with disobedience, but I can’t.”

“
When?” Lucien asked. “Today?”

“
My God, you’re an impatient brat!” Jon
replied. “No, not today or tomorrow either. When I say.”

“
But …”

“
As I’ve told you before, don’t push your
luck.”

Lucien
grinned. “Yes, sir.”

“
And besides,” Jon said, “we can’t go until
we’ve taken Stacey back and she’s signed her indenture
papers.”

“
What
!”

“
There’s no law that says I can’t have two
apprentices,” Jon told him. “It will do you good to have a little
competition from someone with a great deal more skill and
knowledge.”

Lucien’s
indignation was matched by Stacey’s when Jon told her.

“
What?”

“
It’s been decided you’ll return with me
and Lucien and be formally apprenticed,” Jon told her. “That way I
can keep a proper eye on you.”

She shook her
head. “Thank you for the offer. It is kind of you, but it’s too
late. Now Dad’s gone I’m not sure what I’ll do. I need time to
think.” She dashed a tear away. “It might be best if I go home to
the Lynx for a while.”

Lucien was
about to endorse this plan wholeheartedly when Jon said, “You’re
not going anywhere without my permission.”

She stared at
him in surprise.

“
Word came up the river after we left. The
Lady of the Lynx sent out a message about you being on the prowl
without company or permission. She handed her responsibility for
you to any Elders you encountered.”

Lucien knew a
little about the authority the older women had over the men, but it
had not occurred to him this authority might extend to the younger
women.

“
Elder Bweriit has accepted the task, as I
believe you may have noticed recently, and she has ordered me to
see to your welfare, as you are also a maiden of my people. The
Lady of the Lynx will back her in this and you know it.”

“
But …”

Jon silenced
her. “I’ll allow you a choice, although I can see no reason why I
should. You can return to the Settlement with me under arrest, to
be handed over to The Guild for multiple violations of the
regulations on tribal contact, or you can come back to sign
indenture papers and start learning to obey the rules like the
brat.”

“
Hey!” Lucien protested.

“
You’ve exactly thirty seconds to make up
your mind,” Jon told her, ignoring the interruption.

“
You can’t …”

“
Twenty-seven seconds.”

“
Please let me explain. I need time to
think and …”

“
Twenty seconds.”

“
You can’t make me do this. You just
can’t.”

“
Watch me,” Jon replied. “And you’ve got
about ten seconds left.”

She stared at
him in mute appeal, but he merely looked back with uncompromising
sternness. For one glorious moment Lucien thought she would say no,
but suddenly all the fight seemed to drain out of her and she just
nodded her head.

“
I’ll sign.”

“
Good,” was all Jon said, and went away
leaving his two prodigies alone together.

Lucien was not
happy. He did not dislike Stacey. In fact he had come to respect
her as a comrade in arms, but he certainly did not want her sharing
his role, and Jon’s time.

He was also
pretty sure she was a damn sight better at woodcraft than he was.
She would not have made his mistake with the Sweller vine and the
undercooked tubers or eaten the wrong berries.

She made the
journey to the valley alone and his newfound experience made him
doubt if he could have done it, arriving fit and well and ready to
fight.

He scowled at
her. “I’m the senior apprentice,” he growled.

This had the
power to drag her back from her shock and her misery and she gave
him back look for look.

A nasty smile
spread across her face and she wriggled her hands at him and he saw
the newly tattooed pearls.

“
How can a barehanded
biey
be senior?” she asked and walked away with her
nose in the air.

Lucien was so
cross he thought he was going to explode and went back to the men’s
house in a raging temper.

Things did not
improve over the next couple of days. Once Jon was well enough,
there were a number of celebrations and ceremonies. Separated from
Vlic, Lucien made a few mistakes when it came to etiquette, nothing
major, just the equivalent of elbows on the table or drinking from
the finger bowl, but it was embarrassing, and the knowledge that
Stacey never put a foot wrong was galling.

The only other
person less adept than him was Dr Riddett, who was allowed to
observe everything, but not participate.

Lucien knew
she was making notes and trying to get some of the women to talk to
her. She annoyed him, but he had to admire the tenacity she showed
for her pet theory.

Chapter
21

One morning,
about three weeks after their return to the Forest Cat, Jon greeted
Lucien by demanding to know when he had last had a really good
wash.

Highly
indignant Lucien told him.

Jon turned him
around and inspected the back of his ears.

“
Go and do it again.”

“
I’ll be damned if I do!”

But he did,
the carefully explained consequences of disobedience ringing in his
ears.

When he
returned he found Jon had laid out a new shirt for him and a
beautifully made pair of tribal pants. The leather was as soft as
butter and the hand of a talented woman had decorated them with a
pattern of trailing leaves and the odd little disc of beaten river
gold.

Lucien was
well pleased with how he looked in them.

“
You’ll do,” Jon informed him after a
critical inspection. “Come on, you’ve got to get
married.”

“
What!”

Before Lucien
could say anything or demand an explanation, Iesgood and several
other men appeared and hauled him outside, Jon following at his
leisure.

Outside the
drums were throbbing and Lucien found himself in front of the
meeting house with all the elders glaring at him.

“
Iesgood
liedwer,”
Bweriit
said.
“Are you
sure you wish this
dheillwer
admitted to The People?”

Lucien, held
firmly by Iesgood, felt his chest begin to expand with joy and
pride. There was even a suggestion of a lump in his throat he
swallowed down hard. More than anything he wanted to be a part of
them and he turned in eager anticipation to the circle of
grim-faced old harridans gathered before him, but there were no
smiles and no welcoming light in those eyes.

He had a
dreadful feeling, whatever Iesgood and Jon thought, that he was not
welcome.

“
I do,” Iesgood replied. “And I speak for
all the men of the Tribe.”

There was a
huge cheer of male voices and Lucien twisted round to see a large
group of them circled behind him, and his heart rose again.

“
The wants of men are of little concern to
us,” Bweriit replied with a curl of her lip. “Does any
woman
want this?”

The drum throb
dropped to a low background noise and Lucien looked around
anxiously to see if one of the women would speak for him. He saw
Stacey standing off to one side, but she made no attempt to come
forward.

‘
Bitch
,’ he thought. ‘Bloody bitch.’

He tried to
find Vlic’s mother, but she was nowhere to be seen. Not a woman
moved or spoke and the silence went on and on and on.

Lucien stole a
glance at Iesgood and saw from the expression on his face that this
was not normal. Turning, he found Jon and saw the crease between
his eyebrows.

Finally
Brigedh stepped forward. “I wish it.”