The Tattooed Tribes (34 page)

Lucien let out
a pent up breath. He gave the little girl a big grateful smile, but
she looked back without a hint of response.

“
Enough to wed him,
gwerl
?” Bweriit asked.

“
Enough to ask if a bride of low enough
status can be found for him,” she replied, and Lucien felt
indignation boil up inside of him.

The ungrateful
brat!

“
Don’t say a word,” Jon whispered in his
ear.

“
Why are they being so mean?” Lucien asked
softly.

“
I’m not sure,” Jon replied. “Maybe just
because they can. Hold tight, I’ve a feeling it’s going to get
tougher.”

There was some
consultation amongst the dreadful old women and one of them left
the circle to speak to people beyond Lucien’s circle of vision. It
went on for a while, but eventually she returned and whispered
something to Bweriit, who nodded and turned back to the assembled
people.

“
Is there anyone with a
gwerl
they’re prepared to sacrifice?” she
demanded.

A man and a
woman stepped forward pulling a girl in her late teens with them.
She was pretty and Lucien became very interested until he noticed
the baby strapped to her back.

There was a
furious argument going on between the little mother and what
appeared to be her parents, but finally she threw up her hands in
disgusted surrender and stepped forward.

“
This is Draviia,” she said, unhitching the
baby. “She has no status and no hand fasting has been offered for
her.”

She sounded
bitter and she glared daggers at Lucien.

“
Is this normal?” he asked.

“
No,” Jon replied, equally puzzled. “What’s
happening, Iesgood?”

Iesgood was
frowning hard. “I didn’t think this was going to matter, but
Bweriit did warn me there might be some problems and it looks like
she was right.”

“
I thought it was all agreed,” Jon
protested.

“
It was, between you, Bweriit and I, but a
lot of the other women weren’t happy.” He paused and looked
embarrassed. “It’s because it was
Niifliinling
the boy defeated. None of them are prepared to
give up a
gwerl
because of
it.”

He gestured to
the baby.

“
This little one was born as the result of
an error and her mother has lost a lot of rank as a result and the
baby has none.”

“
The worthless as a reward for defeating
the worthless,” Jon said sadly. “And this marriage to a penniless
outsider isn’t going to get the poor little maid any
status.”

“
What about me?” Lucien demanded
indignantly.

“
You’ll be fine,” Jon replied. “None of it
will affect you, apart from the insult, but you can swallow
that.”

Lucien was not
sure he could, but things were progressing.

“
Are you prepared to wed your
gwerl
to this
dheillwer
?” Bweriit asked the young
mother.

“
I don’t seem to have much choice, do I?”
she snapped back, giving Lucien another venomous look.

Bweriit
stepped forward and took out a red cord. She wound it around the
baby’s wrist and then around Lucien’s. A complex set of rituals
followed, salt was brought and sap sugar, and an arrow was passed
over their heads and then broken, the pieces being whisked away by
a woman veiled from head to toe.

Finally the
wrist cords were anointed with sweet smelling oil, then unbound and
placed in a bag of bright red fish skin leather. This was tied shut
and again the veiled woman took it away somewhere.

“
Now,” Bweriit said. “It is normal for
the
breugeman
to
give a gift to the
breid
to seal
the hand fasting, but as there is no family to provide such a thing
I will …”

“
No, you won’t,” Lucien said. ”I don’t take
charity from anyone.”

Jon gave a
gasp and stepped forward, but Bweriit held up her hand.

“
Without doubt the most troublesome and
disobedient
cheed
I have
ever encountered,” she said, tapping her foot. “Be silent, Harabin,
I will explain tribal matters to one I am told wishes to respects
our ways. If your mother was of The People, she would have provided
you with a suitable bridal gift. As she isn’t and Harabin
dheillwer
is not your father, only you or
I can provide it.”

“
I know,” Lucien replied, his eyes
sparkling dangerously.

“
Do you indeed,” she snorted. “I doubt if
you know the seriousness of what you are saying.

“
Lucien,” Jon said urgently. “You don’t
understand. If it’s unacceptable, you’ll ruin the child’s chances
forever and the insult will always be remembered.”

The familiar
daredevil light was in Lucien’s eyes and Jon groaned.

Lucien laughed
and patted him on the back,

“
Piece of piss” he said. “I know what I’m
doing.”

He turned back
to the assembled women.

“
I don’t need anyone to provide me with a
gift; I can do it myself.”

He undid the
strings of his flint pouch and took out what he had found in the
clam all those weeks before.

He held out
his closed fist to the young mother and she warily held out her
open hand. With a grin Lucien dropped the small, misshapen red
pearl into it.

“
My gift for my wife,” he said.

She stared at
the object in her hand and then at Lucien. Bweriit stared as well
and then a dozen women pushed forward and looked. There was
complete silence and Lucien, who had been smug up until that
moment, suddenly had a terrible feeling he had truly buggered
things up this time.

“
Jon?” he said anxiously.

“
Quiet, you fool,” Jon hissed.

The little
mother’s head suddenly went up and her fingers curled around the
pearl. There was an audible groan of disappointment from the
women.

“
Take your wife, Devlin
dheillwer,
” she said, an expression of fierce
triumph on her face, and suddenly Lucien was holding a baby for the
first time in his life and scared witless.

He had no idea
what to do with her and there was a worrying suggestion of damp and
a smell he was in no hurry to identify. Before he could protest her
mother had been swept away in a sea of overexcited women all
talking at the same time.

“
What the hell is happening?” he begged
Jon, who was laughing so hard it was hurting his healing
ribs.

“
Ow … ow! You tell him,
Iesgood.”

Iesgood
grinned. “You just made this little maid one of the richest of her
generation,” he said. “Her status has gone from nothing to the very
highest. Her grandfather will have had a dozen offers of marriage
by tomorrow morning. Maybe more.”

“
But why?” Lucien asked, trying to hush the
baby, who was showing early signs of disenchantment with her
husband.

“
You gave a
red
pearl,” Jon told him. “Probably the only one in the whole
tribe. Where the hell did you find it?”

“
When Vlic and I had that fight,” Lucien
said, “I nearly swallowed it. I was going to show it to you, but it
was such a funny shape I thought it wasn’t worth much.”

Jon began to
laugh again, which upset the baby even more, but before she could
get really annoyed her grandmother took her from Lucien.

“
And what happens next?” Dr Riddett’s voice
cut through.

Jon looked at
her in some surprise. “What do you think happens next?”

Her lip curled
in disgust. “I’ve just seen a teenage boy married to an infant. I
want to know how short a time it will be before he is demanding his
conjugal rights.”

Before either
of the men could open their mouths, Stacey was there.

“
Have you listened to a bloody word I’ve
said?” she demanded. “You talked my father into letting you see my
diary and you came up with this ridiculous idea from the jottings
of an overexcited little girl. You
know
these marriages are symbolic. Why are you still persisting
in this vendetta?”

“
Yours
may have been symbolic,” Dr Riddett retorted.
“They wouldn’t have dared take advantage of a congressman’s
daughter, but what about the real tribal girls? What choice do they
have, poor abused little mites?”

“
You have lived amongst these women for
nearly a month; do you really believe they have been abused or that
they would allow their daughters to be abused?”

“
The example of female genital mutilation
shows clear evidence that it was frequently the mothers and
grandmothers who condoned the continuation of traditions that
…”

“
Shut up.” Stacey ordered. “Just shut the
fuck up.”

“
I beg your pardon,” Dr Riddett gasped in
shock.

Lucien, a
silent witness, almost broke into applause.

Go, Stacey
, he thought to himself.

“
You heard,” Stacey replied. “You really
are a stupid bitch.”

Dr Riddett
glared at her, but there was a look of deep satisfaction on her
face as well.

“
You can say what you like,” she replied.
“But I have enough evidence to support my views and when I return
to The Settlement I’ll be writing a paper that will send shock
waves through society and it won’t be long before steps are taken
to end this way of life.”

At this Lucien
felt as if someone had thrown a bucket of icy water over him. He
had fought and killed, and annoyed the only human being he had any
respect for, in order to stop this plan, and now it seemed it had
been in vain.

Stacey gave a
cry of rage and made for the woman, her hand going to the knife at
her side. Despite the seriousness of the situation Lucien was
impressed, but Jon caught her wrist before she could do
anything.

“
You will stop that,” he said.

“
I’m going to kill her,” Stacey hissed,
trying to snatch her arm away.

Jon swung her
round to face him, dragging her forward until her face was inches
from his.

“
You will obey my orders or it will be very
much the worse for you, my girl.”

Go, Jon
, Lucien thought in admiration. Even he
would not have dared to argue if Jon had spoken to him like
that.

Apparently
Stacey did not dare either, because she reluctantly relaxed and
stepped back.

“
Dr Riddett, “Jon began. “There’s nothing I
or anyone else can do to stop you writing what you wish; however,
you’ll have to be somewhere you can publish before anyone else can
read it.”

“
I’ll make sure it reaches the widest
possible audience,” she assured him.

“
I’m sure you will, but how will you do
that?”

She was
puzzled. “What do you mean?”

“
I mean you have to be somewhere you can
contact your audience.”

“
I can do that from The
Settlement.”

“
And just how do you propose to get
there?”

“
I’ll return downriver with you,” she
replied, but there was a note of doubt.

“
Only if I take you.”

“
But you’ve got to,” she said. “You
must!”

“
There is no must about it,” he replied.
“You’re here without Guild permission. Technically I should arrest
you and transport you back for trial, but as Iesgood has offered to
keep you here for a while, I feel no real need.”

“
I’ll escape,” she said. “I’ll make my own
way home.”

Jon gestured
to the great forests and the wide river beyond the village.

“
Be my guest.”

“
You can’t leave me here.”

She was near
begging, but saw no pity or weakness on his face.

“
A year or two amongst The People should
help you to learn the truth about their ways and
traditions.”

“
What!”

“
If I take you back, you can expect a
minimum of three years prison time,” Jon told her. “Personally I
think a couple of years here with The People is showing you more
mercy than you deserve.”

With that he
turned on his heel and headed off towards one of the cabins.

“
Stacey! Lucien! Come with me.”

After one last
reprehensible smirk at a bewildered and frustrated Dr Riddett, his
apprentices trotted after him.

Catching up,
Lucien asked the question that was foremost in his mind. “How long
until I can get a divorce?”

“
After a gift like that, it’ll probably be
a week or so,” Jon replied. “And then you’ll need this.”

He handed
Lucien a single pearl from the bag he carried.

“
What for?” Lucien asked taking hold of the
precious thing.

“
To give Stacey when you marry her, of
course.”

“
What? No!”

“
Yes,” Jon replied. “Bweriit wants Stacey
tied to the Forest Cat and the best way is for her to marry in.
She’s a high status girl and unfortunately of proper marriageable
age, so there will be plenty of young men lining up.”