West of January (11 page)

Then I realized that the other two had finished eating. I quickly dropped the dasher bone I was gnawing. I licked my fingers.

“You will need rest, sir.” The doubts had crept back into our host’s voice. “I shall be honored if you will accept the use of one of my tents and a companion to ease your cares. And your…boy?”

He wanted to know how many tents, how many women…and suddenly I wanted to know, also. What did Violet have planned now? A mingled rush of renewed nervousness and incredulous hope began to interfere with my hardworking digestion. My groin tingled strangely. He couldn’t expect…

Could he?

“I shall be most honored to accept your kind offer, Herdmaster. The lad can curl up in a corner of the tent. He will not interfere with my rest, I can assure you.”

“I do have an ample supply of females now,” Agomish muttered, torn between greed and pride. “I have been extending my herds, also, as you may have guessed.”

“One will be more than generous. He is only a child, as you can see.”

I was greatly relieved. And yet, for just a moment, I had almost hoped…

I stood behind my angel as the herdman showed off his women—eight of them, with a cluster of five old wives in the background in case the guest wished to choose experience over agility. I could not help sneaking glances, for I was safely behind Agomish also. Three were obviously pregnant and hence out of bounds.

“…and this is Ullinila,” he boomed. “Not quite the youngest, yet unusually sprightly. The old wives are not certain, but it is possible that she is with child—but do not let that possibility worry you if she pleases you…”

The catalog continued, but even I had caught the extra enthusiasm over Ullinila. Agomish believed that she had already conceived, and therefore he would prefer that she be chosen.

She was. I followed Violet as he followed Ullinila to her tent. I was not looking forward to the experience, and yet I was naturally curious to see how this intriguing activity was performed. Would the angel actually couple with her in my presence?

I waited outside briefly as the old wives bustled in with a second set of bedding. Then they departed. I entered. I made sure the flap was securely closed. I turned around.

The second pallet had not been placed in a corner. It lay next to the other in the center of the stuffy dimness. Ullinila was little older than me or perhaps even younger, for women blossom sooner than men. She was wearing nothing but a sheen of multicolored light, and she sat with outstretched legs, leaning back on straight arms, smiling nervously up at Violet as he lowered himself to his knees beside her. My throat tightened at the sight of her youthful grace, the play of color over her skin as she leaned forward to put her arms around his neck.

“No, just stay as you were, my dear,” he said. He still wore all his clothes, which must have been surprising to her—even if he had no plans for intimacy, the tent was chokingly hot. “Come here, Knobil, and look at this.”

I limped across the rugs toward them. The camp outside was falling silent, giving the honored guest peace for his rest.

“Sit, lad. Closer! Let me show you.”

Awkwardly I seated myself on Ullinila’s other side.

“Closer!”

I heaved myself nearer.

Ullinila, finding herself between two fully clothed men, glanced from one to other of us apprehensively, not understanding.

I feasted my eyes on her as greedily as I had eaten her master’s food. I had seen Jalinan naked, of course, but at a distance, and I had been younger then. Ullinila was no older than Jalinan had been and more deliciously rounded, a miracle in smooth brown skin. One long braid hung behind her slim feminine shoulders, the other trailed down between…

“These breasts, Knobil,” the angel said, “are they not magnificent? Observe the generous proportions, the bold angle and graceful curve, the roseate perfection of the nipples and aureoles. In a hundred camps I have never seen a woman with finer adornments. Feel them!”

They were indeed superb. I remember them distinctly—exquisite, just starting to swell in the early stages of pregnancy. Violet cupped one breast in his hand. Sweating mightily, I obeyed orders and fondled the other. I wished I was able to pull my knees up. I laid my unoccupied arm in my lap instead.

“And the soft, luxurious firmness of these thighs…” Violet sighed and stroked. “Statements of strength and promises of indulgence. Feel them, lad! These hips—the ideal of feminine physique expressed to perfection, do you not agree?”

I may have croaked an answer. I do not recall. My heartbeat had risen dramatically, and not only my heartbeat.

Now the poor girl was thoroughly alarmed. “You will take pleasure with me now, sir?” she whispered to Violet.

He sighed. He sat back and crossed his legs. “Perhaps later. First try that young fellow with the big eyes and the bulge in his breeches. He has a stiff leg, also, so he will need some help.”

I could only gasp, wondering if I had heard him correctly, but Ullinila did not doubt and did not hesitate. She swung around to me with a big smile, white teeth in a heart-shaped child’s face. Still so innocent, I had not dreamed that my slim youthfulness might hold more appeal for her than the balding obesity of my companion. Probably I had never considered that a female could have any preference in such matters.

It is very alarming for a virgin to have his pants pulled off him by a naked woman and then to be straddled by her as she tugs his shirt up over his head, but she sensed that my need was already urgent, and she expertly did what was required. I discovered that the procedure could be completed in only a fraction of the time I had expected—indeed, I did almost nothing except fall backward, drowning in torrents of unendurable joy. And among those heaving spasms of pleasure, I vaguely decided that if this was what herdmen killed for, then their murders were forgivable.

All too soon it was over, and I was lying naked and unashamed, sweaty and panting, but secretly exulting in the knowledge that my fears had been unfounded. I was a real man after all! No more need I worry that my strangely pallid coloring indicated some lack of virility. Apparently all my equipment was satisfactory and operating as it was supposed to.

Ullinila was lying half beside me and half on top, soft yet firm, solid but delicate, smooth and desirable still. I had my arms around her. I reveled in the sweet scent of a herdfolk woman, a distinctive mustiness remembered from my childhood, forgotten once, now recovered and imbued with a new and deeper excitement. She turned her head toward my companion.

“And now you, sir?”

I heard another, longer sigh. “Not yet. Try him again. He obviously needs a lot more practice.”

She looked at me with an inquiring and mischievous smile. I smiled back.

─♦─

Ullinila! How sweet she was!

How insatiable, how rewarding!

No man ever forgets the first time.

─♦─

I awoke when Violet nudged me in the ribs with his foot. I blinked around in alarm at the unfamiliar tent, remembering where I was and what I had been doing.

“Get dressed,
herdman!”

I winced—too loud! The camp was still quiet beyond the tent walls. “Yes sir.” I sat up and fumbled awkwardly with my breeches, seeing now that Ullinila had vanished, and her garments, also. Even the memory of her was an excitement.

The angel grunted. “Don’t tell me you wanted more? She’s gone to warn the others—so they can warm up another batch of vomit to feed us.”

“Yes sir. Did you—I mean, she was good, wasn’t she?”

He growled angrily and turned away.

“Are they always as good as that, sir?”

“No, probably not… Get dressed!”

I was going as fast as I could. “Sir, did I do something wrong?”

“You were no damned help at all!”

“Sir?” I did not understand, but I was suddenly heartbroken and ashamed for having somehow failed him, he who had done so much for me. What more was I supposed to have done?

Violet ducked under the flap without explaining.

─♦─

The chariot squeaked to a halt. Violet cursed. We had not long left Agomish and the unforgettable Ullinila. I was stretched out on the bedding, facedown and bare to the sky. He had noticed in the tent that my fair skin was losing its pigmentation inside the angel clothes I wore. He was teaching me to sunbathe.

I knew that oaths at a halt meant that he had made a misjudgment. He would have to turn the chariot and run back downhill to try again. “May I do it for you, sir?” I asked.

“No.” He had risen and was scowling off to the north. I peered and saw woollies.

“Are you hungry?” he asked.

“Not very, sir.”

“Amazing! Sleepy?”

“No.”

“Even more astonishing! We’ll have to visit them, though—they’ve seen us.”

His expression was foul, but his tone so unusually pleasant that I daringly asked, “Why?”

He shook his head at me. “They’re all terrified, Knobil. Didn’t you notice? Next time look at their eyes. An angel going by without stopping—that would be a great cruelty.” Then his usual acerbity returned. “If you’re not hungry or sleepy, then you’d rather stay in the chariot?”

My face must have been answer enough.

He sneered. “Herdboy glutton fancies another little woollie, does he?” He headed for the rear, to dismount and turn the chariot. “Very well… At least they can’t try to talk to me while you’re fornicating with them.”

─♦─

My second visit to a herdfolk camp was much like the first. I was less nervous of the herdmaster and much less interested in the food. I eyed the women openly, wondering which one the angel would choose. When the tent flap closed behind us, Violet wasted no time in teasing. He merely said, “You go first.”

I wasted no time, either. The first-time magic was missing, but I could tell that this was not a procedure that would soon pall on a man. This woman was taller and slimmer than Ullinila. I forget her name.

Again I awoke to find Violet and myself alone. I struggled into my pants and scrambled to my feet. I had just pulled on my tattered coat when I remembered his curious remark on the previous occasion.

“Was I more help this time, sir?”

I cringed, expecting a blow—his face flamed redder than I had ever seen it. He grabbed me with one hand and balled the other into a fist. Then he saw my bewilderment, and with an obvious effort he released me and patted my shoulder instead.

“You did fine, lad…a great performance! Very manly.”

Delighted, I puffed out my chest. “Thank you, sir.”

“But it won’t hurt if you speak to the girls in the future. They won’t tell their masters that you sound like a herdman.”

“What should I say, sir?”

He rolled his eyes and seemed to go even redder. “For Heaven’s sake! Tell her you’re glad I chose her…how much you want her…that she has mouthwatering tits… You can’t say you love her, but don’t treat her like an animal! I know you’re a beginner, but you’re humping like a herd-man. Make love—like an angel!”

“Sir? Teach me?”

He snorted incredulously and led the way outside to eat again.

─♦─

But at the next camp he took me at my word. He chose a woman who was slightly older, yet still more than worthy of a man’s attention: Kininia. Then he proceeded to instruct me—stroke here, kiss there…try this…try that. Kininia was at first astonished and then much amused. She soon joined in the game, with hints, criticism, and suggestions. She gave demonstrations of her own—coyness leading to enthusiasm, turning without warning to fierce resistance and then sudden wild collaboration. The two of them coached me, coaxed me, and teased me. They had a riotous time at my expense—but I was the one who journeyed in Paradise.

—4—

T
HE COUNTRY WAS CHANGING AGAIN
, the slope becoming perceptible even to my uneducated eye. We journeyed now in a wide valley, flanked in the distance by ever-rising hills, but a dry riverbed careened back and forth across our path, making a straight route no more possible than before. By way of compensation, the winds were growing stronger and more dependable. Rarely, we saw clouds in the sky ahead, faint and remote and tantalizing.

Tributary valleys joined at intervals, bringing in stony gullies to bar our road and also bringing in more herds. Slimy little pools still held water among the rocks, and the camps were so numerous that it was almost possible to see from one to the other—not quite, though, for no herdmaster can ever tolerate a rival within his sight.

The valley grew wider as our descent continued, the hills more remote—higher, fainter. The many springs in this country were keeping the people alive, but the corpses of starved woollies lay everywhere. Roos and vultures and lesser scavengers went openly about their work. Death and despair patrolled the grasslands.

Again and again I listened as Violet tried to explain. Rarely, a herdmaster seemed to understand—a younger one usually. Again and again the angel tried to offer advice. It varied, because he knew he had no answer and was willing to try anything. He would try anything to make them try anything.

There were too many woollies. If the herds were to be culled, then a few might survive and buy time—but the herdmen would not hear of it.

If several herdmasters in an area were to cooperate—that was even less thinkable.

Take the women and horses, and abandon herd and children—not that either.

I was no longer afraid of the herdmasters, for they hardly seemed to care now, and the angel’s prestige protected me. I saw what Violet had meant about their eyes: they had a strange flat look to them, a hopeless deadness. All their lives these men had wandered empty plains without sign of other human life. Now, inexplicably, other herds were crowding in from all directions. The grass was dying, and there was no road out.

Old wives became rare, and even I could guess what was happening. Soon children became rare, also, especially boys.