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“Step away from her, Tam,” the biggest one bellowed.
Tam stood up, but he didn’t scamper away with fear. His posture was one of defiance and pride. When she’d been captured before, there had been no political dynamics in the tribe.
One male Savage, the meanest and strongest, ruled absolutely and all females were of little consequence. She, a prisoner, had been treated worse than a slave.
“I was just giving them water, Jak. You have nothing to fear.” Tam’s voice reeked with sarcasm.
Jak’s face darkened and his thick fists clenched. “Get back from them and shut your teeth before I knock more of them out.”
Cara looked at Brady. He slumped uncomfortably with his hands tied behind his back and his legs stretched in front of him. The shoulder he’d injured in the accident couldn’t possibly be healed.
Jak took a menacing step toward Brady. “What are you?”
The question caught Cara off guard though it shouldn’t have. The males would be as shocked and confused by the appearance of odd looking strangers as Bab had been. It might be an advantage.
“What are you?” Brady growled right back. “We’ve never seen … people like you.”
Jak lowered his brow and snarled wordlessly.
“We’re traders,” Cara said and turned the male’s smoldering glare from Brady to herself.
“Shut up, bitch. I’m talking to the man.” Jak’s scowl grew darker. “What is a trader?”
Brady didn’t look at Cara, but he followed her suggestion. “Our people have many tribes. When we have more of some things than we need, we trade some of our extra to another tribe for their extra stuff.’
“Extra what?” The second big Savage spoke as Jak’s equal. The other males hung back from the leaders. Tam had rejoined Bab and again held one of the infants. Cara took the time while they were all focused on Brady to study the rest of the Savages. Except for the lead two, the others were all slighter with smaller bones and muscles as well as finer features on their faces. The entire isolated society was evolving.
“My tribe often trades nuts and grains with another tribe for wool,” Brady said, his tone calm and diplomatic.
Jak took a few hesitant steps forward and touched Brady’s shirt. Bab must have returned it to him as some point. He’d been shirtless and shoeless when they were attacked. Even dirty and spotted with Brady’s blood, the material surely was a wonder to the Savages. The tight, fine seams were beyond the rough stitching used to hold their hide skirts in place.
Jak kicked Brady’s leg with his bare foot.
Brady didn’t flinch. He spoke in the same reasonable manner. “My pants are made of cotton. Both are very warm and protect me from the cold.”
“Our hides are warm,” the other big one said with a lot of belligerence.
“I’m sure they are, but the cold comes up underneath them when the wind blows. And my boots are made of hide that protects me from the cold and sharp stones.”
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The males all looked down at their tough, unclad feet. It was nearly comical how they did it at the same time. One of the younger ones spoke for the first time. “We sometimes wear hides on our feet when the cold time is here.”
“Does your tribe have much food to trade?” Jak asked. A sly look came into his small, dark eyes.
“No, this winter was very lean. That’s why we’re here, to look for more.”
Jak narrowed his vicious eyes. “You and your bitch came to rob us of our food.”
Cara’s heart plunged to her stomach. Jak leaned over Brady with all the menace of his big, muscular body. Brady answered smoothly as if they sat having tea together at a diplomatic affair.
“We don’t rob people we trade with. And it’s not only the two of us. The other men went to search out your tribe. When we saw the two women, we knew there must be a village nearby.”
“You tried to steal our women,” the second big male growled.
“He has his own woman, Hop.” Tam dared to move up beside the two leaders. “We saw no other men on our way here.”
Cara wondered if Brady took the lie too far. If the Savages thought one part false, they might not believe any of it.
“You didn’t see them?” Brady looked over his shoulder in the direction of the sea.
“Perhaps the waves washed away their footprints. I don’t know how you wouldn’t have seen them.”
“They traveled near the wild water?” Hop sounded incredulous.
“Or course. My tribe lives along the sea. We like it.”
Many of the younger Savages looked impressed and amazed by that.
“Why would we trade any of our food with you?” Tam asked. “We need all we can find to make it through the cold season.”
“Perhaps if we have more of some things than you do, we can trade equally. Or if you find you have an abundance of hides, we can trade our wool and cotton for hides to make our boots.”
The males murmured among themselves, except for Hop and Jak who continued to glare at Brady. Cara could almost see the slow turn of thoughts behind Jak’s dark, nasty eyes. After a while, he pointed at Cara. “Why would you bring a skinny, ugly bitch along with you? She looks useless and she speaks where she has no place.”
Jak thought her ugly? Relief swept through her.
“She cooks and keeps the camp. She’s my mate.”
“Why are you here by the river instead of with the other men? How did you get here?
There are no paths up the mountain.”
Brady grimaced. “You saw me in the water. We crossed on boats made of wood, but the big storm washed them out to sea. The woman and I stayed here to try and make more of the boats so we could cross the river and go home when the time comes.”
“Your village is across the river?” Tam asked. Nearly all the Savages turned, even Bab, and looked south.
“Yes. If you don’t want to trade, we’ll go back and search for other tribes that want to help each other. It might be too difficult to cross the river carrying food anyway.”
“I think we should kill them and keep them out of our lands,” Hop said.
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Jak stretched, flexing his massive arms and pushing out his chest. “We will, but first we’ll hunt down and question the rest of them. I don’t trust the words of this demon with the sky in his eyes. I have to think of the best way to kill him and the sky spirit that might reside in him.
I see it looking at me from inside his head.”
The males turned their stares on Brady, and a few backed up a few steps. Cara looked at her man and wondered how he would appear to someone seeing him for the first time. The light-colored eyes so prevalent in the Realm were a source of fascination and attraction to her people of Solonia. But to someone ignorant and superstitious, how frightening might Brady’s clear eyes be?
Brady stared at Jak with the cold gaze only blue eyes could achieve. The frigid glare, cold and merciless, might look otherworldly to these primitive people. She often forgot this side of Brady, the intimidating warrior side.
Jak’s dark glare faltered before Brady’s icy one.
“My people won’t like your treatment of me and my woman.”
“They’ll all be dead, and your ugly woman will soon be fat with my child.”
Cara’s head went light, and her chest refused to take a breath.
“All dead?” Brady laughed in a way she’d never heard before. It nearly frightened her with its deadly promise. “There are four of our men for every one of yours. And more from other tribes that trade with us. They’ll come and kill you all. They’ll cut off what hangs between your legs and cook it on a fire.”
Jak snarled and jumped at Brady. He swung his foot forward with a vicious kick. Brady rolled to his side and up unto his feet. If any of his injuries pained him, he didn’t show it in his expression. Even with both his arms tied behind his back, he looked confident to beat Jak. Cara knew he could not. The
Savage was actually shorter than Brady, but with his thick slabs of muscle, had to weigh half again what Brady did.
“They’ll be back by the end of the next dark,” Cara said.
Jak spun toward her with a snarl. “Don’t speak, bitch.”
Hop joined Jak and showed his teeth to Cara like the animal he was, but he roughly spun Jak around. “We can set a trap and kill the other strangers.”
“Why do we want to kill them?” Tam dared to ask. “Why don’t we do this trade with them? I’ll hunt for the red deer and get us hides to trade. And the storm brought us good rain.
The roots will be large and fleshy this year, and the apples thick on the ground.”
“My people like roots.” Brady relaxed his fighting posture and stood straight. “Our soil isn’t good for them. My woman found some yesterday that were larger than any we can grow ourselves.”
Jak gestured angrily to Hop. The two of them retreated to the other side of the fire near Bab and talked in low, rough voices. After many angry gestures, Hop nodded agreement to Jak.
“We’ll go find these others and see how many they are. Then we’ll decide what to do.”
Jak snapped orders to the other males. Most of them, led by Hop, jogged off toward the beach.
Tam and there others stayed with Jak. One of them cast hungry glances toward Cara, but he kept his distance after one sharp bark from Jak.
Brady stayed on his feet and drifted around as far as his tether allowed. His random meandering eventually brought him as close as he could get to Cara.
He didn’t look at her. Instead he rubbed his one booted foot against the other. His foot gear was worn and well-fitted to his feet, but he shifted from foot to foot as if an itch plagued his feet. With an exasperated sigh, he finally worked one calf-high boot off his foot.
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The Savages were about fixing a meal, snapping at each other and chewing nosily on nuts and dried grains. At first, she thought he really did have a discomfort, and no wonder after being in the water. Whoever had returned his boots to him probably didn’t care if his feet were dry.
Then she saw the glint of metal inside his shed boot.
He lifted his boot with his toes as if he was trying to slide it on, but it eluded his efforts.
With a loud, frustrated curse, he kicked it toward her.
Cara was ready. She caught up the boot and palmed the small knife. With an angry curse of her own, she threw the boot back at him. Brady flung another string of nasty words her way and then went back to his task of putting his boot back on without use of his hands.
The Savages snickered at him except for Jak who glared at them with suspicion.
The knife, handle and blade together, wasn’t quite as long as her hand, but it was sharp.
Brady went back to his wanderings, moving as far from her as his bonds allowed. The Savages kept an eye on him as they stuffed nuts and fruits into their mouths with their grubby fists. In their minds, only a man could be dangerous. None of them would expect any problems from her, a lowly, weak female. Brady mumbled to himself and tugged on his bindings. He turned once and called Cara a vile, ugly name.
She spit on the ground in between them and used her pretend anger as an excuse to turn her back on all of them. She went to work on the leather strap around her ankle. Even with the keen blade, the rawhide stubbornly resisted being severed.
The river gurgled beyond the trees. A few steps would see her to it. She could make that short distance before any of the bastards even rose from their meal. Even if she couldn’t swim well, her chances in the water were better than with the Savages. And if she didn’t make it, she’d heard drowning was a peaceful death.
The hide parted. She slipped the knife into her own boot, cutting into the sheepskin lining to protect her skin from the blade. It wasn’t comfortable, but it was comforting.
She looked in the direction of the river and then over her shoulder at Brady. He watched her. He lifted his chin toward the river and mouthed the word, go. And she knew she could not.
If she escaped, the beasts would probably kill him in a fit of temper. He was offering his life for hers. Damn, but she loved him.
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Chapter Eighteen
Bab ate all the food Tam brought her. His attentiveness reminded her of the many times he’d searched her out when she carried Angel. She realized she’d missed him since she’d left the village.
He held Angel while she fed Storm. Rena’s little boy was sturdier and more demanding than Angel, but he was pleasant when well fed. His full cheeks reminded her painfully of her friend. Jak and Hop had killed poor Rena, but it was Bab’s fault. She’d talked her friend into running away with her.
“Let’s bathe the little ones.” Tam held Angel away from his body. The bit of hide between the infant’s chubby legs was wet and soiled. Storm’s covering was no better.
Though the smell of the infants’ wastes held no offense to her, she remembered the clean scent of Brady’s skin. He and Cara would never let themselves become so dirty and smelly.
Tam led the way to the river. He walked along the muddy bank until he found a gentle slope. Not far from the bank, new green grasses sprouted around the dead brown clumps. He stomped a patch of it down and deposited Angel in the make-do bed. After making another such spot for Storm, he took the baby from Bab and laid him down also.
“Us first.” Tam took her hand and helped her down to the water’s edge. He then let go of her hand and untied the strip of hide holding his skirt in place. He waded out a few steps until the water covered his knees and began splashing water over himself.
Bab took her skirt off slowly and watched Tam. She’d always found him to be the most handsome of men, but now she had Brady as a comparison.
Tam’s muscles were thicker than Brady’s but much leaner than Jak or Hop. Hair grew thickly on Tam’s chest unlike Brady’s smooth skin, and he wasn’t near as tall. Though Tam wasn’t pretty like Brady, he was attractive in his own way, in the way of her people. Tam’s man rod stood erect with his want for her. Something Brady had not been able to do.
Bab flung her clothing aside and stepped out into the cold water. The river scared her with its muddy bottom and shifting flow, but Tam would keep her safe. She joined him in splashing and thought again of Brady’s clean smell. With a little urging, she made Tam bend down so she could scrub his hair. It was chopped in uneven lengths but still longer than Brady’s short, dark locks. She scrubbed at the tangles and used lots of water until a golden gleam to match Cara’s emerged.
Tam grinned at her and then turned her around so her back was to him. He treated her hair to the same washing. His strong fingers on her scalp heated her despite the cool water he used. She decided she would stop chopping her hair off with the wicked stone blade and let it grow as long as Cara’s. She would make a wooden tool to undo the tangles like Cara did each day. And she would take care of and trim Tam’s hair to match Brady’s.
By the time they finished washing themselves and their skirts, they were both shivering.
Not even the hot sun could warm their wet skin. Tam held the babies while she washed their soiled bottoms. He comforted the little ones while she cleaned their bits of hide, but she had to nurse them again so that they forgave the displeasure of their baths. Perhaps if she bathed them every day they would become accustomed to it.
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Tam spread their skirts out in the grass so the sun might work on drying them. He looked at her with serious intent in his dark eyes. She knew what it meant, and she welcomed it.
Memories of Brady and Cara taking their pleasure on each other awakened her longings to find some for herself.
Tam tugged her to the ground and smiled at her. He reached out and touched her thigh, but Bab guided his hand to breast and nipple. After a moment of surprised hesitation, he took her full breast into his hand and squeezed. It was as wonderful as she’d
imagined. Gathering her courage, she urged Tam to roll unto his back. His man rod stuck straight up into the sky. She lifted her leg over his hips and took it inside her. His eyes went wide, and his mouth dropped open. She guided his hands to her hips, and rocked her body on top of him. He caught on with enthusiasm. When she took his one hand and placed it on her hard little nub, her soul responded with joyous glory usually denied her when men took her.
They lay together afterward until the babies woke. The sun had already crossed the top of the world. She wished they could stay here with the children forever. Tam was a real man, not some unknown stranger who might or might not be some kind of spirit. She understood now that Brady would never want a mere, ignorant woman like her.
“Tam, we can’t let Jak kill the strangers.”
Tam hugged Angel to him and won Bab’s heart even more. “I don’t see how we can stop him. Maybe when the rest of their tribe returns, Jak and Hop will see the sense of this trading.”