“Of course,” I reassured her.
Fieria said something.
I gave a questioning look at Lelia.
“She wants to know what you want,” Lelia replied. “She says this is powerful knowledge, and she wants to know what you want if you will teach it to my tribe.”
“Translate for me, will you?” I asked.
Lelia nodded and turned to face her friends.
“I love Lelia,” I said.
Lelia looked at me in shock. Tears filled her eyes as she smiled at me tenderly – and then she began to speak in her language. “Ola navala Lelia.”
The women all gasped and looked back and forth between us.
As I continued to speak, Lelia translated my words.
“The only thing I want is to stay with her and keep her safe. I know she cares a lot about you, and so I want to help keep you safe, too. I promise to help protect you – ”
“Promise?” Lelia interrupted.
“To say something, then do it, no matter what happens.”
Lelia nodded and translated.
“I will help you make bows and arrows – ”
Lelia lifted her bow and an arrow to demonstrate as she named them.
“And I will help you learn to defend yourselves with them. I will teach you everything I know that might help you. And… if you want… I will help you go get the women that the skiris and the other vaklik took from you.”
The other women listened to Lelia’s words, and then Fieria asked a question.
“She wants to know if you would help us kill them for killing our men and taking our friends,” Lelia asked.
“Revenge,” I said.
“What?”
“Revenge. That’s what we call it when you hurt someone who hurt you first.”
“Revenge,” Lelia said, tasting the word on her tongue.
“Maybe,” I said. “But if the skiris army is too big, if it’s impossible to do, then no. I want to live with you. I don’t want anyone here to die.”
Lelia finished translating.
Fieria regarded me for a long time in silence… and then she spoke.
“She says that she agrees,” Lelia said. “No revenge if we cannot live.”
“Good,” I said, and nodded. “Good.”
Fieria reached out and put her hand on my shoulder and bowed her head.
“Uh… Lelia?” I asked, not sure what was going on.
“This is how she makes her promise,” Lelia said.
“Do I do anything?”
“No, just stand there.”
One by one, the women came up to me and put a hand on my shoulder. Lelia was fifth…
…but Oona was last.
She regarded me fearfully… then finally came over and put her hand atop the other women’s.
Fieria lifted her head and smiled.
The other women (except for Oona) cheered.
Lelia kissed me. I took her in my arms and kissed her back, and all the women cheered louder. Even Oona smiled.
I was part of the tribe.
22
We all ate together around the campfire. The others hadn’t caught a deer in over a week – spear hunting is a much dicer proposition than bow hunting, after all – so the jerky we’d brought was met with thankful looks and voracious appetites.
Afterwards, they showed me around their camp – what little there was of it, and what little I could see in the firelight. The sun had set an hour before, and the forest was dark.
The main thing was the cave where they all slept. I use the term ‘cave’ loosely. It was mostly just a big-ass hole in an outcropping of rock and soil. Somehow they’d found it under all the snow, then dug it out so they could get inside.
It was about as big as my cave back in the cliff – but unlike mine, which was 95% protected from the elements, this was basically just a hollow in the side of a small ravine. It stretched 15 feet back under the tree roots and soil, but it tapered away to nothing at the end so that you had to crawl back under there. The entire front end of the cave was open-air, too, which pretty much sucked ass.
“Well, this won’t do,” I muttered as I looked at it, and set to work.
I broke out the saw on my Craftsman tool, which got the same amazed response from everyone that Lelia had first displayed. After they got over the display of non-Stone-Age technology, I started sawing down small fir trees – tall enough to lean at an angle from the ground to the upper lip of the cave, and with thick enough branches that they could form a bushy barrier. I stripped one side of the branches off, then placed the trees side by side until I had a nice lean-to protecting the cave from the wind.
That would have to do for now. I could come up with some more improvements tomorrow when I had more light. Right now I was exhausted.
Half the women were going to take first watch, then be relieved by others in the middle of the night. Lelia, Oona, and I would be allowed to sleep till morning.
“I can stand watch, too,” I protested to Lelia once she explained what was going on.
“Stand watch?” she asked, frowning.
“It means to stay up late and guard everyone.”
Lelia shook her head. “Tomorrow night. Tonight we sleep. The others have not traveled like we have.”
I supposed she was right. I gave in, and we settled in for the night. Lelia, Oona, Mazaria, Hala, and I would sleep; Fieria and Teeka would stand guard, then switch with Mazaria and Hala halfway through the night.
I passed through the space I’d left in the fir tree barrier and crawled into the cave. The women had covered the ground with furs, so at least that much was comfortable.
I collapsed wearily at the back. Lelia crawled in next to me and put her backside to me. I draped one arm over her and held her close.
Oona, Mazaria, and Hala all took up positions closer to the mouth of the cave, by the boundary of fir trees I’d cut.
Feeling Lelia’s body next to mine,
