Beneath the Eye of God (The Commodore Ardcasl Space Adventures Book 1) (13 page)

Neali had a finely carved wooden comb and was attacking Leahn's hair with vigor. "We'll just pull it straight back and braid a ribbon through it for now," she said. "This evening we'll really work on it."

"I can hardly wait," Leahn said without enthusiasm.

The dress was a wrap-around affair that tied over one shoulder leaving the other shoulder and arms bare. It fell straight to Leahn's knees but would have gone down to the ankles of a shorter forest woman. It had a loose waistband, evidently meant for carrying things. Leahn stuck her knives in there. "OK, kid," she said reluctantly. "Let's go to supper."

Neali led her to the top of the trunk where a long communal area was being set for a feast. The sky showed twilight. Looking around her, Leahn could see why so much of the clan's living space was kept to the area nearest the fallen trunk and in its branches. This left all of the clearing available for cultivation. The neat irrigated rows filled nearly all the space between the trunk and the surrounding forest wall.

Leahn passed one of the twins talking intently with someone, then saw the Commodore at the center of a large group of older people. She smiled as she recalled the first time she had seen him in the tavern, there as here, the center of attention, mesmerizing a crowd of cronies with improbable and undoubtedly off-color tales of adventure.

He caught sight of her and rose in greeting. "Ah, my dear, you look refreshed and lovelier than ever. And that gown suits you admirably."

He caught sight of Neali hiding behind her. "And this, your shy handmaiden, must be Neali, our hostess' charming granddaughter." He kissed her hand and Neali, eyes shining, started to come unraveled. "I must restrain myself until I learn more about your customs," the Commodore whispered to her conspiratorially. "If I get too bold, we could find ourselves engaged."

As Neali collapsed into giggles, he turned to Leahn. "You do look splendid, my dear. Come meet some of my new friends. Your arrival this afternoon has them quite intimidated, what with a smooth-skinned Amazon packing a sword, riding a horse and all. Come smile and show them you don't breathe fire."

As she was led off to meet the clan elders, Leahn caught a glimpse of Ohan among some younger men. He was, she noted approvingly, staring at her in open-mouthed admiration.

The feast went on for hours and featured a wide variety of dishes, a number of unfamiliar vegetables from the nearby fields and even eggs from the clan's flock of ground birds.

Leahn found herself seated on the long mat near a pleasant little woman who Neali introduced as her mother, and a larger man who seemed to be watching her with stern disapproval. This, Neali confirmed, was her father.

Leahn went on the offensive.

"I really feel I know you already," she gushed, holding onto his arm and leaning close. "When I first saw that beautiful little room back at the abandoned camp, I just fell in love with it. Empty as it was, I could tell it had been built with care and love by a really sensitive and clever person. But I feel terrible about forcing myself on you and Neali like this. I merely mentioned the room in passing to Vardara and she insisted I share it with your lovely daughter."

She leaned closer and lowered her voice. "Just between you and me, I think that Vardara is the teeniest bit pushy and I feel awful about imposing on your generosity. I'm going to be sure she finds me another place first thing in the morning."

The poor man never had a chance. He and his wife spent the rest of the evening insisting that Leahn stay with them for the rest of her life if necessary, and making sure she got more than her share of their favorite delicacies from the bountiful table before them.

After the meal, Vardara and several of the elders gave short speeches of welcome. In response the Commodore got up and delivered a long talk that everyone, Leahn included, found immensely entertaining.

Without ever hinting that he was from another planet, he wove together a number of tales suggesting a far-off land where the orderly and sensible life of the forest had been turned almost exactly the wrong way round with the result that people there found themselves hilariously confused most of the time.

He concluded by congratulating his hosts on their wise decision to live a rational life in the forest, as if, Leahn realized, they had a choice in the matter. He sat down to a rousing ovation.

Then the singing began. It started with an old man and woman who sang in clear thin voices, taking alternate verses of a song they were apparently composing on the spot, for they were weaving a musical story of the visitors' arrival that very morning on their journey from the mythical land the Commodore had just finished describing. Leahn found herself being humorously included as an awesome being who was shrunk down in a steam bath to one of almost human proportions.

That verse and a few others were greeted with instant approval and were repeated and enlarged upon by other singers and finally taken up by the whole crowd which then, with counterpoint and harmony, went on to a whole repertoire of traditional songs. Leahn saw the twins set out their recorder as the entire clan filled the night with lovely tales of great hunters, beautiful maidens, lost love, sad parting, joyful reunion and old men who drank too much bark wine.

After a while Leahn found herself beginning to nod off and Neali's father insisted that his daughter take her guest up to bed.

The little room was a carbon copy of the other, but with fabric hangings on the walls and woven mats on the floor. Leahn's bedroll, washed and with a couple of the rips sewn up, was already there. She leaned out over the little balcony and watched the crowd of people below. She lay down and watched the Eye of God turn slowly above the clearing as the rich voices swept her into a dreamless sleep.

***

Leahn awoke to find herself alone in the little room, the sun well up and a freshly baked roll with a pot of tea on a tray just inside the door. She could hear the sounds of the day out in the clearing and all around below her.

She decided not to participate but dozed again, then took breakfast in bed while she watched the sunlight creep slowly down the wall. She thought of getting up and found that she was wearing a loose white shift she didn't remember getting into. Her dress was hanging neatly on the door but she wasn't sure she could put it on properly and decided not to try.

Neali arrived eventually, looking disheveled and out of sorts. "Well, thank goodness that's done," she huffed, wiping a glob of green stuff off her apron. "You'd think when you had a guest, they'd at least give you a little time off so you could entertain her properly."

"Not getting up early is entertainment enough for me. What have you been doing?"

"Oh God, what haven't I been doing?" Neali rolled her eyes dramatically and plopped down beside Leahn.

"Let's see. We started off, 'we' meaning all the young unmarried girls, we started off by cleaning up after last night, gathering the eggs, starting the baking, cooking breakfast for everyone who wants it and taking it in to whichever of the old aunts are too lazy to come and get it. Then we feed the little kids and some of us try to teach them something while others do the laundry and stoke the fires and clean the place up and carry water and then," she took a deep breath for effect, "it's time to start on lunch.

"So we get to cook it and take it out to the fields and feed the little kids again. That's what this green gunk is. Mashed vegetables. They all hate it."

"Where are their mothers?"

"Oh, they're all off working in the fields, weeding, carrying water, chasing the birds away, grinding meal and picking stuff for supper."

"What are the men doing?"

"Oh sure, the men. The old ones don't do anything. They just sit around and tell stories and want you to wait on them and get in your way while you're doing it. Some of them, like my dad, are out working in the fields all day. He's really good at growing stuff. And some of the boys have to haul wood and strip bark and stuff like that. But most of them are out hunting and wandering around in the forest. God, they have it so easy. Sometimes I think I'd like to be a man."

She giggled. "But not now. I got the rest of the day off and we're going to wash and fix your hair."

"Oh, well listen, if you've got better things to do, my hair can wait."

Neali tried to look stern. "Well, honestly. You'd think you liked it that way, looking like a bird's nest. And I'm certainly not missing anything. After lunch we send the little kids out to play, hoping the cats will carry them off. The women come in from the fields and the old aunts finally come tottering out of their rooms and we all sit down and do the weaving and the dyeing. It's really kind of fun. Everybody talks about what everybody else is doing and the mothers talk about their kids and we sing songs and sometimes the old aunts get to telling stories about the old days, some of them quite risqué, if you know what I mean, and everybody talks except us girls who mostly listen."

She jumped up and went out into the hall. "But I can do that anytime." She brought in a basket of water and a gourd filled with some kind of soapy liquid. "And we've got to do something about your hair," she grinned.

***

"You can be married, spoken for, available or not interested," Neali explained opaquely. The soapy stuff had done an effective job and Leahn's hair was combing out nearly snarl-free.

"What?"

"Those are your choices. Of course there are all kinds of variations within each different type. Daddy won't let me wear the available style yet, but my girlfriends and I practice it a lot, creating our own personal designs. I've got one that's halfway between available and spoken for that's a knockout. All my friends say it makes me look really sophisticated.

"Hey!" she shouted gleefully. "That might be perfect for you. Ohan said he would speak for you and . . . "

"That's right. I was going to ask him what that was all about but I haven't seen much of him since then."

"He's kind of cute but mamma says he's too old for me. They say he's been away to school. God, that's sophisticated."

"What was it he said during that introduction business? Something about if anyone wanted to ask me a question . . . "

" . . . he would answer for you. That's what he said. It surprised Vardara. Ohan was saying that if any unmarried men wanted to ask you out—not that any of them would—they'd be scared to death. Anyway, they'd have to ask him first. He was putting himself in the place of your father which really meant that he wasn't available to meet any eligible girls either because he was still responsible for you."

"Why that little shit," Leahn laughed. "I was going to find him a nice girl and he took himself out of the running before I even had a chance. What were those choices of hair style again?"

"Married, spoken for, available and not interested. That last one's not very attractive. It's mostly for old aunts."

"Right. Let's try available and see if Daddy Ohan gets any inquiries."

"Oh God, I love this. It's so sophisticated."

Neali brought supper up to their room and it wasn't until early evening that Leahn strolled casually out onto the trunk where Ohan and the others were chatting and watching the sunset. Ohan started to greet her cheerfully, then paused and stared distractedly for a moment and finally fell into a coughing fit that had the Commodore quite concerned. By then Leahn had wondered happily off.

She joined Neali and some of her girlfriends for a long soak in the steam room where they discussed men in general and Ohan in particular at great length, arriving at the conclusion that, smooth-skinned or furry, they were all alike.

Back up in Nealie's room, the two girls discovered that they both had older sisters. Neali's had been courted by a visitor and had gone off to live with his clan. They told big sister stories and laughed far into the night.

***

The clan's main steam room also served as the center of its religious life. A much larger room not far from the women's steam bath, it too, was dug into the ground with the trunk of the great tree as its roof. But its floor and walls were hard-packed dirt and its fire was in a pit in the center of the room.

"The fire is placed deep in the earth," Vardara explained to the Commodore. "The earth that nurtures the forest is all around us and the body of the great water tree lies over our heads. The smoke from the fire carries our prayers up into the sky to be seen by the Eye of God. This is the center of our community where we are in touch with all the forces that sustain us. If they will not hear us here, then I fear we shall be truly lost."

"And have these forces of the earth and sky always answered your prayers?"

Vardara smiled. "Oh, I think they have. It's just that the answer is often 'no.'"

"What do you do then?"

"Then we work all the harder and wait all the longer for the world to change its mind."

"Do the powers of the world actually speak to you?"

"All the time. In signs and in dreams. Sometimes they speak clearly as when my dead husband came to me in a dream and told me to take the job as headwoman. But more often they speak to us in riddles that are hard to understand. And sometimes we search so hard for signs, we take the snapping of a twig for the word of the world."