Bunduki (Bunduki Series Book One) (16 page)

What was more, the Mun-Gatahs had
proved to be harsh and cruel. Remarks which Joar-Fane had overheard
had warned her that she might not be going to the pleasant life
which she had anticipated. So, showing more courage and initiative
than Bunduki would have imagined her to possess, she had escaped
after they had made camp for the night. Unfortunately for her, she
had got hopelessly lost. Then, with the party sent after her by the
People-Taker on her trail, she had been driven even deeper into the
jungle. She had fallen into the Big River and, although she could
swim well enough to have been in no danger of drowning, the
strength of the current had carried her across.

Knowing that she was in the
land of the ‘Hairy People’, about whom the hunters had told so many
frightening stories, the girl had been forced to leave the river
because of the persistence of her pursuers. Although she had not
seen any sign of them that day, she had kept moving in the hope of
returning to the river and swimming over, then finding her way
home. Instead, she had been located by
Bul-Mok
and his family. Fleeing from them,
Bunduki had saved her.

While eager to please the blond giant
by explaining about the People-Taker, Joar-Fane forgot to mention
two points of interest. She had said that the Mun-Gatahs made
visits twice a year, following the ends of the two rainy seasons.
In her eagerness to start the business of love-making, she
overlooked the fact that the latest collection had been made in the
dry season and also that it had consisted of more maidens and young
men than was usual.

‘
What do you
know about the Mun-Gatahs?’ Bunduki
asked, as the girl lay on her back in
an attitude which implied that she had talked enough and felt it
was time for her reward.

Annoyance flickered across Joar-Fane’s
face and she sat up. Then she smiled in a knowing manner. At-Vee
had been a much more satisfactory love maker than the blond giant
was proving. However, he too had also been slow at getting down to
the serious business of wooing. When he finally did, the results
had always been worth waiting for. That would, she felt sure, apply
just as much in Bunduki’s case. Being shrewd in such matters, she
decided that she would have to humor him until he was ready to
commence.

Sitting at the side of the small girl,
Bunduki had to admit that she was superbly proportioned and
voluptuous. As a healthy young man in the peak of physical
condition, he could not help being attracted by her. However, he
was determined to hold himself in check. Joar-Fane’s race and color
had nothing to do with the decision. None of his adoptive kinsmen
had been promiscuous. In fact, they had all been notable for their
unswerving loyalty and devotion to their respective wives. Nor had
Bunduki ever become embroiled in the so-called New Morality which
had infested the western world. Even during the short period he had
spent in England, he had avoided becoming entangled in its meshes.
Having always had to be self-reliant instead of dependent upon the
British Welfare State, he did not need to use sexual prowess to
conceal a lack of other masculine achievements. What was more, at
that moment, he had other things of greater importance on his
mind.

Suddenly, Bunduki found his
thoughts turning to Dawn; but not in the way that they had done
constantly since waking in the tree. Up to that moment he had
always regarded her almost as a younger sister; a delightful
playmate and a tomboy who was willing to try anything that he was
attempting. While aware that she had
grown into a very beautiful, shapely and
attractive young woman, his opinions along that line had previously
been those a brother might have felt. Looking at Joar-Fane, he
started to think of his adoptive cousin for the first time as a
most desirable member of the opposite sex.

The little Telonga girl would have
been furious if she had guessed the kind of thoughts which she had
brought about. Being unaware of them, she did her best to stimulate
her rescuer’s interest and desire to make love.

There was little enough that Joar-Fane
could tell Bunduki about the Mun-Gatah people. According to what
she had heard, the men were big, muscular and very fierce. Although
the People-Taker and his escort had never arrived at her village
clad in such garments, the hunters claimed they wore metal helmets
and breastplates of leather that no weapon could pierce. They were
armed with what she described as long knives and spears. Although
the women she had seen were not exactly ugly—she refused to admit
that they had been beautiful and curvaceous—they did not appear to
be interested in making love. She regarded that as being most
peculiar. More so, in fact, than that the party invariably arrived
riding on strange hornless animals with black and white striped’
skins. At-Vee had said that all the Mun-Gatah people had such
animals and many more roamed wild in the ‘Land With No Trees’, but
they were never seen in the jungle except when brought by the
People-Taker’s party.

Bunduki found the girl’s
information, scanty as it was, more baffling than helpful. In fact,
nothing he had heard made sense. The strange, hornless black and
white animals sounded like zebras, which implied he was somewhere
near the plains of Africa as did the description, the ‘Land With No
Trees’. Except that no wild zebra had a suitable physical
confirmation of riding or draught work. Nor was there any sizeable
area of the African plains that
had not been explored, or at least flown
over. A tribe, or a nation, who rode zebras would surely have been
discovered.

If it came to the point, there
was little or no undiscovered land of any kind left in the world;
certainly not one of sufficient size that could offer jungles,
plains, big rivers and such a diversity of human and animal life.
Counting the
Mangani
the blond giant had already heard of three
nations.

‘
Are there any
other people?’ Bunduki asked when the girl once more stopped
speaking and looked at him hopefully. ‘I mean apart from the
Telonga, Mun-Gatah and the “
Hairy Men”?’

‘
The old men
tell us about somebody they called the Gruziak who used to come to
our villages
.’ Joar-Fane sighed, wishing that the blond giant would
stop asking such uninteresting questions and make love instead.
‘They were warriors with red skins and rode animals like the
Mun-Gatahs’, except they weren’t striped and were of different
colors. I’ve never seen them. The Mun-Gatahs drove them away. And I
have heard it said that there is another nation of nothing but
women. They don’t have any men at all. But I don’t believe there is
anybody like that.’

‘
You
wouldn’t
,’ Bunduki thought and smiled.

‘
Do
you want to tell me about your people?’ Joar-Fane inquired,
having seen the smile and hoping it heralded what she had been
waiting for. ‘Where are they?’

‘
That’s what
I’d like to know
,’ the blond giant said to himself.

The reference to the
red-skinned Gruziaks, with their mounts that looked like the
Mun-Gatahs’ zebras—if that was the identity of the creatures—but
variously colored and not striped, suggested a nation of horsemen.
Perhaps the girl was making them and the female warriors—who apart
from their men-less state were suggestive of the
Grecian
Amazons
^xxxiii
—up out of her imagination in
order to impress him and bring him to a suitable frame of mind for
her purposes.

When Bunduki did not reply to her
question, Joar-Fane felt that success and fulfillment were within
her grasp. She was certain that the time had come for something far
more interesting and diverting than chattering about other people.
Smiling, she reached across and laid a hot little hand on Bunduki’s
left bicep.

Even as the blond giant was seeking a
way to refuse which would not offend the girl, one was presented to
him. From far away to the north-west came an eerie, high-pitched
and almost wailing cry.

Instantly, Bunduki sprang to
his feet. Ignoring Joar-Fane’s squeak of mingled annoyance, protest
and frustration, he stared in the direction from which the sound
had originated. Faint though it had been, he knew it was the
distress call of a female
Mangani,

However, the call was from such a long
distance that the blond giant could not make a positive
identification. Nor was it repeated, so he was unable to gain
further information.

Bunduki found himself faced
with a difficult decision. While the distress call had come from
the direction in which his instincts suggested that Dawn could be
found, there were
Mangani
in the jungle. Any reply he made would be heard by the
family who claimed the territory and would almost certainly be
investigated if they were close enough.

There was more to the problem
than the danger from the territorial bull. The call had originated
from so far away that, even if he did not have Joar-Fane with
him,
the
blond giant knew he could not get there in time to deal with
whatever was threatening his adoptive cousin, should she be the one
who had made it.

‘
I
don’t like it,’ Sabart stated, glancing around her in a
worried manner. The foreign bitch is going into the land of the
“Hairy People”.’

‘
You can
always turn back,’ Elidor spat out. While equally perturbed, her
rival’s words had the effect of making her determined to keep
going. A malicious smile flickered on her face as. she
continued,
‘I don’t intend to. And, anyway, there shouldn’t be any
danger. Charole told us the foreign bitch wouldn’t dare enter the
jungle.’

When Dryaka had ordered his faction to
follow Dawn, the Protectress had said that her adherents would
accompany them. As the High Priest had known that the eagle’s
attendant was a very capable tracker and might be useful in
following Dawn, and as he was not enamored with the idea of riding
to the main camp in the company of Charole’s supporters, even with
the Council of Elders’ messenger present, he had agreed.

Discussing how the foreign girl might
act, Charole had proved to share Dryaka’s theory that she would, in
all probability, avoid penetrating too deeply into the woodland.
Unfortunately, the Mun-Gatahs’ party found that she was doing so,
and was showing no sign of turning towards the plains. Instead, she
seemed to be determined to enter the jungle, even though it was the
domain of the ‘Hairy People’.

Already the terrain was becoming
difficult for the Mun-Gatahs to traverse it in a compact group. If
the trees and bushes should grow in closer proximity, they would be
compelled to ride in single file. Doing so would render them even
more vulnerable to ambush and attack, especially if the girl
belonged to a warrior race which made its home in such country.
None of them had any desire to fight against archers as skilled as
she had been, particularly when they were armed with bows of the
kind that had killed Tomlu. However, as neither faction would allow
their rivals to see they were worried, each waited and hoped the
other would suggest that they went back.

‘
Look!’
snapped one of Dryaka’s male adherents, pointing
ahead.
‘It’s her!’

Following the direction indicated by
the speaker, the rest of the party saw Dawn. They were relieved to
notice that she was no longer carrying the bow and quiver of
arrows, although there was no time for them to consider and discuss
the omission. Becoming aware of their presence, she turned and
started to run away.

‘
Get after her!’ Sabart
screamed.

Despite the rest of the party’s
eagerness to follow the order, there was some confusion for a few
seconds. To allow the eagle’s attendant an unrestricted view of the
girl’s tracks, the rest of the party had been compelled to let him
take the lead and walk ahead of them. On seeing the killer of his
bird, belatedly, as his eyes had been on her trail rather than
watching his surroundings, he let out a shriek of rage that was
reminiscent of the cry the eagle had given as it was plunging
towards its intended victim. Turning, he leapt towards his
well-trained zebra. Obediently, knowing what was expected of it,
the
grar-gatah
swung at an angle which would allow him to reach the
saddle. Vaulting astride, without touching the stirrups, he
snatched the reins from the saddle horn. In mounting as he had, he
was blocking his companions’ paths and preventing them from giving
chase.

‘
Get out of
the way, you stupid
grar-gatah
!’
Elidor screeched, having sent her mount bounding forward in
an attempt to get ahead of the other woman.

Ignoring the angry yell,
particularly because it had emanated from a member of the rival
faction, the attendant set his zebra into motion. Behind him, the
angry
banar-gatah
riders combined in heaping invective on his head as they
followed. Hot for revenge, he took no more notice than he had of
Elidor’s comment. Instead, he urged his
grar-gatah
to a reckless gallop.