Olivia (116 page)

Doru strode towards Olivia and dropped to one knee.  “It could never be glory enough for you.  Command me, Olivia.  Ask me for a lion.”

The tribe was dead silent.  The only sounds were the snapping of coals and spitting of juices from the roasting meat.  Olivia could feel the eyes of every jealous female, the incredulity of every male.

“No lion has a chance against you,” she said, smiling.  “If there were mastodons left in the world, I would ask you for that.  It might keep you busy for all of two days, and that includes the time it would take to make me presents of the teeth.”

He smirked at her, and then stood up again.  “Well,” he said, in a normal tone of voice.  “Let’s not forget Wurlgunn.”

“I caught a rabbit,” Wurlgunn said brightly.

“You’re so brave,” Beth said with a smile.

Doru dropped onto the bench beside Olivia, cast the clothing she’d been sewing a dismissive glance, and said, “Bodual got a rabbit, too.  So did Damark, for that matter.  Lots of rabbits out there tonight.”

“And one less bear,” she agreed.

“What did you want with the teeth, anyway?”

“I wanted to string them together and wear them.  I didn’t expect you to actually get them for me.  You really killed the bear yourself?”

“Well, I didn’t think I could get him to stand still long enough for me to pull them out,” he said with a smile.

She opened the belt pouch and looked at the bloody teeth.  They were very big.  “Good heavens, you’ve got the claws in here, too.”

His chest swelled and he smiled broadly at her, but the smile soon faded.  “Do you know what my first thought was when I realized it was dead?  I thought, ‘Wait until Vorgullum hears about this.  He’ll want to rush out and do the same for his mate.’  And then I remembered who his mate was.” 

“I asked him for the same thing, once,” she remarked, pulling out one bear’s tooth and peering at it in the firelight.

“I know.  He spent three days trying to find one before he had to give up and hunt for real.  When he sees you wearing those…”  Doru sighed and glanced over his shoulder at the roasting meat.  “Great Spirit, give me the strength to let you go again.”

Without thinking, she said, “You’re strong enough to beat him in a challenge.”

“I’ll admit it crossed my mind,” he replied, showing no surprise at her comment.  “But I’d never hurt you that way.  You should be free to choose.  Since you aren’t, I will do as much as I can to keep from hurting you.”

“You really are noble, aren’t you?”

“Too noble,” he agreed sourly.  “The Great Spirit only knows where I get it from because my father was an ass.”

Hodrub, lugging a huge billow of bloody bearskin in both arms, crept cautiously into the room and cleared his throat awkwardly.  “Doru?”

Doru straightened, lowered his wings and took up his spear with an air of resignation.  “Yes, Hodrub, what is it?”

Hodrub licked his lips, took a deep breath, and said, very quickly, “I just saw Tobi scrambling down the mountain with her claws out.”

“I took those away,” Doru said, startled, and then shook that off and roared, “How in the hell did she get out?  Never mind.  I want a guard at the entry shaft day and night from now on, and one in the women’s tunnels as well.  I am going to get that bird-brained little idiot back and if she gets out again, I’ll have someone’s hide for a pit cover!”  He stomped off, his hand clenched dangerously around the haft of his spear.

Bodual sat down beside Olivia and hooked a claw into the belt pouch so that he could peer at the claws and teeth.  “Easily the most impressive thing I’ve ever seen,” he said calmly, “was Doru baying for us to join him while he stood over that mountain of a dead bear.  Not to sound jealous or anything, but how am I supposed to top that?  I couldn’t even give you the rabbit ears, because I needed help to corner the little nuisance.”

“Well, I guess you’ll just have to overwhelm me with your magnificent pit-presence.”

“That I could d—uh oh.” 

She looked a question at him, but he was staring past her.  With a sinking heart, Olivia glanced around and saw Huuk making his way towards them.  “You’ve got to be kidding,” she said.  “Only an idiot would make a play for me as I sit here with a handful of bear’s teeth, when the whole damn tribe knows who got them for me.”

“He’s not kidding and Doru’s not here for the moment.  And he is an idiot, but in a minute, he’s going to be an idiot demanding that you either yield or take yourself to the women’s tunnels.  He’s going to pound me into mash.”  Bodual started to stand up, fanning out his wings.

Huuk stopped in front of them, deliberately ignoring Olivia to focus the intensity of his attention on Bodual.  He was not a big male, but he was bigger by far than lean Bodual and he had the scars of past battles proudly displayed on his chest.  “Your mate?” he inquired menacingly.

“Stand off.”  Bodual lowered his horns.  “We have too few hunters for me to kill you over a woman.”

Huuk snorted.  “I think the tribe could make do without another rabbit, and I promise not to cripple you for life if you concede to me now.”

“Sit down, Bodual,” Olivia said suddenly.

Both males looked at her in surprise.  Bodual’s shock turned slowly to hurt.  “Olivia,” he began.

“Sit down,” she said again, glaring past him at Huuk.  “You’re not going to fight him.”

Huuk showed his teeth in a broad smile, holding out his hand.

“You’re not going to fight him,” she said again.  Olivia shrugged out of her jacket and stood in her leather vest and skirt, cracking her hands into fists and feeling the white-hot core of her power blaze out of her in rage.  “I am.”

6

Huuk’s smiled wavered slightly.  The cave had gone still, and he looked around, plainly wondering if anyone was going to step up and inform her that this was not an option. 

No one did.  Bodual seemed as if he wanted to, but he must have seen something in her face because in the end he stood back and waited with the rest of them.  He didn’t look happy, but he didn’t try to stop her.

Huuk, having failed to find a mediator in the crowd, looked again at Olivia.  “You surely don’t mean to do this,” he said.

“The hell I don’t.”  She had used her power against Logarr once, had thrown him across a cave and into the wall with it.  She could do it again, and right now, after so much fighting, after losing Sudjummar and her son, she wanted to.  She advanced on him, and he gave ground until they stood together in the center of the cave with the others in a curious ring around them.  “Come for me, if you’re coming at all,” she said.  “Fight me or concede!”

Huuk blinked several times, hesitated, and took a half-hearted swipe at her.

Olivia brought a surge of heat up and out of her to glove her hand; she caught his wrist, twisted it violently back to bring him forward and down and punched him in the throat.  Huuk yanked his hand out of her grip and stumbled back, gagging.  He slapped out at her again, and it was considerably less hesitant a blow.  She ducked under his arm, spun on her heel and sent her foot like a piston in the armor of her power directly into his midriff.

This time, he flew backwards, drawing in his wings with a hoarse cry of alarm and crashing to the floor.  He rocked to his hip, leapt to his feet and turned on her, horns lowered.

She waited for him, channeling her power along her arm like an invisible spear. 

He lunged; she struck. 

Huuk’s entire body lifted off the ground in a single, brutal convulsion.  There was an electric snap of discharged energy and he was flung violently the full length of the room to slam against the wall.  He was on his feet with a blind howl of rage and he sprang at her with claws at ready, no longer pursuing a female, but prepared to kill an enemy.

Olivia deflected him with a burst of power, then seized him by the horn as he staggered away and threw him to the ground.  He toppled over, bent his wing, screamed with pain and sprang up again.  She ducked behind him, balled up her fist around a pulsing globe of inner light, and punched him in the back of the head.

He executed a clumsy somersault, his whole weight crashing down on his horns.  There was a brittle
crack
and he jerked crookedly to one side.  He managed to get his hands beneath him and look up groggily; his left horn was split lengthwise from the tip to the base, where thick black blood welled out around his scalp.  Huuk reached up, took a streak of this onto his fingers, and looked at them without comprehension. 

“Holy God,” someone said.  It sounded like Anita.  “Stay down, you idiot!”

“Concede, Huuk,” Bodual called.  He sounded worried. 

The words seemed to bring the light of clarity back into Huuk’s eyes.  The gulla looked hard at the broken shard of bone on the ground, and then up at Olivia.  She could see him considering the idea of conceding blood challenge to a female.  He stood up, spread out wings and claws and roared at her.

“Come and get me,” she snarled back, pushing sheaths of power out over both arms.

Huuk leapt, talons first, aiming for her chest.

She visualized a jet of power like a shield bursting from her body and a moment later, Huuk was thrown back by it, twisting his wing under his body and yelping with pain.  She raced her puppet after him, seized him by his remaining whole horn and threw him full-length, face-first into the wall.

He struck, bounced, and dropped.  This time, he lay still.

Olivia stood over him, tensed to spring if he tried to catch her ankle, but he only opened his eyes, looked at her through a glaze of pain, and closed them again.

“I concede,” he groaned. 

Olivia dropped back into her body, resisting the urge to haul back and kick him in the head for good measure.  She swung around to face the crowd, her eyes blazing.  “Now I am done!” she shouted.  “The next male that comes for me, I kill!”

Even before the echoes of this threat had faded, Doru’s deep bellow overrode it.  “What in the
hell
goes on here?”  He charged into the thick of the commons, hauling Tobi by one arm.  He saw Huuk, swelled to his full height and turned to search the crowd for Bodual.  Seeing him whole and entirely undamaged, Doru stood back and demanded, “Who is responsible for this?”

Bodual pointed.

Olivia crossed her arms and looked back at Doru defiantly.

Doru blinked at her, looked back at Huuk, then down at Tobi.

“Bam,” Tobi said, staring at the bloody heap of gulla.  “Remind me never to piss you off.”  She looked back at Olivia.  “Are you going to make him yield?” she asked curiously.

Olivia could feel herself wanting to smile at that.  “Let go of her, Doru.  Tobi, get Tina and tell her there’s been an incident.”

Doru obediently released his grip and Tobi ran off towards the women’s tunnels.  Slowly, as if shaking himself from a daze, he looked around and asked the room at large, “Olivia did this?  By herself?”

“Unarmed,” someone said.

There were murmurs of assent, then silence again.

Doru turned back to Olivia.  “Remind
me
never to piss you off,” he said, impressed.  He moved to get a hand beneath Huuk’s arm.  “I’ll bet you’re almost wishing I was here,” he added.

Huuk muttered something thick and incoherent as he was settled on a bench.  He reached up gingerly to explore the damage to his left horn, wincing as he touched the exposed nerves near the base.

Running footsteps from the corridor resounded immediately before Tina’s voice could be heard.  “All right, let’s make this quick, I’m trying to deliver a
Jesus Christ what happened here
!”  The healer raced to Huuk’s side, unslinging her pack and dropping to her knees.  “Tobi, get a light on him!  Someone get a towel!  Who did this to you?”

“It’s not so bad,” Huuk grumbled, but flinched when Tina’s hand rose towards his head. 

Tina glared over her shoulder at Doru.  “Goddammit, people, learn some self-restraint!”

Doru folded his arms and looked mildly amused.

His placidity appeared to infuriate her.  She whipped around, uncapped a bottle of alcohol and poured it liberally over a cotton ball, then took a swipe at Huuk’s head.  When he hollered, she grabbed his good horn and put him in a headlock, cleaning his wounds with curt swipes of her arm and snarling between clenched teeth: “You know, I am trying very freakin’ hard to respect your ways no matter how messed up they are, but if I see just one more male with his head or his hands or his wing bashed in because of this ridiculous pissing contest you people keep starting, I am goddamn well going to let you sit there and be crippled because
I have had it
!  I have four pregnant women, one lady in labor, and one early baby in addition to all the aches and pains of a normal population of giant freakin’ bat-people, and I don’t need this testosterone-spitting, swinging-dick
bullshit
!”

“I hope you’re listening to this, Olivia,” Doru remarked.

“The next time,
the very next time
, someone asks me to drop what I’m doing and run off down the mountain to wrap some idiot’s head, I am going to flat-out refuse, so you just better deal with it your damn selves!”  She reached for bandages, then paused and shot Doru a puzzled glance.  “What do you mean, ‘I hope you’re listening,
Olivia
?’”

Doru waited for realization to sink in.  Tina’s eyes widened first with disbelief, then with shock, and finally she turned and stared again at Huuk.  “You let a
girl
do this to you?”

Huuk scowled, but winced when someone in the crowd laughed out loud.  His head dropped and he muttered something too low to be heard.

Tina looked up at Olivia, still struggling towards comprehension.  “What in
hell
for?” she asked.

“I’m getting pretty tired of the swinging-dick bullshit, too,” she said.

Tina traced her eyes over the full extent of Huuk’s injuries, and then glanced once, dubiously, back at Olivia.  “Well, okay,” she said, and then said something which made Olivia want to fling her arms around her and kiss her full on the lips.  “At least you went easy on the poor bastard.”