Olivia

by R. Lee Smith

  The gullan drew back almost as one body, tucking in their wings and shuffling their feet as they looked away.

  “Olivia’s words are wise,” Horumn continued. “Augurr will lose his stones, eh? Bah! His perversions go with them and what remains behind will be a man with sound body and strong wings. He will have no more foolish, rutting she-goats to feed him. Before the tribe, Olivia will order Doru to teach Augurr to hunt now that Vorung cannot, and if he learns to use his spear on game half as well as he has used it on you rutting fools, he will be forgiven in time.”

  “How can you speak of forgiving him?” one of them cried.

  “We are women.” Horumn’s hand tightened on her staff. She raised her chin with cool dignity. “We must be pragmatic.”

  Most of them still looked uncomfortable, but no one else spoke.

  “Unanimous?” Olivia asked.

  Nods all around, some more reluctant than others.

  “Karen, what do you want to do?”

  She wiped her eyes and sniffed. “About what?”

  “About Bodual?”

  Karen’s brows puckered in what seemed to be genuine confusion. “What about him?”

  “Do you want to keep him?”

  Karen worked her mouth soundlessly, then looked down at her hands and shook her head. “Even…even if I wanted to, he’d never take me back now. Not now. Because of me, he’s got to…” She reached up slowly and covered her face and began to cry. Carla, standing beside her, hugged her close and murmured soft things in her ear. “And I don’t want him. I wanted Augurr!”

  Carla looked up over Karen’s shaking shoulders and mouthed Horumn, and nodded once when Olivia tried to shake her head.

  Olivia looked to Horumn, who looked away, and then to Amy, who raised an eyebrow and looked stonily back at her.

  She heaved a sigh without strength and said, “Okay, Karen. Horumn’s going to take you to the women’s tunnels for now. If Bodual wants some official divorce, he can get it tomorrow. I’m all done. Go on, all of you.”

  Olivia sat down on the center rock as the room emptied and folded her head on her knees. “What a lousy night,” she muttered.

  “It’s about to get worse.”

  Olivia looked up and saw Amy’s temporary mate, Damark, standing in the doorway. “How could it possibly get worse?” she asked wearily.

  “Wurlgunn just landed and he’s alone.”

  5

  Olivia felt a queer sense of division in her psyche. She imagined she was a vampire and Damark had just driven three stakes into her heart. The first, a white stake of excitement as she thought the travel party had returned. The second, a red stake of realization as the word ‘alone’ was comprehended. The third, a black stake of terror.

  She half-climbed, half-slid off the rock. “Where?” she breathed. All three stakes were nailing her chest flat, stealing her breath and freezing her blood.

  Damark glanced behind him. “Here,” he said, and moved aside.

  Wurlgunn staggered into the cavern, covered with blood.

  Olivia let out a reedy cry and felt the world swirl around her like filthy water going down a drain. She must have blacked out for a little while, because although she felt herself falling, she wasn’t aware of hitting the ground.

  The next thing she knew was that her bare legs were pressed against the stone floor and it was freezing. Her upper body was held in Wurlgunn’s arms, and he was rubbing her briskly to revive her. He was also saying something in a frantic tone of voice, but she couldn’t make herself listen.

  What had ambushed the travel party? What was the fate the others had shared? She didn’t want comfort. She wanted to grieve. She wanted oblivion.

  She let out a moan and started to struggle against the hands that confined her, when some of what Wurlgunn was saying actually penetrated her reeling mind.

  “—the cliff!” he cried. “It’s pouring outside! I couldn’t see where I was flying!”

  “You crashed?” she said weakly.

  “Of course I crashed!” He uttered a high, relieved gust of laughter. “I came in too low and hit the cliff!”

  She had never heard anyone sound happier about flying into a solid object. She burst into giggles herself.

  “I thought everyone was dead,” she said, hugging him.

  “No, no, no! Everyone’s…fine.” He flicked his eyes towards Damark, a quick glance Olivia was certain she wasn’t meant to see. “He hasn’t decided which hive to raid yet, but—”

  “Hasn’t decided yet?” Olivia echoed. “What the hell is he waiting for?”

  Damark snorted. “That fool,” he muttered. “He saw human tracks or yellow snow or some other stupid thing and he’s making everyone freeze their stones off while he makes absolutely certain there’s no ambush.”

  “Some of that is true,” Wurlgunn agreed, nodding. “Especially that part about freezing stones.” He hesitated, sending Damark another furtive glance. This time, the aged gulla began to frown. “He knows it’s taking longer than he planned, so Vorgullum sent me back here to tell you that all is well and he hopes to return in three months.”

  “That long!” she wailed.

  “He also wants you to send someone back in my place with whatever news you have to give him.” He allowed himself to appear slightly puzzled. “Such as what is happening on the aerie with Augurr and those others.”

  “What has he been doing all this time?” she cried, ignoring the thinly disguised question for now.

  Wurlgunn tipped his head back and looked at the ceiling. He was picking out an answer, and she was irrationally certain that he was doing his best to say as little as possible without actually lying to her. “Well,” he said slowly, “Kodjunn has been copying as much as he can of the tribal histories into a little human book, the kind with paper? And the storerooms had to be cleaned out before we could fill them…and Vorgullum wants to fill them so we won’t have to hunt after…well, after.”

  Olivia sat up and pushed her way out of his arms, glaring at him accusingly. “He’s got forty strong males with him right now,” she said sharply. “He doesn’t need that many to clean out the storerooms. What is he doing?”

  Wurlgunn licked his lips, glanced back at Damark a third time.

  “Stop that!” she snapped. “I’m the leader here, not him! You talk to me, damn it!”

  His shoulders slumped and he looked down at his hands as though reading the answer there. “I will.” He met her eyes briefly. “But not here. Where are you staying, at the forge?”

  She nodded.

  “Then let me go and greet my Beth. I’ll come to you tonight with all of the truth as I know it. All right?” He was pleading with her, fully aware that she could demand answers now if she willed it.

  She opened her mouth to tell him Beth could wait, but forced herself to be still. Vorgullum was all right. The travel party was all right. She could afford some patience. “Fine,” she said between clenched teeth. “Come to the forge tonight and we’ll catch each other up, but you better come ready to talk.”

  Looking vastly relieved, Wurlgunn retreated from the cavern.

  Olivia continued to sit, nursing her anger and depression. Three more months. Three! When they’d been gone two months already! He was supposed to be back by now and he hadn’t even started! After a moment, Damark stumped over and lowered himself painstakingly onto the bench beside her.

  “You are good to give him this time,” he remarked.

  “I’m trying to be patient. I’m not patient by nature.”

  He grunted. “Perhaps not, but Amy says you are one of the most sympathetic women she’s ever met. If you are, then surely you could see he hated holding back his secrets from you?”

  “I noticed.” She made a face.

  “Whatever it is that he doesn’t want to tell you,” Damark said, “I’ll give you a day and a night in the pit with my Amy if you can prove that Vorgullum didn’t order him to keep it secret from you.”

  “What wou
ld I do with a day and a night in Amy’s pit?”

  Damark looked first startled, then rueful. “Forgot who I was talking to,” he said. “Kurlun used to say that,” he added, a trifle wistfully, “whenever he meant to make a point about something he was certain of. And then I had a day a night in the pit with Amy. It is a statement of great conviction.”

  “Say you’re right,” she said. “Vorgullum ordered him to come back and tell someone, and make sure that the someone wasn’t me. But why?”

  “Because he’s a fool,” Damark grunted, and labored upright again. “A fool to try and keep a secret from Olivia, and a greater fool for sending Wurlgunn to do it. Wurlgunn, of all people. No better with his mouth than with his big, stumbling feet. I wouldn’t worry, Olivia. Sure as water runs downhill, you’ll get the truth tripping out of that stone-headed idiot.”

  “You shouldn’t be so hard on him,” Olivia said, frowning. “Wurlgunn’s a good man.”

  Damark looked oddly pleased to hear this. “I did my best,” he said. “And just between you and me and the rock wall…he gets his sweet nature from his mother. He got his big, stumbling feet from me.”

  Damark winked at her startled expression and limped out of the room, presumably to find his Amy.

  6

  Olivia tried to take her mind off things with a brief visit to the women’s tunnels and a long soak in the hot baths. When she thought she could handle Wurlgunn without either bursting into tears or yelling at him for not showing up sooner, she dressed and went to the forge to meet him.

  But just outside, she could hear voices, the kind of low talk that did not want to be overheard. Slipping up to the mouth of the forge, hiding from the light that spilled into the tunnel, she heard Sudjummar saying, “Is it serious?”

  “I don’t know.” Wurlgunn’s sigh. “I don’t think so. He flew back to the mountain on his own power, and Tordurk got the little rock out, but…he didn’t look good when I left. I mean, he was talking, he was lucid enough to give me orders, but…he looked bad, Sudjummar.”

  Somurg made a muffled wail and there followed a faint rustle as Sudjummar dealt with him. “He was talking, you say. Was he walking?”

  “No. He wasn’t even flying all that well, and that was before Tordurk got the rock out. He lost a lot more blood then.” A meaningful pause. “People are going to ask me what’s happening over there. What do I tell them?”

  “The truth.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “It will all come home to us sooner or later, and I’d just as soon not make anyone think of you as a liar when it’s over.”

  Concern colored Wurlgunn’s voice. “You realize what will happen?”

  “I’m not a fool.”

  “What will you do?”

  Olivia’s mind backtracked in a state of unreal calm over the conversation, picking up certain words at random and setting them down again until it began to make some sense. Her heart stopped beating blood, and started pumping out ice water. She moved around the doorway and walked in on them.

  “Vorgullum,” she said, and both males jumped and swung on her. “Vorgullum was hurt?”

  Wurlgunn’s eyes showed the whites at the corners. He glanced at Sudjummar, who was staring intently down into Somurg’s face. Seeing no help there, Wurlgunn lifted his chin with tangible effort and met Olivia’s eyes. “I don’t know what the weapon is called,” he said hesitantly. He raised his arms as though sighting down a short spear, mimed tugging at something with one claw.

  “A gun,” she said, still calm. “Vorgullum has been shot?”

  Wurlgunn took a deep breath, and nodded.

  Olivia sat down, right there in the doorway.

  Sudjummar played with the baby and did not look at her.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  Wurlgunn sighed, scratched at the base of his throat. “We’ve been so careful, Olivia, really we have. There was no sign the humans had gone into the mountain, much less down to the tunnels; not a sniff of them anywhere. But you know Vorgullum. He had to be sure. We were making wide patrols ever night, hunting double rations to build up our stores like I said. Vorgullum was raiding a human camp. He believed the human was inside the little shelter, but the human came out of the trees. Vorgullum thinks he was drunk. He heard the human at about the same time the human saw him. The trees were too close to simply take to the air, so Vorgullum tried to frighten the human off. The human…shot…him.”

  Olivia blinked slowly.

  Wurlgunn took another deep breath, bracing himself. “Shot him,” he concluded. “Three times.”

  Olivia reached up and gripped herself by the shoulders.

  “Vorgullum killed the human, crawled into a clearing, and flew back to the mountain. Two of the little rocks hit his arm and went right through. One got stuck in his chest and had to be cut out. He lost a lot of blood, but he was talking afterwards. He’s just…very weak. He wants me to send back Horumn.”

  Olivia was already shaking her head. “He can have Horumn if he wants her, but he’s getting Tina, too.”

  None of them spoke for what seemed a very long time.

  She looked from him to Sudjummar, and back to him. “What else?”

  But it was the smith who answered, in a low, angry voice. “My brother is injured. His successor must step up to take command. That means you. That no longer means me.”

  Olivia got to her feet and faced Sudjummar, who gazed back calmly into her black stare. “Who is the most likely person to challenge you when this news gets out?” she demanded.

  He thought about it. “Huuk, I think. Huuk or Thugg…but Thugg’s always been loyal even when he hasn’t been very nice. I don’t think he wants to be tall as much as he just wants you, so if anything, this news might actually make him stand off. Whereas Huuk would probably prefer Thugg in his pit, but for a chance to be tovorak should word come that Vorgullum is dead?”

  “Fine.” She turned to Wurlgunn. “Go find this Huuk person and tell him that Sudjummar orders him to take Horumn and Tina to Hollow Mountain.”

  Wurlgunn’s brows rose. “Huuk could probably handle Horumn, but not both of them. He’ll need someone to carry one of them.”

  “Then that’s what you’ll do.” Olivia’s fierce glare wavered; she touched his arm. “Take a little time to see Beth first. But please hurry. And don’t answer anyone’s questions if you can help it.”

  “But if they do ask,” Sudjummar called as Wurlgunn headed for the tunnels, “don’t lie. As delaying tactics go, this isn’t bad,” he added, brushing at Somurg’s cheek. “But I hope you realize that’s all it is. A delay.”

  “There is nothing wrong with you!” she hissed. “Nothing! I refuse to be stripped from you for such a stupid reason! I refuse!”

  Sudjummar finally looked up at her, his eyes deep with pity. “Olivia, I know it’s hard for you to understand our laws, but they exist for a reason. It takes a strong male to stand tall in these evil days—not cleverness, strength. And I won’t kill a man just to keep you, and believe me, it will come to that.”

  She stared at him until her eyes hurt.

  He sighed and looked back down at Somurg’s sleeping face. “We’ll play it your way. For now. We’ll see.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  LOGARR

  1

  It seemed mere minutes had passed before the four of them left for Hollow Mountain (including Huuk, who made a point of saluting Olivia as he left to carry out his part in the mission he had been so honored to accept), but a glance at her watch told her it had actually been more than five hours. Wurlgunn spent most of the time in his lair with Beth, and Olivia was certain that he was not the gossiping kind, but Damark was right about him. He didn’t have a secret-keeping face and he hated to lie. By the following night, when she and Sudjummar made the official announcement, the entire tribe already knew Vorgullum had been shot, but all Olivia heard were words of reassurance and concern. She dared to hope there would be no trouble.

  The
next day, Olivia even dared to venture into the commons alone, reasoning that to hide in the women’s tunnels would only make Sudjummar’s position that much more vulnerable. Still, it seemed like things were all right. She’d acknowledged Vorgullum’s injury, made certain to appear this morning on the arm of her metal-maker, and made an obvious point of placing Somurg in Sudjummar’s arms when he returned to the forge, but she was horribly afraid that the only person impressed by all her efforts was herself.

  Now she sat making cord from sinews with the other women, wondering whether or not she would ever see Vorgullum again, when she became aware of a gulla standing before her.

  She looked up warily. It was Thugg, and he carried the point prong of an elk’s antlers—the trophy taken by a hunter who has stalked and killed the beast without aid. “Oh damn it,” she said, deeply dismayed. It seemed Sudjummar wasn’t right all the time after all.

  “Olivia,” he said without preamble, “take this and come with me.”

  “I’m busy,” she replied, ignoring the way the cave had fallen silent, the way her heart slammed against her ribs. “Play with your antler later.”

  “I am done with playing,” Thugg said firmly. “You’ve lost weight. You look pale. Come with me, Olivia.”

  Olivia stood up and turned to face him. “Of course I lost weight.” She spoke in the slow, impatient way of a woman addressing an idiot. “I just had a baby and I needed to lose weight. Of course I look pale. I haven’t seen the sun in over a year. And just why you should think that pale means unhealthy is beyond my comprehension since you furry people never even knew pale until we got here. I am not coming with you. I’m busy. If there is something you want to say, say it, and let me get back to what I am doing.”

  “Here is what I have to say.” Thugg held out the antler. “You can’t eat the metal toys that Sudjummar makes. He is not providing for you. I will.”