Page 132 of Mates for the Raskarrans #1-6
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Shemza
E veryone wants to know what has occurred between Vantos and Rachel to cause this mating so many days after their meeting.
I know Gregar is curious also, but wisely, he reminds the hunters that they have an ensouka herd to track, and he pairs Vantos for his warrior’s patrols with Endzoh - the only male unlikely to ask him any questions.
It means I am free to return to my healer’s duties, though everything in my heartspace aches to go to my Lorna, to hold her tight in my arms and celebrate that it has been proved the dreamspace may yet come to us.
It has to come to us. I will speak with Vantos, find out from him what it was that made his dreamspace form. And then I will make the same thing happen for me and my Lorna.
But he is gone for the morning, and I have both my apprentices back, which means my attention should be dedicated to their teaching.
Grace and Rachel are already in the healer’s hut when I arrive, Rachel showing Grace a grinding bowl she must have been given by Faltok, Darran’s healer.
It is a pretty thing, made with colourful tiles, the clay stained with dyes a Wandering Tribe must have gathered.
I touch a finger to it, and Rachel holds it up, beaming.
The grey pallor of her skin from yesterday has vanished, and though her eyes still look a little bruised, it is nothing that cannot be explained by the labour of travel.
All her troubles yesterday were not even to do with her youngling, not really.
Her heartspace was simply hurting for not belonging to Vantos.
I pat my belly, then point to her. Rachel grins, taking a piece of yuko root out of her pocket.
I smile, but it occurs to me that soon Liv and Ellie will need the root to chew, also.
Their younglings have not been seeded for enough sunsets to upset their stomachs yet, but it is only a matter of time.
“Come,” I say to my apprentices. “Let us learn about yuko root today - what the plant looks like, and where we might find it.”
After gathering a good supply of yuko root, we restock our other supplies and tend to our herb gardens.
They are not growing well at the moment, but that is expected with the big rains coming so soon.
The plants focus their efforts on rooting strongly into the ground, rather than growing fruits or new leaves.
Once the rains have passed, we will have a job to get the gardens back into good order, but even in the colder season, they will start to grow.
Fortunately, the big rains is not generally a time of illness and injury.
With everyone confined to the village, there is little mischief that can be made, and our stores are well stocked for anything that might arise.
I am not surprised when Vantos comes to call on us the moment he is back from his patrols.
“You do not intend to check I am not overworking her each day, do you?” I say to him.
“I am only worried after she was so weary on the journey home.”
I think there will always be something that Vantos is ‘only worried’ about for as long as Rachel carries a youngling. Perhaps even when she does not.
“She is in good health this day, brother. It would seem the cure for all her ills was you.”
The smile that breaks out across his face is so unlike him, and it only increases when Rachel steps past me and embraces him.
“I am much blessed,” he says, his expression shifting somewhere closer to its usual solemness. “I confess, I want to keep her in my sight always.”
“I think that is a natural reaction to being newly mated, brother,” I say, though I do not add that I think it a part of what makes him who he is also.
“I have waited so long for the dreamspace to form, thinking that it would not. That it could not.”
It is the perfect opening to ask my questions, but I hesitate. A mating is a very personal thing and Vantos is a private sort of person. I do not wish to make him uncomfortable with my prying.
My interest must show on my face, though, for he says, “You wish to know how it has formed after so long?”
“I think it is the question on everyone’s headspace. It interests me, as a healer, and as a male yet unmated also.”
“I am not a thinking male, Shemza. I have no answers for you. Only that my heartspace knew. From the very first it knew, and it longed for her. Before I even knew her name.”
He thinks this will not satisfy me, but I am heartened beyond measure, for this is exactly how I have felt about my Lorna.
“I do not think Callif will be much pleased with that answer,” I say, grinning as I grip his shoulder. “You may have to invent something more elaborate.”
Vantos scoffs, his sternness returning with strength. “I would do nothing that might encourage him.”
We head to the central fire together. I look for Lorna, but she is not there and neither are Jassal and Ahnjas.
She has taken them somewhere, perhaps to the pools for laundry, or even to bathe.
Much as I would like to see her, I would not look for her there.
The females are strange about showing their bare skin to us, and though I have seen all of my Lorna’s, it would not fit with her desire to keep our touching secret if I were to think it okay to go to her while she bathes.
Molly comes bounding over when she sees us, and I smile, glad that this argument she is having with Grace has ended. But then she says hello to everyone apart from Grace, and I realise this is just another attempt to slight her.
“Hello, Shemza,” she says, using the raskarran greeting. She blinks a lot as she looks up at me.
“Is there something ailing her eyes, brother?” Vantos says.
Grace does not seem to think so. She exchanges a few words with Molly that quickly become heated, resulting in Molly turning on her heels and walking off, her head thrown back in defiance. Grace watches her go, exasperation and sadness in her expression.
“It is just youngling games,” I say to her. “Do not fret overmuch about it.”
Rachel taps Vantos’ arm. “Games?”
Vantos frowns, looking round. He spies Ahnjas’ blocks, abandoned for now, and picks one up, holding it out to Rachel.
“Games. It is what Ahnjas plays with his blocks.”
I can see Rachel’s quick mind working to process the words.
“ Ithinkhezsayintha Molly isbeenabigkid. ”
Grace sighs. “ Shewudnotbepleezedtuherethat. Shewanstuhbetheopposite.”
There are not many of my brothers around the fire, but those that are come to Vantos immediately with questions.
I leave him to answer them, for there will be no avoiding it for him.
He has achieved the impossible, claimed something they all want dearly for themselves.
They will all wish to know how it was done.
No raskarran makes a habit of lying, though we do sometimes omit truths.
I have not told anyone of my touching my Lorna, mating with her.
If anyone looked me direct in the eye and asked if such things had taken place, I would likely answer them truthfully, but until that question comes I can avoid the truth simply by not mentioning it.
Some, like Maldek and Rardek, can be a little more tricky, but even they would be unlikely to lie in answer to a straight question.
Vantos never would. I know he has been as honest with me as he is able.
I do not need to hear the others try to get different answers by asking him the same thing in many different ways.
Instead, I take a stroll round the village. My Lorna is not the only female missing from the fireside, and I recall that they have been cleaning the huts ready for Darran’s arrival. I am not far into the cluster of unused huts when I hear Ahnjas’ little voice call out.
“ Washwash.”
I look through the open door of a nearby hut and see a very sudsy Ahnjas ‘helping’ to clean a floor. My Lorna is sitting next to him, wet and soapy herself from his enthusiastic splashing about. She does not mind, just presses her face close to his, calling him by the name she uses often for him.
Monster. I wonder what it means.
Carrie is with them, and she also smiles at their antics. I am pleased to see it. Carrie, more than any of her sisters, seems to be struggling and rarely smiles.
I leave them to their cleaning. It will not be long before they have finished for the day, and I can have my Lorna to myself.
I am eager for it. Eager to be in her company.
Eager to see her eyes light up when the birds of the forest come out to play.
Eager to taste her skin and hold her in my arms once more.
But she does not come back to the fire. Not until it is dark and almost time for eating.
Her sisters are absent, also, and I realise they are working extra hard to get the huts prepared, now they have had Darran’s arrival confirmed.
They are diligent in their work, and even my apprentices have spent their afternoon assisting with it.
It is the same the next day, and I smile because it pleases me that my Lorna is so eager to help, and because this is a way in which she can help the tribe without putting too much strain on her injured arm. I know it will make her happy to contribute.
But I smile widest when Gregar announces that the huts are all finished, ready for our new tribe brothers to move into.
“The storage hut is near emptied,” he says. “It is only some furniture that remains. Things my Liv and her sisters cannot lift. When Darran arrives, we shall empty it entirely, and the storage hut may become the gathering hut once more.”