Enchanted Forests (28 page)

and her hand moved to the root of his manhood. "I've missed...

having a man."

"Ah," said Cat as the spirit rose in him again.

The next day, he looked at her whenever he could snatch a

chance, and it seemed to him mat her face had a glow in it, her

eyes a warm light that he'd never noticed before.

Her parents observed it, too. "She had a man in me sowing

fields, I'm sure of it," Margha announced.

"She should many again. I could still get a decent price for

her,"

"Everyone knows."

"Not everywhere. And if she's breeding, it proves there's no

curse. Like I said all along."

"Unless some man in me village drops dead tomorrow."

Tagh made the sign to avert evil. "Watch her, then. if she

breeds, maybe we can convince the man to take her."

"She's useful here," Margha argued.

But Tagh snorted. "That's why I bought the girl, to take over

the work. Kharra's my daughter, she should be married."

A month later, the wife brought Kharra to him, looking defi-

ant. "I was right, she had a man. She's with child."

"Who was it?" he demanded. "If some man's gotten a child on

you, then he can pay the bride-price for it"

But Kharra was his daughter, and as stubborn. "It was sowing

night, and all men had the face of the moon."

"I won't take that, giri. You have eyes! I want his name!"

THE CLEARING            181

"For what? Do you think any man in this village will pay you

your price, after the last time?"

•Then I'll many you outside. There are plenty of men who

don't know what happened."

She looked at him with eyes like hard, dark stones. "Not after

I tell them, mere won't be. Not if I say I'm a witch, and I can

shrivel their balls up with a curse, and that my father won't ever

pay back their bride-price. Find a man to marry me then!"

"I'll thrash the name out of you," Tagh threatened, but the

daughter stood her ground, and Margha scowled at them both,

muttering, "Pigheaded."

Cat had heard it alt—by then half the village had heard

them—but when he saw Tagh raise his arm, he stepped in front

of Kharra, reached one aim around her to put his hand on her

belly, still flat and firm, but holding a child inside it—his child.

It seemed as if there was a strange spirit moving him when he

told Tagh, "You can thrash me, then, because I'm the one who

had her."

Tagh's eyes bulged. "You?" And to his daughter, "With a

slave? A forest savage?"

"He's the only man in this village who'd dare to touch me,"

she said defiantly. "And the only one I'll allow, so you can for-

get about your bride-price."

But the spirit inside Cat insisted, "I'll pay your price for her.

I can."

Tagh bellowed terrible threats, but in the end he could do

nothing to stop the child from growing in Kharra's belly, no

more than he could change her mind. "Making the best of it,"

was what Margha called it when he finally challenged Cat to

produce the bride-price if he thought he could. 'The damage is

done, and at least she'll have a husband."

Cat's way of tanning deerhide, the way of his vanished tribe,

had already earned the envy of the villagers. Now he went back

to the woods to find more oak and tanbark. As much as the for-

est had changed, the scents were the same, and the cool shadows.

For a moment, as ever, he could forget the brands on his legs,

and think, "I could disappear. They'd never be able to find me."

But Kharra was waiting, and his child.

The leather he made was good, the villagers wanted more, and

by the time his daughter was bom. Cat had paid Tagh his price

and taken Kharra openly to his bed as his wife.

"Healthy," Tagh muttered, staring at his grandchild. "And her

182                       Lois Tilton

hair is decently dark. at least. She ought to fetch a good price

when she marries."

But Cat watched his daughter nursing at his wife's breast, and

he made her a cradle of leather and wood, as it was done in the

forest tribes. When he came in from his work at night, he would

lift her in his arms and make her laugh. Then Kharra's belly

grew big again, and she had a son. When he was born. Cat stared

at him a long while, remembering. In secret, he carved a small

bow for the boy, no longer than his arm, but he put it away with-

out showing it to anyone.

The work was still hard, clearing more and more farmland as

one by one Tagh's sons found wives, and now it was Tagh who

had to find the bride-prices. The house was soon filled with

women and children, and he was respected as the owner of the

largest farm in the village.

When the old man died suddenly, in the middle of an argu-

ment with a neighbor who disputed his boundary-rights, Tagh's

sons divided up their father's lands among themselves. The slave

girl Eria and her children were sold for a good price. But Kharra

confronted her brothers with stone-cold eyes and claimed Cat for

her own portion of the inheritance, since her father had kept the

bride-price from her first marriage. They looked at her and

agreed, afraid to cross a woman who still had a reputation as a

witch.

Cat's tannery prospered in a small way, and he taught his craft

to his sons. Each year he had to travel farther and search harder

to find the right barks in the forest. At first he taught the boys;

later, as they grew, he gave over the task to them.

One day his oldest son came to him with the girl he meant to

marry, if he could meet her father's price. She was a pretty thing,

with dark brown eyes. Like Kharra's eyes when they were warm,

Cat thought.

The young man was excited. "Father, look at this fur! I traded

for it from a village north of here, near the forest. Do you think

we could tan furs like this? So soft and warm, I'm sure people

would pay well for them!"

Cat's mouth had gone dry. Wordlessly, he reached out for the

dried skin of the forest cat, stroked its striped fur. He closed his

eyes and called out to the spirit in his mind: Brother!

He opened his eyes. No. It was only the pelt of an animal,

killed and skinned and brought by strangers to this place so far

from its forest home.

VICTORIAN

VARIATIONS

New shoots from an old trunk

How me Ant Made a Bargain

by Karawynn Long

Though Karawynn Long missed reading the Just So Stories

o$ a kid. she was delighted to discover them as an adult.

She won the Writers of the Future Grand Prize in 1993

and has stories forthcoming in Full Spectrum 5, Alternate

Tyrants, and other anthologies. At this time she is living in

Seattle, where she is working on more short fiction and a

novel.

Now I shall tell you a story of the hot and humid days at the be-

ginning of the world, when the Queen of all the Ants lived in the

dark damp bottom of the forest with her many daughters.

The Queen was a very wise Ant, for she knew many secrets,

and was a little bit magic besides. All the same she was often

bored, for her Principal Occupation was egglaying, and if you

have ever tried laying eggs, Best Beloved, you will have discov-

ered that it is a tedious task, rather like washing dishes. But with-

out eggs there soon would be no daughter Ants to burrow and

build and forage and fight, so she tried to make the best of things

by thinking up new and interesting ideas.

One uncomfortably stuffy day the Queen noticed that some of

her daughters were 'sclusively strong and fierce, and these she

instructed to become soldiers and guard the colony from harm.

For the Tamandua and the Pangolin and the Angwantibo all

thought Ants were 'specially tasty delicacies, and would eat them

right up whenever they could.

Then the Queen noticed that some of her daughters were

'sclusively sturdy and industrious, and these she instructed to be-

186 Karawynn Long

come workers and gather new foods for the colony. For the Cal-

liandra and the Heliconia and the Banisteriopsis all had an un-

fathomable preference for not being eaten, and so grew thick and

tough and tasted of noxious toxins.

And in this way the Queen Ant invented Specialization (which

is. Best Beloved, only a fancy way of saying that different peo-

ple do different things). And the Queen laid eggs and thought

wise thoughts in her nest in the dark damp bottom of the forest,

while her specialized colony grew prosperous and large.

One indisputably humid day the Queen called her strongest,

fiercest soldier daughter to her and said, "The sun is high and it

is time you made your own way in the world. But first I will

give you one magic and tell you one secret."

And the fierce soldier daughter replied, "0 my Mother and 0

my Queen, I am angry that the Tamandua and the Pangolin and

the Angwantibo all think that we are 'specially tasty delicacies,

and will eat us right up whenever they can. I should like to lead

a platoon of ants, all as fierce as ever could be, so that I and my

daughters will never fear being eaten."

"Then so you shall," said the Queen, and she touched me sol-

dier daughter with her antennae. And the fierce soldier daughter

grew a gigantic stinger that she could move in and out like a nee-

dle. "Now you will be Army Ant," said the Queen, "and your

fierce daughters may march right under the noses of the

Tamandua and the Pangolin and the Angwantibo, and even eat

them right up if they don't move quickly out of your way."

"0 my Mother and 0 my Queen, that would be most gratify-

ing, but however shall we build a nest if we are continually

marching?"

'That is the secret I shall tell you," replied the Queen, And

she told Anny Ant how her daughters could hook themselves to-

gether by the ends of their spindly legs and so make a nest out

of their own bodies wherever they happened to be. And Army

Ant went away satisfied to make her own way in the world.

And the Queen laid eggs and thought wise thoughts in her nest

in the dark damp bottom of the forest, while her specialized col-

ony grew prosperous and large-

One particularly sticky day the Queen called her sturdiest,

most industrious worker daughter to her and said, "The sun is

high and it is time you made your own way in the world. But

first I will give you one magic and tell you one secret."

And the industrious worker daughter replied, "0 my Mother

and 0 my Queen, I am frustrated that the Calliandra and the Hei-

HOW THE ANT MADE A BARGAIN     187

iconia and the Banisteriopsis all have an unfathomable prefer-

ence for not being eaten, and so grow thick and tough and taste

of noxious toxins. I should like to direct a plantation of ants, all

as industrious as ever could be, so that I and my daughters will

never worry about being hungry."

"Then so you shall." said the Queen, and she touched the

worker daughter with her antennae. And the industrious worker

daughter grew enormous jaws that she could open and shut like

scissors. "Now you will be Leaf-Cutter Ant," said the Queen,

"and your industrious daughters may cut the leaves of the Calli-

andra and the Heliconia and me Banisteriopsis, and carry them

away over their heads and down into the ground."

"0 my Mother and 0 my Queen, that would be most gratify-

ing, but however can we digest them when they taste of noxious

toxins?"

"That is the secret I shall tell you," replied the Queen. And

she told Leaf-Cutter Ant how her daughters could chew the

leaves up and place a drop of spittle on them to cultivate a de-

licious fungus. And Leaf-Cutter Ant went away satisfied to make

her own way in the world.

And the Queen laid eggs and thought wise thoughts in her nest

in the dark damp bottom of the forest, while her specialized col-

ony grew prosperous and large.

One utterly muggy day a third daughter Ant approached the

Queen. She was neither the strongest, nor the sturdiest, nor the

fiercest, nor the most industrious, and indeed the Queen could

not remember her particularly out of the thousands of daughters

she had engendered since the beginning of the world- But you

should know. Best Beloved, that this Ant was most scintillating

clever. "The sun is high," said the daughter Ant, "and I would

like to make my own way in me world."

"Very well," said the Queen, "I will give you one magic and

tell you one secret, for that is only fair, but I warn you that I've

already given the most valuable magics and told the most useful

secrets to your sisters Army Ant and Leaf-Cutter Ant."

"As you say," said the clever Ant with a shrug of her anten-

nae. "But they do not have the ability to converse with all me

plants and animals of the forest, and that is the magic I would

like."

"Then you shall have it," said the Queen, and she touched the

daughter Ant with her antennae. If you had been watching most

spectacularly close. Best Beloved, you would have seen nothing