The roar of the falls filled the early morning air with the continuous deep growl of an angry ogre.
Civilicus had to shout as he and Ciara leaned out to look over the edge of the steep cliff. Far below they saw the dark maw of a giant natural cave with the broad and shimmering long waterfall which fell from it.
"This is the place where Lake Dark Starwater drains and creates the head-waters of the mighty Somali River. I'm told the cave is called the Mother's Womb and the falls the Waters of the Mother. Scholars say the falls is the longest in this part of the world. I've heard that mystics of a goddess cult come here to meditate on the falls and to commune with the Mother."
Ciara nodded. She didn't doubt it. She noticed that a rainbow had formed in the white mist which obscured the foot of the long falls. The natural beauty of the place was stunning, conducive to otherworldly thoughts. If a bit noisy.
When she began to grow dizzy, Ciara stepped away from the edge. She pulled her blonde hair out of her face, from where the wind had blown it, and glanced up, seeing a flock of bluebirds fly overhead. She thought that it was so nice, romantic, being there with Civilicus in such a pretty place.
The strain that had been on his face during the entire stay at the lake was gone. He smiled more. And Ciara herself was more and more at ease the far-ther they traveled away from Dark Starwater. Her intuition was sharp enough to tell her two things, that Civilicus had suffered through some powerful experi-ence back there and that she didn't really want to know exactly what it'd been. Whatever it was, it had shaken him to his core, that much was plain.
"The river's formed a deep canyon through the rainforest and for hundreds of miles to the coast," Civilicus continued to explain in a yell. "We'll follow it on the east bank until we're close to Kraal."
Kraal, she thought and frowned. Journey's end.
But Ciara flatly refused to think about that. She let her smile come back to her face and leaned up to kiss Civilicus on the cheek.
"How about some breakfast now?"
"Aye," he grinned back.
Her taper-fingered hand glided down his chest, past his waist until it brushed his crotch. "I know just the thing I'm hungry for." And she giggled as she stood on tip-toes to hungrily kiss him.
#
It was raining a few weeks later when they crossed over the Somali River. They walked over an ancient and narrow rope-bridge, which smelled of rot and swayed much too wildly for Ciara's taste, then abruptly stepped out of the jun-gle onto a wide stone-paved road.
"It runs as straight and true as a seamstress' hem," Ciara said, amazed that such a road could exist.
Civilicus said, "It leads directly to the capital city, the famed Kraal by the Sea. In a few days we'll be there."
There, Ciara thought.
She darted a covert glance at Civilicus, while wiping rain from her eyes, and saw his usual guarded expression. He was the hardest man to read that she had ever known.
"We've crossed over the northern border of the kingdom of K'ush and are now subject to the law of M'fumi the Great."
"K'ush," Ciara breathed. "The land of eternal summer. Among my people this kingdom is considered a legend."
Civilicus smiled. "Then it won't surprise you that here your frozen North is thought to be little more than myth. There are some rainforest tribes who believe the far north is where the spirits of the unworthy go in their after-life."
"Considering some of the people I know there, that belief might not be too far from wrong."
Civilicus laughed along with her, both thinking of her villainous step-father, Soren.
"Well, the road grows no shorter with us just standing here," he said. Shrugging his pack into a more comfortable position on his back, Civilicus be-gan to move off down the wide road through the gray drizzle.
He wore only a pair of sturdy sandals and a lengthy red sarong which fell to mid-shin. The silver-chained whale ivory amulet was on his exposed chest and his sword was slung across his back. His body daily thus exposed, Civilicus had grown darker as they had approached the equator. The same was true of Ciara herself. Her once pale face was now well-tanned. Her blonde hair was tucked into a colorful scarf wrapped about her hair, after the fashion of the women of the river-folk. Her once soft and supple body now definitely curved by travel-developed muscle. She also wore well-crafted sandals and a sarong, except that hers was a brightly-striped wrap-around cotton skirt which fit snugly about her firm hips. She wore a long bush-knife, which served as her sword, in her knot-ted hemp belt. A pack was also strapped to her back, and because she was other-wise topless, her breasts were bare.
The two of them looked every inch the long-distance travelers that they happened to be.
They carried their supplies in their packs because a few months back they'd traded their sturdy little pony to a river-tribe in exchange for the sa-rongs and other supplies they would need to complete their journey safely and comfortably through the rainforest. Ciara had found life beneath the all-encompassing canopy disconcerting, but somewhat magical at the same time. Ex-cept at the river's edge, their were no openings in the roof of the primordial jungle. Fern-trees laced the blue Sky green with their unfurled fronds. Shorter tropical-trees sent out their own branches, arrowhead leaves, and fronds. The rich, earthy smell of growing and decaying vegetable matter made Ciara think that must have been what all the world had smelled like when it was new.
While under the canopy they'd wanted for nothing, fruit trees were in abundance and they had been very lucky at catching fish in the river and game birds among the underbrush. Civilicus had a way with the River People and they were allowed to travel across the natives lands without being molested.
Finally, they had reached the uncertain rope bridge and were once more in the land of open Sky. Ciara sighed, the transition making her a little sad. She'd felt somehow sheltered and safe under the trees.
They topped a rise in the road and in the middle-distance there was a rough-hewn log-walled fort. Within a quarter-hour they entered the garrison town and walked through its open wooden gate. Ciara's blue eyes were wide as she avidly looked around the place, walking from market stall to stall, openly gawking at the people and things she saw, the picture of the original country bumpkin. Although only a small-sized hamlet by K'ushite standards, it was still the largest settlement she'd ever been in.
And the people were as colorful as the tropical-blend fabrics they wore, purple-black, brown, red-skinned and yellow-bronze, with eyes of onyx, hazel, green-jade, blue and violet. But most were dark brown hued with dark brown or black eyes. The farther south they'd come the darker had become the people, un-til it was she herself who became the strange colored, the exotic. And yet, even Ciara's inexperienced eyes could see that these deep brown people of the equator were not Civilicus folk. His skin had a readily apparent red undertone, instead of the rich mahogany of the native people of this land.
She turned to her companion, to comment upon the cosmopolitan mix of the fort-town, and saw his attention concentrated on a structure with a round roof, thin gray smoke drifted up out of its narrow chimney. Civilicus' expression opened into a rare smile.
"A bath house," he said.
"A which-what?"
He turned to her and began to explain the K'ushite custom of public bath houses.
Across the square, a foot-soldier of the King's guard scowled the instant he saw the barbarian girl. His hostile gaze took in the long bush knife sheathed in her twisted-hemp belt. His fingers traced the hillocky scar which ran down the side of his face. The result of a disagreement with a blade-wielding outlander bitch in his younger years. He didn't like barbarians and he didn't like to see a weapon on the hip of a woman.
