07

Once a King

Part 6 Clan Secrets.

(Many thanks to my editor, kenjisato)

Skryba...you are well? That is good. Being well is so rare in this desperate life.

Health matters for people, for individuals, the health of a group can affect the individuals and the reverse is, of course, true.

Why do I speak of health? Because not long after my time with Genowefa -- you know we men are blessed by the women who call us to them, but pleasure is a fleeting thing, especially on the stypia -- the wisest man in the clan, who was also in my squad, NIk, took me aside.

"Pawel, you are not the wisest, or the swiftest or the strongest, but you are solid...you are lucky. Your luck favors the squad. We are blessed by your presence."

At this, I lowered my eyes to stare at my dusty feet.

Nik continued, "Our squad is the largest of the clan. Since you joined us, we have not gained nowe, but we have also lost no men."

I had not thought of this. Men were often injured, men were often sick, but our men of our squad endured. Now it had been just a short time, but I was pleased within me, that Nik, respected by all the clan, should speak to me like this.

Nik continued, "Like all our men, I see you focused on our squad; this is our family, we pay little mind to what happens in the other squads. Therefore, you are unaware--the clan is dying. The other squads were always smaller than ours, but now are even smaller. We have had no nowe in a long time...too many die as children, too many of the other squads die of illness and accidents. The other squads cover this by saying 'we now hunt with the other squads'...but no two squads hunting together have our number. It is too dangerous for men to hunt alone, but some do because they do not fit into these new united squads. So, more die."

"Pawel, you see me as a forever gray beard, but I am not so much older than you. The stypia is hard, hard on men, hard on women, hard on the clan. For the time I have left...I must train someone to follow me. It is the way, if there is no one to do for the squad or the clan the clan will die faster. As it is, it seems that death of the clan is inevitable. This is not horrible...all things die, men, women, animals, plants, and groupings of humans."

"Despite that, we plan to endure as long as possible, the Eagle Clan does not despair; it endures. What I can pass on to you must survive in you, there is no other."

He did not speak ill of the others in the squad. I knew their qualities; I have described them before. I flattered myself to realize Nik was correct in his judgment. I was not the best hunter. And certainly not as wise as Nik, but I would do, I was serviceable as a foreign mercenary once told me...serviceable, not flashy, a useful tool.

"So, Pawel today is the start of your discovery of what secrets the clan has. There are not many, we are poor in many ways, and we do not have any arcane wisdom to pass on. But there are practical things,"

So, Nik now took me along on his visits to the coicie to see Jadzia and Kasia, as close to the coicie counterparts to Nik as any.

This happened one night in the hut of assignation. But the hut was not used that night as it was when I was summoned by Ionica and Genowefa.

It was for the welfare of the clan we met, but we did meet naked as equals, we ritually bathed each other from clay jars in the hut for that purpose, and anointed each other with the rare, scented grease that I had, not until that night, known to exist.

Scented herbs were burned in the fire, honeyed water refreshed our bodies, and enlivened our tongues.

We spoke of many things, many things that I should not discuss with anyone outside of the hut. They are all dead now, Nik, and the two coicie Jadzia and Kasia, the clan is dead, none of this matters now. I will speak of it so you may understand what I was to become.

We spoke of the clan, not just hunters, the coicie and the children. The coicie knew also that the clan was dying, the young women were often barren, even if they produced young, their milk would not come, and the young died.

For the men, the sorm uprowadzenie was dead--there were no young men in the squads. All the men had abducted women, and all the women had lain with men of their choosing. It was against our way for men to embark on additional sorm uprowadzenie. It was unlikely the new women would fare any better, it was not any fault of theirs, the clan's life on the stypia was too harsh. It had always been harsh, but now the clan was tattered on the edge of its destruction.

In this time, when the survival of our group seemed unlikely in the long run...the four of us, a very unofficial 'council' of the clan, hit upon a bad solution...so bad it would lead to our ultimate and much-more-rapid demise.

At the time, of course, it seemed an extreme, but not unreasonable solution to prolonging the life of the clan...perhaps one more generation, if not more.

Our squad, as the largest, would cease hunting; we would become raiders. The fearsome reputation we had with the settled peoples meant for the most part, it was hoped that we should not need to resort to violence; indeed, we should merely hint at our needs and the settled ones would comply. Thus, we could get better food than our hunters and the coicie could provide.

The coicie would provide some of their number, the best runners and the most talented of the small game snares to accompany the men and learn fighting if necessary.

This was unprecedented but essential, the coicie had a very slight surplus of able bodies. They lost fewer people to sickness and accidents than the men even allowing for those lost in childbirth.

Since our plan relied on persuasion, rather than a violent raid, it was decided that we would approach the farmsteads on foot in overwhelming numbers...our ten more than a match for any struggling farmer's household. One horse would serve to pull the sanki on which our 'loot' could be piled.

Jadzia would accompany our squad on the first raid. She and Kasia would choose another coicie to accompany our group. Our women did not fear being away with the men. Their power over the buc was absolute, and the men could not bother them on the raid. Or so it was earnestly believed. However, this was a highly unusual circumstance.

But the clan was innocent in many ways. It believed strongly in its tradition, and believed them immutable, contradicting the rather untraditional task we were embarking on.

The moon was quite high in the night sky when our gathering ended. The coicie went off to their camp, Nik and I prepared to return to the squad. Nik insisted that we bathe...the scented grease we were anointed with for the meeting, might disturb our horses and attract night predators. The predators might not attack but could disturb the horses.

I thought this a prudent plan. We washed in a part of a flooded ravine, open to the full light of the moon. This may have been the first time I had seen Nik...well, of course, I had seen Nik naked...but never paid any attention, we were discreet, private people...it may be that the moon decided that I should know something, maybe Nik knew the moon would reveal how he was different from other men.

I splashed water all over to remove as much of the grease as possible, scrubbing between my legs, cleaning my buc and kulki...It was only then, I could see that Nik had no kulki under his buc. Our eyes met, but no words passed. Much later, I learned, and not from Nik, that this was the mark of a kastrada.

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Once a King

Part 7 Alla and the Imperial Legacy

Skryba, you are a smart man, smarter, I think, than most of us in what was the Eagle Clan. You know nothing remains as it was. But I was not, no none of the Eagle Clan were prepared for how drastically our lives would change before the Clan's ultimate demise.

The coicie and the hunters, except for when the coicie would summon a hunter, had almost no contact. I have told you that when the coicie summoned a hunter, it was through Jadzia and Kasia. Nik would bring the summons to the hunter...you know this.

The morning after Nik and I met with Jadzia and Kasia, Nik shook me awake. Normally, the birds of the pre-dawn stypia woke me in time for the morning's hunt, or whatever adventure the day held. Today, I was awake before the birds.

"Alla is here for you,'' said Nik, in a tone both conspiratorial and accusatory.

"Alla?" I responded, in a groggy voice. Now you settled peoples might add a string of expletives when asking, "And who is Alla?" But I was young and still respectful.

Nik had started the fire for our rough breakfast...just some heated water we steeped some herbs in. Just visible beyond the fire was Alla. People of the Eagle Clan are not what settled people would call romantic, but I saw a female standing there that captured my soul.

Shorter than most of the women, Alla was well-formed, as much as one could guess from the formless shift. Unlike almost all the women, she had belted her shift, so it ended well above her knees, the belt was of braided stypia grasses.

As soon as it was clear that I was awake, she stepped forward. "You will come to me Pawel...I will know you."

Now the women of the clan controlled the men through their power over the men's buc. They held the secret of its transformation. While the clan existed, my buc could not be transformed unless one of the coicie willed it.

But to accomplish this, the hunter was summoned to the assignation hut. It was unknown for the coicie to come to the man, or even the camp of one of the squads.

Over the truly short time I was to know Alla, I would know that she was not one to closely follow clan tradition; of course, since the clan traditions were now in flux, she may have felt she could do as she pleased.

"I will leave you two alone to work things out. Pawel, you, and I will need to talk before we change the way the squad operates. Today is yours and Alla's." With that, Nik turned on his heel to follow the squad on the day's reconnaissance.

This was so different from any day I had ever experienced in my short life.

Alla did not give me time to digest the strangeness... "We race...Pawel you and Alla."

Alla spoke a slightly different dialect from the clan...she was not raised in the clan but 'stolen' just one season ago.

With that short preamble, she stripped off her shift...expecting me to remove my tunic. I simply stared open mouthed, "What. Where?" I mumbled.

Alla pointed to the rising sun...a lone tree on the stypia...not far...but I really wanted my morning honeyed water. Nevertheless...I stripped off my tunic and she immediately sprinted to the sunrise.

Now you remember I said that the coicie were often good runners. They had practice watching over the young ones on the stypia. Running out to keep them from danger...once the young formed their groups of companions--we do not distinguish between male and female at that age. They let the young companions watch out for themselves. But up until the age of eight, or so...the coicie are on constant alert for dangerous places and predators, interested in small humans.

Alla's speed was borne from that training. She was shorter than me but had powerful thighs and calves...She had a long lead on me in a short time. My training was from the long treks following a wounded game. We all strive for the instant kill, but some animals are more tenacious than others, and one's aim is not always true. An animal might move at the last moment and the spear or arrow would strike a killing blow, but not one that was of immediate incapacitation.

We did not need to catch the animal by outrunning it...in most cases, which was not possible...but any human can outlast a wounded prey in the long haul.

Indeed, so was the case with Alla. I could not match her speed in the short run...but she had not the stamina that came from hours of following game trails.

I had not overtaxed myself. You always ran with reserves. You never knew how much energy you would need to finish the dying prey.

I beat Alla to the tree. Not by much, but enough to prove...something?

She finished laughing. I stared into her eyes and knew my embrace would be welcomed. "You are very fast, Alla."

"And you, Pawel, have great endurance." Alla laughed at this, and I knew her meaning...she had the power over my buc. She saw this power and laughed more.

"And now we wrestle." In that short interval, she had recovered her breath as though she had not run at all.

Again, I looked at her with surprise. Her shoulders and arms were not heavy, but they were leanly muscled. When we spoke later that day, she revealed that she had skill with the sling to ward predators from the sheep and to kill small game.

She dropped to the stypia floor and offered an arm we locked grips and I was able to easily defeat her, but not without spirited resistance.

"Now legs," she challenged...undeterred by her loss. We did the leg wrestling--Skryba, do you not know this? My legs were much longer, but her short, thick, muscular thighs and calves won that round for her.

Alla beamed broadly, "And now we mate."

There, on the stypia floor, she took my head in her hands and kissed me forcefully. Her thick legs culminated in narrow hips and a strong, round, but narrow tylek.

My hand on her bottom caused it to clench sensuously. She pushed my head down on her cycki. I understood I was to suck them...for a moment, my attention was focused on the long wiry, dark hair that grew from her left nipple. She sensed my interest and simply said, "That is how I tell them apart."

I smiled, and proceeded to do my duty. Duty is a sterile word, but there was nothing sterile in our activities that day.

Alla returned to the coicie that evening. In the nighttime it was not safe, and I offered to accompany her. "But then you will be alone on the return journey, and you will be unsafe. It is life. I have my sling."

I awoke the next morning with the pre-dawn birdsong of the stypia. Later, Alla would tell me the birds were mostly larks, the song was pretty, but they were too small to bother hunting, although the young coicie snared them for practice. A handful made a small meal.

Nik found me with my hot, morning herbed drink...we knew the right, safe herbs, but they had no special name, just 'good for tea'. We would eat later, if we were lucky, having killed something or lucked into a honey tree or scavenged some fresh wolf kill. We had weapons and fire and could drive wolves away from their kill. Our stypia wolves were small as were their packs. They were as hungry and desperate as the Clan was, maybe more, but they were clever at assessing risk. Better to live hungry and find prey the next day, rather than let pride get you killed because you were hungry.

We did not have to fight wolves, a small deer had misjudged a jump and broken a leg. She was an easy kill. I skinned and gutted the animal. Nik rolled the skin and tied it to his waist for tanning later. In other clans, the women tanned skins, which was not the way of the Eagle Clan; the men processed every bit of the kill. The guts were left for the dogs and wolves in partial payment for the meat we had stolen from them. The skins were useful for clothing and shelter, and the men who had the talent made the bones into tools, weapons, and ornaments.

There was enough deadwood and dry tinder to get a hot fire going quickly, Nik always had his fire bow with him, I was not as handy with my flint so if we were together, it made sense for Nik to make fire. The meat was tender, but there was not much, she was a small animal. A little larger, and we would have packed up the excess meat to dry in camp.

We dozed in the sun after our excellent meal. Nik was murmuring something in a muffled voice, so I woke to hear what he was saying. He was telling the story of his time with the 'wise man' of his youth. Sometimes, he was like his; the same story retold from memory in the same way. The same tone, the same intonation, as if any variation would destroy the accuracy, maybe even the story itself.

I was very familiar with how Nik told his stories. Skryba, it would be like reading from a manuscript...the story was always the same, as though the ink and parchment were Nik's memory and voice.

But this story was new to me. Nik did not comment, but I knew this was a story I was supposed to remember, remember exactly how Nik told it, as it was told to him.

Uncountable seasons ago. At the first formation of the Eagle Clan. The Eagle Clan gathered around a golden pole, atop of which was a shiny figure of an eagle with its wings spread and its talons tightly grasping the topmost crosspiece of the pole. Below that cross piece

, was another with letters inscribed. The clan had not the use of letters but devoutly copied these: (So I could see...Nik scratched in the earth of the stypia:

SPQR.)

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