Summer

by Laurence Dahners

  “Of course,” Yadin said. “I’ll get started; you get our stuff and catch up. You can move a lot faster than an old man like me.”

  Pell thought to protest that Yadin wasn’t all that old, but he was already on his way back through the brush to get their packs and spears. Once he had the bundle, he turned back into the brush but stopped at a shout from Manute. He waved Manute on and pushed back into the bushes.

  Pell found Yadin standing on a trail, looking uncertain. “What’s the matter?”

  “I can’t tell which way they went on this trail. The ground’s too hard for footprints, and there’s recent damage to the foliage in both directions; probably because other people walked this trail this morning.”

  Pell quickly looked both directions and said, “If they went left, they’d be getting closer to the camp. I think we should go right.”

  Yadin nodded, “That makes sense. Unless he has some hideaway to the left.” Looking like he bitten something sour, Yadin said, “I’m told that last night he actually declared he was going to seek vengeance on you, partly through Gia.”

  “What did he say?!” Pell said, a sick feeling in his stomach. Why hadn’t anyone told him about it?

  Yadin shook his head, “I don’t want to say. It was disgusting.”

  “Come on! I’ve got to know.”

  “He said he was going to kill you, then screw her on your grave.”

  Wide-eyed, Pell breathed, “He’s insane!” But now he understood why no one had wanted to tell him what Indo’d said.

  Yadin brought his focus back to the present, “Which way do you want to go?”

  Manute pushed through the brush and was standing just behind Pell. A number of other local men were behind him. To Yadin, Pell said, “You go ahead and start tracking to the right.” Pell turned to the men who’d come with Manute, saying, “Indo has Gia.”

  One of them frowned, “I’m not surprised, but how do you know?”

  Pell indicated Yadin’s retreating back, “Yadin’s an amazing tracker. He tracked them to here, but we can’t tell which direction they turned when they got this path. I’m pretty sure they went off to the right, but I’m hoping a few of you who live around here will check down to the left, closer to your village. We’ll go to the right.” Noticing a tightening on the faces of several of them, he said, “If you find them, you don’t need to take Indo on by yourselves. Just send a fast runner after me.”

  “How will the runner find you?”

  “At every fork in the trail, I’ll leave a broken stick on the path we take.” To demonstrate what he meant, Pell broke off a dead branch, then cracked it before dropping it on the trail to the right.

  Some of the men agreed to check to the left and Pell turned to trot after Yadin. Hearing footsteps behind him, he turned to look. Manute and several of the falls people were behind him. When he caught up to Yadin, he said, “Have you found any more sign?”

  Looking frustrated, Yadin shook his head.

  Yadin wasn’t running, though he was walking rapidly. Pell wanted to run, but he realized that there had to be some compromise between haste and the ability to look for sign. He needed to trust Yadin to choose the right speed.

  As they kept moving, farther and further, Pell began to have second thoughts. “Still nothing?”

  Yadin shook his head and kept moving.

  “Maybe we should go back the other way?”

  Yadin said, “Even if they came this way, they wouldn’t have left sign. The trail’s hard enough they wouldn’t leave prints, and wide enough they’re unlikely to brush up against the bushes on each side. Before we give up, we should wait till we come to a part of the trail where they’d likely leave sign. If there isn’t any sign there, then we know we’ve gone the wrong way.”

  “Can we go faster? I mean, if we’re in an area where they wouldn’t leave any sign anyway…”

  Yadin nodded and trotted a few steps, but then he stopped. Is he too old to run? Pell wondered.

  Then it became evident that Yadin’d stopped to look at a bush that’d suffered some recent damage. Pell peered at the bush with Yadin, wishing he’d gotten the Yadin to teach him more about the esoteric art of tracking. “What’s it mean?”

  Yadin shook his head, “I’m not sure.” He reached out to the bush beside the one he’d been studying and grabbed a handful of leaves, ripping them free. He looked back and forth from one bush to the other. Pell thought the injury to the two bushes looked much the same, and evidently Yadin did too, for he said, “It looks like someone grabbed a handful of leaves.”

  “Why?”

  Yadin shrugged and turned back to the trail, resuming his rapid walk rather than the jog Pell’d been hoping for. Pell stretched his neck and looked as far down the trail as he could, yearning for a sighting of Gia and Indo.

  Yadin suddenly stopped to crouch in the trail. Pell, his eyes in the distance, nearly fell over him. “What do you see?!”

  Yadin pointed. Pell saw what he thought looked like a fragment of a leaf. He was about to demonstrate his ignorance by asking what it was when Yadin held up the handful of leaves he’d pulled off the bush earlier. He tore off a fragment of a leaf and dropped it next to the one on the trail. Pell could tell they were the same. Yadin shook his head admiringly and said, “The woman’s smart.”

  “What is it?” Manute said over their shoulders.

  Pell glanced back and saw Manute still accompanied by several of the men from the falls people. Yadin’d jogged off, so Pell was left to answer. “Gia took a handful of leaves off a bush back there. Now she’s dropping fragments of leaves for us to follow.”

  “How did she think to do that?” Manute asked wonderingly as they trotted after Yadin.

  “On the trail here I asked Yadin to teach me about tracking. Gia was walking with us. He told us that one of the things he looked for in the woods was damage to the trees and smaller plants. Broken twigs and leaves. Passing bodies can knock leaves off so they fall onto the trail. You can even tell how recently it happened because the leaves dry up with time.”

  They came to a dip in the trail where Yadin knelt to look at footprints in the soft earth. He pointed approvingly at a small one, “She twisted her foot when she set it here. I think she’s trying to make a different mark so we can recognize her tracks.”

  Yadin rose and jogged off. As Pell followed, he glanced at Manute and the others. They were puffing like Pell was. Pell thought wonderingly that—despite the way Yadin spoke of himself as an old man—the wiry fellow was probably going to run all the younger men into the ground.

  They’d gone quite some distance when they came to another dip in the trail. Yadin stopped, staring at the ground. He stepped forward and gingerly set his foot down, then picking it up and looking at the print he’d left. Pell said, “What’s the matter?”

  “There’s no print by Gia here,” Yadin said looking around. “And the earth’s soft over the entire width of the path, so she would have left a track even if she wasn’t trying.” He turned and looked back on either side of the trail, “And, Indo didn’t drag her off the trail and through the bushes to avoid making tracks.” Yadin looked up at Pell, “I’m sorry, but recently I haven’t been seeing any of the bits of leaf she’d been dropping. I just thought she must have run out of leaves.” Yadin started back up the trail. Over his shoulder, he said, “I think they left the trail somewhere back there.” As they backtracked, Yadin didn’t run. Instead, he carefully watched the trail for evidence that Indo and Gia had left it.

  Yadin stopped at the top of the next little ridge. Pell immediately saw the broken twigs Yadin’d noticed. Someone had pushed through the bushes and off the path. After a brief examination, Yadin pushed through the brush at the edges of the path as well. They were in taller trees, rather than high bush like they’d been. There wasn’t really an established path to follow along the ridge. Under the canopy of the forest, there weren’t many smaller plants to be damaged and reveal the track, but it was still fairly
easy to follow their quarry because Indo and Gia’s feet had disturbed the leaves that lay on the forest floor. More so, because Gia occasionally dragged her foot, leaving a rip in the matted leaf litter.

  Yadin wasn’t jogging anymore, but he was still making good time. After some distance, they encountered another well-worn trail going down the slope to the west like the one they’d been on. Pell was inspecting the opposite side of the path for evidence that Indo and Gia might have gone directly across the path and continued going north, but then Yadin said, “Here we go.”

  When Pell looked that direction, he saw Yadin pointing at the ground. Yadin was straightening up and heading down the trail to the west. When he got to where Yadin’d indicated, he saw another torn leaf fragment lying on the trail.

  A little farther Yadin called out, “Another one.” He started jogging again.

  Pell’d just started to get short of breath when Yadin stopped just past a little crook in the path. He held his arms out wide to stop those behind him. Pell leaned around him to see Gia and Indo walking away from them near the end of short straight stretch. Seeing her alive, even with her hands tied behind her back, his heart leapt in his chest.

  Yadin quietly said, “We need a strategy…”

  But something tipped Indo off. He threw an arm around Gia’s neck. Jerking her with him, he turned to throw back was against the trunk of a large tree. He put his knife to her stomach. “Stop!” he shouted, sounding desperate.

  They all stopped, though Pell took several more long strides during the process of stopping. Despite the point of the knife pressing against her stomach, Gia looked irrationally relieved to see Pell.

  On the other hand, Pell despairingly wondered whether there was any chance for a happy end to the situation.

  It would only take a second for Indo to bury the knife. Gia likely wouldn’t die right away. Instead she would die a miserable death over a period of days. Pell couldn’t see any way for Indo to escape and could easily picture him choosing to kill Gia as a means to avenge his own death before he died.

  Pell surreptitiously reached into his pouch for a stone while he tried to speak calmly despite the thunder in his heart. “Indo, just let her go. We’ll do the same for you. Nothing bad has to happen.” Then he held his breath, hoping against despair that Indo would do it. The more he thought about it, the more he began to feel that the impasse couldn’t be resolved. Indo was just standing there, staring at them, apparently thinking as desperately as they were. As the moments passed with no resolution, Pell spoke quietly to Manute and Yadin. His voice trembling, he said, “Maybe we should just let him go.”

  Manute said, “With Gia?!”

  After a heartbreaking sigh, Pell said, “Better he take her and do… whatever he’s going to do, than that he kill her.”

  “He’s going to rape her!”

  “Better than dead… I think…” Pell said, wishing he could ask Gia because he’d heard some women say they’d prefer to die.

  Yadin said, “We could turn and leave, then track them again, trying to sneak up on them this time.”

  Hope blossomed. Pell said, “Yadin, could you do that? I’m… not good at sneaking.” Then he felt bad for asking the older man to risk his life to save Gia’s.

  Before Yadin had answered, Indo apparently reached a decision. He shouted, “Break your spears.”

  Startled, his train of thought disrupted, Pell said, “What?”

  “Break your spears. Even those worthless-looking little ones. I heard you have some fancy trick you do with them. First knock off their flint points, then break the shafts in the middle.”

  “Okay,” Pell said and did as he was told. He wondered for a moment whether some of the men he didn’t know from the Falls-River people might object to breaking a perfectly good spear. A glance out of the corner of his eyes showed him they were working the points off of their spears. They were obviously trying not to break the points, but they were still taking their spears apart.

  Soon everyone was breaking the shafts of their spears as well. Pell wondered whether Indo knew enough about the throwing sticks to demand they be broken as well. While he was bent over breaking his spear shafts, he pulled the throwing stick off his belt and handed it to Manute. Speaking quietly, he said, “If an opportunity presents, hand this to me with a stone already in it. Then try to signal to Gia to bend over, or at least move her head.”

  “She can’t bend over with a knife in her gut!”

  Speaking as patiently as he could, Pell said, “If an opportunity presents.”

  His spears broken, Pell looked around and saw the others had finished breaking theirs as well. He stood up and called to Indo, “Okay, we’ve done it.”

  Apparently still thinking about the situation, Indo said nothing.

  Pell was about to tell him to take Gia and go, just not hurt her, when Indo said, “We’re going to go live with some friends of mine. If you get any closer than you are now, I’ll cut off one of her fingers. If you try to attack me, I’ll kill her. I’d advise you not to follow us. If you do, when I get to where my friends live I’ll lead a band of them out to kill all of you.”

  “The sea people!” someone hissed behind Pell.

  “What?” Pell said, not understanding.

  “Indo has friends among the sea people,” Nolo said. “They’re disgusting people who keep women as slaves and kill others on a whim.”

  Suddenly, Pell felt the handle of his throwing stick brush against his palm. As he grabbed it, Manute bent over and started retching. He must think we need to do something now, Pell thought as he watched Gia, hoping she’d understand Manute wanted her to bend over. Instead, she was watching Manute and looking concerned. She glanced at Pell and Pell bored his eyes into hers, then jerked his head at Manute, hoping she’d understand he wanted her to bend over and retch as well.

  But she just looked puzzled.

  His heart sank.

  Then the opportunity passed as Indo took his arm from around her neck, evidently grabbing the back of her jerkin instead. He slid his knife around from her belly to her back, making its presence known by the way she arched her back to get away from it.

  Indo turned her toward the path, letting them see the knife against her back.

  He paused and said, “Don’t get any closer!”

  Indo turned Gia the rest of the way.

  A second later Indo’s head started to turn away from them.

  Pell’s left foot slid forward and the throwing stick started its arc.

  Indo’s head was turned fully forward when the throwing stick slashed.

  Indo started to turn back and check where Pell and the others were…

  The stone flew.

  Pell ran.

  Gia felt nothing but despair as Indo made Pell and the other men disarm themselves, even to the point of destroying their spears. She kept thinking Pell would find an answer to what seemed an impossible problem… Pell always seemed to have ideas, even when something seemed impossible.

  She certainly had no solutions for a situation like this.

  At least not a solution that left her alive.

  She had a distant hope that perhaps, when they got so tired they had to rest, Yadin, renowned for his stealth, could sneak up on Indo while he was asleep.

  Then, when Indo claimed he had friends in another tribe who’d be willing to go to war for him, she realized he only had to fend them off until he got to that village, which might not be far. With her friends weaponless and Indo turning her onto the path to keep walking while holding a knife in her back, she felt despair.

  She heard a knocking sound. Indo bumped her back, then, to her disgust, he rubbed heavily against her bottom. She tried to jerk away, but then something heavy thumped into the backs of her calves. She realized Indo’d let go of her jerkin. Taking a chance, she leapt away, turning to see what’d happened.

  She saw Indo lying flaccidly on the ground, a large dent in his temple.

  Pell swept Gia up in his
arms. Relief roared through her.

  The other men ran up. Manute angrily shouted, “What if you’d hit Gia?!”

  Pell didn’t have to answer because Yadin almost dismissively said, “He never misses. Besides Gia was on the other side of Indo when he threw.” Yadin looked musingly down on the sprawled Indo, “The question is, why did he make us break our spears but let us keep our throwing sticks.”

  Nolo spoke up, “Last night, when you brought in the aurochs and some fish after a brief hunting trip, I think he was jealous and angry. He’s used to being the best hunter and fisherman. He stayed back trying to pretend he wasn’t interested. Anyway, he wasn’t there when I was telling everyone about the throwing sticks and how you throw spears and rocks with them. He must have heard something about your little spears, but I don’t think he knew how you can throw stones.”

  Manute stepped forward and threw his arms around Gia and Pell. “I’m sorry,” he said, weeping. “I shouldn’t have doubted; I was just so afraid for my sister.”

  “That’s okay,” Pell said, “I doubted me. I just couldn’t think of anything else to do.”

  Feeling suddenly weak, Gia slithered out of their arms to slump onto the ground, breathing hard. Pell and Manute sprawled down beside her, apparently overcome in a similar fashion.

  Yadin toed Indo’s body, “Should we bury him?”

  “Leave him for the scavengers,” one of the other men from River Falls said, his voice full of loathing.

  Chapter Five

  The group from Cold Springs returned to River Falls to collect the rest of their gear and stayed there for the night. On the walk back Pell’d asked about the sea people. “Nolo said they keep slaves? I’m not sure I understand exactly what a slave is.”

  He listened in growing dismay as one of the men described what a slave was and how the sea people kept women as sex slaves. “They have them do the work their own women hate as well. Sometimes they keep men slaves, but they work them to death pretty fast.”

  “Why don’t they run away?”