Isle of Woman (Geodyssey)

by Piers Anthony

  “My wife!” Stone exclaimed, astonished. The three girls tittered. They found the notion of their brother suddenly getting married hilarious.

  “She is your age, and comely,” Blaze said. “It is time you married. She will be good for you. Walk with her, talk with her. I believe you will like her.”

  Stone looked at his mother. She nodded. He got up, awkwardly, holding the blade.

  Seed stepped toward him. “Your father says you make these excellent blades,” she said, trying to speak so he could understand. “That is a good talent.” Then she smiled, showing her beauty.

  There was a murmur of awe from the girls. Stone looked as if struck by a sudden stiff wind. “I—yes,” he said, and smiled back, unable to do otherwise.

  “Please show me your country,” Seed said, exactly as if she had not trudged through it all day.

  “Yes.” He walked out, heedless of direction, and she gracefully paced him. Blaze knew she was tired, but there was no evidence of it.

  “Girls, go with them,” Bunny said. “Introduce yourselves.”

  “I’m Doe,” the eldest exclaimed.

  “I’m Weasel,” the second said.

  “I’m Mouse,” the third said.

  “How did you get to be so beautiful?” Doe asked Seed as they walked away from the house.

  “I grew up,” Seed replied. “As you are about to.”

  “Oh, I hope so!” Doe said as the others tittered. They moved on away from the house.

  “From the city?” Bunny inquired of Blaze, focusing on her acorns. Her voice sounded unconcerned. That was a signal of trouble.

  “I wanted to get linen cloth, for you. But he offered her to me, and when I declined, he said I might want her for my son. And—”

  a

  “And she was beautiful and woebegone and young,” she concluded. “And you had a soft heart.”

  “The trader read me as well as you do,” he confessed. “So I talked with her, and got her story, and she was willing.”

  “Surely she was,” Bunny said with a certain muted edge. “She read you as readily as the trader did.”

  “I believe her story,” he said doggedly.

  “And what was her story?”

  “She was chosen to be the virginal sacrifice at their spring fertility ceremony. The priest deflowered her, then when rain did not come, blamed her for being unchaste. She had to flee for her life. The trader took her, and threatened to sell her to a bad man if she did not please a good one.”

  “Then he saw the perfect mark,” Bunny said. “And she knew better than to fail to impress you.”

  Unfortunately accurate. Bunny had always cut to the quick of things. “I believe she will be good for Stone,” he persisted. “You know he lacks the nerve to go out after a woman himself.”

  “She will govern him completely. She has already won him.”

  Blaze realized how impetuously he had acted. “Did I do wrong, Bunny?”

  She did not look at him. “Did you?”

  She suspected! “What do you mean?”

  “If I were a hearty man, and I had to travel alone with a creature like her who longed for comforting, I know what I would do.”

  “She has green eyes,” he said. It was his admission of guilt.

  Now she looked at him. “You have never expunged your fantasy woman.”

  “I never have,” he agreed, ashamed. “But she does not exist, and you do.”

  Now she smiled. “Yes, I do.” She had forgiven him, perhaps.

  “Next time, I will get you good cloth.”

  “Surely you will.” She removed the acorns from the hot stone. “You will be hungry. You did not have food for two.”

  “I speared some fish.”

  She brought out flat bread. “When they return, we shall tell the neighbors.”

  He nodded agreement, chewing on the bread.

  Soon the group did return. Stone and Seed were holding hands, despite the interference of the girls. Seed looked demure, and Stone’s face was set in a mold of wonder.

  “Will you marry my son?” Bunny asked Seed.

  “Yes,” the girl replied shyly, to a background of more tittering. “I like him.”

  “Then we shall go to tell the tribe. All the rest of us.” That included the girls, who had showed signs of preferring to stay. “There is bread.” She indicated it. “See that the fire does not go out.” That was Bunny’s way of telling her son that the family would not be back for some time. He seemed blank to the message, but Seed was not. She glanced at the home, and made the suggestion of a smile.

  Blaze and Bunny set out for the next house, pitched about one shout away. “She knows what to do,” she said when they were clear.

  “Surely she does,” Blaze agreed somewhat lamely.

  “Do what?” Mouse asked, as her older sisters smiled without answering.

  “You are right,” Bunny said. “She is what he needs. He will be the envy of the other young men—and older ones too, perhaps.”

  “Perhaps.” Everything his wife said had a double meaning now, and not just because of the presence of the three girls.

  “But they will marry tomorrow, so that none of the other men will seek to win her. She is for him alone.”

  “For him alone.” He was agreeing never to touch Seed again. That had always been his intention, but his wife needed the confirmation.

  They came to the other house. Bunny nudged him. “Our son Stone has found a woman,” he announced. “They will marry tomorrow, at our house.”

  “Who?” the other man asked, surprised. “I have not seen him with anyone.”

  “She is not from our tribe,” he clarified. “She is from the city.”

  “The city! Can she forage?”

  “She will learn.”

  The man was quiet, not wanting to speak openly of foolishness.

  “What is her appearance?” the woman asked.

  The daughters tittered. “Adequate,” Bunny said.

  The woman was silent, suspecting that this meant, at best, plain. Both of them evidently suspected that this was some desperation measure. Could the boy have had some foolish liaison, and gotten a foreign woman with a baby, and been threatened with reprisal if he did not marry her? Sex before marriage was common, but a marriage like that was less than ideal.

  They walked on to the next house. “We may surprise them tomorrow,” Blaze murmured, beginning to enjoy this.

  “Oh, will we surprise them!” Doe agreed, appreciating the joke.

  “How?” Mouse asked.

  “They think she’s ugly like an ox cow.”

  Mouse squealed with laughter.

  They toured the settlement, ignoring the masked looks of surprise, pity and contempt. The neighbors would be there for the marriage, pretending that it was a joyous occasion. After that, Seed would be accepted in the tribe.

  It was dark by the time they approached their own home. Stone and Seed were sitting by the hearth fire, talking in low tones. She looked more confident, and his expression of wonder had spread from his face to the rest of his body. Oh, yes, she had educated him!

  “They’ve done something,” Weasel whispered conspiratorially.

  “Maybe twice,” Doe agreed somewhat enviously.

  “What did they do?” Mouse asked.

  “Why should I tell you?” Weasel demanded.

  “Don’t tease her,” Bunny said.

  Weasel grimaced. “You know. Sex. Like Mommy and Daddy.”

  “Stone?” the child demanded unbelievingly.

  The other two burst out laughing. By then they were close to the house, and had to stop conjecturing.

  “She will share your bed, until you make a house of your own,” Bunny told Stone. “Tomorrow the neighbors will come to see you married.”

  Stone, dazed, nodded. Then his attention returned to Seed.

  They concluded the evening and went to their beds. The young couple was on one side of the chamber, and the old couple on the other,
with a pile of supplies between. The three sisters were across the back, close enough to listen very carefully while they pretended to sleep. Sex was nominally private, which meant that those not engaged in it were required to ignore it. By the time they got to be of age, they had a fair notion of its frequency and mechanics. That was the way children learned, after all. Anything they missed could be filled in by the appropriate parent before they actually performed it themselves. That was why Mouse had been incredulous about Stone; she knew he had never before done it. She would have liked to watch him mess it up.

  Blaze dreaded this night, and not because of the ears of his daughters, who were long since bored with adult business. Bunny might be cold to him, showing her unexpressed anger at his lapse, or she might be loving, and he might find himself unable to perform. He had been amazed at the night with Seed; he had never done it that frequently with Bunny. It might be several days before he was able to rouse himself again.

  She chose to be warm. “The presence of young ardor excites me,” she whispered. “Come, my husband; pretend that we are young.”

  He thought of Seed twining across Stone, and his ardor returned. He embraced Bunny and surged into her. Did that thought of Seed make him in essence unfaithful? He wished he could abolish the notion, for he feared that Bunny could somehow hear it. Indeed, he needed to forget that one night, and make it as if it had never existed. But he knew he would never forget it.

  Meanwhile, he could hear his son panting as Seed brought him to fulfillment, surely not for the first time this night. He was glad of that, for a complex of reasons which included the distraction it provided for the girls and the confirmation that the lovely young woman’s last sexual experience was legitimate. He tried to persuade himself that he had no wish for it to be otherwise.

  In the morning the neighbors arrived. Seed, true to mountain custom that Bunny had impressed on her, remained hidden in the house until all were assembled. The neighbors and the daughters stood in a half circle before the house. Blaze stood at one side of the house hearth, and Bunny at the other. Stone stood directly in front of the hearth, in the center of the half circle of neighbors. He looked appropriately uncomfortable.

  The tribe shaman stepped out of the crowd. “What man is to be married?” he inquired.

  Blaze stepped across to clap his hand on Stone’s shoulder. “My son Stone,” he said. “He is of age, and ready to assume the duties of marriage.”

  “What woman will he marry?”

  Bunny ducked into the dark house. In a moment she brought out Seed, who was cloaked from neck to feet in a heavy robe of furs. Her brown hair was brushed down across her face, concealing it. She was completely anonymous. “My daughter Seed,” Bunny said. Everyone knew that the woman was not really her daughter, but when the woman’s own parents could not be present, such a substitution could be made. This was ordinarily a sign of trouble, because it suggested that the woman’s parents did not approve the marriage, or were unaware of it.

  “Do you choose this woman of your own free will?” the shaman asked Stone.

  “Oh, yes!” Stone agreed with an enthusiasm that caused several glances of perplexity. That did not sound like a forced marriage!

  The shaman turned to Seed. “Do you choose this man of your own free will?”

  “Yes,” she said.

  The shaman turned to the audience. “Does any person have objection?”

  “Yes,” a man said gruffly. “We have not seen the woman. How do we know who she is?”

  “Maybe she’s great with baby,” came a voice from behind.

  The shaman turned back to Seed. “We must see your face, to be sure of your identity,” he said. This much was a normal part of the ritual.

  Seed lifted her hair away from her face with the backs of her fingers. Suddenly the neighbors knew she was not ugly. There was a muted murmur of appreciation.

  “And your body,” the hidden voice called.

  This was part of a ritual that was seldom invoked, because of its implication. If Stone had had a regular girlfriend, and decided to marry her, it would have been understandable. But to have a woman appear from far away for sudden marriage suggested something else. Could she be pregnant by some other man, and Stone had to pretend otherwise? What a story might lurk there! “You do not have to show your body,” the shaman said. “Just your face.”

  There was a murmur of disapproval as more neighbors sensed a scandal. A woman who already carried a baby when she married offered no guarantee that the baby was that of the man she married. Her husband could claim it as his own, and the child would be accepted by the family and the tribe, but everyone would know there was doubt.

  “Has my daughter been challenged?” Bunny demanded, looking properly outraged.

  The shaman was not eager to embarrass anyone. “No.”

  “Yes!” cried the voice, eager for that embarrassment. “Show your fat tummy!”

  “Then she must answer it,” Bunny said grimly. “Seed, show yourself.”

  Seed put her hands to the neck of the cape, drawing loose the bow there. Then she paused, as if unwilling to complete the exposure. Blaze realized that Bunny, who had mischief in her soul, had coached the young woman perfectly.

  “Show it!” the voice cried greedily.

  Seed abruptly flung off the cape. She was completely naked beneath it. Suddenly the full luster of the most beautiful body in the region shone forth, the effect heightened by the glistening oil Bunny had applied. Full breasts, full hips, full thighs, a remarkably slender waist, and an almost flat abdomen. She turned in place, showing full buttocks too. She completed her turn, and smiled.

  There was a concerted sound of awe that increased as she moved, and climaxed with her smile. Then a titter from a daughter, finally able to reveal the joke, followed by growing, appreciative laughter from the assembled men. The challenge had not only been answered, it had been destroyed—and the startled husbands had been treated to a sight their wives would never have permitted, had they realized. For now every husband had been most forcefully reminded of what his own wife lacked.

  “Is there any further objection?” the shaman inquired as the hubbub slowly faded. Even he could not suppress a smile. There were no objections. “Then I declare this marriage sealed. Retire to the consummation.”

  Seed turned in to Stone, wrapped her arms about him, and kissed him. Then they walked around the hearth and entered the house. Every man was staring at the bride’s naked motion. Bunny picked up the fallen cloak and hung it across the entrance, darkening the interior and obscuring the activity inside. Of course it could hardly be any mystery; no one could imagine any man hesitating even an instant.

  Now it was time for the feast. Food and brewed ale appeared. The group fell to, talking with animation about what had just been seen. Men clustered around Blaze, and women around Bunny, and children around the girls, all demanding to know where they had found such a creature for Stone. This was one marriage ceremony that would never be forgotten.

  The months passed. They made a house for Stone and Seed, near the original house, for the new couple was young and needed help and advice. Blaze was away from the house much of the time, searching out other stones for working, and wood for the hearth, which required a lot because of the need to heat some stones for working. He also assisted in moving the tribe’s goat herd from one pasture to another; they needed every man and some tame dogs to keep the unruly creatures on the route. But he had reports from others, so knew what was going on.

  Stone worked on the obsidian fragments, chipping them into quality blades that would be good for trade. He had a touch that no other had; the glass just seemed to respond to him. Seed learned to forage by going out with Bunny and the girls. She was not a fast learner, having had no prior experience, but she did her best and never shirked. It was clear that under her beauty and her city ways she was a girl much like any other, and that she very much wanted to please this family into which she had married. It turned out that
the family was willing, somewhat as Stone was willing to be pleased by the attentions Seed paid to him.

  But as Seed learned, she changed in two significant ways. One was physical: she had a baby in her, and though at first this was only slightly evident, as time passed it became strongly evident. That was good news; the line would carry on into the next generation. The other was emotional: she became pensive at odd moments; sometimes she wept, though she tried to conceal this from the others. Stone did not understand this, and indeed she never wept in his presence. But there was a sadness about her that seemed to grow as her baby did.

  Finally Bunny took a hand. She took Seed out foraging alone, and talked to her. In her experienced woman’s way she fathomed more than the younger woman had wanted to tell. Then she talked with Blaze.

  “She has three problems. She told me two.”

  “Can you deal with them?” he asked guardedly.

  “How is the herd doing?” she asked irrelevantly. But he knew better than to challenge it, because her seeming irrelevancies had a way of becoming abruptly relevant, farther down the path.

  “Not well,” he admitted. “The drought makes grazing sparse, and we have to move the goats more often. If good rain does not come, they will grow lean even as the pastures give out. We shall have to slaughter too many.”

  “And we can’t yet take them to the winter pastures,” she said.

  “They will be barren too.” The summer was late, but it was not good to travel before the land cooled.

  “What will we do, if this continues?”

  “We will have to migrate to another land, where there is rain. But I fear that other tribes will be doing the same, and there will be complications.”

  “Stone has good talent with the obsidian, and you with the fire. Could you find employment in the city?”

  “The city!” he exclaimed, appalled. “That is not our life!”

  “The country is not Seed’s life, yet she is living it.”

  “She misses her people!” he said, understanding her point. “That is one of her problems.”

  “Yes, she is homesick. Her family hardly knows where she is or how she is doing. She would like to see her mother again.”