“But fear you no loss of status in any future. You will be Tim’s first wife and will always be paramount in his yurt no matter what may befall or however many wives and concubines he may take. And that child now in your belly, if it be a boy and live so long, will be the progenitor of a new sept of Clan Krooguh.”
Bettylou shook her head and almost spoke aloud before she remembered and caught herself, then beamed, “But Elder Morai, I still find it hard to credit that this Tim Staiklee will so readily accept, father, give his honorable name to the get of another man.”
“You still don’t understand the Law of Clan Krooguh. child,” Milo replied. “It is a bit complicated if one is not accustomed to the Krooguh variety of matrilineal succession. You see, the first Horseclans all were patrilineal. but a few generations ago, one of the high-plains clans—Clan Danyuhlz, I think it was—lost all of their adult men in some manner or other, including all who possessed direct claim to the chieftainship, and so, rather than see the name of an old and noted clan lost forever, irredeemably, the next tribal council decided that the eldest living son of the late chiefs eldest sister should be chief, taking his mother’s rather than his father’s surname.
“This emergency measure worked very well for that one clan—so well did it work, in fact, that other clans have adopted variations of it over the years, for many and sundry reasons. The majority of the Horseclans remain patrilineal, but these two clans—Krooguh and Skaht—happen to be of the matrilineal minority; but even in these two clans, only the families of the chief and the tanist are compelled to live under the strictures of matrilineal succession; other septs and families are free to choose between matrilineal and patrilineal, and most choose the latter.
“But Tim is of the line of chief, Bettylou, and as such will not pass on his name to any of his children. This babe you now carry and all others he may get upon you will bear your surname, Hanson; rather, they and you will be called Hanson of Krooguh, that is, the sept of Hanson of the Clan Krooguh. That will be your name, too, child; for the rest of your life you will be known as Bettiloo Hansuhn of Krooguh.”
Feeling it to be imperative that Bettylou make the best possible initial impression on Chief Dik of Krooguh and the other Horseclansfolk. Milo and Tim Krooguh conferred in mindspeak and came to the agreement that until the night of the feast that would mark the successful return of the raiders, Tim’s captive woman should be lodged in the home of Milo. Milo was to continue to coach her in mindspeak, educate her in the mores of her new folk—the Horseclans—have her suitably arrayed and clothed for her presentation at the feast and instruct her in the proper responses and bearing for the simple Horseclans marriage rites.
Before the circular dwelling that he called home in the Krooguh-Skaht camp, Milo lifted Bettylou down from the saddle of that gelding which once had been the prized hunter of Solomon Claxton. When he had off-saddled both equines and removed the bridle from the gelding, he mindspoke his own warhorse, telling him to return to the horse herd, taking the new animal with him and introducing him to the king horse.
Through the latticework of laths that made up the sides of the circular dwelling, Bettylou could see that there were three women—two younger, one older—already inside and working at various tasks, though just now all were looking up and calling welcome to Milo.
III
While the two younger women bustled out, scooped up the two saddles and the other gear and bore them inside the single round room of the dwelling, the older woman, smiling, mindspoke Milo.
“Stole a Dirtwoman, did you. Uncle Milo? Well, she’s not bad-looking, big-boned, of course, most of that ilk are, many of them run to fat, too, as they get longer in the tooth. But they run to strength, as well, which is a valuable asset in a slave … or is she to be a wife, eh, when once she’s dropped her foal?”
The woman’s grin broadened. “I doubt me not that she’ll be a pleasant ride. But wait, are you certain you’re not bringing disease into your household and the camp? What happened to her hair? Why is her scalp so red?”
Milo returned the grin, beaming, “Ehstrah, my dear, between you and Gahbee and Ilsah. I have all the female household that I can properly service of nights, and well you know that fact, so don’t think to get me into another marriage at any time soon. Besides, Bettylou Hanson here is not my captive, but rather that of young Tim Krooguh. He means to wed her properly, and it’s up to you and me and the others to take her in hand and see her suitably arrayed and the like to impress old Dik Krooguh and see him approve her as a first wife for his nephew.”
The older woman wrinkled up her brow and beamed, “But is it wise, Uncle, to allow obvious disease to be bred into one of the Kindred clans?”
Milo snorted and beamed, “Ehstrah. this poor girl is not diseased. According to their peculiar customs, they shaved off all her hair and stained her scalp red.
“Now, are we going to just stand here mindspeaking for the rest of the day? I, for one, could do with some food and milk and a bath and some sleep, and I don’t think Bettiloo would be averse to the same.”
Stiff and sore from the long hours in the saddle, Bettylou Hanson tripped on the foot-high wooden doorsill of the shelter and would surely have fallen had the older woman not grasped her arm in a strong, hard-palmed hand. Retaining her hold, the woman guided the girl to a piece of gaudy carpet partially covered by a tanned wolfpelt and sat her down upon it.
One of the younger women removed the lid from a hanging bucket of stiff waxed leather and dipped up a bowl of warm, frothy milk then handed it to Bettylou, with a broad smile. As soon as the milk had been avidly drained, the same young woman took back the bowl and refilled it from the bucket.
The meal that she and Milo were shortly served was, to her, filling, but distinctly different from most of the foods of the Abode of the Righteous. There were several varieties of cheeses, a stew of at least two kinds of meats and a profusion of unfamiliar greens and root vegetables. The bread was flat, oval loaves about as large as her palm, it was coarse, heavy, and she was certain that neither wheat nor rye nor corn had been any one of the constituents of its dough. Some of the fruits in the bowl bore a resemblance to and tasted somewhat like the fruits of the Abode—apples, cherries, plums—but no one of them looked to be as large or well formed as those carefully nurtured fruits. She assumed, correctly, that they were wild-grown.
But the copious quantities of food proved to be a powerful soporific for Bettylou. and when she began to nod, Milo simply pushed her into a supine position and the older woman bad one of the younger throw an old cloak over the pregnant girl.
“If ever before ye hast doubted my preachments, my people, never, ever will ye again so doubt me. Ye have seen—verily hast ye seen—that the servants of the Evil One still do walk this world and visit death and destruction upon us Righteous, upon this people Beloved of the Lord of Hosts. Upon us and our works did they wreak the full measure of punishments for the many and most foul transgressions against God’s Law, the heinous Sins of the spirit as well as of the flesh of which each of you errant sinners knows yourself to be guilty.
“Only by true repentance and firm cleavage to God and His Holy Law by each and every one of you and in all ways will God allow us to rebuild the Abode of the Righteous and prosper….”
Solomon Claxton, his hands and arms from wrists to shoulders still swathed in greasy bandages, eased his battered body into a position that was at least marginally less uncomfortable in his armchair of carven oak. Once again he silently thanked God that this House of the Holy Spirit had been spared, for with it had been spared this meeting hall with all of its appurtenances.