Deyv had thought to step out behind her as she went by and stun her with a blow from the flat of his tomahawk. But her haste could mean that she was being pursued. It would be better to wait until he was sure no one followed close behind her. That meant that he would lose his chance for complete surprise, but it was smarter to lose her than to lose his life.
She came closer. And he suddenly knew what had made him vaguely uneasy about her without quite knowing why.
She had no soul egg.
7
JUM was ready to go silently into action the moment he received the signal, but Deyv cautioned him not to move. The woman ran by, her panting deep and sawing. She did not look behind or ahead but down.
It struck him then that she might not be fleeing. She might be trailing someone. Or hoping she'd find some tracks, since there were none in this part of the path. However, when she got a few yards on, she would see the imprints his boots and the dog's paws had made.
She did. She halted suddenly and bent down to look at them. She straightened up, looked around, and darted into the foliage. Deyv could see a small patch of light skin through some leaves. She was waiting there, hoping that whoever had made the tracks had gone off the trail for some reason other than ambushing her.
Deyv kneeled down on the ground and laid his ear to it again. If anyone was coming around the bend, he
—or they—wasn't running. He decided to move farther along the path. Should warriors notice the prints going off into the jungle, they might look for him. As for the woman, he was no longer interested. She had no egg and thus was not for him. She was a pariah, an outcast, a soulless contemptible being.
Besides, now that he considered it, he must have been crazy to think he could catch her for his mate. He had to track down the person who'd stolen his own egg. How could he do that and also drag her along even if she had had an egg?
He looked back down the trail. The patch of skin was gone. For a moment he considered sending the dog to sniff her out. It was possible that she had glimpsed him as she passed and was now prowling through the bush, looking for him. He didn't think so. But there was no sense taking chances. He'd just move on, keep ahead of her. No. He couldn't do that. He had to return to the cave to get Aejip.
If the woman was aggressive, if she wasn't just running away from him, and if she thought him a danger, she'd have to go along the edge of the jungle until she was past a turn. Then she could cross to his side and sneak back.
On the other hand, she was probably as eager to avoid conflict as he, which meant she'd get out of his sight and then run as fast as she could down the trail away from him.
Maybe she hadn't seen him. More likely, it had only been his tracks going off into the brush that had spooked her.
He gave the word to Jum, and the two moved slowly through the foliage. They kept an eye on the path, pausing now and then to search it out through the vegetation and so keep from going too far away from it.
He wondered if she came from the same tribe that Shamoom had stolen his woman from. She certainly fit the description. She looked strange to him but at the same time attractive. Those blue eyes had caused him a pang of repulsion for a second. They were so pale, so washed out, so much like the eyes of ghosts were said to be.
Her nose was too small and straight, and her lips were not the splendid thickness of his. But, in their way, they had a certain appeal.
Her breasts were not the large ones he admired. Yet, though small, they weren't too much so, and they certainly were well shaped. They seemed to defy gravity, those upright cones, not at all like the melonshaped breasts of his tribeswomen.
There was something to be said for the exotic. But she was eggless. That made all the difference ...
He stopped. What was he talking about? He was eggless, tool It was then that it struck him that he might have a very good reason to meet her. Could her egg have been stolen, and by the same one who'd lifted his?
When he was opposite the place where he'd seen her, or had thought he had, he stopped. After carefully watching and listening, Deyv sent Jum across the path. The dog bounded out of the foliage and dived into that across the trail. A minute later, he emerged. Jum's actions indicated that the woman had gone along the edge in the direction from which they had come. Deyv took a chance. Instead of having Jum sniff her tracks in the bush, he had the dog follow him down the trail. As he had expected, he found her prints where she had come out onto the trail. He didn't need Jum to follow her scent.
Presently, he caught a glimpse of the woman ahead as she rounded a turn. A little later he caught up with her. She turned when she heard him running, and she waited, spear ready.
Deyv stopped and asked her what her name was and what she was doing there. She replied in her speech, of which he did not understand a word.
He pointed to his chest, bare of an egg. Then he pointed to hers. Her eyes widened, and she said something. It didn't sound threatening. Nevertheless, he approached slowly, speaking in a soft tone. Jum stayed at his side until Deyv thought it might make her less uneasy if the dog remained behind.
Though it took some time, Deyv got his ideas across. If he understood her rightly, her egg had also been stolen. She had been looking for the thief ever since, which was not too long a time ago. The signs and gestures she made seemed to indicate that the egg had been taken during her last sleep.
If he understood her further, the thief had left some tracks. They had gone in this direction. Then she'd lost them, but she had continued in this direction hoping to pick them up again. Deyv indicated that if this was so, the thief had slipped around him undetected.
He said, "Yawtl?"
She didn't know what that meant. Perhaps she had another name for Yawtl.
Deyv stepped closer to her. She didn't flinch. He reached out slowly, touched her smooth shoulder, then touched between her breasts. He touched his own shoulder, then his chest. He pointed down the trail and waggled two fingers.
She shook her head. Did this mean no? Or did it mean that she didn't nod for yes but for no?
Suddenly, she smiled. It was strained, but its meaning was obvious.
He walked past her, not looking at her, and started on down the path. In a moment Jum had caught up with him. After twenty or so steps, he looked back. She was following him. In a short while, she was walking by his side.
Now and then Deyv talked to her in the low tones that ever-possible danger made necessary. Before they turned off the path to go after Aejip, he knew her name. Vana.
Aejip seemed to be sleeping, but her ears flicked when the three were close to her. Then, catching the scent of the stranger, she shot, to her paws, half snarling. Deyv quieted her down. The cat sniffed the woman's feet and legs and crotch, which Jum had also done. Vana reached out a hand carefully. Deyv was both surprised and jealous when Aejip submitted to a scratching behind the ears and a stroking of the forehead. She even purred.
A few minutes later, they left for the trail. This led them back to the ancients' highway. Jum cast about, sniffing, and started to the left. Not wanting to waste any time, Deyv at once started language lessons with Vana. He pointed out parts of his body, named them, then indicated objects along the road. Vana had no trouble remembering the names. Her pronunciation left something to be desired, however. Two of the sounds seemed to be entirely unfamiliar to her, and she was not quite accurate in reproducing five others.
A perfectionist, Deyv insisted that she master these. When sleep-time came, she could utter most of them to his satisfaction. They ate fruit, the leaves of a root plant, and a 10-pound hoofed rodent which
Aejip had killed. They bedded down high up in a tree in an abandoned nest. Deyv made no moves to lie with her although he felt passionate. It had been a long time since he'd been with the woman of the young bachelors. But Vana was forbidden to him for several reasons. One, the law of his tribe was that a bachelor could lie with only one woman until he got married. Two, even if he had felt like breaking that law, he wouldn't lie with a woman who had no soul egg. Three, the presence of his pets inhibited him.