“Then why did that slaving party come here not so long ago?” asked Julius.
Indira’s face grew grim. “It seems the Kiktu have been preoccupied, of late. They have been marshalling an alliance of other tribes for war against the invaders.”
“What invaders?”
She looked to the southwest, as if she could see through the walls of the hut and the mountainside beyond.
“The Utuku. The cannibals are on the march.”
Interlude: Nukurren
During the two days after regaining consciousness, Nukurren spent much of her time, while awake, observing the demons, and discussing her observations with Dhowifa. She was not awake for long, however, and less and less as time passed. Disease had seized her in its grip, and she felt herself growing weaker.
The white demon Dzhenushkunutushen was frequently to be found walking alongside Nukurren’s litter. On occasion, he was joined by the female demon Ludumilaroshokavashiki—or Ludumila, as the male demon called her. Nukurren attempted to ask them about themselves, but the demons fended off all such inquiries. On the third day, to Nukurren’s surprise, they began asking her about her own life.
At first, Nukurren tried to satisfy them with a few short sentences. But the demons insisted on a full account.
So, in the end, Nukurren obliged.
She had been born a helot in the Ansha Prevalate, clanless and outcast. Her earliest memories consisted of nothing but drudgery in the fields of the high clans, endless days waking at dawn and toiling till dusk. Even the simple pleasures of friendship with other young helots had been denied her, for she was ugly, and overlarge, and generally silent.
One day, driven beyond endurance by a particularly brutal overseer, she had turned upon her. The overseer had beaten Nukurren savagely with her flail, but Nukurren was already—though not yet fully grown—of unusual size and strength. She had wrested the flail from the overseer and had begun repaying her tormentor in kind, before she was overcome by many overseers drawn to the fracas.
Nukurren herself had almost been beaten to death, then. She still bore on her mantle the scars of that flailing. She pointed them out to the demons.
Ludumila ran her hand down the side of Nukurren’s mantle. It was the first time a demon had touched her since the demonlord withdrew the demon weapons. Nukurren found the touch gentle and tender.
“There are so many scars here,” said Ludumila softly.
“And I thought I was bad,” said Dzhenushkunutushen. The demon grinned and took off his armor. His upper torso now exposed, Nukurren could see that the milky white flesh bore several ugly, puckered marks.
“That was my first wound,” said Dzhenushkunutushen, pointing to an especially large scar on the upper portion of his left arm. “I got it in my first battle.”
“How?” asked Nukurren. Dzhenushkunutushen began to explain, but was interrupted by Ludumila.
“Being stupid! Using his muscles instead of his brain.”
Dzhenushkunutushen grinned again, and made the motion with his upper torso which Nukurren had learn to interpret as the gesture of bemused uncertainty. “I’m prone to that,” admitted the demon.
“Yes, you are!” said the female demon forcefully. To Nukurren, her posture seemed stiff and rigid. After a moment, however, her posture relaxed. She extended a hand and took the hand of Dzhenushkunutushen.
“You have to stop doing that, Jens,” she said softly. Nukurren observed as the two demons stick-pedded alongside her litter, hand holding hand. Had they been gukuy, she realized, their mantles would be glowing green, and it seemed to her the strangest thing she had ever encountered in a loveless world, that demons could love.
Some time later, Dzhenushkunutushen looked back at Nukurren.
“What happened then?” he asked.
“I was condemned to slavery, and sold to a slavemaster. I spent the next many eightyweeks chained and yoked, pulling a sledge filled with trade goods to the market in Shakutulubac. I finished my growth during that time, and by the end I was very strong.”
Dhowifa interrupted. “Nukurren is the strongest gukuy who ever lived,” said the truemale proudly. “Except for a mother, of course.” Nukurren noticed that her lover’s Kiktu had improved considerably over the past few days, even though Dhowifa spoke rarely in the presence of the demons.