As Fire is to Gold (Chronicles of the Ilaroi Book 1) by Mark McCabe

Author:Mark McCabe [McCabe, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Serotine Press Australia
Published: 2019-03-24T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

The rapidity with which the slig camp followers could disassemble a camp and be on the move again was nothing short of extraordinary. All of the jealousies and rivalries of the tent women were put aside as they worked silently but efficiently to strike the tents and pack their belongings in readiness to follow in the footsteps of the Sagath warriors. Along with the children and the old or infirm, they went about the task as if they’d been doing it all of their lives, and they had. The sligs were an inherently nomadic race.

Within a quarter of an hour, the camp had been struck and they were gone. The site they vacated had more in common now with a rubbish tip than the open pasture it had once been. The scattered remnants of their fireplaces, the piles of smouldering litter, the scattered bones and debris, they would all form a lasting reminder of their passage. The sligs weren’t the tidiest of people. If they didn’t move on in search of better hunting or in pursuit of a foe, then the accumulation of rubbish would eventually provide its own impetus. When the stench and the mess finally became unbearable, even for them, they simply moved on.

Although Mardur knew that the two women who shared the wagon she rode in would be only too happy to usurp her position as tent woman to the Second Warrior, they were the closest ‘friends’ she had among the slig women. Of the two, Varna was her only real competitor. Her mate, Larnük, was a member of Hrothgar’s hunt. Although he was a respected warrior, Mardur knew that Varna would swap Larnük’s bed for Hrothgar’s as quickly as a warrior could draw his blade. She was also young and willing and more than capable of attracting Hrothgar’s eye. Larnük often boasted of her prowess as a bedmate.

With a chill, Mardur knew that if Hrothgar ever tired of her, Varna was just the kind of woman he would turn to. And Varna would have no qualms about displacing her. It was the way of the sligs. What was important was to survive; the cost didn’t matter. There were no real friendships among them. Their society was strictly hierarchical. Even the camp dogs had a pecking order.

Her other companion, Drait, presented no threat to Mardur’s position. Drait was considerably older than both Varna and Mardur. Her eldest son, Norag, had almost reached manhood. In another season or two, he would undergo his initiation and become a warrior himself. Then he would join the menfolk rather than being left behind to help the women. They would miss his help in setting up and dismantling the tents and loading up the carts. He was a strapping young lad of great strength, like his father. One of them would have to drive the wagon then in his place. Drait’s other son, Kradug, was far too young to be of much help yet and her daughter, Hara, didn’t have the strength to help with the more physical of the tasks.

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