Tabal was taking too long to arrive. From where Kara was, which were the ‘quarters’ of her new husband, only a murmur of the conversations of the other men in the tribe in the central part of the cave could be heard. Maybe she had been too quick to go there, and should have stayed with the others...
Certainly, she was eager to carry out the plan, which, in principle, shouldn’t fail. Or would it?
The wait was making her nervous, and she wondered if, instead of what she had devised, it would be better for them to escape with Umma to save her from death. But she quickly dismissed the idea. They couldn’t survive alone wandering in that hostile world, and they would probably die shortly after escaping, either as prey for predators or, worse, from hunger. Finding another tribe that would accept the two of them and the three kids before long was a possibility, but a rather remote one.
Women and children were a precious commodity: the former for their sexual value, and as for the latter, the boys would eventually become new warriors to enhance the tribe’s power, and the girls would become new wives to compensate those who distinguished themselves in war. Because neither women nor children were killed in battles that almost invariably took place whenever two tribes met. On the contrary, their lives were respected and assigned to the most valiant warriors. Ulla’s custom of sacrificing to the gods, at least one person among those captured, was fortunately something uncommon.
But if they escaped, waiting for someone to take them in before they died on the steppe was nearly impossible due to the scarcity of people in a world that was practically uninhabited. In fact, Unnum’s tribe was the first they had seen in many weeks, and they had stayed an even longer time in the past without seeing anyone. And if it was difficult for two women, for one alone —Umma, in case she escaped alone—, it was nearly impossible. The only possibility for the girl to survive until the full moon was a change of mind in the executioners’ minds, although nothing predicted that it would happen if it hadn’t already since her death sentence was signed.
Therefore, it had to be forced. A ‘coup’ had to be forced, and that’s what Kara was involved in that night.
Ator was hurt when Unnum took the stepmother away to give her to Tabal, but he also didn’t resign himself to losing Umma, who was obviously his first choice. After all, he had the law on his side: he was entitled by the right of conquest, and although the chief had the preference in choosing the conquered women, Unnum granted him the right to ‘choose anyone he wanted’ in the next war, that is, the one that had just been fought, due to a brave performance that occurred in the past.
The ‘coup’ was feasible. With Unnum dead, Ator would take over the leadership and declare Umma as his wife, with Kara being the witness that the marriage had been consummated. No longer being a virgin and also being the leader’s wife, Ulla would have to revoke her death sentence and find another sacrificial victim.
That might be the only part of the plan that could go wrong: that the sorceress wouldn’t accept Ator as the leader. That would put him against the other men, and Umma’s life might even be in danger.
Although, deep down, the old woman couldn’t blame the one-eyed man for assaulting the girl; the blame would always be on Tabal, for not fulfilling his duty of vigilance and, above all, on Unnum, for assigning that task to an incompetent.
Still, the crime would’ve gone down, and Ator would’ve defiled the body of a young girl who was supposed to be sacrificed as a virgin to the gods. But thinking it over, Ulla would have no choice but to accept the done deal. The old woman was evil, but she was also pretty smart. In the absence of Unnum, Ator was the only man with enough guts and courage to pull the tribe through. Essentially, he was the only ‘alpha male’ left, as the others, though tough and hardworking, lacked the smarts and necessary ability to make the best decisions in such a hostile world.
“Here they come,” Kara thought, hearing footsteps approaching where she was. Because the fact that she was now Tabal’s wife didn’t exempt him from Umma’s watch, as he was the only tribe member Unnum trusted for that job. Any other guy would’ve taken the opportunity to hook up with the girl without hesitation, but this guy kept his head cool enough and didn’t risk it for something like that.
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So, that ‘wedding night’ between Kara and Tabal had an unwelcome guest in Umma. That had been quite lucky for the plans that mother and daughter had in mind, plans that necessarily had to have the girl’s agreement, who had already been convinced by her stepmother that it was the best thing that could happen to her.
As a good guardian, Tabal hadn’t left the girl for a moment. But Kara had chatted with her in her language, so he hadn’t caught on to anything.
Her first idea had been to kill him. Now that she was his wife, she could stab him with a knife at any time during the intimate act. Really, that would’ve been the logical thing to do to make the plan work. Kara never believed that Ator didn’t want to do it because he ‘liked the boy’, but rather because he was afraid to face a young man in the prime of his visual faculties in a poorly lit place, having to rely on just one eye. Killing Unnum in the same circumstances was easier despite everything, as the chief was known to sleep like a log, and a surprise attack would be more effective. On the other hand, the young man would undoubtedly be on guard because his mission was to prevent anyone from approaching the girl.
But the problem was that Tabal couldn’t be eliminated so easily. Umma had made it clear that she wouldn’t cooperate with all that and would scream, waking up the whole tribe if they dared to touch the boy. So, Kara came up with a second plan, which was to neutralise the young man in the way she knew best: by getting close to him. It was highly likely that, in the dimness of the cave and being his first time, the boy wouldn’t even realize that Ator had appeared and taken Umma to lie with him. Yes, that would work with total certainty, the woman told herself. Kara was an expert in giving pleasure to men; she had always been the favourite of all those she had been with, and perhaps that was why three of her children were still alive. They always got the best portions and had priority over the children of others. Nothing could happen to the boy afterwards for not keeping a close enough eye, as Unnum would already be dead, and he couldn’t be punished for it.
Finally, Tabal and Umma arrived, and the girl lay down wrapped in her megaloceros hide at the cave’s end. Kara smiled at him and took off the hide covering her body, revealing her fully to her new husband. In fact, they couldn’t yet be called husband and wife until Tabal lied with her; technically, she was still Ator’s wife until consummation.
Surprisingly, the guy just passed by her, giving her a smile in return, and lay down between the two women, with his back turned to his supposed new wife. Almost instantly, the young man fell asleep, as indicated by his deep and rhythmic breathing.
This attitude puzzled Kara. Why had he ignored her? That was certainly a surprise. A virgin boy, in the prime of his youth... why hadn’t he taken her as his wife? Even though she was ‘older’, and despite her numerous childbirths, she still had a good figure, and her body hadn’t deformed too much. She had good hips and could conceive a few more children. She was certainly desirable, she thought, and considered if maybe the boy didn’t like... No. She dismissed the idea almost immediately. Tabal didn’t miss a detail of Umma’s female attributes; he couldn’t stop looking at her, and it was clear that it wasn’t just to keep an eye on her.
Of course... the boy had fallen in love, she concluded. It was said that some men were capable of that thing they called ‘falling in love’, although she hadn’t seen any cases in her long life. Men only saw women as commodities, as things to bed with, just like animals did.
In any case, she had to act immediately because Ator would be about to arrive to take Umma. Although Tabal seemed to be asleep, he was likely only in a light doze, and the slightest noise would wake him. Therefore, she was about to sit up to wake him and try to make love, but at that moment, she felt a sharp pain in her stomach, and her insides churned. Nausea almost made her vomit, and she got up to go outside the cave to relieve herself. Once outside, she felt the pain again and tried to defecate, but she couldn’t despite feeling unwell. The night’s cold wasn’t enough to quell the intense heat she felt at that moment, and she seemed to sweat from every pore of her body. Then she crouched down, as it seemed like she was peeing herself, although nothing like that happened. What occurred was that a stream of blood, like menstrual blood, came out of her body, despite being almost two lunar cycles late in her period. In fact, she thought she was pregnant, and then this... could be a spontaneous abortion, she thought. In any case, once that embryo or whatever it was, was expelled, she felt much better and got up to go back to the cave. Before leaving, she turned and looked for what she had expelled, but she couldn’t find it. The almost full moon provided enough light to highlight that clot, but surprisingly, she couldn’t find it! She recalled some conversations that certain women from her new tribe had had about the disappearance of blood flows, and wondered if the same thing had now happened to her. It was impossible to know, she thought.
When she entered, she navigated the fire at the cave’s edge again and could see and hear some commotion in the area where Unnum lay. That was a sign that Ator had completed the first part of the plan, meaning he had killed the chief, and moreover, he had done it ‘professionally’, without waking the others, as indicated by the fact that the little ruckus had ceased, and no other noise could be heard in the area where the rest were. The former wives of the chief must have played some role, being resentful of the new one. What had happened to her? She wondered. What had become of Thura? Perhaps she had suffered the same fate as her new husband?