Chapter 9

John had tanned the sambuck's hide, and now he made each of them boots, as he had learned around the campfire of Zithrusa's family several years ago. Their footwear had mostly fallen to pieces from the rain, walking, and the mud. Luckily the soil here was sand and gravel, so the constant rain didn't cause mud like it had in Ceylon. Wheeled vehicles would be mostly useless there, for much of the year.

They passed carts frequently on the road here, as the traveling wasn't prohibitive in this area like it was in so many others during the rainy season. Vedeya wondered what these people did for a living, as the soil wouldn't produce gardens, and when she asked, she learned that it was saffron they grew, and the weed-like plant throve in these forbidding conditions. It actually didn't like all the water, but the dry season mostly made up for the overabundance, and the porous soil quickly drained.

John thought of his old friend the Caravan master, and thought he could do well for himself on this southern route, picking up saffron, fine pottery, and sapphires in exchange for silk, woolen and felt goods, and blue dyes. He wondered how Wong was doing, and if the families children had had a good gathering, with status and good barter. He mentioned his thoughts to Zithrusa, and for awhile they both waxed nostalgic.

By now they were all accustomed to the ceaseless rain, and so were startled when it suddenly stopped, altogether and with it the wind, after chasing the clouds away. The blueness of the sky was a little disconcerting, shouldn't the proper color be greyish white? Very soon the sun came out, and the air was filled with such moisture for ten days it might have just as well kept raining. On the twelfth day, they finally managed to get all their gear dry, and it was at this time that Vedeya didn't put up her tent, but crawled in with John and Zithrusa when bedtime came. Tuk noted the change, but didn't have an opinion about it. He was still a boy in a man's body on a boy's adventure.

John attempted to embrace Vedeya in a brotherly way, but she was having none of it, and she pounced upon him like a leopard, with Zithrusa worrying at his clothing like a bulldog playing tug-of-war. They none-the-less had him stripped in short order, and while Vedeya kissed him with pent passion, Zithrusa prepared his penis. In a well rehearsed maneuver they pinned him down and bound his hands symbolically with silken scarves.

He played along, and let them tease and tantalize him, until finally in an act of mercy they gave him the 'coup de gras', or allowed his weapon to plunge into Vedeya, at any rate. Zithrusa sat on his face, and both of the girls enhanced each others pleasure as they had taught themselves to do. The noisy leopards were back! Why did they haunt the travelers so? The horses snorted in disgust, did these humans know no season?

In the morning there were no recriminations, no bawdy jokes of disguised jealousy, and Tuk was behaving obliviously because he really was. Not clueless, because he was aware of what was occurring, he was just uninterested, and it had nothing to do with him. Actually a very mature attitude.

Packing up their horses, saddling, and setting off into the bright sunny day, heading north while still keeping their eyes open for rubber, John had a sense of foreboding. He alerted the others, and they had their weapons ready, and bows to hand. They came suddenly into a clearing where a horrific scene was being played out, but not for anyone's amusement. It looked like an entire village had been rounded up, and that a band of violent men were making sport of slaughter with them. The four travelers didn't watch long, but without a word or glance at each other, sprang into action in harmonic unison.

John and Tuk dismounted and walked forward at a steady pace, each step loosing another arrow which unerringly found a target, usually in the neck of the most vile and bloody of the monsters in human form, the demons plaguing the villagers, wantonly causing pain and suffering, with death being merely an afterthought visited on men, children, women and the babes in their arms. It took about 14 of the men falling with arrows piercing their throats and preventing their outcries before the rest took notice so entranced were they in their orgy of destruction.

It wasn't the arrows and their falling comrades which drew their attention but Zithrusa and Vedeya charging among them on horseback, knocking them down, or skewering them as they attempted to visit violence upon their hapless victims. John and Tuk watched carefully from the margins, sending an arrow to any who looked to interfere with the girls. At last the tide turned when a young girl of about 12 snatched a knife from a fallen killer and leapt onto the back of another who was threatening her mother, stabbing him over his shoulder and into his heart.