Chapter 25

25

- Alba -

“What do we do?” a voice asks.

I open my eyes. It’s daylight in the penthouse cave, the fire has gone out, and the air is fresh.

Lying there for a moment, I check how I’m feeling. And it’s not bad. I’m refreshed and clear-minded.

I reach behind me to scratch the injury at my lower back. It still hurts, but it’s the dull pain and intense iche of a wound healing.

I sit up and rub my eyes. The girls are over by the wall. There’s someone sitting there, leaned up at an awkward angle.

“Anter’az!” I exclaim and get to my feet. “Is he all right?”

Astrid looks over at me. “It doesn’t look like it.”

I hurry over. He’s slumped against the wall, head hanging forwards in a way that doesn’t look right. “What’s wrong with him?”

“He used some venom on himself,” Bryar says tightly. “He asked us to wake him up at sunrise, but we’ve been trying for an hour and he just won’t come out of it. He told Korr’ax that he used too much.”

I kneel down and stroke his cheek. “What kind of venom?”

Bryar sits back on her haunches. “Vral, Korr’ax says. I don’t know what that is.”

“He always tries the medicines on himself,” I tell them, getting worried now. His skin is cool to the touch. “Did he use that on me?”

“That’s what Korr’ax says.”

Damn . The venom he feared most of all. And he used it on himself first.

I touch the leather band around his right upper arm, similar to the one on his left. “This is new.” Without hesitation, I slide the band down his arm. It reveals a single cut made in his skin, a thin red line one inch long. I lean in and sniff. There’s only the faintest hint of a sharp, chemical smell that reminds me of chlorine. “It’s clean. Healing nicely.”

“What do we do?” Astrid repeats. “I’ve pinched him and shaken him. Nothing works. I think his breath is slowing down. Should we pour cold water over him?”

“Yes!” I exclaim, suddenly realizing how serious this is. “Get water! Does anyone have a really pointy needle?”

The girls scramble to their feet.

I lean in. “Anter’az! You have to wake up!”

There’s no reaction.

Without hesitation, I place two fingers at the new cut on his arm and squeeze hard.

He grunts.

“That’s something, anyway,” I mutter. “Anter’az! Snap out of it!” I squeeze again.

He grunts again, but there’s nothing else and that might just be snoring. I may have to try another approach before we start drowning him and jabbing him with needles.

And there’s one thing that always got a response from him.

“Anter’az, do you remember the hollow? And the cave? Remember us two, lying there?”

Looking around quickly, I grab his hand with both of mine and place it on my chest, outside the leather bra. “Remember this? You like squeezing it.”

There! I swear his eyelids moved.

Bryar returns. “Here is a pin. I’ve sharpened it and held it over a fire for a couple of seconds.”

Astrid returns with a pot of water.

“Thanks. Girls, can we just… what if you two go outside for a minute?”

They both leave the cave without a word, walking quickly.

“Anter’az,” I purr. “Remember doing this?” His hand is heavy, but I manage to slide it clumsily down my chest and my bare stomach to the edge of my panties.

He grunts again, and a twitch goes through his arm. He’s close to waking up, I think.

“If you want to go further, you have to do it yourself,” I tell him. “You know what’s down there. Maybe you don’t like it?”

His breathing speeds up and there’s another grunt. To my joy, his head rolls from one side to the other as if he’s trying to straighten it.

“Let me know if you don’t like it,” I purr as I slide one of his fingers along the edge of my panties. “But if you do, it’s right there . Just reach for it.” It flashes through my mind that this is right on the limit of what I can do to an unconscious man, lover or not. But the situation is desperate, possibly life-threatening. I’m not doing anything he and I haven’t done many times before, something he just could never get enough of. And, crucially, it seems to be working.

His hand twitches again and the finger extends. Both eyelids flutter as he fights to wake up.

“Almost there,” I encourage him. “Just a little more.”

He opens both eyes, his head rolling around as he tries to focus.

“Alba.” His voice is growly and hoarse.

“Yes, my love,” I reply, feeling tears of relief gathering. “I’m here.”

He blinks several times and raises his head, squinting against the light. “Alba.”

I squeeze his hand. “Right here.”

He slides two fingers under the edge of my panties, going downwards in a movement that has to be close to instinctive. “Soft.”

His loincloth develops a bulge, and I know everything is going to be all right.

I can tell the exact moment he wakes up fully. His body stiffens and he sits up properly, focusing his orange eyes on me. “Alba!”

“Yes, my love.”

His gaze follows his arm down to where the hand rests on my lower abdomen. “Oh. Did I do that?”

“We both did,” I assure him. “But we can do more later.”

He takes his hand off me and looks around. “Ah yes. This place. How are you feeling?” He looks me up and down with his surgeon’s eyes.

“I’m really good,” I tell him. “Thanks to you.”

“The wound,” he says and straightens fully. “On your back.”

“Much better,” I report as I turn to the side to show him. “The vral’s venom worked.”

He reaches out and runs one finger down my back. “Ah. No festering left. And your fever is gone.”

“You cured me.”

I have the rare opportunity to see Anter’az grin. “Yes.”

“But you almost killed yourself!” I chide him. “Using that venom on yourself!”

He shrugs. “It’s the only way. I had some idea how much to use, but that was old venom. What I had was very fresh and maybe stronger. I tried it on myself to see.”

I can’t hold back anymore, so I embrace his neck and head and lean in. “Thank you. You saved my life again.”

“Good,” he says, putting his massive arms around me. “That was the whole point.”

Bryar quietly comes inside the cave.

“Everything okay here?”

I turn to smile at them, wiping the moisture off my face. “Everything is great, girls. Thanks.”

“All right. Happy to see you awake, Anter’az. I’m Bryar, Korr’ax’s wife. This is Astrid, the shaman of the Borok tribe.”

“Greetings, Woman Bryar and Shaman Astrid,” Anter’az says without skipping a beat. I’m sure being around not one, but three women all of sudden, one even a tribal shaman, must be confusing. But of course I did tell him a lot about them, so it can’t be a complete surprise. “Thank you for taking care of Alba for me.”

“We don’t use titles much here,” Bryar says. “Simply call us by our names.”

“Very well,” Anter’az says. “Astrid, I wonder if I may have a word with you.”

Astrid arches her eyebrows. “With me? All right.”

Anter’az slowly and heavily gets to his feet, lifting me with him. “I’ll be right back.” He disentangles himself from my embrace and follows Astrid out to the plateau.

I straighten my underwear and look around for my dress. But of course that was cut off me. “Wanting to discuss healer business with the shaman, I guess.”

“My guess is something else,” Bryar says. “The way I know these guys, coming here was not a trivial thing for him. Wait, you can take this.” She opens a basket and takes out a dinosaur-skin dress, stiff and baggy. “It’s new, but it won’t fit you right. Or anyone.”

I take the dress and hold it up in front of me. It’s the usual Stone Age design we all use, knee-length and rough and full of outside pockets. “It’s fine, Bryar. Thank you. And sorry about all the trouble I’ve caused you and… everyone.”

“Oh no, you don’t.” She walks over and hugs me tight. “You have nothing to apologize for, Alba!

We’re all just happy it turned out well.”

“Yeah… but did it? You don’t know everything about the Krast tribe. I should never have gone there in the first place! Now they hate women even more, and they’re fighting among themselves for no good reason. Dror’iz and the guys basically had to get out of there to not be in harm’s way.”

Bryar helps me put the dress on. “And now we know that we should avoid the Krast tribe. Better to get these things out in the open sooner than later. Part of the reason Korr’ax sent the delegation there was to check what kind of tribe they are now. To spy on them, pretty much. They are a neighboring tribe with a fearsome reputation. He wanted to know how much of a threat they are. Now he knows they could be a serious problem, so he can prepare for that.”

“But still, you went out on a limb, talking him into letting me go there.”

Bryar looks at me quizzically. “Huh? But I didn’t! Korr’ax was actually fine with you going from the start. If anything, I hinted that he should consider not allowing it, thinking about your safety. But he just smiled.”

I freeze. “Bryar, you don’t think that he sent me to the Krast in order to create problems for them?”

She straightens the dress on my shoulders. “I didn’t before, but now I think that’s a possibility.”

“If so, he read me like an open book. And he can’t even read, so I must be as easy to figure out as a freaking picture book. Using my contrarian nature against me, telling everyone that he didn’t want me to go and even making sure I went inside their village by having Dror’iz ask me not to… your husband is a devious guy, Bryar.”

“He’s the chief of two tribes,” she says brightly. “He’s got to have something between those cute ears of his. But this is speculation, Alba. It may have been nothing like that. I wonder, what will the Krast tribe think about Anter’az coming to see us? Alone?”

I look out at the plateau, where he and Astrid are on the way back inside. “Yeah. They might not like it. But he’s their healer, and they really value him. They’ll have a new chief soon, and he will decide— oh! When’ the full moon? Tonight?”

“Last night,” Bryar tells me. “Big and bright. Practically right overhead. Why?”

Astrid and Anter’az enter the cave.

“Anter’az, the full moon was last night!” I exclaim. “And you were here.”

“I was here,” he confirms. “I’m happy your fever wasn’t so high that you didn’t notice me.”

I reach out to grab his arm. “I mean, the full moon was when your tribe selects the new chief. And you weren’t there!”

“That’s all correct,” he rumbles. “The Krast tribe now has a new chief. And he will by now have decided if I am to be cast out or not.”

“But… do you know who it will be? Who it is?”

“I wasn’t there. It could be anyone. But it could not be me, if that is what you’re really asking. The Elder Council may like me and appreciate me, but they will certainly not appoint a chief who’s not even present in the village at such an important time. They don’t know where I am or what I’m doing.”

“But what if it’s Tarat’ex?” I ask, aghast. “The man who tried to kill me? Twice? And who almost succeeded last night?”

“He has many friends in the tribe, and he will by now have told everyone that he tried to kill you. Many will like his efforts, especially those close to the two co-chiefs. Former co-chiefs, now.”

“If so, won’t he cast you out?”

Anter’ax gives me a lopsided smile. “I think that’s very likely.”

“You don’t seem that worried.”

He shrugs his massive shoulders. “What can I do? I can’t be in two places at the same time. I chose the most important place. It was something that meant so much more to me that I didn’t think about my tribe at all.”

“Healing me,” I state, tears filling my eyes again. “That was more important to you than even the risk of being cast out.”

He takes my other hand, too. “I will never be able to tell you how much more important that was. Or is. But I know why . It’s because I love you, Alba.”

I squeeze both his hands as hard as I can, knowing he’s too big to hurt that way. “I love you too, Anter’az. I’m sure the Borok tribe will be happy to accept you as a tribesman.”

“Perhaps,” he says. “I haven’t thought much about it. I’ve been thinking mostly about this, which your shaman has explained to me and which she recommended I do now.”

I glance over at Astrid. She gives me a merry grin, white teeth shining.

Anter’az gets down on one knee, meaning that his eyes are about level with mine.

The breath catches in my throat. “Oh my God…”

“Alba, I have a lot to say to you,” he begins. “But Shaman Astrid says that I should say all it later, and that this ritual is to be kept short. Alba, I love you. I want to be with you for the rest of my life. Will you marry me?”

For the first time there’s an uncertainty in his voice. This means a lot to him.

And to me. He’s the best man I’ve ever met, the best lover there can ever have existed anywhere, and the nerdiest caveman on Xren. Of course there can only be one answer.

“Come onnn, ” Bryar growls between clenched teeth. “You’re torturing him!”