“But I didn’t see Alain again. When I woke from my trance, I was in Shu-Sha’s palace, where Laoina and the others had carried me. Alain had gone with three of the men of Shu-Sha’s tribe, back to get the dogs. He never came. I waited there for five days, but he never came.”
Wind breathed through the chimes hanging around the outside eaves. A cow lowed from a nearby byre. If she stopped now, she would fall into pieces and never be able to go on.
“Tell me about Shu-Sha,” said Weiwara, as though she had seen into Adica’s heart. “What is her palace like? Do the people of her land look the same as we do? What do they eat?”
“Queen Shuashaana is powerfully fat. You’ve never seen a woman with so much power in her body, thighs as big as my hips and arms as big as my thighs. Her belly is as large as a cauldron and her breasts are like melons.”
“She must be very powerful,” whispered Weiwara in awe. “I wasn’t even nearly that fat when I was pregnant with the twins.”
So drowned had Adica been in her own fears and sorrows that she hadn’t thought once to ask of doings in the village. So much might have happened since she was gone, and yet she had to be careful how she asked, never to mention any person by name who might thereby become vulnerable to the darts of the evil spirits listening around her.
“I hope the Fat One’s favor still smiles on the village.”
“Spring and summer passed swiftly, Hallowed One. There were two raids by the Cursed Ones north of here, at Seven Springs and Four Houses, and some people were killed but the Cursed Ones were driven off. Dorren came from Falling-down to tell us that we must fortify Queens’ Grave. We had work parties from the other villages all summer to build the palisade on the lower embankment, to protect the stone loom. One time just at the autumn equinox a scouting party shot arrows at us, but both palisades were finished by then, so they left when they saw they could do no damage with such small numbers. Still, we’ve sent for war parties from the other White Deer villages, in case they come back. The Fat One has blessed us with three births and no deaths in the moons since you departed. Her favor has been strong over us.”
“May it continue so,” prayed Adica softly. “Forgive me, Weiwara, to speak of fate when the spirits swarm so near to me, but one thing troubles me. Since you are Mother to our people, it falls to me to ask you.”
“I remember our friendship. I will not turn my back on you now.”