By the time the sun was setting, most of the work had been done.
People checked on and maintained the smoky fires in the smoke tent. The rest of the meat had been cooked in various ways and fresh coal bread was being cracked open. Pots of stew and soup filled with all kinds of wild local vegetables were being served in bowls that had appeared out of nowhere. Skins of wine also appeared out of thin air. The Stone Tribe joked and sang, while they fed Pustakawan and Vevie until they couldn't hold anymore.
"You gotta improve your tolerance," Dorit slapped Pustakawan on the back and waved his drunken arm about. "You prolly won't get a feast as great as this unless you meet another tribe's as nice as us. You're one of us now. You've shared our stone, our sweat, our bread, our meat and wine. You stole a woman."
"Rescued," Pustakawan corrected, taking another mouthful of the crude fermented tuber drink that tasted like a bit like fart. He'd gotten used to it, "and she's not my woman. She's her own woman and free to do as she wishes. I'm only escorting her home."
"You still stole her from Chimcham," said Dorit, putting his heavy arm around Pustakawan's shoulder and belching loudly, before accepting a chunk of roast meat from a passing woman, "even if you treat her like a sister or whatever. You finally hunted the chamois on your own - a rite of passage in our tribe. It makes you a true man, so we decided to give you a celebratory gift. It's our tribe's secret, but I know you'll keep it to yourself." Dorit fumbled in his pocket and unwrapped several lumps of stone, revealing it to Pustakawan. "Our mountain has more than one kind of stone and these, we have a lot of, but don't wish to sell. One day though," and here Dorit looked completely sober, "word might get out and we'll need your help. You never told us, but you can read and write and should probably have been some big, fancy official. The fact that you didn't care that we aren't so clever as you means a lot to us. This is our thanks and payment in advance. You know the blood and sweat and tears we've shed over our mountain. The mountain is ours. We are are the mountain's. It has rewarded us, but our standing is poor and if we start trading something of real value, we'd be targeted and exploited."
Pustakawan held the rocks closer to the fire, turning them in the flickering light. He picked them up one by one, awe in his eyes. There were various types of raw gemstone here. Each as large as the tips of two fingers. On closer inspection, he found a raw pink diamond and even jadeite, that didn't seem to fit the area's geology. How these stones could be found in close proximity to each other were an amazing discovery and mystery. A geologist's puzzle. Although no geologist, he almost wanted to stay longer just to study this strange phenomenon, except he'd promised Vevie they'd be travelling back east. He could come back one day. It's not like the mountain and the stone would be going anywhere soon. He only hoped no one else found out about this discovery. He blinked at Dorit in amazement.
"Do what you like with'em," Dorit grinned.
"I'm no expert," Pustakawan said, debating with himself to keep his word and go or stay and research further. The thought of staying danced in his mind. The pull of wonderful new information and something to study pulled and tugged at him, but he had always told himself that he would be a man of his word. He wouldn't be like a certain unscrupulous person he didn't want to think about, "but if I come across one, I'll ask their advice."
"I cleaned off the surrounding stone for you so that they won't be able to figure out where it came from," Dorit said with a slightly wistful look in his eyes. "If the other tribes learn of this, we'll be wiped out. The Stone Tribe isn't afraid of anything, but we are small..."
Pustakawan saw how Dorit looked at his children and the others in his tribe. It was a man's personality and character that made him a great man. Not his wealth, his strength or education.
"I understand," Pustakawan smiled, with an internal sigh at this missed opportunity to study more. He'd have to make the journey back someday. He had to if he wanted to see what mine these had come from. He'd been in the quarry and seen the stone. It was all sedimentary rock. Where was there igneous rock unless it was deeper? "I will see what I can do and if I make a profit from these and become rich, I will find a way to send you a share."
"That's more like it," Dorit pounded his back, making Pustakawan choke. "I knew I could count on you."
It wasn't that Pustakawan needed the money, but the Stone Tribe did. It would be good if he could pay them back for willingly welcoming him into their midst, sharing their secrets and allowing him to learn from them and record their knowledge.
This type of information, Pustakawan would be keeping to himself. He wouldn't be recording it in any of his big books that would be sent back to the Perpustakaan. Which reminded him, he should find a coastal city or town that could send his pile of books away. They were getting too heavy to lug about everywhere.
While he was thinking, Dorit called his brothers over and they roped him into another round of drinking with their burly arms around his shoulders.
***
Vevie had sleeping children draped all around her and the other women who were sitting on furs that had been spread out on the ground around the low fire embers. They cracked nuts, ate fruit and meat and stew and bread, and still the other women didn't seem to be full. Vevie didn't know where they put it all. She thought she'd been pretty good at drinking and eating from her days in the army, but that was nothing compared to this.
"You need to eat more," a woman by her side nudged. With all the crude alcohol Vevie had drunk, she had forgotten all the women's names. It wasn't that the wine was strong - in fact, it tasted like old farts in Vevie's opinion, but rather that they had pretty much forced her to drink so much, she was sure she had drunk near a barrel full of the awful stuff. The food on the other hand, was delicious. Nevertheless, Vevie had eaten so much that she'd already emptied her bowels twice. Now, she was completely stuffed. There was no way she could fit anything else in. She couldn't even move.
"I can't fit anymore in," she protested, holding up a hand into which a piece of nicely charred roast meat was thrust. She nibbled on the crispy bits. If the women saw her at least holding a piece of food and nibbling on it, surely they wouldn't force her to eat anymore.
"He's a good man," the woman nodded in satisfaction, watching Vevie eat with gleaming eyes. She thrust her chin toward where Pustakawan was laughing and drinking in the crowd of men. "You're lucky."
"I'm betrothed!" Vevie protested for the umpteenth time. The Stone Tribe women didn't seem to understand what that meant. "To someone else!"
"You are following him, are you not? He has taken care of your wounds and seen your bare skin," the woman said in confusion and Vevie belatedly remembered her name. Pashteen. "You belong to him now. Unless he's unwilling to take responsibility."
Vevie scratched her nose for a way to explain.
"He's escorting me home. Like a body guard. Like - like a brother."
"Brother? Are you related? Do you know him?"
"No! Yes. Maybe. Sort of. But no."
Pashteen laughed at her.
"You must be drunk from the little you drank. You aren't making sense."
"He serves my cousin," Vevie said. "He's one of my cousin's men."
"I see. For the sake of this cousin, he came to bring you home. Your cousin must love you very much."
"You know I was promised to Engarson, right?" Vevie asked in confusion.
"What of it? I was promised to my brother's cousin, but was stolen first. Tor is a good man. I didn't like him at first, but I have grown to love him and he is good to me. Here, I need not fear one of my sisters will be jealous of me and try to kill me to take my place. We are all equals here. We have all heard stories of the Bloodsuns and their many wives. I do not think that you want to marry them."
"For the sake and lives of my people," Vevie said, looking away. "I must. I don't want them all to die."
"As a man, he should act like a man," Pashteen frowned, referring to Engarson, while slurping up roasted bone marrow and washing it down with a bowl of wine. "If another man takes you first, he can't protest and while you are out of his reach, you can still choose. He is a good man," she repeated, looking at Pustakawan, "if a bit flighty. Ah," her eyes widened as if she had been enlightened, "I understand. Who would want to be tied to a wanderer like him? No steady income. No house. No home. Can't settle in one place. You are right," Pashteen took another swig and burped, patting one of the sleeping children gently on the back at the same time. "Not good husband material."
"I'm glad you have finally seen the light," Vevie laughed out loud, still feeling at a bit of a loss and took a sip of the awful wine, covering up the taste with the last of the meat she'd somehow nibbled clean away in her other hand.
Pashteen laughed too and looked up at the star studded sky, glancing at the moon.
"It's getting late. You were badly injured not long ago," Pashteen took the wine from Vevie and helped distangle her from the sleeping children around her, frowning a little. "You should not be drinking so much while you are still recovering from your wounds. Go and sleep. I will keep watch over the children with the other women."
Vevie blinked at the woman's sudden scolding and change in tone from gossipy to that of a mother. With a tiny shrug of her shoulders, she let the other woman wipe her lips and hands clean with a moist rag as if she were a child, and be tucked into the fresh smelling, dry bed roll. She didn't know why, but she had never been in control of the conversation with any of these women. As a princess and a general in the Velor army, she normally had good mastery of both wits and tongue. She hadn't had any problems with talking to Juta. In fact, with these women, she'd felt lost as if she were being tossed about by the wind... and yet she didn't mind. This didn't make sense, but her fuzzy mind didn't care right now.
Sleep. Sleep was a good idea.