Broken World Book Three - A Land Without Law (19 page)

At last, Talsy
had made up her mind and asked Chanter to meet her in this
sun-dappled glade filled with bracken and bird song. A perfect
place to conceive a perfect child. She smiled as she riffled the
water with her fingers, already contemplating a name for the child.
She hoped for a boy, but a girl would be just as nice. Talsy looked
up as Chanter stepped into the glade, his eyes scanning it before
he smiled at her.

"You wanted to
talk to me?"

She nodded,
turning from the stream and hugging her knees. "Come and sit
down."

The Mujar
settled on the thick mat of bracken, gazing at her. "Is something
wrong?"

"No. I have a
Wish."

"Wish," he
granted.

"I want to
have a child."

His eyes
flicked away to study the stream. "That's perfectly natural for a
girl your age, I think. But don't Lowmen get married first?"

"We don't have
to."

"I know that
Kieran feels a lot for you, but perhaps you should wait until this
quest is over. A child would be a burden, especially once it's
born. Lowmen children are so helpless." He looked at her and cocked
his head. "But you don't need a Wish for that, Kieran will be
willing, I'm certain. What's the Wish?"

Talsy shook
her head, wondering if he was being deliberately obtuse. His
assumption as to the identity of the potential father annoyed her,
as did his lack of reaction to the announcement. "You know it's not
Kieran's child I want, it's yours. That's my Wish."

He looked
away, frowning. "No."

"You said
you'd grant my wishes, and you owe me."

Chanter stared
at the trees, his expression distant. "I can't grant this one. Ask
anything else."

"This is what
I want more than anything. Grant me this, and I'll never ask for
another."

"No." The
Mujar rose to his feet, but Talsy jumped up as he turned away,
gripping his wrist. He stared over her head as she pleaded, "I know
why you don't want to, but I know it would be a beautiful
child."

When he
ignored her, she tugged at his arm, desperate to get his attention.
"Listen to me! I love you, you damned Mujar, but everyone tells me
you won't stay, you'll leave for months on end, living in the
wilds, because you are wild. I don't want to chain you, but you
know how lonely I get without you. You stay with me because I need
protection, but once the Staff of Law is restored and the gathering
is over, you'll be away a lot, won't you?"

He turned his
head, looking down, and she hurried on, "Give me something I can
keep, a child to love, who's yours and mine and won't turn into a
bird and fly away whenever he feels like it. Is that too much to
ask?"

Chanter raised
his eyes to her face and cupped her cheek. "I would do anything
else for you, but this is forbidden. Can't you understand that? Our
races are too different. We're not even remotely the same. We're
from different worlds; the children of different gods."

"I don't care!
You can't be so cruel as to deny me some comfort when you're
gone."

"I'll always
return to you, my little clan. I told you that. You'll never lose
me."

"But you won't
stay. You can't! Your wild heart will long for freedom, and if I
deny you that by trapping you with a Wish, you wouldn't be happy,
would you?"

He sighed,
shifting as if eager to escape the mere thought of being trapped.
"Rather that than what you want. That Wish I would grant you."

"And I love
you for that, but I've seen what happens to you. When you go into
the wild, you're full of life and joy. When you stay with me, like
in the valley, you sleep all day and pace about all night like a
caged animal. I don't want that. I love you too much to put you in
a cage. This way you could have your freedom, because while you're
away, I would have our child to love and care for."

"No."

"Yes." She
blinked away tears. "The gods have given us a way. Perhaps this is
meant to happen."

"No. The gods
didn't make this happen, I did."

She raised her
chin. "I will have this child."

"How?"

Her hand crept
to the thongs that laced her bodice, and his eyes followed it. He
shook his head. "You can't seduce me."

"You don't
find me attractive?"

"I do, but I'm
Mujar."

"Mujar have
lain with women." Her fingers tugged at the laces.

"As a Wish,
when conception was impossible. Not now."

"Would you
have granted me that Wish?"

He nodded.
"Reluctantly."

"Why
reluctantly?"

"Because
Kieran loves you, and he's the one you should be interested
in."

"Well I'm
not." She scowled at him. "Don't throw Kieran in my face, it won't
work."

"Stop this
now." He tried to free his wrist from her grasp. "You'll only
embarrass yourself if you continue. It won't work."

"Yes it will."
Talsy took out the little bottle, hiding it in her hand so he would
not see the gleam of blue within it. She uncorked it with her teeth
and held it towards him.

Chanter's
nostril's flared and his eyes glazed, becoming blank. She smelt
nothing, but he clearly did, and it had an instant and profound
effect on him. A frisson of fear marched up her spine at his
impassive expression. He stared through her as if blind, then
tugged at the ties that bound his tunic and stripped it off. Talsy
removed her bodice, excited and a little afraid. Mujar had lain
with women before, she reassured herself, so there should be
nothing to fear, except that he was under the influence of the
Ishmak plant's scent.

When she was
as naked as he, she embraced him and pressed against him, tugging
him down onto the soft bed of bracken. She had lain with a couple
of clumsy Trueman boys that lived in her village long ago, so she
knew what to do. He followed her lead like an automaton, forcing
her to guide his hands. Still, he only did as she wished, remaining
passive, but compliant. His silence troubled her, as did his lack
of response to her kisses. Nevertheless, she persevered until
finally he pulled her into his arms.

When he
appeared to fall asleep, much later, Talsy closed her eyes with a
smile of satisfaction in the intense afterglow of such an abundance
of ecstasy. Now she understood why women had taken Mujar lovers and
toiled to gain their attentions, while men reviled them for it. As
with everything else, no Trueman would ever be able to compete with
a Mujar lover.

Chanter's lack
of affection was somewhat disappointing, but had not detracted from
the experience much. She stoppered the little bottle and hid it in
the leaves, hoping she would be able to use it many more times.
Filled with a warm glow, she cuddled up to him and fell asleep.

Chanter woke
with a start, sat up and glanced around, then down at the girl
beside him. His limbs seemed to be made of lead and his mouth was
dry. The sensations were almost identical to those he had
experience after his visit to the Ishmak plant, and he groaned and
rubbed his face as memories rushed back. Rising to his feet, he
reeled down to the stream and waded in to wash, horrified that he
had performed a forbidden act, albeit unwillingly

Dragging on
his clothes, he hunted amongst hers, then the leaves, for the plant
fragment she had used. Talsy sighed and reached for him on the
bracken bed beside her, then relaxed without waking. He found no
trace of the bottle he had glimpsed in her hand at the outset, and
eventually gave up and retreated to a rock beside the stream to
stare into the water. What had happened appalled him, and, since
she had planned the encounter, he doubted that there was any
possibility that she had not conceived.

The memory of
their time together reminded him of the women in the hill clan who
had earned a Wish to lie with him. His time with the Ishmak plant
had not been his first experience of lust. This time had been quite
different, however, since he had been under the influence of the
Ishmak plant's scent. He wondered how he had known what to do, in
that state. Certainly it had not been natural for him, so the
knowledge must have come from the place where the information about
Trueman animal forms and the like resided. God-given wisdom, he
mused, that had certainly not been intended for this time, when the
lack of law would allow the forbidden to happen.

The sun had
moved far across the sky when Talsy opened her eyes. She watched it
twinkling through the leaves, then became aware that Chanter no
longer lay beside her. Sitting up, she brushed the bracken from her
hair. The Mujar sat on a rock beside the stream, staring into the
water as if he would solve some mystery there. As she pulled on her
tunic, he raised his head, then quit his rock to come over and
kneel beside her. Smiling, she pulled him down into the soft
bracken beside her.

"Let's do it
again."

"No." He
pushed her away and sat up, frowning.

She sighed,
lacing up her tunic. "I'm sorry I tricked you. Are you angry?"

Chanter shook
his head and stared across the glade with an expression of deep
despair. Alarmed, she sat up and slipped her hand into his. "What's
wrong?"

"Where did you
get that?"

"From an old
woman in the city where I went to get supplies. Why?"

"Did she know
what it was?"

Talsy
shrugged. "Part of a big flower some Truemen found."

"Did she know
that it would work on me?"

"No, she
wasn't sure, but I was."

The Mujar
relaxed a little, his shoulders slumping. "You saw me go to the
flower on the plains. Did you tell her?"

"No." She
smiled. "I thought it must be a big Mujar secret."

"It is."

Chanter
continued to gaze into space, and she slipped her arms around his
neck and kissed him on the cheek. He said, "I can't even offer you
Regret, because you tricked me."

"Regret? I'm
happy, silly. You have nothing to regret. I tricked you, so I guess
it's me who should have regret." She giggled, drunk with happiness.
"But I don't. I got what I wanted."

Chanter pulled
her arms from his neck and turned to her, his expression serious.
"What you might have tricked me into giving you will kill you."

Her smile
faded, and she shook her head. "Don't try to frighten me now. It's
too late for that."

"Maybe, but I
fervently hope not. If I'm the cause of your death, I shall be
desolate."

"I'm not going
to die!"

"I hope not,"
he repeated. "I hope this fails, and if it doesn't, I hope you
survive, but I doubt it."

Talsy tried to
pull away. "You're as bad as Kieran. He said the child would be a
monster, but it won't!"

"I'm not
saying it will be a monster. I'm saying that if you've conceived
you will die. Listen to me. It doesn't matter what I tell you now,
the world is dying anyway. There's no such thing as a Mujar infant,
not outside his pod. Our gestation is two years, and we emerge
almost fully grown. It takes all the energy of a plant over five
miles in diameter to nourish a Mujar foetus."

"My child will
be half Trueman."

"Yes." He
shook his head. "But he will also be half Mujar. Even if his needs
are only half that of a pure Mujar, your frail body can never hope
to nourish him. Why did you do such a stupid thing? I refused your
Wish. Why did you trick me? Had I known what you planned to do, I
would have told you this. But I never thought you would drug me, or
that you had the one thing in this world that could."

She freed her
hands and twisted them together. "It wouldn't have changed my mind.
It won't kill me. I don't care what you say."

"You foolish,
foolish girl," he murmured without rancour. "You dream of a
bouncing baby you can dandle on your knee and nurse at your breast.
But for that you should have asked Kieran, not me. Mujar have no
need of parents. We're independent and undying from the moment we
emerge from the pod. Young Mujar are dangerous, ferocious
creatures. The first thing we do is eat the plant that gave us
life. I tried to tell you, our races are utterly different, almost
complete opposites."

"A child won't
kill its mother, especially one that's half Mujar. You don't kill,
how can your child?"

"Young Mujar
can and sometimes do kill without meaning to, before they develop
the aversion to it that adults have."

Talsy shook
her head. "No, he'll be beautiful and perfect, born like a Trueman,
but with teeth that won't rot before he's thirty and a gentle,
loving nature. You're right, Truemen are savage, bloodthirsty
people who slay innocent beasts for sport and ravage the land to
build their ugly cities. Our child will love this world and all who
live in it. He'll teach Truemen how to live in harmony with it.
He'll set an example of goodness and strength for all to follow,
and start a new breed of perfect people."

"It's a noble
dream, but it can't come true. You can't carry him if you've
conceived. You must get rid of him."

She stared at
him, making him look away. "You're telling me to kill it? Your own
child?"

"Yes. When it
comes to a choice between your life and his, I choose you. Do it
before it's too late."

"And when will
that be?" she demanded.

"When he
becomes undying."

"How
long?"

He pondered,
frowning. "A Mujar becomes undying after twenty moons, four moons
before he's born, so it will either be at nine moons, or six,
depending on how Mujar he is."

"It'll be born
at nine moons!"

"No. Maybe
after twelve or sixteen, not nine."

Talsy shook
her head. "No woman can carry past nine moons."

"Exactly.
Mujar, even a half breed, were never meant to be carried by a
woman."