ICE BURIAL: The Oldest Human Murder Mystery (The Mother People Series Book 3) (26 page)

Zena
was less enthusiastic until she saw how
peaceful
D
urak
looked after making the
decision.
Perhaps with Runor to help him he would come to terms with his loss.

Reassured,
she and
Lief
settled in
to their hut
. When
winter passed
they
would
travel again but for the moment
they could
enjoy this time together without worrying about what was to come.

Later,
they remembered this
time
as the happiest and most peaceful period of their lives.
It was a peace
that was
not destined to
last.

CHAPTER
THIRTEEN

Korg licked his lips
nervously
. He was afraid, and he did not like the feeling.
It reminded him of the time he and Mordor had been forced to leave their village
all those
years ago.
He remembered how the women had shouted and thrown stones at them, and the old men had glared
, their eyes filled with
loathing
. But the young men had frightened him most. They had been ready to kill - not surprising, considering what Mordor had done. Had they known the rest, they would have killed. Even Korg had been shocked.
That was when he had first understood what Mordor’s voices could do to him, to them.

He took a step back, watching the women carefully. Their faces were hostile, their bodies tense with anger.
To return to
Niva
’s
village
had been a mistake
,
he realized,
but he had been unable to think of an
other
place to spend the winter
.
Always before, they had gone to R
unor’s
village
, but that was
no longer
possible
.
He had
never dared to tell
Mordor that Rofina was dead
. To tell him that
she had
gone away with
another man
would be even worse
. Mordor had always been
certain that Rofina w
as devoted only to him, and to
know that
it was n
ot true would destroy him completely.

Where was Niva? Why had she not come to defend him? The women would not dare to act like this if Niva was here. He had charged her with the task of restoring the Leader
’s
authority when they had left
, he
remembered angrily. Why had she not done his bidding?

The women continued to stare at him.
Korg tried to stare back but his eyes dropped i
n
the face of the hatred in saw in
some of their eyes
.
That did not surprise him, but their defiance did. Perhaps
Zena
’s
influence had lasted longer than he had anticipated. By this time,
Niva should have been able to convince them
that
Zena
was an imposter who should not be believed
.

Still, the
villagers m
ight
have
left
the
m
alone
if
Mordor
had
not
tried to persuade
one of the
girls
to come to him, and sent Korg to get her when she failed to arrive.
That
was what
had made the women
so
angry.
The girl had been very young, which angered the
m
further
.
Mordor preferred them as young as possible. He always had, but the craving had been worse
since Rofina had gone.
Without her he was restless, more easily angered, and he wanted the girls over and over again.

Nausea invaded Korg
’s
belly. Mating had always disgusted him. Even to think of being so close to another person made him feel sick
.
When he had to mate, as he
occasionally
did
,
he always threw up any food he had eaten
.
Still,
he rather
enjoyed watching
. He liked to see
how the girls reacted to the potions he devised for them. Rofina especially had intrigued him. He had not expected such blatant desire, had thought that she at least was pure and would not be corrupted by his potions. He had been wrong.

Korg
’s
lips twisted. Even he had been deceived by Rofina
’s
innocent face. He had
begun to care for her a little, as one might care for a child. What a fool he had been! Beneath her child-like exterior, she was as sinful as the others. All women were filled with lust, he reflected with scathing disdain. Rofina was no exception. He
had not been
surprised
when he heard that she
was dead
, either
. No one who needed the poppies as much as Rofina did could last
for
long without them.

T
he bitter taste of hatred filled him unexpectedly, not for Rofina but for the woman who had called herself his mother. He pushed it away ruthlessly. He must concentrate on what he should do next.

The women were silent, watching. He could not retreat as if he was afraid, but
to take the girl now was impossible.
They had surrounded her and would not give her up without a fight. Probably they would call in the men, and they might attack. Korg wished Gurd was
nearby to protect him, but he
had stayed w
ith Mordor.

One of the women took a step toward him and raised a threatening fist. Korg backed away once more, but he forced himself to speak defiantly.

“
To disobey the Great Spirit is wrong!
”
he warned them.
“
This will not be forgiven!
”
They did not answer or even move.

Korg took another step back; then he turned to walk away
, trying to move with dignity
.
“
I will
return!
”
he shouted over his shoulder. Again, there was no answer, only their eyes boring into his back. He was grateful for the thick cover of trees that quickly made him invisible.

It was all the fault of the woman called
Zena
, he fumed
as he retreated
. Until she had
spoken of the Goddess
the girls had come
willingly
,
flattered by special attention from the Leader
.
The people had listened eagerly to
him
, too,
and
had
obeyed the commands of the Great Spirit. Now,
many
refused
, e
ven in the north where
people
had never before dared to disob
ey
.

Korg
’s
face twisted with fury; then he
sighed
heavily
.
Zena
was not the only problem. There was also the restorative.
Mordor’s craving for
that
was worse, too
. K
org was appalled at how quickly
his brother
had reverted to his
old
ways.
Years ago,
Mordor
had drunk mead
constantly; now he
could
indulge in his craving
again
because
Gurd gave
him mead
whenever he asked. E
ven when Korg had expressly forbidden
it
, Gurd gave it to him
.
He had never been able to deny Mordor anything. Even girls.

The two cravings were inextricably combined, Korg thought with revulsion.
The more mead Mordor drank, the more he
began to mumble of witches
and
to
stagger into the villages in search of girls
. Once people had seen him intoxicated, they
lost all respect
for him - and for the Great Spirit. And if Gurd stole a girl for him, as he had from time to time, the villagers were ready to kill.

So
mehow, he must wean
his brother
from the
craving
s
, Korg thought with a sense of desperation
.
But how
?
The only way to calm
Mordor
when
he
became
agitated
was to give him mead
, but
then he
wanted more
and
more
, and then he demanded girls.
Korg sighed. It was a vicious circle he could not seem to break.

When he
arrived at
the
clearing
he
hesitated, wondering how best to handle his brother
this time
. Mordor would be angry when he returned without the girl. He always became upset when his wishes were not obeyed.

“
Where is the girl?
”
Mordor
demanded irritably
when Korg appeared.

“
There were none who were right for you,
”
Korg lied smoothly.

“
Then I will look for myself,
”
Mordor replied, getting to his feet unsteadily. His eyes were glazed.
Gurd
must have given him
still
more
mead
,
Korg realized.
Worse, s
ince their own supply was exhausted,
he
must have
taken
it
from the supply
hidden by the men of the village
.
They would not be pleased when they
came at the end of the day and
saw that much of their mead was gone.

Gurd appeared, h
o
lding a large bowl of mead.
Korg
hesitated, and then decided to let Mordor have it. That was better than having him stumble back to the village again in search of a girl.

“
Why do you not have some
more of the
restorative
before you look for a girl
?
”
he
told his brother
soothingly.
“
I am sure that will help.
”
Mordor hesitated, his face still stubborn, but the offer was too tempting to resist, and he nodded.

Korg
watched
in
disgust
as he gulped
down the
drink
. His
face hardened. He could not let mead destroy everything he had built. After this, there must be no more. And that
meant
he must find a way to keep Gurd away from Mordor until he
was
weaned from
his craving
s
.

The
best solution,
Korg
decided, would be to travel for a time
, heading north
.
Traveling always seemed to calm Mordor.
It also meant that Gurd could not make mead.
Then, when snow made walking difficult,
he
w
ould persuade Gurd to stay near one of the northern villages
, while he took Mordor to a secluded place he knew of further
to the
south
and east
.
He would tell Gurd that
the Leader needed him to stay
in the north
to remind the villagers that it was dangerous to
disobey the Great Spirit. Gurd would like that. He
enjoyed intimidating people.

Korg’s lips twisted with savage pleasure
as another thought came.
He
would tell the villagers
that Gurd was a spirit with great power
who watched them all the time, even if he and the Leader were not there.
That would keep them obedient. Many of the women
already believed that,
he suspected, so it should not be difficult.

The
solution
pleased him. He and Mordor could build a real hut, not just a shelter,
and
be alone as they had when they first set out together.
No one would see them or know they were there
, so there would be no temptations from mead or from girls. Once he had calmed
Mordor, he would begin the lessons again, teach his brother how to make the voices work for him as the Great Spirit instead of making him do things no man would otherwise do.

“
More!
”
Mordor held out the bowl imperiously
.
Korg
’s
mind snapped
reluctantly
back to the present.
He would allow his brother one more
.
Then they must leave,
while Mordor could still walk and
before the
village
men
discovered
that their mead was gone.
He had known men to kill for less.