ICE BURIAL: The Oldest Human Murder Mystery (The Mother People Series Book 3) (27 page)

“
Of course, dear Leader,
”
he
murmured
,
fetching Mordor another, much smaller portion.
His brother looked
gratified. He liked to be called
dear
Leader, especially at times like this.

Mordor drank, more slowly this time.
He was already swaying on his feet.
Korg let him finish, then he gestured to Gurd
to fill a gourd with mead for Mordor to have later.
Donning their
disguises
,
he and Gurd
supported the Leader on either side and led him up the steep hills and over the pass.
Korg steered them away from
Rofina
’s
village once they
had
crested the high ridge and led them instead over
the far side of the mountain
to the north,
where
he was sure no one lived.
It was an exhausting trek but Korg did not let them stop until they were far enough from
Niva
’s
village so no one would come after them.

Once they were settled around a small fire, Korg handed Mordor a cup of the mead Gurd had brought
.
Mordor
consumed
it greedily,
and then
gestured for another
.
Korg did not demur, but he
added
herbs to the concoction so Mordor would fall asleep before he
could
demand
more
.
To
have Mordor unconscious for a few hours would give him time to think
.

He
made sure
Mordor
was under the
rough
shelter
Gurd had erected
and
steeled himself to
watch
as
his brother
slid
lower and lower
until he
collapsed against the ground in a stupor.
His face was flushed, his mouth wide open, and
Korg’s revulsion made him want to
leave, to get up and go away and let Mordor find out what the people would do to him if they knew
what he had done in the past.
At the same time,
he knew he
could not. They were bound together, he and Mordor, had been from childhood. Now, he was the protector, but then it had been the other way. Mordor’s big fists had always been ready to defend hi
m
from the other boys, who taunted
him
merciless
ly because he would not join their rough games or hunt with them. Instead, he had gone by himself to the woods to dance, had taught his body to leap and bend and gyrate, but even more he had taught himself about herbs, what each one did and how to use them. There was power in knowing about herbs, he had sensed, and he had been right.

Only once had they let him down. No herb he had ever found could tame the demons in Mordor
’s
mind, demons that grew stronger with each passing year. For them, he had been forced to find a different solution. And he had, Korg thought, permitting himself a moment of triumph at the transformation he had wrought. He had turned
the brutal
uncaring
man who was
Mordor into the Leader, had repeated the lessons over and over again until kindness and authority
and gentleness
were as natural to Mordor as
violence
and cruelty
had been before. His voices too had been transformed, turned into the proclamations of the Great Spirit, which must always be obeyed. Even the voices that spoke to Mordor of witches and the sinfulness of women had been quelled, absorbed into the rules of mating laid down by the Great Spirit.

“
Only a few women are pure enough to be chosen by the Great Spirit
to
bear the sacred young,
”
Korg had explained.
“
The others you must initiate yourself. When you do that and
then
select a mate for them, they can no longer be sinful. Mordor had believed him, had listened to his own magnificent voice and believed. So had the people.

And they had obeyed. Korg
’s
pale eyes glittered with satisfaction. Though they did not know it, they had obeyed
him
, the boy everyone had taunted, the man no one had ever liked. The villagers had vied to please him, to be chosen to assist him, had tried even more desperately to avoid his wrath and his accusing stare. A smile twisted
Korg
’s
lips. That, he enjoyed. To watch someone writhe in terror as his pointing finger and scathing voice drew attention to them gave him great pleasure. People soon understood that to cross him was not wise.

Or they had, until the woman
Zena
had come. The glitter disappeared from Korg
’s
eyes and he began to pace with savage intensity. What was he going to do about her? She was destroying him, destroying everything he had created.
Even
if he succeeded in taming Mordor’s cravings, in making him into the Leader again, Zena could still destroy them.

An unexpected thought came to him, and he tensed. What would happen if he
convinced
Mordor that
Zena
was a witch? But he knew what would happen. It had happened many times. Still, that would solve all his problems, would it not?

Korg shook his head quickly. The idea was tempting but it could not be done. For the Leader to think of witches again was dangerous. He might start
obeying
the voices again. The thought was
too
terrifying
to contemplate
.

N
o. He must find another way to deal with
Zena
.
But that, too, must wait.
She and the man Lief had returned to her village to spend the winter, and he
could not confront her
there.
Zena
was too strong
. S
o was the woman called Larak. Besides, there was no hurry.
Zena
would not leave her home for many months. When she did, he would think of a way to handle her.
N
ow,
taming
Mordor was
most important. By the time winter had gone, he
had to make certain his brother was ready for the challenge of being the Great Leader again
.

Mordor
began to snore loudly
, a horrible
, monotonous sound
that
grat
ed
in
Korg’s
ears.
Gurd seemed unaffected. Closing his eyes, he laid down beside the Leader and fell asleep. Grimacing, Korg went outside
to wait.

A few hours later, Mordor stirred and sat up groggily.
Korg handed him a cup of warm broth with a stimulant in it to revive him.

“
Ah, that is good,
”
Mordor grunted.
“S
till, a restorative would help as well.
”

Korg shook his head.
“
There is no more,
”
he said firmly.
“
We must leave now. We will travel for a time
and when the snows come we will build a hut away from the villages and be by ourselves, as we used to be. The people must learn that we will not help them unless they obey.

“
You must rest,
regain your powers,
”
he added hastily as Mordor
’s
face
reddened
with fury.

Placated by the words, Mordor nodded seriously.
“
You are right. No man can speak for the Great Spirit as I do unless he rests sometimes. After that, the people will listen and obey as they always have before.
”

T
hey
set off, and to
Korg
’s
relief, Gurd was excited by the idea of intimidating the
northern
villagers
. Once
they had arrived,
he
was persuaded to
stay
there more easily than Korg had dared to hope. They left him erecting a hut
a short
distance from one of the villages
. Intent on his project, he
seemed hardly to notice as they walked away. He was a strange man, Korg reflected.
To know what he thought was impossible.

He and Mordor
headed south
and east
to the secluded place he
had in mind
.
The journey
too
k longer than
he
had
expected
, but
Korg
did not
worry
. As he had hoped, Mordor became calmer
with each passing day.
He stopped asking for mead
or for Gurd
. He stopped asking for Rofina, too
,
and became quieter in his mind.

When they arrived,
they built a sturdy hut, and when that was finished Korg began the lessons again. Mordor
listened intently,
and
to Korg’s relief, he
seemed day by day to turn into the Leader again as he listened to the familiar
words.
Perhaps
the voices had
once again
been tamed,
Korg
thought hopefully,
or
had even
disappeared. Mordor seemed
almost normal again
, and
he
was
pleased. If he could just keep
his brother
stable, everything would be as before.

His
hopes were dashed
when the first signs of spring appeared
.
Mordor
’s
calm seemed suddenly to
crack,
and he became
increasingly restless and agitated
.
He
began to ask
about Rofina
again
, wondering where she was
and why they had not gone
to her village to stay for the winter as they always had
in the past
.

Korg answered as he always had before.
“
We will find her when we return to her village,
”
he told Mordor, postponing once again the moment when he would be forced to tell his brother the truth.

This time Mordor refused to be placated.
“
I would like to look for her now,
”
he replied stubbornly.
He wanted to find Gurd, too, but he did not mention this to Korg. Gurd would get him
the
restorative
again,
and Korg would not like that.

Korg searched for another excuse.
“
We must wait until the snows
have passed
before we leave
,
”
he said finally, unable to think of anything else.

“
The
re is no snow
,
”
Mordor objected, looking at the bare ground all around him.

333

“
The
re is snow
in the passes,
”
Korg pointed out, but Mordor
persisted, asking again and again to leave.
Finally, to distract him, Korg brought in two young girls he found gathering berries by themselves in a field.
As he always did, he gave the girls herbs to sedate them so they did not enrage Mordor by resisting, and
once Mordor had finished with them, he
returned them safely to the place
where
he had found them
.
As soon as they had recovered from their sleepiness, they would make their way home and have little
memory of what had happened to offer
those who questioned them.

After that, Mordor was quiet for a few days. Korg took advantage of the time to go
to the path
that led from
Zena
’s
village
to Runor’s
and examine it for tracks
. He did not think
Zena
would leave
yet
, but he wanted to be certain.
Before, he and Mordor had followed her so
the Leader could talk to the villagers before she came or after she had left, to warn them of her lies.
Perhaps, though,
it did not matter
.
With Mordor so volatile again, to follow
Zena
again
would be impossible
.

The sound of a branch snapping brought his head up. Could someone have come after him because of the
two
girls? The thought was terrifying. He
went up and down the path peering into the trees,
but saw no one.
Perhaps it had been
an animal
.

H
e turned to stare at
Zena
’s
village, as if by looking hard enough he could tell if she was still there, then he
strode rapidly
in the direction
of Runor’s village, where he would
find the
smaller
path
t
hat led to
the hut he and Mordor had built.

The distraction
of the girls
did not last as long as Korg had hoped.
“
Now I must find Rofina,
”
Mordor announced
one morning
,
rising to his feet.

Alarmed, Korg took his arm.
“
We must wait until we know where
Zena
goes,
”
he said
.
If you are to be Leader again,
she
must be stopped
.
S
he will leave her village soon, and then we can follow as we did before
and
warn the people of her coming so they will not listen to her.
”

Mordor did not answer, barely noticed
Zena
’s
name. All his thoughts were on Rofina, and he heard only the words that meant Korg still did not want to leave. Rofina needed him, he thought stubbornly. She had always needed him, and he did not want to wait any longer to find her. For him to have some of the restorative was also necessary. Without the mead he felt restless, unable to think, and if he was to be the Leader again, he must be able to think. Korg told him there was none because he did not want him to have it, but Mordor knew that was not true. In the hut they had used near Rofina
’s
village, there was a supply.
Gurd
had made it a long time ago
when they had spent the winters there
.

If Korg would not look for Rofina, he would go by himself, he decided. But how could he go without Korg? They had always traveled together. To leave without him did not seem right. But for him to be without Rofina, without the mead, was not right, either. After all, he was the Leader, was he not? He could do as he wished. Korg did not always understand how forceful
were
his needs. Only mead had ever dampened the fires that seemed always to burn inside him, and only with Rofina could he be happy, could he truly be
the
Leader. To deprive him of Rofina, of the restorative when they were so important to him, was wrong.

Mordor made up his mind. He would leave as soon as Korg went off to look for food or herbs. He would find the path, walk all day and night if he had to
.
The thought was pleasing. He would be with Rofina again, taste the refreshing mead that made him feel so warm, so powerful, even as it dampened the fires. He could take Rofina as his mate, now that he had initiated her, and she would be happy in his arms, listening to his voice as she always had. Together, they would go to all the villages again, and he would tell the people the truth about
Zena
, that she was a witch...

Mordor frowned. Who had told him that? Not Korg, he was certain, but now that he thought of it, he was sure it was true.
Zena
must be a witch. How else could she have so much power over the people in the villages? Witches used their lust to draw power from men
,
and then
they
used the power to deceive the villagers, tell them falsehoods about the Great Mother
and to
cast spells over them. Their lust was so great that they would take any man they could find, and then their power grew and grew until it could not be stopped.

Zena
would destroy them all, Mordor thought, alarmed. He should have realized long ago that she was a witch. Now that he knew, she must not be permitted to live. That was the task the voices had set him long ago, to rid the villages of witches. He must make certain, too, that
Zena
did not come near Rofina. Such innocence was easily spoiled. Korg had been right when he had said that they must find out where
Zena
was going. Perhaps he should wait for Korg after all.

Mordor shook his head forcefully. To wait any longer was not right, when there was so much danger. Besides, Korg might not believe him
when he said
that
Zena
was a witch, would try to stop him from acting. He had done that before. Korg did not like him to do what the voices told him to do. He never had.

No, Mordor decided, he must do this by himself. Rofina must be protected, the villages must be protected, and only he, chosen by the Great Spirit and even before that by the voices that told him what must be done to save the people, was equal to the task. The realization buoyed him, made him feel strong and calm
.

When
Korg returned, he was pleased at the change
in Mordor
.
He would wait for a few days
to
see if the improvement continued,
he
decided. If it did, he
would take advantage of the peace to
spend a
whole
day
replenish
ing
his supply of herbs. He would need
a large supply of them
when
Mordor
began
to travel to the villages as the Leader
once again
.

Mordor
’s
calm mood persisted, and a few days later Korg set off early in the morning to look for herbs. When he returned
late
that afternoon, his brother was gone.