Portals of Infinity: Book Four: The Sea of Grass (12 page)

"There are those of us who still miss the days of roaming."

"Does that include you?" Serene Rider asked looking curious.

Rachel laughed again, "Hardly. I do enjoy travel, and I love to hunt. But I like the idea of being settled."

"You enjoy the hunt?" Rain Walker asked.

Rachel nodded.

"I must plan one for tomorrow then."

Rachel smiled and I nodded in agreement. I knew that Rachel wanted to show them that she could not only ride well, but hunt well. Hunting was still an important skill among the Hilanders, and Rachel knew it was among the Mowoks as well.

We talked a while longer, with Rachel asking about the area and what kind of game there was here, and Rain Walker telling her about that as well as the upcoming migration. In a few more weeks it would be time for the Mowoks to all start their annual trek to their winter grounds.

"I like them," Rachel said as we left the tent and gathered up our gear.

"Where are we staying tonight?" Second Carso asked looking around.

"Well, Rachel and I will be sleeping in Feliogustus' s tent tonight," I told them, "You can either set up your gear beside it, or ask someone to lead you to where the troops are bivouacked for the night."

"How long do you think we'll be here?"

I looked at Rachel.

"A few days at the most," She said. "We need to find out if the leader of the raids is coming here to meet us, or if we need to go to where he is."

Second Carso nodded and turned to his Fourth, "Leto, find someone to guide you to where the troops are and let them know we will be here for a couple of days. Take Sergeant Mikals with you and come back in the morning."

"Yessir!" Fourth Leto said and saluted.

"And bring back a tent and Her Majesty's things. One night outside is fine, but I don't want to make a habit of it."

"Yessir!" Fourth Leto said again and headed off with Sergeant Mikals in tow.

I took them all to Fel's tent, or rather the teepee that Steve and Henry had set up to work from. I could tell that they had done the basic ceremonies around the tent so that it was now on holy ground, but the effect would probably cease after the tent and gear were packed up and moved.

"Your Majesty!" Steve said and bowed when we walked up to him, "Oh, and hi, Will," he said to me when he straightened back up.

"Just 'hi Will'?" Rachel said with a grin.

Steve shrugged, "He did get me sent out here, Your Highness."

"Oh you love it out here, admit it!" I laughed.

"To be honest, it's not half as bad as I thought it would be. But I'm not looking forward to taking everything down and moving it by myself when we all leave in a few weeks."

I nodded; there was a lot of stuff here. "What happened to Henry and the other four priests that came out here?"

"Henry is still with the Aldar tribe. He's staying with them. He also borrowed one of the four new priests to help him with the freed slaves from the caravan. The other three have been send out to other Tribes; Cooch, Ash, and Hawthorne."

I nodded. "Well, I'll ask him to send the extra one back to help when I see him next."

"Thanks."

I dropped my gear by the spot I had occupied when I had last slept here, and put Rachel's next to it while Steve showed Second Carso and Third Sylace a good place outside the teepee to set up for the night.

"Why not have them sleep in here?" Rachel asked me quietly once they were out of earshot.

"Well first of all, because they're not clergy in the church," I told her.

"Neither am I," Rachel noted with a smile.

"Yes, but you're married to me, plus you are the queen," I purred and kissed her.

"Ah," she purred back and cuddled up against me. "The second?"

"I'd really rather not have either of them watching what I have planned for you tonight," I said and let my hands do a little roaming.

"What about Steve?" She asked letting her own hands do the same.

"That male can sleep though anything," I murmured and kissed her.

Eleven

Glisan Village

The hunting party was about twenty, including Rachel, Second Carso, Third Sylace and myself. Rain Walker and Serene Rider were both there, as well as the hunt master, Hunts Well.

Introductions were made, and we saddled up and rode off. Several of the other riders commented on the stirrups that were on the saddles of the four of us. Most hadn't noticed when I was here before, as I hadn't gone out hunting that many times.

"Do they really help that much?" Hunts Well asked me as rode out of the village.

"If you want, I can show my saddle to the leather worker here and they could copy it on yours."

He nodded, "I would like to try it and see."

"Sure," I looked over at Rachel who had her bow in hand and wasn't bothering with reins at all today, guiding Jeri with her knees like everyone else. That did not go unnoticed, though no one said anything about it, as all of the hunting party was doing the same, except for Second Carso and Third Sylace. At least they were only using one hand to hold the reins.

From the way the two of them were looking around, I think they realized they stood out because of that.

"What are we hunting?" Rachel asked.

"Boar," Hunts Well told us.

"Big group, or a small one?"

"One large tusker, a couple of females, and a bunch of piglets."

"They attacked one of our hunting parties last week," Rain Walker supplied.

"So we gave them a week to forget about us," Hunts Well said.

We all nodded. I hadn't hunted boar that many times, only twice actually, but I'd paid attention to what I'd been taught each time. Boars were pretty nasty. So I made sure I stayed close to Rachel.

"Just don't get in the way of my shot," She whispered to me as we rode.

"What makes you think they'll let you get one?" I asked curious.

"I'm their guest, and they want to see what this queen can do," she whispered back, "So let me do it, or I'm going to be
very
unhappy. Understand?"

"Kill me in my sleep unhappy?" I asked.

Rachel smiled, "
That
would be letting you off easy!"

I nodded, I got the message. But I still stayed close.

After we'd been riding probably an hour, Hunts Well raised his hand. "They are near, be wary."

I nodded and readied my own bow, Rachel had a half dozen arrows in her hand and I grabbed several of my own. The grass was about two or three feet high here, a little bit past the undersides of the Wolats, who could see over it. For us, sitting on their backs, we had a much better field of view.

Everyone spread out, and sure enough, Rachel and I were in the front with Hunts Well, Rain and Serene were behind us, and I had waved Carso and Sylace back to the rear of the group when I had readied my bow.

"Left!" Rachel suddenly said and Jeri spun to the left and charged as Rachel stood in the stirrups and quickly launched three arrows. I followed and looked for a target as Jeri suddenly jumped and Rachel turned firing two more arrows at something in the grass as Hunts Well started to throw spears at a different target.

I saw them suddenly as things slowed down for me, there was a large male tusker, and he was down on his knees with an arrow in the head and two more in the neck that were bleeding rather fiercely. There were five females running around, one of them was what Jeri had jumped over, and Rachel had put two arrows into it. I put another arrow in that one as it was still moving and was trying to track her mount. Hunts Well had put one down with two spears in the neck and was changing targets to throw a spear at another. I was impressed by how fast he could draw and throw.

I just shot at any that appeared to be going after Rachel, or myself, following her as she turned Jeri around and started to pick off the piglets one after another as the other riders took out the rest of the passel. I looked back at the boar, and it was on its side, dead, I could see the arrow it had taken to the head had gone in one of the eyes.

Rachel looked at the dead male and then up at me and smiled. "Lucky shot."

"Sure it was," I said and shook my head. The adult boars were all dead at this point and the piglets didn't last much longer.

"You are quite the huntress," Hunts Well said riding over to us as the rest fanned out to make sure there weren't any missed stragglers. My speed had returned to normal, so I was fairly sure we were safe at this point.

"Well I caught him, didn't I?" She said with a smirk and motioned to me. I scowled back at her as those nearby laughed. I decided not to correct her memory of the events. Rachel had come out here to impress the Mowoks. Far be it from me to do anything to hurt that effort, and not just because she might “punish” me, but because I loved her and would do everything I could to help her.

Once they were sure things were safe, we all dismounted and gathered up our arrows, and then field dressed the boars to bring them back to the village.

"I had no idea you could shoot a bow so well, Your Highness," Second Carso said looking at the dead tusker.

"Yes," Rain Walker agreed, "That is a very difficult shot to make on a charging boar."

Rachel gave a small shrug, "They keep their heads down when they charge until the last moment when they bring their heads up to try and gore you with their tusks, you just have to watch for it."

"You have hunted boar before?" Hunts Well asked.

"Oh many times, though usually on foot. I have to admit it is much nicer doing it from the back of a Wolat," Rachel said looking thoughtful.

I cold see that the others all looked rather impressed by that. To be honest I was too; boars are tough.

They slung the dressed out carcasses on the back of the Wolats, and then we rode back to the village.

"See, I told you I could hunt," Rachel whispered to me as we rode back.

"I knew you could hunt, I just had no idea you were so
good
at it," I admitted.

There was a party that night to celebrate the hunt, as well as Rachel's visit. Word of her hunting prowess spread fairly quickly, the hunt master telling all that it was Rachel's shot that had killed the boar.

The party was about the same as the last party I'd been to here. I warned the others not to smoke any of the miasha. I also growled rather loudly at any of the males who even looked like they might try and flirt with Rachel.

"What's that about, Will?" She asked grinning.

"Tribal custom has it that a female has the right to pick the father of her child, and if the husband doesn't catch them in the act, he won't complain."

"Oh really?" Rachel said and gave me a slow smile.

I growled again, "I'm not a member of the tribe trust me, love, I will kill any male who even tries."

"But there are so many handsome males here..." she purred.

"Keep that up, and in about five minutes there will be a lot of very dead handsome males," I growled back, and I wasn't completely teasing either.

Rachel laughed and took a step back, and I took a step closer, grabbing her, and pulled her up against me. "Where do you think you're going?" I asked softly.

"I like it when you get all possessive," she whispered, purring. "How about we go find a nice secluded spot of our own out there in the dark?"

I looked around the fire; a number of couples had already retreated into the night at this point.

"I like the sound of that," I rumbled and we did our own disappearing act for the night.

The next morning we bid our goodbyes and gathering up the troops, we headed off to the Aldar tribe's village. Originally I had considered sending Rachel back home at this point, but she wanted to meet Rhys, seeing as he was going to be in charge of a large number of her troops for a while. She also wanted to see more of the Mowoks. I relented solely because so far she'd shown that she was more than capable of dealing with it.

Also I was afraid to die in my sleep.

It took about two days to make the trip, the tribes kept their summer camps pretty well spread out, so as to not overlap their hunting grounds too much. Cooch and Aldar were the closest to the Glisan tribe, which I learned was the southernmost tribe. Aldar was east of Glisan, putting it closer to Barassa, Hawthorne was west, which would put it closer to the area that Rachel was looking to expand into once the dam and irrigation project was complete.

As we neared Aldar, two riders came out to meet us, Rhys and Smoke.

"Greetings, Will," Rhys said looking over the troops, "I see you were not lying about being able to bring troops to help."

I noticed that Smoke was looking over Rachel rather closely, and Rachel was returning the inspection.

"Rhys, Smoke, this is my wife, Queen Rachel of the Highlands. Hon, this is Rhys, who will be leading the raids, and his...?" I looked at Smoke.

"Wife," Smoke said and leaned across the saddle to rub her shoulder against Rhys's shoulder.

"His wife, Smoke Dancer."

Rachel smiled and nodded, "It's nice to meet the both of you. I gather you probably have someplace you'd rather we led our troops?"

Rhys nodded. "I'd like to take them to where we encamped the freed slaves. It is a better place to work from."

Rachel nodded, "Lead on then."

Rhys nodded and turning his wolat led us off to the camp. It was almost full dark when we got there, and he showed the troops where to set up. There were about forty of the Mowoks around, and at least that many of the former slaves.

"Why are there still slaves from the caravan around?" I asked Rhys as we dismounted.

"They wish to help us. So they will stay here and help with those things the warriors will be too busy to do."

"I notice quite a few females among them," Rachel noted as she undid Jeri's saddle.

"Well, the warriors won't be too busy not to do
everything
," Smoke said with a grin.

Rachel smiled and nodded, "Nothing keeps the men happier, right?"

Rhys, I noticed, blushed at that comment and Smoke laughed.

"Now, why don't you get your leaders, and we can all sit down and eat while you tell us how we're going to go this?" Rachel said looking at Rhys.

Rhys blinked, "What do you mean?"

"Rhys, I am about to put a lot of my soldiers under your command, they will be following your orders. I would like to hear your plans before I leave them with you, so I know I'm making the right decision."

Both Rhys and Smoke looked at me.

I sighed, "It's a reasonable request, and she is their queen."

"Yours too," She said and whacked the back of my legs with her tail, "and don't you forget that, dear." She smiled and turned back to Rhys and Smoke, who was grinning at me now. "I am responsible for them, Rhys, so I must ask. William believes you are a good choice, and I trust him. But I would like to know exactly what I'm getting my people into."

Rhys nodded, "I understand." He pointed to the nearest group of teepees, "The blue pennant flies from mine. Let me gather my leaders and I will meet you there."

Rachel nodded, and turned to Second Carso who had been giving orders to his Thirds and Fourths.

"She's strong," Smoke whispered to me still grinning. "I like her."

"Well yeah, you'd think I'd marry a woman who wasn't?" I smiled back.

Smoke winked at me and hurried off to catch up with Rhys.

"One of your conquests?" Rachel asked as Second Carso saw to her commands.

"From her point of view, I'm sure it's the other way around," I said.

"And from your point of view?" Rachel purred.

"About the same," I admitted.

"Well, she
is
cute," Rachel admitted, "And," She turned to look at me and gave a growl of her own, "Married. So you had better behave."

I raised my hands in innocence. "Hey, I set her after him. Don't look at me."

"Yes, but I saw the way she looked at you, and remember you told me all about their little custom of females picking daddies."

I stared at her surprised, "Surely she wouldn't..."

"Oh, she would," Rachel said, "And if you do, there is going to be a lot of trouble. Am I clear on that?"

I pulled her close and kissed her. "I will not sleep with her ever again," I whispered in her ear.

"Better," Rachel purred her body softening as she leaned against me.

"To be honest, hon, I didn't know you cared."

"I don't mind Nara, because I know her. The other one, well Feliogustus told me he ordered you to cater to her wishes. But I do not want you fathering children on other women beyond that."

Rachel paused a moment, "Oh, your other wife is okay as well. To be honest, I wish you would just bring her home and keep her in the Castle with me."