Chapter Thirty-Five of my current wip. As before, all and any comments very much appreciated

Please note: This is a weekly post

Cela-Byi stood outside the fence, not wanting to open that gate. Rather she would turn, turn and turn. From this high god-hill she’d be able to see all twelve star-spirits; she had only to know where the Sun-Sky rose each day to know which star-spirit ruled the day. She grunted satisfaction. Now she’d be as star-wise as Cela-Kuci. But first, maybe Zem Jess wasn’t a star-spirit as she’d been told, but he was the headman of this god-hill dow, and he would protect her from the cats that waited inside that house – not a dow-house, not even size enough for one family.

Zem Jess hadn’t known their names, nor into which houses they’d been born, only that they were from Toki-dow and Cela-Kuci had sent them. Amusement flashed through her. She had taken him for a star-spirit and yet he knew so little. That amusement was fast chased away. If these women were unbonded, and Cela-Kuci had sent them, then she was right to call them cats. And how would they be with her now that Cela-Kuci had turned against her and wanted her dead and out of the way.

“Are you to stand at the gate all day?” a woman invisible to Cela-Byi asked in Itamakkuese.

Shivers chilled Cela-Byi’s back, her front too. Why did the woman hide? Cela-Byi glanced back to the now-deserted fly-port. Zem Jess wasn’t there. He wouldn’t know if these two dow-women attacked her, wouldn’t know until she was dead. She wrapped herself in her arms. But she still wore the dragon-skins; dragon-spirit Byi would protect her.

The woman called again, “We agree, it does not do for House Kuca to welcome House Kija. But these ‘star-spirits’ of yours know no different. They put us together.”

A second voice, female, giggled.

Cela-Byi remained at the gate. “Li-Tawan, Li-Manula, I greet you and thank you for your invitation. I bring no gifts, I wasn’t expecting this.”

“Didn’t star-spirit Kija advise you of it?” Li-Tawan now appeared in the doorway, her long black hair a tousled mess. Wrapped around her body, from her high breasts to her knees, and cinched at her waist with a belt of shells, was a grey length of an unfamiliar woven stuff. Given her by these star-men? And what had Zem Jess given her? Maybe a baby. She clung to that.

“Oh, really, Kerbi, taken in by the Cat’s Reward. Tawan is teasing you.” Li-Manula, almost a head taller than Li-Tawan, appeared behind the other’s shoulder. “Do come in – or must all the star-men hear what we say?”

Cela-Byi still hesitated. Zem Jess had related that Cela-Kuci wanted her dead. How then could she trust these two cats? Moreover, Li-Manula had called her Kerbi, not even Li-Kerbi, and that now wasn’t her name. But Li-Manula was right, it wasn’t wise to stand out by the gate where all could see, even if they couldn’t understand what was said.

Li-Manula touched Cela-Byi’s shoulder as she squeezed past the other and into the cave-like interior. Cela-Byi cast her a brief smile of gratitude for the offered friendship.

“To you, I am Segul,” Li-Manula said.

It was an honour indeed to be allowed the close form. Ought she to reciprocate and allow Manula – Segul – to call her by her close-name, Sampit. Yet no one here knew her as that. And yet, three Itamakku women alone amongst so many star-men, they’d be foolish not to stand close.

“Feast your eyes,” Segul said, arms wide to indicate the front space of the house, the equivalent of a porch in a dow-house.

“The star-men call this porch-part a cell, and the house is a hive,” Li-Tawan said. “As if they were bees.”

“Sweet honey-men.” Segul giggled. She too wore woven stuff, star-man given. “My honey-man is Joel.”

“You’ve bumped?” Cela-Byi leaned in closer, eyes wide in shock.

Segul looked down, not quite so chirpy. “You understand their talk of transition? My Joel says he’s not yet fully formed.”

“Maybe star-men more like frogs than bees?” Li-Tawan suggested.

“Fiery frogs.” Segul smiled as wide as the referenced frog. She licked her lips.

“You speak with them?” Cela-Byi asked. This hive had three cells, and within this porch-cell was a long padded-seat. Cela-Byi looked at it. “And might you tell me to sit.”

“Sit,” Li-Tawan said, herself sitting. “They say it’s not padded with deep bear furs, yet we say it is. And the crafter made it long enough for three bottoms to sit.”

“They knew Zem Jess would bring me here?” So much about Zem Jess that she didn’t know. Yet these two cats brimmed with star-men knowledge.

“Kookka said the zem was sure to bring you here now he knew we were here.”

“Kookka is Tawan’s fiery frog,” Segul said. And again, she giggled.

“But not yet bonded.” Cela-Byi preferred that was so. Star-men Kookka and Joel had given them this and given them that. Cats were the beasts with claws, yet she found herself having to hide hers.

“Manula has yet to tell you that these star-men have given us their tongue.”

Cela-Byi blinked. “When you kiss?” Was that what she meant?

Li-Tawan pulled a distasteful face. “In what they call psi-sphere. A spirit place. You should know it, calling yourself a spirit-woman.”

“Was not my calling. Was Cela-Kuci.” The other two women joined her in saying that name.

“She wants you dead,” Li-Tawan said.

“Because I called her a liar in front of the dow?”

“In Anji-Tiki’s hearing.” Li-Tawan tutted while shaking her head. “She said she raises up and she throws you down. We’re not to call you Cela-Byi, you’re not a spirit-woman, you’re just a fool to believe anything you’re told.”

“Is that so?” Cela-Byi bristled and ruffled her shoulders and stood. The other two remained seated. “So maybe star-man Jess isn’t star-spirit Kija, but he is the zem-man of this hill-dow. He has great power – and I am his bonded woman. He comes with a message for us – I’ve seen it.” It was no lie, she had seen it even though she hadn’t understood it. But she wouldn’t tell them that.

“My star-man Joel says they come bearing gifts. And he means more than this cloth.”

“Babies. That’s why the transition.” Li-Tawan stumbled over the unfamiliar word.

That could have been what the drawing showed. “And mine will be the first birth.” Cela-Byi swelled with contentment, her satisfaction spreading a smile while her hand rested on her uncomfortably flat and growling stomach. “Have you food?”

*

Cela-Byi couldn’t settle to sleep. Here was too much comfort, the bed too deep. What if she sank into it and couldn’t breathe. She would suffocate. And she still didn’t trust the cats, Segul and Tawan – especially not Tawan. She heard them whispering in the dark. They had allowed her a sleeping-cave – they called it a bed-cell – on her own while they shared the other. The front cave – cell – with the deep seat was not for sleeping. It was for talking and working. But what work? She’d brought none of her tools, only her spice pots, although she could easily make tools anew. With those she’d be able to craft fresh clothes for herself. Truth, those dragon skins were ragged in places, thoroughly worn and old. But first to acquire the grey stuff like Segul and Tawan. Maybe Zem Jess would give it if she should ask but she wanted him to give it freely, and she wanted the cats to know it.

Thinking of this helped to ease her concerns. Yet they were whispering in that other bed-cell. And if it wasn’t about her, why did they whisper? Their first loyalty was to their house, to the Killing Cat, Kuca. And she’d do well to keep the dragon skins, no matter their tattered state. The spirit-dragon Byi would protect her against their cat. Byi had brought star-spirit Kija to her and even if he wasn’t a star-spirit, he was hers, bound bumping tight.

She turned in the bed and turned again. It was this idleness, it left her restless. She wasn’t a cat to slinkily laze all day. In the morning, early, she would find the makings of her tools. She would seek out food-plants too, and maybe a small dragon or two. The food the cats gave her earlier wasn’t at all to her liking.

“What are they?” There was nothing strange about the nuts and the smaller seeds; she had helped to pulverise them on a glittering hard stone mortar. She trusted the unfamiliar fruits not to be poison. The cats were to eat them too. But the bigger seeds…before they could pound them they had to toss them on a fire-heated plate, outside.

“Grass seeds,” Tawan said. And when Cela-Byi raised a questioning eyebrow, Tawan added, “They say god-given knowledge.”

“They’re going to teach us to grow their food,” Segul said.

The star-men could teach Tawan and Segul – let them behave like dow-tamed pigs to be fed on tasteless scraps fit only for the midden – but they wouldn’t be teaching her. Besides, why would they want to know that? Didn’t these star-men realise a Itamakku woman already knew how to grow food? What, did they think they’d been sucking teats all these years?

But the star-men’s dishes, those Cela-Byi liked. They dinged with a deep pleasant sound when knocked with a spoon or a stick.

“Pottery, they call it,” Segul told her. “Baked clay.”

Maybe the star-men would teach her how to make pottery dishes – after she’d gathered the day’s food, and the makings of her sewing tools. Tomorrow was to be a busy day. If only the cats would cease their whispering so she could sleep.

Continues next Monday

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed

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