Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls - Jane Lindskold [5]
“Sarah,” he tastes my name, “from the Home. What do you have to say for yourself?”
His black eyes meet mine and something like lightning flashes through me. I have seen such eyes time and again in the Home. Always the clear, piercing gaze was dulled sooner or later by drugs. The Head Wolf is mad—utterly and completely mad, but it is a glorious madness.
Almost too late, I recall that he has demanded a response from me and I struggle to find one.
“I celebrate myself, and sing myself, and what I assume you shall assume, for every atom belonging to me as good as belongs to you.”
As Abalone had, Head Wolf stares at me. Then he smiles and gracious lips curve in a gracious smile.
“A fine reply, Sarah. Do you mean what you say?”
“Head Wolf wants to fuck you,” the white-haired girl snickers. “Do you know what that means, fruitcake?”
Without turning, Head Wolf backhands her. His eyes never leave me.
“Edelweiss is correct. I would like to fuck you. You are strangely beautiful, Sarah. But I think that you need food and sleep more. I will wait, for now.”
His too-brilliant eyes leave me and turn to Abalone.
“You have done well, sister wolf. You may have beer and pizza enough for you and Sarah. Let her sleep in a hammock near yours or if she fears the Heights, you may claim lair rights for her on the ground. Guard her well and bring her to me next twilight and we will teach her the Law of the Jungle.”
He reenters his tent. Minutes later, Edelweiss follows him, the handprint still bright against her pale cheek.
Abalone brings us pizza and beer. She doesn’t laugh when I feed some to my dragon.
I find that I can sleep in a hammock and with daylight the electric lights are turned off and the Jungle lapses into a sleepy lull. Despite the novelty of sleeping twenty feet above the ground, I am exhausted enough that I sleep until the electric lights come on again.
When Abalone sees me moving, she climbs over and takes me below, where I can wash. She even helps me to comb my hair. Then we climb back into the Heights and study the Jungle while we await the time to meet with the Head Wolf.
“Careful, Sarah,” she cautions me when I get overbold. “We’re up a bit and there’s no net to catch you.”
“Life,” I say with a shy smile, “is performed daily without a net.”
She smiles her blue smile. “That’s the spirit, Sarah. You’ll like it here in the Jungle if you really think that way. You must be burning up with curiosity, but can you ask questions?”
“Curiosity killed the cat,” I offer hesitantly.
“Right, but cats like it in the Jungle. Cats and dogs and children, all of us strays, but we’re happy here.”
She sits next to me and shows me how easily the hammock becomes a swing. I put Betwixt and Between on my lap so that they can see the panorama of the Jungle come to life.
“Hey, Sarah.”
Abalone’s voice is tentative and already I know enough about her to feel surprised. I turn to look at her face and realize that she is blushing. I raise one eyebrow and she blushes more.
“Sarah, about sex—fucking. Do you understand it?”
I search for a reply.
I am hardly a virgin. The first man to empty himself into me was a psychiatrist brought in by the Home to discover if I really was mute. When he decided that I was, he raped me. It was easily done—all I was wearing was a paper gown. He finished, cleaned himself up, and then me. When someone commented that I seemed distressed after the session, he dismissed it as trauma related to the testing. I was twelve.
Later, other men and a few women discovered what can be done to a mute. When I learned to speak—in my fashion—the assaults diminished some.
Abalone, I realize, is fearful for my presumed innocence. I wonder what this fire-haired girl has seen.
“Man, biologically considered,” I reply at last, “is the most formidable of all the beasts of prey, and, indeed, the only one that preys systematically on its own species.”
Abalone laughs. “Oh, it’s not that bad.”
“The evil that men do lives after them,” I parry feistily.
“Yeah, I guess you’ve seen a bit,” she says after a moment