27. Now Serpent
NOW: SERPENT
“We must avoid the salt man,” I proclaimed in the early morning, hands on my hips, surveying as Tessa poured Ilsit and Fox tea in tin cups.
I stood watching the four of them sit on crates around a dying fire Tessa had made for bark tea and toast. We had plenty of bread to make toast as every time Tessa or I went to collect our rations of loaves from the army’s bread wagons, we were given five.
Not since that first collection with the Vyggian’s intervention had there been a dispute over how many loaves were allowed to wagon four hundred and twenty-three.
And though he had seen to us being fed, we still did not know him.
Jade looked up from where she was beating dust from a bedroll. “Salt man?”
“The Vyggian with the snake tattoos on the sides of his neck. The one-eyed man. He has caught me twice now, and I only was able to forage last night as he believed my poor tale of looking for phlox.”
“Shit and piss and hell,” sighed Tessa, her eyes closing.
“I’ll cut his balls off,” Ilsit said, swigging her tea. “I’ve a hunting knife.”
Fox beamed at Ilsit.
Jade squinted up at me. “How bad?” She always knew what to ask.
“Bad,” I replied. “He asked if I sought mother’s moss.”
“I repeat,” Tessa stated, standing a little from her seat by the fire to stoke it. “Shit and piss and hell.”
“The women in this camp are doomed,” Jade worried, putting a hand to her neck, eyes roving over the caravan.
“I mean aside from traveling for Perpatane,” Ilsit grumbled.
Tessa grunted, smothering a laugh.
I shook my head. “I have drawn his attention for some reason. So he has his eye on me and may have it on you.”
“For some reason,” Ilsit repeated mockingly.
Jade smiled at me, an indulgent look on her face.
“She always likes to act like she isn’t that pretty,” Tessa said to Ilsit. “And lately she blames it on age.”
“Been that way since girlhood,” agreed Ilsit. Then, making her voice higher, as if I sounded terribly prim, she said, “I am not the fair twin—no, no, not me! That’s my sister! I cannot understand why all the boys like looking at my backside.”
Tessa smiled. She liked that Ilsit spoke of Rowena still.
Fox began to shake a little, darting a look at me in apology.
I gave her a droll frown that had no real anger in it.
“I seek to warn you of a grave matter, and you resort to teasing me. You are all absurd. Also, the man is unknowable. He is like a serpent sunning itself on a rock. You do not know if he sleeps or if he is waiting to strike. He is so dispassionate that I wonder if—”
“Why does she compare him to a serpent?” Tessa asked Jade and Ilsit, speaking over me and winking at them.
“Don’t say it,” I protested, glaring at them all.
“It could have been any other animal,” added Jade. “Yet she chooses a serpent.”
“Well, I would think,” Ilsit answered, contemplative, pausing to blow on her tea, “she wonders at the serpent that is between his legs. Hence the imagery.”
The three of them fell into laughter while Fox continued to snicker in her soundless way.
“For gods’ sake,” I said.
“So many Robbie admirers on this caravan,” Jade said. “Herschel, Thane, and now this Vyggian man.”
“Herschel and I were of a use to each other,” I sputtered. “That is past us now. You are imagining Thane’s interest, and this man is decidedly younger than me. And seems to think I am a criminal of some kind.”
“He’s not wrong,” Tessa said, but her manner was indulgent.
“You’re telling me the man has no interest in a nice swiving in his tent?” Ilsit asked me, pointing at me with her tin cup. “Come now, modesty doesn’t suit you, Robbie. You’ve a perfectly acceptable pair on your chest as well as a glorious rear end. And your face isn’t bad either.”
My own earlier thoughts of a rapid, fiery coupling with him on the camp perimeter must have shown in my face, because Tessa and Ilsit both made scoffing noises and began to laugh again.
“Hags,” I muttered.
“He is attractive,” Jade spoke, almost as if comforting me for the pink in my cheeks. “There’s no shame in finding him so, Robbie.”
“It’s the brother with the braid for me,” Ilsit chimed in. “Heard him refer to the one-eyed man as his brother. All that hair and that swagger? I’d ride him into the night and through to early morning.”
“That’s enough,” I erupted, eyes widening particularly in her and Tessa’s direction as my sister-in-law cackled at Ilsit and smacked her on the arm. “Fox is but seventeen.”
“She’s nearly eighteen,” Tessa said. “And her adopted mother is a known tramp.”
Ilsit chinked her cup with Tessa’s.
Fox rose from where she was sitting and came to stand near me, signing, I will be careful as you say.
“Thank you,” I said with emphasis, flicking a look at Tessa and Ilsit.
Jade was staring into her lap, dreamy eyed.
Ilsit noticed this and asked, “And what about you, Jade, dear? Which Vyggian man would you like to take a tumble with? The lean, tattooed one? He is missing an eye and thinner than I like them, but he is still fine. Or his brother? Even Tessa would have to hesitate.”
“Not bloody likely,” Tessa muttered, though her tone was humorous.
Jade’s face was reddening. “I—I don’t know.”
“Hmm, the one with two eyes does it for you, doesn't he?”
“Leave her alone, Ilsit,” I said.
Ilsit did not look at me, only waved towards me with her cup. “It’s all in good fun. This is a miserable undertaking. If we can’t joke, I can’t live with it. Jade, which is it? The handsome brother or the more handsome brother?”
The rest of us were silent, watching Jade.
She folded her hands in her lap over the bedroll and then smiled. “The one with the braid. I cannot breathe when he is near our wagon.”
“See?” Ilsit said, pushing one of her knees into Jade’s knee. “You’re just like me. Everyone wants a turn on the darker-haired scout. Except Robbie. She wants to have a hearty rut in the woods with the one-eyed man. And then walk around afterward acting like ‘Oh, no he couldn’t possibly want me.’”
When Jade started to giggle, the rest of them joined her.
“What am I supposed to do with you lot?” I said. I stalked off to the latrines, biting the insides of my cheeks. “You all laugh at danger far too readily,” I called over my shoulder.