41

Outcasts and heretics are abandoned to the skirts of a colony of infernal ants that, red and thick as hummingbirds, emerge to strip the flesh and bones. The men and women on foot are placed on a raft destined to be lost in the river, and with a flaming arrow the bed of dry grass is ignited for the soul to ascend. Finally, the heroes and rulers of La Cuna are built a wide bonfire, surrounded by stones, at the top of the mountain, and at the side of the headless bird.

Although in privacy, Tashala was singled out by the leader as a traitor, Neddin took too long to prepare the lie, and Tashala was pinned with all the honors customary to a champion.

Savior! Hero! May the Mother of all birds have him in her glory!

Weep the people below, and the lament ascends with the warm wind up the flat face of the mountain. It mingles with the elegy that springs from the dry lips of the priests, sacred gibberish, before which Neddin kept his lips tightly sealed to avoid letting out a scornful laugh.

During the funeral ritual, Nadjela, dressed in ritualistic garments, occupies a position of honor to the right of her father. Her sister Suri is on the left, with the fur bag covering her entire head, except for a few holes for her black eyes. The princess thinks about the reunion...

After a journey so intense that it seemed like a life apart, she threw herself into her father's arms with her face bathed in tears of happiness. But at once Neddin wrinkled his nose, broke away, and with a stern look demanded composure.

Nadjela remembered her place as princess and wiped away her tears. She understood that the freedom with which she spoke and moved in the forbidden lands, there in La Cuna would not be accepted. Nadjela had many things to say to her father, but Neddin silenced her and stressed the importance of preparing the funeral for Tashala. Perhaps two weeks ago Nadjela would have relented, but after the trials she had passed, she decided to insist.

"Father, my friends are exhausted from the journey and the struggle. They need a place to rest"

The left corner of Neddin's lips twisted slightly, almost imperceptibly, and he repeated the word "Friend" as if it were vulgar. The man's ashen eyes shifted from the young woman to the companions several feet behind, paying primary attention to the muskite.

"Do you expect me to give shelter to these foreign devils?"

The reproach printed in the words of the chief made Nadjela open her eyes wide and answer with a hand over her heart.

"Father, they are not devils! They helped me. As a princess, I owe them a debt"

"Their identities and motives may be a mystery. But what is crystal clear is that something out there changed you, this being the first time you've raised your tone with me"

Nadjela lowered her head as she understood his unconscious rudeness, feeling smaller than under the shadow of the pile of skulls.

Neddin added.

"But if this debt troubles you so much, my child? Let us settle it.... We will give shelter to the strangers until they renew their strength and are ready to depart. Let us hope it will be sooner rather than later"

Those new words brought back the color to the princess. She hugged her father, breaking protocol once again, and kept on saying: Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

She returned to the group and informed them that they were now guests of La Cuna. At Neddin's command, Zell led Chester and company to Tashala's house, which was vacated for use as a temporary inn. The champion's wife and children, would go on to stay in the servant's household.

From the chambers of the oval house, Chester moves the stone beaded curtains covering a window, and tries to see what is happening on the mountain, but the figures are indistinguishable near the campfire.

The princess is safe with her own kind, Chester wants to smile at that, but finds it hard. He justifies himself by telling himself that the job is not done until he destroys the slaver threat, and until he solves the environmental problems, which he also promised.

Erika lies down in one of the hammocks. She caresses the piglet perched on her belly, and stares at the ceiling, lost in her own worries. Ash falls into another one, still not seeing any armor, so she guesses correctly that it's her turn to accompany the muskite for a while longer. Ten seconds after they both close their eyes, Chester calls out to them.

"I need you to solve something for me" says the Lancaster.

"For Il Separatio and everything sacred in this world, now what?" Ash grunts, but still without opening her eyes.

"Find my armor and get it here as soon as possible. We may need it"

"Can you...?" Erika keeps her arms crossed behind her head, and one leg loose on the side of the hammock, swinging. "It's a damn certainty that we're going to need it. There's a horde of enslavers tasting our every footprint as if they were the intimate juices of a goddess. They will go slowly but surely, and knowing what a great ass the one who flogs them has, we have every reason to avoid anticipating the happy ending. Or have you already forgotten my prophecy?"

Erika avoids mentioning suspicions to the king of La Cuna. But from the way Chester spies on the surroundings, it is obvious that he has in mind both Shura and Neddin and his champions.

Ash is unaware of the connection between big butts and danger. What she does know about is machines. But being an expert doesn't mean that she has a sixth sense for locating them.

"I'd hate to be a spoilsport, but... Australia's kind of big"

"I noticed" Erika purrs, impassive, as if it's of no importance to her.

Ash rolls his eyes.

"I'll lend it to you" Chester takes off his visor and, with a smile, invites her to take it. Ash hesitates, but ends up accepting it and discovering that, what on one side is an opaque, almost black glass, on the other side casts a level of sharpness and color that complements and elevates the visual quality of the human eye.

"I thought it was just to protect you from the sun's radiation"

"Use it and try talking to him" Chester advises.

The mechanic sits up and adjusts the visor on her head. Signals and arrows appear in her field of vision.

"Ask to locate the North Star for you" Chester says.

Ash follows the prompt. She needed to repeat the phrases a couple of times, the task required him to simulate a British accent when pronouncing "North Star".

The scope picks up the command. The arrows in his field of view go wild, undecided coordinates take place in the lower left corner, while a blue rectangle forms on the back wall with varying numbers, scaling from meters, to kilometers, and self-calculating to 2 days travel time.

"I get it. Very useful" says Ash.

"Do you want to leave now?" Erika asks.

"I don't know" Chester crosses his arms. "How close do you smell the slavers' breath? Should we be worried?"

"There's still a stench of shit permeating the air.... Maybe the pretty girl we brought as a souvenir can help us with the calculations?"

In perfect synchronicity they turn on Ash. She involuntarily takes a couple of steps back.

"It depends... The Crocodile wasn't very fast when they kidnapped me.... Nor was it any faster when you guys kidnapped me"

Erika lets out a laugh. Chester smiles and scratches the back of his head ruefully.

"Ugly word. We were just very passionate when we asked for your services" he explains with his fist clenched in front of him to exemplify his passion. "You'll come out of this a winner, partner! I swear, and my word is worth gold"

Ash sighs. No matter how white the Lancaster's smile is, she still suffers nightmares about the massacre in the Thundedome. Yes, the slavers were not little sisters of charity, but if you are capable of destroying people and then selling yourself as an unimpeachable hero of the world, you've got some loose ends.

"Four to five days..." Ash avoided going out on a limb with predictions.

One distinct possibility was that the slavers would pounce on them without waiting for the Crocodile, in which case they might be on them by dawn and the best chance for the tribals would be to escape. Though without motor vehicles, sooner or later the caravan would catch up with them, kill the warriors and elders, and add the women and children to the cages. She has already seen them operate.

"Are you sure that a single armored vehicle can compete against an army? Achu's slavers may not be the Lord Enslaver's death squads, but they still bite, and hard. There will also be the Crocodile around"

Seeking to allay her fears, Chester puts a hand on her shoulder, an action that unsettles her even more.

"It's not the kind of armor you buy at the flea market. It's the North Star! The best of my family's five stars. Find the big dummy and wake him up, so this other big dummy can fly it. I'll take care of whatever comes up! I always do, don't I, Erika...?"

When he looks, he discovers the German fallen from the hammock, convulsing with foam escaping from her mouth. Ash sticks to the wall with his hand on his chest and asks what's wrong. Poison? Joke? Demonic possession?

Chester carries Erika and returns her to the hammock, where, with a gentleness he would never demonstrate with the lucid German, he gets a dish towel to wipe the drool from her lips, and arranges her bangs away from her eyes. Chester tells Ash about the fierce fight he had against the slayer.

"They were enemies to the death and now they travel together like it's nothing?" She finds it hard to believe.

"As my uncle Julius used to say, in our profession you have to learn to see the good side of even the biggest bastards. It's also true that I'm a softy with the ladies.... Although at this point it's hard for me to see Erika as a lady"

"I'm looking for a doctor? Or a shaman?"

"Knowing that Erika is almost a demon, an exorcism would kill her. Let's wait for it to pass, that already worked for me"

An hour later Erika opens her eyes. She rubs her head and asks what happened. Chester tells her everything, causing her to curse in German, because she didn't even remember arriving at Nadjela's village, nor that Tashala died. Erika sits in the hammock and snorts with wounded pride.

"I'll take a break until tonight, and then I'll go off to do my duty..." She looks at Chester expecting a sneer, but the Lancasterian gives her his most sympathetic smile. "Fuck you"

Someone calls from the entrance. Chester goes out to check. In the foyer of the house, he finds a girl laden with beaded necklaces, gems, black clothing, face painted with ash, and a crown made of bones. Beautiful and wild, Chester questions her identity. Since the nobleman's head is too small to hold thoughts for long, the unknown comes out of his mouth.

The young woman thanks inwardly that the ash hides her blush, and speaks in a voice the Lancaster recognizes.

"The cremation is over. Tashala's soul now flies with the mother of all birds" Nadjela announces, using all her willpower to keep Chester's gaze on her. She did have a hard time vocalizing with that beautiful ruby color marveling at her, and giving her insides a fever. But like a good princess, she tempered her posture and her voice. "I would have loved to show you around the village.... You and everyone, I mean. But my father needs me to finalize Tashala's legal proceedings"

Chester is speechless, as if Nadjela had confessed that she needed a moment to spread her wings and fly off to the moon.

"Legality? Do they have that here?" questioned the muskite.

"Do you have that over there?"

Nadjela's frank surprise is equal to that of Chester. The "civilization" that the princess met abroad was limited to the Thunderdome and the slave system. It is normal that for the tribals it is the outsiders who are the savages and primitives.

"Tashala had a wife and children. It remains to be seen who will take care of them from now on? In a normal situation they would be left for the one who killed him, but Zell killed Tashala by accident"

"And what would be a normal situation?"

"A duel"

"Sounds like fun... Except for the liability thing. Where I come from the duels are backwards, and whoever wins gets the better part"

"Wouldn't you like to get married in the future?" Nadjela's voice betrays her, a trace of bitterness seeps into her tone.

"I'm a free spirit, moving boldly forward to the horizon. There is no shackle or engagement ring capable of chaining the blue lion!"

"I understand... An indomitable warrior... A man always looking for new thrills. No bed to return to, no faces to miss"

"Exactly!" He reacts happy that Nadjela understands the core of his virile odyssey, but maybe he went too far with the bravura, because the princess is wiping her tears with her fingers. "Why are you crying...?"

Nadjela takes a deep breath, shakes her head, and hastens to notify that after sunset they will dine with her father. She also explains that she will send someone to guide them to the hot springs, where they can relax and wash off the impurities of the journey. Having said that, the princess leaves at a fast pace.

Chester follows her with his eyes to beyond the beaded curtain, he sees the girl disappear among the tribals who stare at him with wild eyes, as if he were Elon Musk himself. Chester says, "Women..." And he prepares to return to the bedroom, almost tripping over the little pig. Human and animal face each other. The porcine eyes look like those of a mother.... Not a happy mother at all.

"I didn't do anything wrong..."

The look of the little pig makes him doubt.

"Come on, calm down!"

The eyes of the little pig remain implacable.

"You're testing my patience, aren't you? Go on! I have patience in spades"

The piglet lets out a snore very similar to a sigh.

"What's Nadjela got to do with it? You'd be devastated! She's happy with her daddy now. All that's left is to protect her a little more and... I will keep my promise"

The little piggy backs away.

"Go on! Keep acting like you have all the answers. You don't know anything...! Ham!"

Meanwhile the tribals gathered outside continued to share stories about the foreign demons, beings as precious as they were eccentric, capable of conversing with the beasts.