Glade and Ivory Ch. 09

The subdued silence in Lady Demure's hut was eerily echoed by the village outside where the only sounds that could be heard were the distant grunts of game, the occasional chirrup from the fowl secured in the compound and the small animals that shrieked in the wilderness. The whole village was engulfed in an atmosphere of uneasy expectancy.

And so it was when shouts and screams erupted in the village, it alarmed all the women in its suddenness not least by the fact that it was unprecedented. Just what were the sounds? Some sounded like shouts of triumph. Others like cries of agony. And amongst them were the unmistakeable screams of women and children. The few words that Glade could hear sounded like pleas for mercy and that from people not used to voicing such sentiments.

It was Mimosa who leapt up first and ran out of the hut. Her face expressed determination and exhilaration. She pointedly grabbed the sharp shaving flints that lay on the ground as the nearest approximation to a weapon on hand. Glade jumped up after her and pushed aside the rhinoceros hide that acted as a door. She was sure she could hear Lady Demure and Quagga exit behind her.

The village was poorly lit by the quarter-moon, but it was clear that rebellion had indeed broken out. Shadowy naked figures were wrestling with one another and spears and flint knives were in everyone's hands. It was difficult to be sure what the figures were doing as they rolled on the ground and hit each other with what weapons they could improvise. It was not even obvious that the Knights were the only ones being slaughtered, as several black figures were beating up the slaves. However, the sight of the slumped corpse of a dead child, that could only be a young Knight as the slaves were allowed no children, made it obvious that the rebellion wouldn't spare the innocent.

"My Sweetness! My Love!" yelled one black figure running awkwardly towards them in obvious pain, pursued by three or more others. It was Lord Valour and the figures behind him were his slaves, with the exception of Tree Shrew who, like Glade, observed their tribe's taboo on inflicting violence. "The bastards! The fucking bastards!"

Glade turned her head to see Lady Demure standing side by side with Quagga, both of them weighed down by her sacks. It was difficult in the light to read her mistress's expression but it was surely not a happy one.

Glade turned to face the violence in front of her. The lord who had so cruelly killed Flying Squirrel on the first day she had met the Knights was jostled onto the ground and Glade could see clearly now the cause of the man's suffering. Not only were there gashes on his face and chest, but trailing behind him and securely impaled into his anus was a wooden spear. His slaves had obviously had rather more than enough of Lord Valour's priapic lust.

Glade turned her head again to measure Lady Demure's reaction, but this time she could see no one. Not even Quagga. One of the sacks they had packed and a leopard skin lay discarded on the ground in front of the hut.

She stood transfixed and suddenly alone. Where was Mimosa? And then she recognised her among the figures gathered around the chief as he lay on the ground. He was surrounded by people from many tribes with the notable exception of her own. They were stabbing him viciously with flint knives and throwing rocks on his head. His thrashing about was at first frantic and vigorous but steadily became rather less so, until with a final twitch of his legs he was protesting no more. Amongst those most active in the assault on what was now a corpse was Mimosa who'd exchanged her shaving implements for a rather more lethal flint knife tied to a wooden shaft.

Glade stood horrified. Much as she felt no regret that Lord Valour was dead, she was startled by the bloodlust. And when the lord's decapitated head was raised aloft to the sky, the hand that held it high and which was streaked by his blood belonged to Glade's former fellow slave, Mimosa.