‘Do you want to go?’
‘She has no choice,’ Toma said. ‘Why are you asking? We’ll take her if she doesn’t come.’
‘She has a choice. Zokho?’ Roeloff asked again.
Zokho looked at Sanna on the ground, wriggling to get free of her knots.
‘I have a mother now, Toma. I have food.’
‘A mother? What nonsense is this? Your mother’s dead. These people killed her.’
‘If Zokho wants to stay …’ Koerikei intervened.
‘Zokho will come with us,’ Toma said crossly.
Roeloff came forward. ‘You heard her. She wants to stay.’
‘Let her go, Kudu,’ Twa said behind him. ‘It’s better for her. This is not her way. Not for long.’
Roeloff looked at the girl.
‘Is that what you want, Zokho?’ The tone of his voice wasn’t lost on the hunters.
Zokho answered in Dutch. ‘Do you want me to stay?’
Her meaning caught him unawares.
‘I …’
‘Let her go,’ Twa said again. ‘Make peace with these Sonqua.’
Roeloff stepped out of their way.
‘What did he tell you?’ Toma asked Zokho.
‘He said I should go with you.’
Koerikei nodded his head in amazement. ‘You’re not from here, Eyes of the Sky. Who are you?’
‘He’s Sonqua!’ Twa laughed, his voice trailing eerily after them as they disappeared into the darkness.
Chapter Five
Tau and Nani rose early on the day of the celebration for Zokho and Toma, and selected a spot a few steps from Limp Kao’s hearth for the new skerm. While the others slept, they went quickly to work, digging elbow-deep holes a foot apart in a circle, into which they inserted flexible poles that met over their heads, binding branches and twigs around the structure and tying it all together with strips of bark.
‘She’s learnt bad things while she was gone. “Don’t call me Smoke in the Eyes, my name’s Zokho”,’ Tau imitated.
‘Look how Toma’s troubled Koerikei for her. And he’s good with his arrow, a good hunter. Before she came, I thought he and Karees would mate.’
‘Me, too. What will Toma do when he finds out?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘She has not been with Toma since she’s back, but her body’s changed.’
‘Of course it’s changed. She’s started her flow.’
‘I haven’t seen any blood.’
‘You haven’t seen any blood because …’
‘Exactly.’
They put the finishing touches to the shelter, then fetched wood from their own hearths and built a small fire in front of the entrance.
Zokho went dutifully with the women to the home built for her and Toma. Tau and Nani poured water from a container onto a soft piece of leather and washed her down, winding antelope strips below her knees, adorning her arms with bangles, decorating her short hair with red and white ostrich eggshell beads. When the grooming was complete, they sat her down on the special kaross.
‘You are ready now for your husband.’
‘Why do I need a husband? I’m still a child.’
The women looked at her in surprise.
‘What do you mean?’ Tau asked.
‘A husband just wants to lay with you.’
‘Of course, he wants to lay with you,’ Nani laughed. ‘What man protects you and feeds you and doesn’t want to play with your genitals? You think he does it and wants nothing for it in return? But there’s no need to worry about that yet. You will sleep on opposite sides of the fire until the first blood comes.’
