Outlaw by Ted Dekker Page B

whispered, looking up.
    I lifted my eyes. He was darker than I remembered. Perhaps his color was accentuated by the bright bands on his biceps, forearms, and thighs. The men in the village below were all fit and healthy enough, but the warriors here, led by their prince, looked supremely healthy. But if Wilam was royalty among these savages, he likely had better food.
    He leaned forward and rested an elbow on his right knee, studying me with that look of mild amusement. Then he shifted his eyes off of me and lowered them to Lela, who stood still under his long, firm gaze. Long enough to make me wonder whether she was here only to translate.
    He demanded something of her. She answered.
    Another question. Another answer.
    They went back and forth for several minutes, he demanding answers, she humbly offering them, until my curiosity could bear it no longer. My fate was at stake, and I was lost in the dark.
    “What?” I asked during a pause.
    Lela kept her eyes on the prince. But then he nodded and she looked up at me.
    “This prince say I must now die with you.”
    I was aghast. “Why would you have to die?”
    “He say it was I who set you free, miss.”
    “Was it?”
    “It is good to take another slave if they escape. This too will give this prince power.”
    “But did you free me?”
    She didn’t respond, and I knew she had.
    “And what about the man? Michael.”
    “This Impirum no want that man. He not good for work or for fight.”
    So Lela had told the warriors from the Impirum that I had broken free and they’d retrieved me, which was evidently allowed under the tribal code.
    “Why would Impirum men want me?” I asked.
    Her eyes shifted. “To make this babies, miss.”
    The prince cut in, and they spoke for another minute before Lela turned back to me.
    “This prince say I make you free and Kirutu will want blood. But I say you escape and I tell to his fighting man to get you. I say he now has new wam with power to make this babies, and this people will see Kirutu not as strong as this prince.”
    About the making babies I wasn’t sure in the least, but she seemed to have talked some sense into the man and for that I was relieved.
    “So then it’s good,” I said.
    “No, miss. He not believe me. This prince say I lie and now I too must die.”
    Contemptuous. That’s what my father sometimes called me as I was growing up. I knew even as heat burned my face that I wasn’t in a position to assert myself, but good sense did not redirect me as I turned to the prince.
    “It’s not her fault,” I snapped.
    His brow arched. I at least had the satisfaction of gaining his full attention. And I wasn’t done.
    “She’s just trying to save me and give you a good thing. Because of her you look strong, you should be thanking her.”
    “Koneh.”
    But I wasn’t ready to koneh , which I assumed meant “shut up.”
    “You want babies? I can give you babies.”
    Lela translated without waiting to be told.
    The prince studied me for a few seconds, then began to chuckle. Lela smiled and returned a tentative laugh as I watched. Seeing Wilam so close, I saw that it was muscle, not fat, that covered the sharp edges of his bones. Kirutu was tall and as wiry as a vine tree, but Wilam was as tall and perhaps the stronger man.
    He said something and Lela’s smile faded.
    “What did he say?”
    “He say that I am very clever and you are wild cassowary.”
    “Is that good?”
    “Yes, miss. But it does not change his mind. He say because I have tricked him, and you have tried to tempt him, he will give us to Kirutu when this man come.”
    “Then he is an idiot,” I said.
    She repeated the word slowly, with an odd pronunciation. “Idi-out?”
    “He’s a fool.”
    Her round eyes questioned me. “I will not say this. I tell him what this Kirutu cannot hold, Wilam can master. This people will see he is very strong chief.”
    “And?”
    “He say he cannot master cassowary who will peck out his eyes when he is