“Who?” I ask, still trying to sound regal for the benefit of the hundred cavemen listening. “Who might know it?”
“Those who made it,”Dex says. “The Plood. But there were none to be found. Surprising, because this planet is where the saucer wanted to go. I couldn’t override it.”
Damn it. “If we could make it work… could you fly it?”
“I don’t know. Possibly. I am not the same drone I was when we crashed, Theodora. I have lost my ability to fly and some of my sensors. I am not completely blind, but almost.”
I hear muttering around me. The cavemen are getting impatient. “I opened the consoles inside,” I say quickly. “I don’t understand anything inside them. Do you think they are broken?”
“No. I think there is something missing.”
“Do you have any weapons? Can you fight these guys and win?”
“I can no longer fly. My power levels are low after years on this pre-written-language planet. I can only see infrared, so I wouldn’t bet on it.”
My heart sinks in my chest. This was a long shot, and it all depended on Dex being basically fine. But he’s a wreck, and he has nothing useful to tell me. Now what do I do?
I turn and look at the chief. “The Envoy tells me you have food. I’m surprised none has been made ready for me. What do youthink the Woman is? Do I really need to ask for things? What kind of tribeisthis?!”
The anger comes naturally. It’s better than despair, anyway. But I can feel it bubbling under the surface.
The chief barks commands, and the crowd starts moving with some urgency.
“My tribesmen are stunned by your presence,” the chief says, eyes darting up and down my body. “But they will now prepare food.”
“Ah. I see.” I give him a little smile and turn to the shaman. “Just standing there, staring? Why did you not prepare for my arrival? Did you not know I was coming? Do you not know the Prophecy?” I have to go with my guts here, and it feels right to sow some dissent among them. The shaman could be the most dangerous person here, the one who can call my bluff. I might need the chief to distrust him, for the moment when he realizes I’m not the Woman at all.
“I… the P-prophecy states that…” the shaman stutters, taken aback.
“I know it doesn’t state a time for the Woman to arrive,” I cut him off. “But what shaman doesn’t know that the Woman is close by? You walked right past me! I had to yell to be found by your silly tribesmen!” It’s not true at all, but who are they going to believe—the Woman or some junior warrior?
The shaman goes pale, eyes darting between the chief and me. “But… I did know… The jungle is dark and and and… dense… there were signs…”
“You did know?” I ask, wanting him to commit. “Youdidknow that the Woman would come today?”
“Yes!” he exclaims. “All the signs… the dream I had, the vision… I was looking for you! But my tribesmen kept talking about silly things, taking my attention away…”
Okay, so now the shaman has confirmed that I am the Woman in a way that he can’t reverse without revealing his total incompetence. I’m starting to feel confident. Maybe I finally found something I’m good at.
I give the shaman a little smile, too. “Silly tribesmen are a burden for any shaman. Very well. Now we know who we are, even though you have left your old village. I wondered when you would. The turf was too small, the hunting too difficult. You intend to build a new village here.”
I sense jaws dropping around me. “How does she know?”someone whispers.
“True,” the chief says. “Well, perhaps not exactly here, but?—”
“Why not?” I cut him off. “Why not build your new village in the spot where you met the Woman? Can there be a better place?” I don’t want these guys to continue their trek towards the beach. I want them to stay away from the saucer and from Kenz’ox and Aker’iz. At least for the time being. I need time to think about all this.
“We were going to a certain place,” the chief says. “We are following a man from our tribe who came this way.”
“Kenz’ox, the father of the girl Aker’iz,” I take a guess, because it really can’t be anyone else. “The best man in the tribe.”
A murmur goes through the crowd. “She knows everything!”
“Kenz’ox may at one time havebeenthe best man in the tribe,” the chief says. “But he defied me and the shaman and the council. And he ran.”
“It was the will of the Ancestors,” I make up on the spot. “And it was my will.”
A fire has been built, and the tribe starts grilling meat. They quickly make a wooden seat for me, and I sit down by the fire with great dignity, legs close together and my back straight. “Now this tribe is behaving better.”
