The child-woman would not suffer the bandit-wives to stay in the erstwhile bandit camp longer than was necessary. As soon as the freshly neutered bandit was awake, she forced them, at the point of a knife, to lug him and themselves out of the clearing.

“But it’s night. There will be animals about, we’ll die,” protested one of the older women.

The child woman rushed forward and brought her knife tip to the neck of the protestor. The point dug into flesh and drew blood which trickled down in a line.

“You might die. But if you try to stay here, you will die,” growled the child-woman in her high-pitched voice. “Because I’ll murder you.”

The sight and sound of this child acting like a thug was suddenly comical to me and I began to guffaw but strangled it mid-way so as not to offend. It ended up sounding like a growl which worked well to reinforce the child-woman’s point.

The three older woman half-carried, half-dragged the last bandit out of the clearing. I had no doubt that he would be abandoned very shortly. Bandit-wives or not he had been their captor and rapist. I also doubted that any of the three older women would survive too long. Even if they made it safely out of the jungle, where would they go? Having lived with the Kesi I knew that they were preoccupied with the sanctity of their women. Lone women were just not a thing in the Kesi culture. Women needed to be attached to a man whether a father, brother or husband. And soiled women would be treated not with compassion but with disgust. I shook my head with depressed thoughts. The crime of these women was to try and survive…to make a bad situation a little better. I knew I had partaken in another crime on them, the final one a cruel world would visit on them and I felt shattered.

“Sometimes people who do anything to survive become hard and cruel like the world around them. Sad as it may be, you had to choose between the ones who didn’t give up their dignity and those who did. You’ve made your choice and seen the terrible cost. But stop the thoughts there. Kings do not regret their actions,” came the firm yet compassionate voice of my friendly ghost.

I nodded, but still felt downcast. I could barely look after myself, maybe this was a mercy on the older women.

I had lost my appetite because of the night’s events and my mind and heart were troubled. I went to the bushes where I had left the Pridish cannon, I brought it with me near the fire and then lay down and shut my eyes tight. Someone tried calling for me, they tried to touch me awake but I steadfastly ignored them. I had done enough and I needed to sleep. Eventually my troubled thoughts stilled and I slept.

The next day, the child-woman and her four companions followed behind me the entire morning. At first, I assumed that the path was the same for them and myself and I said nothing. They said nothing to me either. But slowly I realised that when I stopped, they stopped. When I moved, they moved. When I turned, they turned. When I ate the bandit meat that I had crisped over the embers of the fire early in the morning, they looked at the meat hungrily. I grew very irritated indeed. But they were skinny, wrecked young women and I offered them some of my food.

Yet they kept tailing me and eventually my irritation led to an outburst of anger.

I spun on my heel and yelled, “Stop following me damn you!”

The four women who had stayed quiet the entire evening before quaked and drew closer together at my tone. The child-woman who was following me at a much closer distance jutted her jaw out and placed her hands on her hips while standing with legs spread apart.

“Why my lord?” she asked me firmly.

“What do you mean why!”

“Why can’t we follow you my lord?” she asked me as if I was an idiot.

“Because! Well you know! It’s not the done thing!” I spluttered, not being able to articulate exactly why they couldn’t follow me.

The cheeky child quirked an eyebrow at me without saying anything.

“Do you expect me to take care of you!” I shouted at her.

She didn’t say anything.

“I never volunteered for that! Get! Get! Shoo!” I said stamping one foot heavily on the forest floor, trying to scare them away like I used to scare away the stray dogs that harassed Lolo.

The four women who were further away looked like they would scamper but the child-woman had clearly decided I would not be getting my way.

“No!” she yelled.

“What do you mean no?” I yelled in utter astonishment.

“I mean, no. You can’t stop us from going anywhere. And we’re going to follow you!”

“Like hell you’ll follow me. And I can stop you from going anywhere, did you not see what I did to the bandits last night?” I shouted, enraged.

“Yes, we saw what you did. If you’re going to kill us then kill us. But if not, then we’ll go as we please. And we please to follow you,” the infuriating woman replied in a calm, pedantic tone.

I spluttered again. In my anger and irritation I knew I was trapped and I couldn’t find a logical way out.

As I stood there with my mouth hanging slightly open, the child-woman’s face morphed into a small smile.

“Fine,” I said calmer than before. “I can’t stop you from tailing me. But I’m damn well not going to look after you. My food and my belongings are my own.”

“We never said we needed you to do anything for us,” she replied in an almost sing-song voice.

“And what about the deer meat I shared this morning!”

“We didn’t ask you to share it, did we? If someone wants to give us something for free we’re hardly going to say no,” she replied with a toothy grin.

I growled something inarticulate, turned on my heel and marched into the jungle.