Free Zan-Gah and the Beautiful Country by Allan Richard Shickman Page B

warlike than his brother’s. Since the return of Zan-Gah with his lost twin and the defeat of the wasp men in battle two years earlier, Zan had been an important young leader of the clan. But Dael had always resented his brother’s ascendancy, and refused to follow in his shadow. Instead he went his own way, and soon a group, which included Oin and Orah, were trailing his loping, determined strides and responding to his peremptory commands.
    Many of Zan’s number were frightened by Dael’s violence and recklessness; but other men were drawn to exactly these qualities. Those who loved one brother began to hate or jeer at the other, and in time as they walked to their western destination, the Ba-Coro tended to divide into two groups—one circling around Zan-Gah and the other around Dael. It happened so gradually and so naturally that for a while the division went unnoticed.
    Dael was a born leader, yet Zan was also a leader in his way. It was Zan who had brought unity to the five clans and helped guide them to victory over the wasp people. Zan lacked Dael’s dynamic personality, but he was respected for his wisdom, prudence, and ingenuity. Yet there was something terribly attractive about Dael’s animal aggressiveness. In time it would appear how quickly Dael could lead his companions into danger, while Zan would prove as carefulwith his followers’ lives as with his own. Every single one of the women favored Zan-Gah—a fact that Dael and his men quickly noticed and scoffed at. Zan’s followers were called “women’s men,” and it was no compliment!
    Where distress and sadness once could have been seen in Dael’s eyes, there now dwelt a disturbing new arrogance and cruelty. Something new also crept into his speech. His tone was derisive, and filled with scorn for those with whom he disagreed. He could never pronounce “Zan-Gah” without giving “Gah” an undue, sarcastic emphasis. Even if others honored his brother, he had no intention of doing so. Rather, let Zan honor Dael—and beware of him! Zan observed his attractive brother with much more fear than admiration. Dael was like a force of nature now—a wild storm, a raging river, or a trapped animal that gnaws off its own leg. He was too dangerous to befriend, and too unyielding to advise or guide. Zan watched for any opportunity of reconciliation, but it was plain that Dael could not abide his twin or be swayed by him.

    More than once Dael had declared that he did not wish to have a twin, and started to do things to change his own appearance. He began by shaving his scalp and youthful beard. Zan would have the same wild curls as before, but Dael would not. Even more bizarre, Dael started to cut himself, as if he enjoyed the pain, enjoyed watching the blood trickle down his arms or legs. Sometimes he allowed his wolf-pups to lick the wounds, and when they scabbed over, he would pick at them and make them bleed anew—all the time absorbed and fascinated by his self-punishinginjuries. No one but his closest friends noticed this private activity for a while, but once others did, Dael gave his self-laceration a special turn.
    As if in parody of Zan-Gah’s scars, which Zan had received from the lioness’ claws, Dael began carving quite different swirling designs on himself. He decorated his thighs and stomach, and, with the help of friends, his shoulders, arms, and face. A dark dye was applied to make the marks striking and permanent. The result was a fierce new identity so different from his brother’s that people who knew them both could hardly recognize them as twins. Soon Dael’s friends, in imitation of their leader, shaved their heads and began to carve similar designs on their own bodies and on each other’s. These physical alterations became their emblems, and the separation was complete: Dael’s party was shaven and scarified, Zan’s was not.
    Some of the older