Forgive our need, little sister
Receive the salt from our tears
Know that we are grateful for the gift you give us of yourself
Know that we have gloried in your beauty and your strength
Return to sleep in the earth, the mother of all
Until the Skyfather comes to make you rise again
In the uncurling of unending time
Carnelian followed Osidian and Ravan into the Ancestor House. In the gloom, he could only just make out the Elders there waiting for them. It felt very different from the first time he had appeared before them: many were known to him now.
'We've brought you here so we might consider the freedoms which you currently enjoy within the Tribe,' said Kyte, in Vulgate.
Osidian smiled. ‘I had imagined you were going to beg me to save you from famine.'
Ravan hesitated, then translated Osidian's words for the Assembly.
Harth rose to her feet, eyes flaming. The famine you've brought upon us.'
As some of the Elders berated her, Osidian bent to hear Ravan's translation of her words. He gave an elegant shrug. 'Can you deny the benefits the Bluedancing have brought you?'
Ravan translated. Harth ignored him and addressed the Assembly. 'We must sort this out amongst ourselves.'
'What would you have us do, Harth?' someone said.
'Let's be rid of the Bluedancing.'
Her words produced a murmur of protest. Akaisha rose. 'Would you have us send our own children to the Mountain?' She glanced round at the faces of those whom she knew had grandchildren marked for the tithe, then she looked back at Harth. 'Do you want your own son to have died for nothing?'
Harth scowled to hold back tears. Her husband, Crowrane, spoke up. 'We could keep the marked Bluedancing children, they wouldn't be too much to feed.'
'Shouldn't we also keep some of the unmarked ones so we might use them to replace any that might die?' said Mossie.
Harth turned on her. 'Why not keep some of their women? I'm sure some of our men could get them with child. That way we could breed children to present to the next Gatherer in place of our own.'
'It would be heartless to separate them from their mothers,' said Ginkga. 'Do we really want to keep them here as orphans for as long as seven years?'
'Besides, the labour of the Bluedancing frees us,' said several people at once.
Harth looked suddenly frail. 'Our ferngardens won't yield any more than they've always done; our men already hunt as much as they can and yet every earther they bring us is immediately consumed. We've been home for more than a moon and haven't managed to make a single rope of djada. Mothers and fathers of the Ochre, if you're determined we must keep all the Bluedancing, can one of you tell me where we'll get food for our migration?'
Carnelian considered her words. It was a choice between starving or else sending the Bluedancing out to die on the plain, with the consequence that Poppy and the other tithe children would, after all, have to be sent into the clutches of the Masters.
Carnelian became aware Akaisha was looking at him hoping for some other way. He shook his head and she looked disappointed. Frowning, she turned her gaze on Osidian. 'Ravan told me the Master knows a way out of this dilemma.'
She looked at her son. 'Ask him what it is he'd have us do.'
Ravan relayed the question to Osidian who whispered a reply.
The Master says that he has in mind a great hunt; a new kind of hunt that will bring the Tribe an abundance of meat,' said Ravan.
'What's the bastard talking about?' demanded Crowrane.
Osidian muttered and Ravan spoke. 'It isn't something that can be described but only something he can do for you. If you -'
Whin cut in. 'Your price?'
Once he had her words, Osidian gave Whin an angelic smile. 'There's no price, merely a question of means.'
Carnelian watched resignation and defeat come over the faces of the Elders as Ravan began relaying conditions.
The Master says that he must be given authority over the Bluedancing women. Additionally, for a period of up to two moons, he must be allowed to lead the men of the Tribe as he did in the battle against the Bluedancing.'
'But not into battle,' Akaisha said quickly, fear stiffening her face.
Osidian promised they would merely hunt.
'And how shall we be fed during these two moons?' asked Whin, clearly outraged.
The Master will make sure the Koppie is kept supplied with meat,' said Ravan, failing to conceal his triumph.
Galewing rose and surveyed the Assembly. 'I for one say we should let him try.'
Many grumbled but none opposed him. Galewing offered to go with the Master to keep an eye on everything he did. With a heavy heart, Carnelian witnessed the Elders bowing their heads as a sign they were giving Osidian their mandate.
As they walked under the cedars, Ravan grinned as if he had helped the Master win a famous victory. Sick with foreboding, Carnelian saw Osidian was walking blind, his inner sight occupied with some vision.
‘I will not go with you,' Carnelian said.
Osidian took a while coming back from wherever he was. That is fortuitous, since I had intended to leave you behind.'
Carnelian had not expected that and felt cheated.
'I need you here,' said Osidian.
'Why?'
'I shall show you.'
Unhappy, Carnelian followed Osidian round the Crag, down the Blooding rootstair and out into the ferngardens. They reached the Bloodwood Tree, which seemed strange without its ochre-faced women, and walked on into the fernmeadow beyond. Osidian fixed Carnelian with his green eyes.
'All I ask of you is that you should supervise the work of the Bluedancing here.'
'It depends what kind of work you want them to do.'
'Digging, my Lord. Nothing more offensive to your sensibilities than that.'
'Show me where you want them to dig.'
Osidian traced a wide circuit through the air. The ditch all around this meadow must be cleared and cut to its full original depth. Its walls must be beaten hard and strong. All the earth you dig out should be piled up in a rampart on the outer edge.'
Carnelian surveyed the meadow. He saw that, apart from the earthbridge they had used to cross to it, the Horngate was the only other entrance. He looked at Osidian.
'You wish for me to make a bottle into which you are going to drive a herd?'
Osidian smiled. 'It was the way my forefathers provisioned their hosts when they campaigned down on this plain more than seven hundred years ago.'
Carnelian gave a nod, appreciating how it might work. He walked over to the ditch with Osidian and Ravan following him. Standing on the edge, he peered down. Where tree roots did not buttress the walls, they had crumbled. Mud and weeds clogged the ditch along its whole length.
This is no trivial labour.'
'You shall have the use of all the Bluedancing. I will send messengers back to bring me news of your progress. If it be not fast enough we shall see if we cannot bend the Ochre to the task.'
Carnelian looked at him. 'And where will you be?'
Osidian looked away to where the plain could be seen shimmering green. 'Out there,' he said with a jutting of his chin, 'training the hunters.'
'If he chooses to help me, I'd like to use Fern as my assistant,' Carnelian said.
'Oh no, Carnelian,' said Osidian with a shake of his head and a feral grin. That one will come with me.'
Fear gripped Carnelian. 'Do you intend to hurt him?'
Osidian shrugged. 'Hunting involves an element of risk.'
'Do you forget that you owe him your life?'
Osidian controlled anger. 'He will risk the hazards with the rest.'
'I will not aid you unless you promise to keep him safe.'
Osidian chuckled. 'Do you imagine you are that essential to this project?'
'I shall reveal to the Elders the true goal of your schemes.'
Osidian smiled. 'A crude manipulation but one Chosen in mood. Do you believe those decrepit savages even have the imagination to see my plans are possible? They will laugh at you, my Lord.'
'I will make them believe me.'
Osidian threw up his hands. 'Enough. I shall not touch your precious savage. Is that enough?'
Carnelian considered trying to get Osidian to swear a blood oath, but he feared pushing him too far and so he gave a nod.
That night Akaisha's hearth were disturbed by a succession of women visitors saying they had come to see if it was true the Elders had given the Master command over all their menfolk. Over and over again, wearily, Akaisha had to confirm it, but Carnelian could see the visitors were hardly attending to what she said, but rather sneaking sidelong glimpses at Osidian, whose face the firelight was making brighter than the moon.
Later, men began to come in twos and threes to talk to the Master. Ravan at his side, Osidian received them away from the hearthlight near the rootstair.
When Fern and Sil left the hearth, Carnelian followed them. Both turned to face him.
'Be careful,' Carnelian said to Fern.
Sil frowned. 'You will be going with Fern tomorrow, won't you?'
Carnelian shook his head. 'He wants me here.'
Sil glanced at the Master. Fern was examining Carnelian's eyes and saw from where the danger might come.
Sil smiled at Carnelian and then led her husband away to their sleeping hollow. Unhappy, Carnelian watched them go. He felt someone near him and saw it was Akaisha.
'Has the Master told you his intentions, Carnie?'
As he told her what he knew, her forehead creased into an ever deeper frown. 'I don't like it. It has a smell of impiety.' She gripped his arm. 'Are we doing the right thing?'
'What choice do we have?'
She looked up at him, probing his face, then letting go, she looked away. Following her line of sight, Carnelian saw the black shapes of two men nodding as they received a mutter of instructions from Ravan, beside whom loomed Osidian's immensity.
Carnelian saw how much she was struggling with doubt. 'I must start tomorrow. Will you help me?'
She tore her gaze back to him. 'You'll need quite a few of us to oversee the work.'
The next morning Carnelian took Poppy down to the Newditch with the rest of the Tribe to watch the men ride away. Osidian rode at their head with Galewing and his son, Hirane. Ravan and Krow were close behind. Searching for Fern, Carnelian found him further back. He watched until Akaisha and a score of other women came for him and, together, they went down to the Bluedancing field.
Their camp had trampled all the ferns into the earth. He saw the attempts they had made at forming hearths. These were so close to each other that the scatter of sleeping bodies formed a single mat of grubby cloth and flesh which reminded Carnelian, uncomfortably, of the way their men had looked lying on the battlefield.
'Poor creatures,' Sil said in a low voice.
They brought it upon themselves,' Akaisha snapped to a nervous nodding murmur of agreement.
Before they reached them, the Bluedancing began coming alive. Carnelian could see their dirty faces gaping. They stumbled to their feet, clutching their children to their hips. A deputation of their Elders came out to meet the Ochre. Akaisha brought her own people to a halt. The salt bangles of the Bluedancing hung loose with their skin on the sticks of their limbs. Most had made an attempt to brush back their hair, but their faces were grimy, and their robes and head blankets filthy. They stank. It was clear that however much water they were being given, it was not enough to wash with.
Their dark eyes were fixed on Akaisha.
Today you work elsewhere,' she said. The uncharacteristically harsh tone in her voice caused Carnelian to look at her. Akaisha's narrowing eyes, her taut thinned lips seemed to show aloofness but he knew her well enough to see her pain.
The Bluedancing women bowed a little and made their way back to gather their people and, then, woman and child, carrying mattocks, they all followed Akaisha and the Ochre down to the Bloodwood Tree.
'How shall they dig?' Akaisha asked him.
Carnelian shrugged. 'You know more about this than I do, my mother.'
She peered over the edge. 'You want us to bring this up to the condition of the Newditch?'
That would do to begin with.'
She looked up and down the length of the ditch. 'It's going to take a lot of work.'
Carnelian looked round to see the crowd of the Bluedancing. There's a lot of hands to do it.'
Akaisha frowned. 'But we've had them in the ditches since they came. Earth-moving is hard work even when a person is well fed. With what we've been giving them…' She grimaced.
Carnelian grew morose contemplating the trap Osidian had them in. The Master will keep his promise and then not only the Tribe, but the Bluedancing will have all the meat they need.'
They set the Bluedancing to working in the ditches. Carnelian wandered along the edge of the meadow, sometimes stopping to look down. Everywhere, women and children were labouring in the mud. He gazed out past the Horngate. The sun had risen high enough to melt the view and beat down on him like a migraine. An Ochre voice was barking instructions. Carnelian felt useless and worried that Osidian had only left him there to stop him interfering with whatever it was he was up to on the plain. He made for the Bloodwood Tree, seeking solitude in its shade. The rot of blood was in his nostrils even before he could see its stain in the earth. He walked round behind the tree, putting its trunk between him and the sun. Lying against its bark, he relived the times he had spent there talking with Fern. He cursed himself that he had not after all bound Osidian with an oath.
Hearing Akaisha calling his name, Carnelian walked back into the searing sun. Squinting, he could make her out, beckoning.
'We need you to check we're doing it right,' she said as he approached her.
He allowed her to lead him back to the ditch where he helped her down a crumbling slope. Soon they were among the workings. When Bluedancing turned to watch them pass, Whin forced them back to work with a shout. Carnelian's glance of surprise only served to make her angrier. He was feeling he did not know her, perhaps never had, when the anger slipped from her face like a mask and, looking ashamed, she ducked away.
'Down there,' said Akaisha pointing among the heaving backs. Carnelian saw her against the rise and fall of their mattocks, saw her distaste. His apparent detachment angered her.
'You're the one who asked for my help!'
Carnelian could find no way to explain how he was feeling. 'Please show me.'
Akaisha turned and he followed her as she wound her way through the Bluedancing. Carnelian saw it was their young women who were hacking at the muddy walls. The older women and the children were clawing the crumbled earth into baskets which, when full, they dragged one heave at a time away from the ditch wall.
'Look here,' said Akaisha and showed him with her hands where the earth on either side had been cut back. 'Is that enough?'
Carnelian's eyes were drawn back to the people slaving. He saw an old woman, an Elder by the salt beads in her hair, struggling, tugging at a basket filled with soil.
They shouldn't wear their salt, it'll be lost,' grumbled Akaisha.
The old woman was still pulling but her basket had dug into the ground. She stopped, bowed, misery making her red eyes tear.
Carnelian ran forward and, taking hold of the wrinkled hands, peeled them off the basket handle. This is too much for you, my mother.' He turned from the confusion in her gaze and tore at the handle, yanking the basket free and then dragging it until he backed into another. He strode forward looking for another one to pull. He felt a touch on his arm.
'What're you doing, Carnie?'
He looked up into Akaisha's face. 'Helping them.'
'We're helping them already,' she said, her voice unnaturally sharp. 'If it wasn't for them we'd have no need for the Master to involve us in this.' He saw the tears she was fighting as she walked away.
By order of the Elders, the Bluedancing were stripped of their salt. Akaisha and Whin stopped coming to the fern-meadow and gradually all but a few Ochre overseers began to stay away. Morose, Carnelian took to labouring in the ditch. He had the Bluedancing move their camp to the neighbouring ferngarden and made Akaisha force the Elders to send a demand to Osidian that more water must be brought to the Koppie daily for the earthworkers.
The men who brought water described the circular earthwork Osidian was making them dig near the lagoon. At night they had to light great fires to keep the raveners at bay. When asked what the earthwork was for, they would shrug and say they just did what the Master told them to. They seemed to Carnelian much grimmer than he remembered them.
These same men regularly brought with them not only water but a saurian carcass. The Tribe were beginning to feel hunger. Hearths sent people down to watch the butchering to make sure to get some of the fresh meat. It was Carnelian who insisted that the Bluedancing should at least be given the offal.
The day after the Tribe had celebrated the return of the tributaries, Carnelian was breakfasting when cries of alarm began sounding here and there in the Grove. Everyone leapt to their feet and some youngsters were sent to find out what was going on. When they returned they answered Akaisha's questions by drawing everyone to where a gap in the cedar canopy allowed them to see smoke rising in the south.
Whin exchanged an anxious look with Akaisha. 'It's too much smoke to be a beacon.'
Their koppie burns,' said Sil.
Akaisha shook her head. Their ferngardens wouldn't be dry enough.'
Poppy was clinging to him. Carnelian knew what he must be seeing was a fire in the koppie of the Bluedancing. Akaisha and Whin stared bleakly out.
'What is it that is burning, my mothers?'
Both women turned wild-eyed. Their mother trees.'
Leaving Poppy with Sil, Carnelian followed Akaisha, Whin and others of the Elders down to the Eastgarden. He sensed they were expecting trouble. The camp of the Bluedancing seemed much the same as it always did except that the women were all standing gazing to where the pall of smoke was hanging over the southern horizon.
'Imagine how they must feel,' whispered Mossie, and Ginkga shut her up with a glare.
They crossed the earthbridge and went down the Blooding, turning often to observe the motionless ranks of the Bluedancing. Akaisha took the path of barren earth to the camp. As the Ochre approached, the Bluedancing seemed unaware of them, but then some children cried out and the women turned.
'What're we going to say to them?' asked Mossie.
'Hush, dear,' said Akaisha.
The eyes of the Bluedancing, red from weeping, regarded the visitors with hatred.
'We must order them to their work,' said Whin.
'The work will make them forget,' said Ginkga.
'Would you so easily forget your mother tree?' asked Akaisha, her eyes flitting among the Bluedancing.
Carnelian could see how that thought was being passed between them with glances.
Compassion and fear warred in their faces.
Harth glared at them. 'I warned you not to trust the Standing Dead.' She advanced towards the sullen Bluedancing.
'Get to your work,' she commanded.
The Bluedancing made no move and continued to stare. Behind them Carnelian could see the smoke from the burning of their mother trees swelling the horizon.
Harth repeated her command and still there was no response. Carnelian was becoming aware of how many there were of the Bluedancing. So many eyes filled with grief and anger.
'We'd better go back,' said Akaisha, nervously.
'Shouldn't we try -?' began Mossie.
'Let's go now,' hissed Akaisha and, retrieving Harth, they retreated back over the bridge and made their way at speed for the beckoning safety of the Homeditch.
The Elders armed the Tribe as best they could and set them to guarding the two most easterly gates and the arc of the Homeditch which lay between. The Crag beacon was lit to summon back their men. Carnelian waited with Akaisha by the Bloodgate. All eyes were scanning the ferngarden, looking for the expected Bluedancing attack.
When he told Akaisha he thought they were overreacting, she flared to anger.
'What! You don't understand. How could you? If anything should happen to my tree, the grief…' She shook her head and resumed her look-out for the Bluedancing.
Carnelian felt like asking her if she imagined her grief could turn into murderous rage, but he said nothing more. Guilt at the way the Tribe had treated the Bluedancing was the true root of her fear.
Carnelian paced back and forth beneath the mother tree. When Galewing had appeared with many riders, Carnelian, fearing bloodshed, had spoken out in defence of the Bluedancing. He had declared them to be nothing more dangerous than frightened, dispossessed women and children. His words clearly had force for the Elder men though, unhappily, he sensed this was because he resembled the Master. Outraged, Harth had commanded him to be silent, saying the matter was for the Elders to decide. Akaisha had sent him to their hearth to wait for her.
His brooding was interrupted by a voice calling from the rootstair. Seeing it was Krow, Carnelian invited him into his hearth. Astride the men's rootbench, they faced each other. As Krow nibbled at his nails, he was smearing hornblack from his lips to his fingers.
Carnelian asked him how the men were, mentioning names, among which he included Fern so as not to draw attention to his concern for him. Without lifting his head, Krow told him everyone was fine.
Carnelian decided against asking more specifically. 'How goes the great hunt?'
Krow looked up at him. 'I know nothing of a great hunt.'
'Is his earthwork finished?'
Krow nodded grimly. His eyes unfocused as he saw it in his mind's eye. 'It parts the herds on their way to the lagoon. Even heaveners walk round it.'
Carnelian was surprised. Two moons and that's all you've done?'
Krow shook his head. 'He makes us ride against the herds in lines, in arrowheads. He divides us into groups and, with his spear, commands us to strike against earthers in waves.'
Carnelian narrowed his eyes. 'Why?'
Krow shrugged. 'Perhaps this great hunt you spoke of, Master.'
There was something in that shrug that suggested Krow was hiding something. It seemed to Carnelian obvious Osidian was training them for war.
'Why did the Master burn the Bluedancing's mother trees?'
Krow grew troubled. 'He told us that as long as their trees lived, the Bluedancing might hope for freedom and revenge.'
'It was cruel and impious.'
Krow sunk his head again and resumed his nibbling.
'You of all people should know how it feels.'
Krow's head jerked up. The Manila murdered my hearth and tribe.'
'As we did the Bluedancing men and, besides, made their mothers, wives, sisters and children slaves.'
'We showed them mercy.'
The Master's mercy was meant to force the need for this hunt so as to give him power over the Tribe.'
Krow looked away haunted. 'What choice do I have but to follow him?'
'Akaisha might welcome you into her hearth.'
Krow turned back fiercely. To remind her that her son is possessed by the Master?'
Carnelian had no answer to that.
'I'm sorry, Carnie, but the only place I have left is at the Master's side.'
Carnelian could not deny the plea in the youth's eyes that he should stop. He smiled at him. 'Why have you come to see me, Krow?'
The Master wants to know how much progress you've made here.'
Carnelian closed his eyes and tried to imagine how much of the ditch was still to be cut; how much they had already cut and how long it had taken.
He opened his eyes, feeling sick at heart. 'In the end it will come down to whether the Bluedancing will still work.'
Krow smiled coldly. They'll work all right.'
'You're returning to him today?'
Krow nodded.
Tell him that in eight days the work here will be complete.'
Krow took leave of him with a kind of bow and then Carnelian was left alone to brood on what he had learned about Osidian's preparations. Sil and Poppy appeared and Carnelian helped them make the evening meal.
Night had fallen before Akaisha and Whin returned. Everyone could see they had been quarrelling. Akaisha said they had come up from the Homeditch gates, now guarded by the men of the Tribe. Though everyone was desperate to know what the Elders had decided, neither Akaisha nor Whin volunteered anything.
Later, Akaisha took an opportunity to talk to Carnelian alone. 'I suppose you'd better know.' She looked unhappy. 'We have had to take some of their children away from them. There's no other way we can be sure to be safe when our men are away.'
Carnelian was aware she would not look him directly in the eye.
'We have to send them away to ensure the good behaviour of their mothers.' 'Send them where?'
'Galewing will take them with him tomorrow when he returns to the Master.'
Carnelian could not believe this. 'If you must take their children, why not bring them up here where you can keep an eye on them?'
When Akaisha would not answer, he took her hands in his. She glanced up at him.
'Surely you understand, Carnie? How could we hurt them ourselves?'
Carnelian let go of her hands. 'But you're happy to let the men do it?'
'It won't come to that. Their mothers would do nothing to risk their children.'
'I can't believe you want to send any children out there, among the herds and the raveners. Who'll care for them?'
Akaisha grimaced. 'We can't have them here. We can't.'
'What do you fear, Akaisha?'
She shook her head in answer. He thought about it.
'Is it that having them among the hearths the women won't be able to distinguish the Bluedancing children from those of the Tribe?'
Akaisha looked up at him and there were tears in her eyes. 'What have we become?' she whispered. 'What have we become?'
Akaisha conspired with Carnelian to draw out breakfast as long as they could. It was the other overseers gathering waiting for them at the edge of their rootearth that eventually forced them to rise.
'We'll have to face it some time,' Carnelian said.
With the others, they marched in silence down to the camp of the Bluedancing. When it came in sight, Carnelian was as reluctant as everyone else to go any nearer, but he pushed forward nonetheless.
The Bluedancing seemed carved from wood. Carnelian tried not to catch glimpses of their eyes as they were ordered to their work. They shuffled along, their chins digging into their bony chests. They looked like sartlar.
He accompanied them to the ditch and, removing his robe, was determined to work among them as he had done for days. It made him feel better to be sharing their labour.
He clawed at the mud, but hard as he worked, he was aware of the space there was around him. Every time he glanced up he would catch glimpses of the hatred in their eyes. It sapped his strength. Their eyes made him question why he was sharing their work. Was it that he was doing penance for the guilt he felt? Was it that if he pretended to share their suffering no one would be able to blame him for his part in what was being done to them? It was Osidian who had brought all this about, but who was it had brought Osidian to the Koppie and at every turn protected him, nurtured him until he had grown into what he was today? Ultimately, Carnelian could not pretend his hands were clean of any of Osidian's crimes. He dropped his mattock and looked at his red, earthy hands. He left the ditch. It was about time he took responsibility for what he was and what he had done.
He ceased work with the Bluedancing but tried instead to get as much food and water as he could for them. He made sure to keep an eye on their Ochre overseers. He understood what spurred these women to cruelty. Sometimes, when he saw the thin arms of the Bluedancing plucking at the red earth, he grew enraged, desiring to lash them, to heap abuse on them, but he had delved deep enough to see this was guilt taking possession of him: by bringing his victims low, he could hope to justify keeping them in their place.
He did not judge the Ochre. They had lived all their lives with the constant threat of having their children stolen from them. It was not easy for them to have become the very thing they most hated.
Days later Carnelian, worn down by another day working as an overseer, returned to the hearth desperate for its familial warmth. Sil and the other women were lining their bench. A smell of stew was drifting in the air. He went to wash first and smiled when one of the children greeted him, then jumped when something in the shadow under the mother tree moved.
'You,' he gasped, seeing it was Osidian.
'I have come to impart to you the role you will play in my great hunt.'
Osidian said no more and Carnelian was glad when he left him alone to his washing, for it gave him time to order his thoughts. When he joined the hearth he found Osidian was not there.
'Ravan?' Carnelian asked as Akaisha handed him a steaming bowl.
The Master came without either of my sons,' she said, severely.
'Did he say-?'
'He said nothing.'
Akaisha must have seen his anger, for she put her hand on his arm. 'We need him, Carnie,' she said, quietly. 'If his plan fails, the Tribe will starve.'
He gave her a nod, smiling, and she released him.
Carnelian carried the bowl to his sleeping hollow. Osidian was there.
'I have brought you some food,' Carnelian said, in Quya.
'Leave it on the ground,' the shadow replied. Carnelian put the bowl down. 'Are the hostage children well?'
'Well enough.' 'Was that your idea?'
Osidian smiled. 'Amusingly, the savages thought it up entirely on their own. It seems they have the capacity to learn something from their superiors.'
'Why are you training the Ochre for war?'
'Carnelian, you have known my intentions since the day we reached the Earthsky.'
Carnelian became exasperated. 'You really believe the Ochre can win you back your throne?'
They shall be but the first tribe of my host.'
'Plainsmen against the legions?'
'My first move in the game that is to come.'
Carnelian felt he was talking to a madman.
Osidian took him by the shoulders. 'Believe me, Carnelian, we shall return to Osrakum and regain everything we have lost.'
Carnelian took a step back to break the hold Osidian had on him. 'Even if you were successful, you would be returning to Osrakum alone. I shall remain here with these people.'
'I will not allow that,' said Osidian, his voice ice.
'"You will not allow?" You may control events here, Osidian, but you do not control me. I know you could manipulate me, use force even, but my heart will no longer yield to you.'
Carnelian felt Osidian's anger in the stillness. 'In addition, I will play no further part in your schemes. If you continue on your path I will do anything I can to stop you.'
Osidian smiled. 'Anything?'
Carnelian restrained his lust to punch Osidian's white face. He thought of again threatening to betray his plans to the Elders, but he feared what Osidian might do to Fern. A murmur was coming from the hearth.
Osidian chuckled. Thinking up threats, Carnelian?' He grew serious. 'I will devise a way to change your mind, but take care; what I have set in motion here cannot easily be stopped. Whether or not you decide to oppose me, accept that your precious 'Tribe" can never return to the life they had. Either they shall follow the path I have chosen for them or else they will be destroyed. However much I may feel the God working through me, a successful outcome is not assured, but be certain of one thing: I alone can hope to control the forces I have unleashed.'
Carnelian felt he was being possessed by Osidian's vision.
'Are you sulking, Carnelian?'
It seemed a different person saying that. Carnelian felt annoyed at being spoken to like a child and then, realizing how childish this was, he smiled.
Osidian glared. 'Do you mock me, my Lord?'
This made Carnelian burst into laughter, which he took some time suppressing. 'Not at you… at me,' he managed to say.
As the tremors of mirth subsided, the horror flooded back.
'You were going to tell me about this great hunt of yours.'
Osidian frowned. 'You will play your part?' 'Do I have a choice?' 'Knowing you, none at all.'
Carnelian could feel the faraway thunder through his saddle-chair. His aquar was very still as she blinked her enormous eyes at the horizon. Her eye quills twitched at every sound.
'Make ready,' he cried.
He was outside the Newditch on one side of the Horngate. Other riders formed a line with him stretching away into the lush fernland. On the other side of the gate under Sil's command was another line of aquar raked back, each hitched to one of the drag-cradles he had modified according to Osidian's instructions.
The thunder deepened under the clear sky. The ground was now shaking so that Carnelian, seeing the breeze ruffling the fernheads, could imagine the earth they concealed was undulating with the slow rhythm of deep water.
The riders, all women, coughed their tension. Carnelian joined them in gazing off to where they could see the horizon darkening with a mounding mass. He swallowed past a parched throat.
Closer and closer rolled the flood. The earth's shaking jostied him in his chair. His aquar's quills half-flared as she drew back her head and stared veiling her eyes with their inner lids. He rubbed his feet on her back to calm her.
Carnelian began to see details in the flood. Necks reaching up to the sky like tornadoes.
'Heaveners,' the cry of shock went up from the women round him.
Carnelian sagged, knowing they were right. Osidian had said nothing about the giants being the victims of his hunt. Carnelian felt he had been tricked. The women were arguing among themselves. Should he sabotage Osidian's hunt? Gripping his saddle-chair against the tremors, Carnelian looked round at the fernmeadow. He relived the grinding labour of the Bluedancing; the conflicts among the Ochre. Could he dismiss all those sacrifices? Could he deliver the Tribe into famine?
He surveyed the women, all pale indecision. He saw how they were having difficulty controlling their aquar. The heaveners were close enough for him to see the mountainous churning of their legs. It was now or never.
'Light up now!' he bellowed.
The women confronted him with stares. It was Sil who spoke for them. 'Carnie, they're sacred.'
'Do you want the Tribe to starve?'
That made up their minds. Craning round he saw more women flinging torches into the drag-cradles. The kindling piled on them ignited with a blast that caused Carnelian's aquar to take several steps forward. He let her go and saw at the edges of his sight the other riders lurching raggedly into movement. He urged his aquar into a run. Craning round, he saw his drag-cradle shaking and jumping, rolling fire into the ferns. Smoke the colour of old teeth was snaking in among their stems.
Looking forward, he gasped with horror as he saw the heaveners' tidal wave was almost upon them. The quakes were rattling his bones. The saurian stench struck him so that he could almost not breathe. His left foot trammelled the aquar's back, insisting she keep her headlong lope towards the onrushing stampede.
Still she was veering slowly to the right as Osidian had predicted she would.
The hills of muscle were almost upon them. Their backs eclipsed the sky. Then the saurians were pouring their thunder past him and he heard the thin ululating and the human cries. He saw the tiny Plainsmen scurrying among the giant's legs, faces distorted in an ecstasy of fear. He glimpsed Osidian among them like a lightning flash and then they were past and for moments he gaped at the road they had crushed across the plain as he felt the thunder recede.
He turned his aquar and saw the heaveners narrowing their herd into the cone he had helped create. On either side of the giants a hedge of smoke was rising, rooted in flame. Clouds billowed and greyed his line of sight. A tiny darting of aquar pulling flames closed the gap.
Then the storm fell silent. The mass of smoke thinned slowly as it rose into the sky. The fire was spreading, rustling, as if it were some creature scratching its back through the ferns. Turning, he saw that the drag-cradle he had been pulling was threatening to become a ball of flames.
More and more of the Tribe were coming down to gape at the captive giants. Among the younger hunters, the excitement of the chase had not yet worn off. Beaming, red-faced, they were telling everyone everything they had seen and felt. The silent reception smothered their ardour until they too were watching the heaveners nulling within the imprisoning circuit of the ditch and rampart. Pushing through the crowd searching for Fern, Carnelian and Sil found him standing staring at the heaveners through tears.
'Husband,' Sil said, and reached up to touch his face.
Fern turned and saw them. 'Seeing them there…' He blinked away his tears. 'We've robbed them of their thunder.'
The three of them looked at each other guiltily..
Sil began to cry. 'We had no choice. The Tribe…'
Fern looked at them wild-eyed. 'Galewing said the same to us as we discovered what it was we were to hunt. Many wanted to send word to the Elders, but Galewing said the women would oppose this on religious grounds and so they must not allow the Tribe to die for their beliefs.'
'Our beliefs,' said Sil.
His eyes on Fern, Carnelian began worrying if he had erred in setting his friend's safety above that of the Tribe. This was all part of Osidian's schemes. Searching, he found him towering among a group of youths. Carnelian began making his way towards them.
Krow was the first to see Carnelian approaching and, clearly troubled, he looked away.
Ravan grinned. 'Well, the Master's delivered as he said he would.'
Carnelian talked over the youth in Quya. 'My Lord, the Ochre loathe what you have made them do.'
Osidian turned, smiling. 'Have I not given them what they wanted?'
These creatures are sacred to them.'
Osidian's smile broadened and Carnelian realized, sickened, that this was the very reason for the hunt. Carnelian felt people stirring and saw they were turning their backs on the rampart. Following their gaze, he saw the Elder women approaching. The horror in their faces was clear to see. They came close enough for Carnelian to reach out and touch Akaisha but she shook his hand off as she watched the heaveners' necks crossing and recrossing against the sky.
This is unholy,' Whin cried from their midst, and many of the other Elders joined their voices to hers.
A stunned silence fell.
'But you sanctioned this,' said a voice.
'We did not sanction this? cried Whin.
Ravan confronted her. The Master's brought us more meat in one day's hunt than our warriors could've managed in two whole seasons.'
These aren't meat,' bellowed Akaisha.
Hand on hips, Ginkga was standing in front of Galewing greyed by the dust of the hunt. 'You allowed this… this sacrilege?'
When the man said nothing, she grew enraged. 'Have you forgotten that heaveners are sacred?'
'So is the survival of the Tribe,' Galewing said in a high clear voice which found many echoes in the crowd.
'Would the other Elders have us set them free?' cried Ravan.
Galewing turned regarding the people. 'If we do, we'll starve. Shall we choose life or death?'
The answer seemed to come hissing like a sandstorm. 'Life.'
This is unholy,' Carnelian heard Akaisha cry, but the rest was drowned out by the rumble of the Tribe stamping on the earth and the chant: 'Life. Life. Life.'