The Standing Dead - Stone Dance of the Chameleon 02 (98 page)

'It will be hard here.'

Osidian searched the canopy as if he were looking for holes. These cedars will maintain their leaves and you will have water. Use it sparingly. Remember I shall be returning here with the men of all five tribes.'

Carnelian realized his plotting with Fern had come undone and became terrified his friend might act alone.

'You seem distracted, my Lord.'

Take the Bluedancing children with you.'

Osidian shook his head. Their mothers will work better if they remain here.'

'In the mountains the children would act as a guarantee of their good behaviour.'

Silence deepened between them before Osidian fixed Carnelian with a cold smile. 'I will take the children, though it is transparent that you only seek to protect them.'

Carnelian would not look him in the eye.

'You will make sure the earthwork continues apace?'

Carnelian nodded. 'I had better go take my leave of Akaisha and the others.'

Osidian assumed the pose of a Master weary of the world. 'I suppose you had better.'

Carnelian
walked away and only broke into a jog once he was sure Osidian was out of sight.

'Cisterns or no cisterns, anyone who stays here during the Withering will die.'

Carnelian
was desperate to find
Fern
, but he could see Akaisha was getting upset and was reluctant to abandon her. She looked so wretched. Reaching up to stroke her hair, her hand hesitated when it did not find the familiar beads.

'Really, my mother, we've taken every precaution not to run out of water,' he said, reaching out to reassure her.

She threw his hand off angrily. 'You've no idea what it'll be like here.'

She turned away, wet-eyed, blind, her eyebrows raised. She gave a little shrug. 'Not that what I feel matters any more.'

Her dark eyes fixed on him. 'What about the huskmen?'

Carnelian
knew nothing about that but supposed it unlikely the Grove gates would be sealed with so many people left behind.

'I'll be here to protect the Koppie.'

Akaisha made a face.

At that moment Poppy ran up. 'Carnie, it's time to go.'

Carnelian
sagged. He had forgotten he would have to say goodbye to Poppy. 'Have you seen
Fern
?'

Poppy shook her head.
Carnelian
was in an agony of indecision. Akaisha hefted a sack. He disliked seeing her burdened like that.

'Is there no one coming to help you?'

'I can manage.'

Carnelian
grimaced. He insisted on taking the sack,

then, motioning Poppy to go round to Akaisha's other side,

they proceeded towards the Lagooning.

* * *

On every side, under the trees, people were moving, converging on the Lagoongate. Carnelian, Akaisha and Poppy reached the crowd and had to wait until it was their turn to cross the earthbridge into the ferngarden. As they walked along between the cisterns and the magnolias, Carnelian kept scanning the crowd looking for Fern.

'Carnie,' cried a woman's voice. They turned and saw Sil pushing her way towards them.

Thank the Mother,' she said as she saw Akaisha. 'You were supposed to wait for us by the mother tree. My mother and I didn't know where you were.'

Akaisha scowled. 'I'm not a child, Sil.'

'No, my mother.' She and Carnelian exchanged glances.

'Do you know where Fern is?' he asked her.

She frowned. 'Ravan came for him. No doubt he's off with the Master.'

He must have shown his dismay because she said: 'What's wrong?'

'Will you tell him something from me?'

'Why can't you tell him yourself?'

'He's not coming with us,' Akaisha growled.

'Carnie?' cried Poppy, her eyes wide with panic.

He lifted her up and looked her in the face. 'I have to stay here, Poppy, to look after the Bluedancing.'

'You can't!'

'Don't waste your words, child,' said Akaisha. 'His mind's made up.'

Poppy's lower lip quivered. Then I'll stay with you.'

Carnelian shook his head. 'No.'

Poppy clung to him. 'I'm not going!'

'Oh yes you are,' he said with a voice that froze her. He forced a smile and kissed her. 'I'll be here when you return.'

'Sil will look after you.' He glanced round at Sil, who gave a nod.

Whin caught up with them and he stayed with them until they reached the Far Lagoonbridge and saw the Tribe gathering in the blaze of the open plain. Carnelian took his leave of them. He hugged Poppy, who had still not got over him shouting at her. He was thankful because he knew that if she began crying he might end up joining her. He put Poppy down and put her hand in Sil's.

Sil looked distraught. 'What did you want me to tell Fern?'

Carnelian thought. Tell him he must wait until he returns here with the Master.'

He kissed her lips to stop questions. She frowned, then turned to allow him to kiss Leaf. Akaisha took her bag back from him. He leaned in to kiss her but she turned her face away.

Krow had found him and together they watched the Tribe march away. Carnelian saw riders and was sure one of them was Fern. Dust rose in clouds to hide them but still he stood watching the dark shapes trembling behind the veils. Soon the plain had claimed them all. The few men who had come to watch began to slog back to the cedar shade. It was Krow's discomfort from the heat that made Carnelian leave. As they walked back, he glanced over to where he knew the Bluedancing were slaving in the sun. He was not feeling brave enough just then to go among them. At that moment, what he most wanted was to go and sit against his mother tree.

It is too late to avoid a scorpion once you have felt his sting.

(A
Chosen
proverb)

Smoke from the burning plain turned the days to dusk; at night it stole the stars, leaving the blackness to come alive with furtive smoulderings. It was hard not to believe they were witnessing the end of the world.

Then the sun began to peer through the haze. The moon rose full and flooded the cold dead plain. Through numberless molten-glass days, Carnelian craved the shade of his mother tree but he chose instead to stay with the Bluedancing. He spared the warriors exposure to the terrible gaze of the sun and left them cowering in the shade of the cedars. Krow chose to join him. With his help, Carnelian tried to arrange the labour of the Bluedancing so that as many as possible should work in the shade of the ditch wall. Still, many women were forced out into the torrid air; onto earth so hot they had to wrap cloth around their feet or else be blistered. Even in the ditch, the sun threatened to sear tongue and eyes. Drinking, each gulp had to be held in the mouth to cool it a
little
before swallowing. The more unbearable it became, the more Carnelian refused to abandon the women. He could give them no promises, no reassurances. He hoped it
was
enough they knew their children were safe in the mountains and that each day they saw him suffering at their side.

On a day like any other, a warrior not of the Ochre came to find Carnelian at the diggings. Carnelian ignored the man's stare. Skin slimy with sweat and dust, mouth and throat choked dry; Carnelian's eyelashes gummed together every time he blinked. He closed his mouth and allowed it to fill with spittle. When his tongue came loose, he used it to scour his mouth. He gathered it all and spat it out, licked his lips, spat again, swallowed.

'What is it?' he croaked.

The man's eyes widened. 'Smoke.'

Carnelian peered at the man waiting for more. Krow appeared.

'What's happening?'

The man pointed back the way he had come. *Smoke rising. In the direction of our ... my koppie. The koppie of the Darkcloud.'

Carnelian
stood for a while unsure what the man wanted of him. 'You want me to see it?'

The man answered with a vigorous nod.

Carnelian and Krow covered themselves with their robes and the youth led them up out of the ditch. They surfaced into blinding incandescence. Beneath a flat, colourless sky, the land smouldered, wisped with dust.
Carnelian
concentrated on drawing scorched air slowly into his lungs. Sweat trickled down his neck, his back, his inner thighs. He realized the man was waiting for him, impatient. He pointed up at the Crag.

Carnelian measured the burning distance lying between him and the Newditch and began walking. Staggering, swooning, he cursed himself that he had not drunk for a while.

At last they crossed a bridge into the delicious shade under a magnolia. Running from one shadow to the next,

Carnelian led them to the first cistern. Reluctantly, the man helped him wrestle its cover aside. Carnelian lowered a leather bucket to the water, swaying, ribboned with light. He drew the bucket up and let Krow drink first before he took a long, cool draught.

'Nectar,' Carnelian said and saw by the others' puzzled expressions that he must have spoken in Quya. The man refused a drink. He and Krow slid the cover back. A little more himself, Carnelian saw how desperate the man was that they should hurry. They jogged all the way to the Homeditch and were soon under the cedar canopy.

They took a route up the hill that was wholly in shadow. Other men, evidently all Darkcloud, were waiting anxiously by the Crag steps. As his guide ran up to them, he half turned. The stone will burn you if you touch it.'

Reaching the summit, Carnelian could feel heat radiating off the rock. They would shrivel up if they stayed too long.

'Show me,' Carnelian said.

The man led him across the summit and then pointed west over the simmering plain.

Carnelian peered and for a while could see nothing. Then he saw a dull haze smudging the horizon.

That's in the direction of your koppie?' Carnelian asked.

The man nodded, staring.

'It really is fire,' said Krow.

'Let's talk down there,' Carnelian said moving back towards the steps.

In the clearing bathed in the deep shadow of the Crag Darkcloud men collected around Carnelian. He looked into their anxious faces. 'You're worried it might be your mother trees?'

There's nothing else left to burn, Master,' said one.

'What do you want me to do?'

'Let us ride home,' said the man who had fetched him there.

Carnelian asked them to give him a little time to think. He leaned against the coolness of the Crag steps, wondering how Osidian might react to him letting them go. He imagined the Hold on its island several worlds away. He remembered how he had felt about his home. He had been unable to stop it being destroyed but the Darkcloud might still save theirs.

'I'll lead them, Master, if you want,' said Krow.

Carnelian looked round at the fretting Darkcloud.

'Gather every man you can find. We will all go together.'

While they filled waterskins and saddled aquar, Carnelian returned to the diggings. Locating some of the Bluedancing Elders, he told them he was leaving the Koppie in their care. While he was gone, they could rest from their labours. Though it had never been his intention, he realized that their children being in the hands of the Ochre would ensure their good behaviour.

He led the warriors out of the Koppie along the Southing and then turned west. He suppressed panic as he saw the green of the mother trees recede. They were adrift in a desert spined with a few charred acacias. The rest was dust and ashes. As the sun poured down its fire, Carnelian could not believe the earth would survive until the Rains. He drew his uba down over his eyes and rode blind, trusting to the Darkcloud to find their way home.

At last they came within sight of the dusty bed of a lagoon. At its narrowest point, a ring was incised into the earth.

The Master's earthwork,' said Krow.

Curious to see one of Osidian's camps, Carnelian rode closer and was surprised how small it was.

'Rather cramped,' he said to Krow, then noticed the youth was staring off across the lagoon to where smoke was rising in two columns from a koppie on the horizon.

As Carnelian's eyes met Krow's, understanding passed between them. The fires seemed man-made. But who? Carnelian watched Krow's face grow pale as his lips formed the word: Manila.

Others had seen the smoke. Several Darkcloud rode up to Carnelian clamouring. He explained what he and Krow suspected.

'We must go and kill them,' said one, his face dark with fury.

Glancing at Krow, fearing his reaction, imagining Poppy's, Carnelian shook his head. They're likely to outnumber us.'

Cries of protest rose from the Darkcloud. Carnelian regarded them, agonized. 'We must wait for the Master and then hit them with our combined forces.'

They might escape us,' said Krow.

'We risk heavy casualties, perhaps annihilation.'

'You fear them because they massacred my tribe,' said Krow through gritted teeth. 'Even with surprise on then-side, they still took a mauling. This time surprise is ours.'

Carnelian paused to watch the smoke again. It must be rising from among the Darkcloud's mother trees. He glanced round and saw their anguish. It was not hard to imagine their women's grief should they return to find their trees harmed in any way.

'I'll ask the others,' Carnelian said to Krow.

Krow's eyes flamed. 'Why ask when you can command?'

'I'll risk my blood but not that of others against their will.'

Krow rode his aquar in among the other men crying: Though we be of different tribes, we're all Plainsmen. Can we allow such defilement to go unpunished?'

Grimly, all there gave their assent.

'Very well,' said Carnelian. 'But if we are to approa
ch
unseen, we must wait for dusk.'

* * *

They found what shade they could within the earthwork and sheltered beneath blankets. Carnelian found if he sat very still, the heat rising from his body would lift his uba from his skin. As sweat trickled down his back, he carefully sipped sun-heated water from a waterskin. His slitted gaze lost hold of the white world. In a stupor he sat, tortured, imagining the disasters that might overcome their expedition.

The night was as cold as the day had been hot. Shadows in the starlight, they streamed across the lagoon bed and then began the long ride across the plain to the koppie of the Darkcloud.

A sliver moon rose as they neared the outer ditch. The Darkcloud led them across a bridge into a ferngarden. The ride to the next ditch was shorter than it would have been at the Koppie. Once across, Carnelian saw that the inner ferngardens were much wider than he was used to. To approach as
silentl
y as they could, they made their aquar walk. Carnelian had plenty of time to search the hill with its cedars and the irregular crags rising above them. All was in blackness and there was no sign of life except for the cedars shifting in a breeze that carried on it a hint of smoke.

At last they reached a bridge leading over the innermost ditch. Carnelian and Krow dismounted with the Darkcloud and watched them cross the bridge and disappear into shadow.

As he waited Carnelian listened to the sighing of their mother trees. Watching a canopy round to the north, he was sure that every so often it opened a chink through which he glimpsed what might have been a flicker of light on branches.

A single shape returning over the bridge made him jump. The Darkcloud came close enough for Carnelian to smell him.

The huskman's still in his place, Master,' said the Darkcloud. 'Some of us have gone in to scout around.'

'You should've waited for instructions,' said Krow, his voice seeming loud after the man's whisper.

Carnelian reached out and gripped Krow's shoulder, wanting to calm him. 'We need to know where they are.'

They crept back to where the others were still mounted and waited, listening, watching.

At last the Darkcloud returned. Even though they were nothing but shadows, Carnelian could sense their rage. Their voices rose as they all began to speak at once.

'Choose one of you to speak,' Carnelian hissed.

One of them was pushed forward.

The filthy bastards have cut down two mother trees.' They could hear that the man was close to tears.

'Manila?' asked Krow.

'A plague of them.'

'How many?' Carnelian asked.

'Hundreds.'

Carnelian grimaced. It was what he had most feared. 'Are they camped?'

The man's snort was echoed by the others. They're sprawled out over the rootearths of Magnolia, Erth, Ceda -'

'How many hearths? How densely?' Carnelian interrupted.

'Six.' He shrugged. 'Less than a hundred at each. All in a tight cluster in the north of the grove.'

Carnelian nodded. 'In the shade of the crags.' The Manila outnumbered his men at least four to one. There might be too many of them.'

The Darkcloud began protesting and Carnelian hissed them to silence.

'I'm with them,' said Krow, coldly.

Carnelian leaned close to the spokesman. 'Anything else?'

The western edge of the grove where they came in is crowded with aquar.'

They're covered in sores,' someone said from behind him.

The spokesman nodded. 'By the looks of them, the bastards haven't unhitched their drag-cradles or unsaddled them for days.'

'Probably don't know how to,' said Carnelian.

'Drag-cradles?' said Krow.

'Loaded with djada, water.'

Carnelian did not need to be able to see Krow's face to know they shared the same thought. Stolen from another massacred tribe.

That made Carnelian's mind up. 'Are they sleeping?'

The spokesman nodded. 'Fires dowsed, they lie around them.'

'Well, let's make sure most of them never wake again.'

They fell on them with mattocks as if they were beating undergrowth to drive game. A quarter of the Manila had their heads staved in as they slept. The rest woke to mayhem. Carnelian swung against another skull, memories of the Twostone massacre, of Poppy orphaned, driving away his instinct that this was dishonourable. Still, he was relieved when a number of the Manila found their spears. Butchery became
battle
and the Marula still outnumbered them. Carnelian cast away his bloodied mattock, took his spear in both hands and leapt to the attack, baying. Though dwarfed by the black men, the Darkcloud crashed into them and pushed them back. Some of the invaders fell, their ankles catching on the cedar roots. Others rolled, lost their spears, stumbled to their knees and were up trying to run down the slope. Their ranks were dissolving as Carnelian impaled one in the chest. The man fell clasping the spear haft, his teeth set in a grimace of surprise. Carnelian put his foot on the man and pulled. The spear came free, spurting hot blood onto his legs. He paused, reeling, watching the Manila fleeing, falling, rolling while Krow led the Plainsmen down the rootsteps after them, screaming with battle-lust.