Toy was the first to sit up. She turned to Gren and said in a voice cold with rage, 'Gren, I dismiss you from the group. You are an outcast from now on.'
Gren jumped up, tears in his eyes, conscious of their stares. Banishment was the most terrible punishment that could be used against anyone. It was rarely invoked against females; to invoke it against a male was almost unheard of.
'You can't do this!' he cried. 'Why should you do this? You have no reason.'
'You hit me,' Toy said. 'I am your leader but you hit me. You tried to stop Driff from being rescued, you would have let her die. And always you want your own way. I cannot lead you, so you must go.'
The others, all but Driff, were standing now, open-mouthed and anxious.
'It's lies, lies!'
'No, it is true.' Then she weakened and turned to the five faces anxiously regarding her. 'Isn't it true?'
Driff, clutching her hurt leg, agreed heartily that it was. Shree, being Drift's friend, also agreed. Veggy and May merely nodded their heads without speaking; they were feeling guilty because they had not also gone to the rescue of Driff, and compensated for it by breaking up Toy now. The only note of dissent came unexpectedly from Toy's dearest friend, Poyly.
'Never mind if what you say is true or not,' Poyly declared. 'But for Gren we would now be dead inside that bellyelm. He saved us there, and we should be grateful.'
'No, the killerwillow saved us,' Toy said.
'If it had not been for Gren -'
'Keep out of this Poyly. You saw him hit me. He must go from the group. I say he must be outcast.'
The two women faced each other angrily, hands on knives, their cheeks red.
'He is our man. We cannot let him go!' Poyly said. 'You talk rubbish, Toy.'
'We have Veggy still, or have you forgotten?'
"Veggy is only a man child, and you know it!'
Angrily Veggy jumped up.
'I'm old enough to do it to you, Poyly, you fat thing,' he cried, hopping about and exposing himself. 'Look how I'm made – just as good as Gren!'
But they cuffed him down and went on quarrelling. Benefiting by this example, the others also began to quarrel. Only when Gren burst into angry tears did they fall silent.
'You are all fools,' he cried between his sobs. 'I know how to get out of Nomansland but you don't. How can you do it without me?'
'We can do anything without you,' Toy said, but she added, 'What is your plan?'
Gren laughed bitterly.
'You are a fine leader, Toy! You don't even know where we are. You don't even realize that we are on the edge of Nomansland. Look, you can see our forest from here.'
He pointed dramatically with outstretched finger.
CHAPTER TEN
IN their hurried escape from the bellyelm, they had hardly taken in their new surroundings. There was little room for doubt that Gren was right. As he said, they stood on the fringe of Nomansland.
Beyond them, the gnarled and stunted trees of the region grew more closely, as if tightening their ranks. Among them were spiky soldier trees, thorn and bamboo, as well as tall grasses with edges sharp enough to lop off a human arm. All were woven together by an absolute barricade of brambles. It was a thicket impossible to penetrate, suicide to enter. Every plant stood at guard like troops facing a common enemy.
Nor was the common enemy a reassuring sight.
The great banyan, pushing outwards as far as its nutritional requirements would allow, loomed high and black over the outcasts of Nomansland. Its outermost branches bore an abnormally dense thatch of leaves; they reached out as far as possible over the enemy like a wave ever about to break, cutting off as much sunlight as possible.
Aiding the banyan were the creatures that lived in its forest aisles, the trappersnappers, the jack-in-the-box wiltmilts, the berrywishes, the deadly dripperlips and others. They patrolled the perimeters of the mighty tree like eternal watchdogs.
The forest, so welcoming to the humans in theory, presented only its claws to them from where they now stood.
Gren watched their faces as the others regarded that double wall of hostile vegetation. Nothing moved; the lightest breeze slinking in from the sea hardly shifted one armoured leaf; only their bowels stirred in dread.
'You see,' Gren said. 'Leave me here! Let me watch you walk through the barrier! I want to see you do it.'
He had the initiative now and gloried in it.
They looked at him, at the barrier, back at him.
'You don't know how to get through,' Veggy said uneasily.
Gren sneered.
'I know a way,' he said flatly.
'Do you think the termights will help you?' Poyly asked him.
'No.'
'What then?'
He stared at them defiantly. Then he faced Toy.
'I will show you the way if you follow me. Toy has no brains. I have brains. I will not be outcast. I will lead you instead of Toy. Make me your leader and I will get you to safety.'
'Pah, you man child,' Toy said. 'You talk too much. You boast all the time.' But round her the others were muttering.
'Women are leaders, not men,' Shree said, with doubt in her voice.
'Toy is a bad leader,' Gren shouted.
'No, she's not,' said Drift, 'she's braver than you,' and the others murmured agreement with this, even Poyly. Though their faith in Toy was not unbounded, their trust in Gren was small. Poyly went to him and said quietly, 'You know the law and the way of humans. They will outcast you if you do not tell them a good way to safety.'
'And if I do tell them?' His truculence faded, because Poyly was fair to look upon.
'Then you can stay with us as is right. But you must not expect to lead in Toy's place. That is not right.'
'I will say what is right or not.'
'That is not right either.'
He pulled a face at her.
'You are a right person, Poyly. Make no argument with me.'
'I do not want to see you outcast. I am on your side."
'Look, then!' And Gren turned towards the rest of them. From his belt he produced the curiously-shaped piece of glass he had handled earlier. He held it out in his open palm.
'This I picked up when I was trapped by the snaptrap tree,' he told them. 'It is called mica or glass. Perhaps it came from the sea. Perhaps it is what the termights use for their windows on to the sea.'
Toy made to examine it, but he pulled his hand back.
'Hold it in the sun and it makes a little sun beneath it. When I was trapped, I burned my hand with it. I could have burnt my way out of the trap if you had not come along. So we can burn our way out of Nomansland. Light some sticks and grass here and the flame will grow. The little breeze will tickle it towards the forest. Nothing likes fire – and where the fire has been we can follow, safely back into the forest.'
They all stared at each other.
'Gren is very clever,' 'Poyly said. 'His idea can save us.'
'It won't work,' Toy said stubbornly.
In a sudden rage, Gren hurled the crude lens at her.
'You stupid girl! Your head is full of toads. You're the one who should be outcast! You should be driven off!'
She caught the lens and backed away.
'Gren, you are mad! You don't know what you say. Go away,' she shouted, 'before we have to kill you.'
Gren turned savagely to Veggy.
'You see how she treats me, Veggy! We cannot have her for leader. We two must go or she must.'
'Toy never hurt me,' Veggy said sullenly, anxious to avoid quarrelling. I'm not going to be outcast.'
Toy caught their mood and used it quickly.
'There can be no arguing in the group or the group will die. It is the way. Gren or I must go, and you all must decide which it is to be. Cast your vote now. Speak, anyone who would turn me away rather than Gren.'
'Unfair!' Poyly cried. Then an uneasy silence fell. Nobody spoke.