'Can you understand what I am saying?' he asked. 'Do you speak in my tongue, friend?'
The fellow never raised his head. It hung down on to his chest as if his neck was broken, rolling slightly as the man muttered something unintelligible. When next lightning spread its palsy over the world, Gren glimpsed scars about the top of the man's spinal chord. In a flash of understanding as swift as the lightning, Gren knew the man had been mutilated so that his head would not lift.
Dropping on to one knee, Gren peered upwards at that bowed countenance. He had a view of a twisted mouth and an eye like a gleaming coal.
'How far can I trust this catchy-carry-kind, friend?' he asked.
The mouth writhed slowly, as if from an agony of which it had long grown bored. It dropped words thick as matter.
It said: 'No good... I no good... break, fall, die filth... see, I finish...one more climb... Ye of all sins – Ye you carry... you strong back... you carry Ye... he know... I filth finish...'
Something splashed on to Gren's hand as he fell back; whether it was tears or saliva he could not tell.
'Thanks, friend, we'll see about all that,' he said. Moving over to where Yattmur was cleaning Laren, he told her, 'I felt in my bones this talkative fish was not to be trusted. He has a plan to use me as his beast of burden when this carrying man dies – or so the man says, and he should know the ways of the catchy-carry-kind by now.'
Before Yattmur could answer, the sodal let out a roar.
'Something's coming!' he said. 'Women, get me mounted at once. Yattmur, smother that fire. Gren, come up here and see what you can see.'
Scrambling on to the top of the bank, Gren peered about while the women pulled Sodal Ye into position on the carrying man's back. Even above the noise of their panting, Gren heard the other sounds that the sodal must have heard: a distant and insistent yowling and howling that rose or fell in angry rhythm. It sent the blood draining from his face.
He saw with ill ease a group of about ten lights spread out not far away on the plain, but it was from another quarter that the eerie sound came. Then moving figures caught his eye; he strained to observe them more closely, his heart thudding.
'I can see them,' he reported. "They – they glow in the dark.'
'They are howlers then, for sure – the man-animal species I told you of. Are they coming this way?'
'It looks like it. What can we do?'
'Get down with Yattmur and stay quiet. Howlers are like sharp-furs; they can be nasty if they are upset. I'll send my woman spanning to see what is happening soon.'
The pantomime of grunting and gesture was undergone,
both before the woman vanished and after she reappeared. All the while the eerie howling grew in volume.
'The woman spanned and saw us climbing up the slope ahead, so we evidently shall not be harmed. Just wait quietly until the Howlers have gone by; then we will move on. Yattmur, keep that baby child of yours quiet.'
Somewhat reassured by what the sodal said, they stood by the bank.
Presently the Howlers sped past, travelling in a single file not more than a stone's throw away. Their yipping cry, designed to intimidate, rose and fell as they went. It was impossible to say whether they ran or leaped or hopped over the ground. So fast and recklessly they travelled, they were like visions from a maniac's dream.
Though they glowed with a dim white light, their shapes were ill-defined. Were their outlines mockeries of human figures? It was clear at least how tall they were, and as thin as wraiths, before they went bounding away across the plain, trailing their awful cry behind them.
Gren found he was clutching Yattmur and Laren and trembling.
'What were those things?' Yattmur asked.
'I told you, woman, they were the Howlers,' said the sodal, 'the race about which I was telling you, that was driven into the lands of Night Eternal. That party was probably on a hunting expedition and is now returning home. We too must be on the move. The sooner we get over this next mountain, the better pleased I shall be.'
So they moved on again, Gren and Yattmur without the ease of mind they had previously enjoyed.
Because Gren developed the habit of glancing back, he was the one to see that the lights on their left flank which they took to be torches of sharp-furs were coming nearer. Occasionally a bark floated to him on the stillness like a twig drifting across water.
'Those sharp-furs are closing in on us," he told the sodal. "They've followed us almost the whole journey, and if we aren't careful they'll catch us on this hill.'
'It's unlike them to follow so consistently. They generally forget a course of action almost as soon as they have thought of it. Something ahead must be attracting them – a feast, possibly. All the same, they're bold in the dark; we don't want to risk attack. Move faster. Hup, you ambling Arabler, hup ho!'
But the torches gained on them. As they ascended up the long, long pull of the mountain, the filtered light overhead gradually increased, until they could see a blur of bodies about – the torchbearers. A considerable mob of creatures was pursuing them, although as yet at some distance.
Their worries were piling up. Yattmur observed more creatures on their right flank, heading tangentially towards them. Faint barks and yippings echoed through the wastes. Undoubtedly they were being overtaken by large numbers of sharp-furs.
Now the small party was leaning forward against the drag of the hill and almost running in its anxiety.
'We'll be safe when we get to the top. Hup ho!' cried the sodal encouragingly. 'Not much farther before we see Bountiful Basin. Hup hey there, you lazy, ugly brute!'
Without word or warning his carrying man collapsed under him, pitching him forward into a gully. For a moment the sodal lay half-stunned on his back; then a flick of his powerful tail put him right way up again. He began to curse inventively at his steed.
As for the tattooed women, they stopped, and the one carrying the gourd with the morel in set it down on the ground, but neither went over to the aid of the fallen man. Gren did that, running to the bundle of bones and turning it over as gently as possible. The carrying man made no sound. The eye like an ember had closed.
Breaking into Sodal Ye's swearing, he said angrily, 'What have you to complain of? Didn't this poor wretch carry you until the last lungful of air left his body? You flogged all you could out of him, so be content! He's dead now, and he's free of you, and he'll never carry you again.'
'Then you must carry me,' answered the sodal without hesitation. 'Unless we get out of here quickly, we shall all be torn to bits by those packs of sharp-furs. Listen to them – they're getting nearer! So look smart, man, if you know what's good for you, and make these women lift me on to your back.'
'Oh, no! You're staying there in the gully, sodal. We can get on more quickly without you. You've had your last ride.'
'No!' The sodal's voice rose like a foghorn. 'You don't know what the crest of this mountain's like. There's a secret way down the other side into Bountiful Basin that I can find and these women can't. You'll be trapped on the top without me, that I promise you. The sharp-furs will have you.'
'Oh, Gren, I'm so afraid for Laren. Let's take the sodal rather than stand here arguing, please.'
He stared at Yattmur through the dull dawnlight. She was a blur, a chalk drawing on a rock face, yet he clenched his fist as if she were a real antagonist.
'Do you want to see me as a beast of burden?'
'Yes, yes, anything rather than have us all torn apart! It's only over one mountain, isn't it? You carried the morel far enough without complaint.'
Bitterly he motioned to the tattooed women.
'That's better,' said the sodal, wriggling between Gren's encircling arms. 'Just try and keep your head a little lower, so that no discomfort is caused to my throat. Ah, better still. Fine, yes, you'll learn. Forward, hup ho!'