“I want you to come with me. I’ll need help crossing to the island.”
Morgil awoke when Herilak spoke. “What about me?” he asked.
“Stay with the sammad. Smoke as much of the meat as you can. We’ll be back as soon as we see if there are Tanu out there. If there is a sammad Hanath will come and tell you.”
It was a cool morning and they moved swiftly down the trail to the water’s edge. Hanath lifted his head and sniffed the air.
“Smoke,” he said, pointing at the island. “Coming from over there.”
“I thought I smelled it last night — and look here, these marks. A raft or a boat has been pulled up onto the mud. There is someone on the island, there has to be.”
“How do we get across?”
“The same way…”
“See — something is moving over there, under the trees.”
Both hunters stood motionless and silent, peering at the shadows under the distant trees. A bough was pushed aside and someone emerged into the sunlight, then another.
“A hunter and a boy,” Hanath said.
“Two boys, one big enough to be a hunter.”
Herilak cupped his hands before his mouth and called out an ululating cry. Both boys stopped and turned — then waved when they saw the hunters. Then they turned and disappeared back under the trees.
Kerrick looked at them when the boys came running down the slope, shouting, so out of breath they could barely gasp out the words.
“Hunters, two of them, over the water.”
“Were they Tanu?” Ortnar asked, dragging himself up.
“They had hair just like ours, and spears,” Harl said. “They are Tanu hunters.”
“I must see them,” Kerrick said, taking up his hèsotsan.
“I’ll show you where they are!” Arnwheet was bouncing with excitement.
“All right.”
Armun heard this as she came from the tent with the baby in her arms.
“Let the boy stay here,” she said.
“There is nothing to be afraid of. They’re Tanu. Ortnar will be here with you. Arnwheet saw them first, he deserves to meet them as well. Maybe they can tell us what has happened at the valley.”
“Bring them here.”
She watched as they raced away, the boys shouting to each other. Could it be another sammad? There would be other women to talk to then, other children. She was just as excited as the boys were. Darras came out of the tent, silent and fearful as always. It would be good for her to be with other girls. It would be wonderful if there really was another sammad close by.
The boys ran ahead, shouting with excitement and were already pulling the raft out of the brush when Kerrick reached the shore. They were right, there was a hunter on the other side. Just one though, large and somehow familiar. He waved a hèsotsan and called out.
It was Herilak, it could be no other. Kerrick waved back in silence, remembering the last time they had met in the city. The sammadar had been angry at him for forcing the sammads to stay and help in the city’s defense. They had not spoken since then because Kerrick and Ortnar had gone north the next morning. Their route carefully chosen so they did not pass near any of the Tanu. If they had, the two Yilanè males with them would have been killed on sight. What was Herilak doing here — and what would he say now? There had been many harsh words between them.
Kerrick stood silently on the raft while the boys poled it across. Looking at the big hunter who was silent as well now. When the raft grounded on the shore, Herilak placed his weapon on the grass and stepped forward.
“I greet you, Kerrick,” he said. “Greet you.” He touched the skymetal knife that hung around his neck, then pulled it free and held it out before him. Kerrick reached over slowly and took it. He could see that it had been polished with sand and glistened in the sunlight.
“They brought it,” Herilak said. “The murgu. They had been attacking us, they were winning. Then they stopped. And left this for us.”
“It was meant as a message for another. But it is good you saw it too. You understood its meaning?”
Herilak’s grim face broke into a rare smile. “I understood not at all how it had happened. But knew that something had been done, the attack which was killing us had stopped, the murgu were gone. And it must have been your doing. I knew that it had to be you when I saw this.” Herilak’s face was grim again and he stopped and folded his arms. “When we met last I said many harsh things, Kerrick. You are of my sammad yet I said and did things that I should not have done. I did not do as I should have for your woman Armun. I have a great shame for that.”
“It is the past, Herilak. We will not talk of it again. Here, greet my son Arnwheet. This is the sammadar, Herilak, first among sammadars and hunters.”
“Not first, Arnwheet,” Herilak said looking down at the boy. “Take pride of your father. He is first among all of us. And this one, I know him. The son of Nivoth. He left with Armun. She is here then as well?”
“She is here. And also Ortnar of your sammad.”
“There was a darkness in my head then. I treated Ortnar as I treated you. Worse perhaps. I struck him. I can only say that the darkness is gone. I wish I had not done the things I did — but I cannot take them back now.”
“There is no need to talk of this here. The boys said there were two hunters?”
“The other has returned to the sammad, to bring them here to the water. Will you join with us, you and your sammad?
“Where do you trek to?”
“Why — to find you.”
Kerrick burst out laughing at Herilak’s baffled expression — and Herilak frowned at first, then laughed as well.
“You have found me, so the trek can end here. Join us. The island is safe, the hunting good. There are deer and small eating murgu. It is a very fine place to camp.”
“Killer murgu?”
“Some, but not many cross the river from the mainland. We watch for their spoor in the mud here, track them down and kill them at once.” Talking about murgu brought something important to mind.
“You and the sammads are welcome here”, Kerrick said, then hesitated. “But I must tell you, one of the males from the city is close by, on an island by himself.”
“One of those who lived through the fire in the city?” He frowned and unconsciously lifted his weapon.
“The same. There were two, the other… died. I know you think that every marag should be killed, you told me that. But this one is harmless.”
“Are you saying that if we come to this place — the marag must not be disturbed? That is a hard thing to ask.”
“Hard, perhaps, but that is the way it must be. I talk with him. And because I can talk with the murgu I did what had to be done to save the valley, to make them stop the war. To bring you this knife.”
“I have not thought of these things before. To me, always after the death of my sammad, murgu were there to be hated and destroyed. All of them. You have said that some of them are different, but I cannot understand that.”
“This one is harmless, a male, locked away with other males all his life. It is the females that make war. I want this one to live.”
Herilak frowned, but finally nodded his head. “It will be as you say. I will not go near the beast.
“And the others?”
“They must each say the same thing — or they cannot stay here. The island where this marag is will be forbidden, that is the best way. Tell us which island it is so each Tanu will make an oath not to go there. The children as well. I do not like this. But it is you who we owe our lives to, we can at least do this thing for you. The creature will be safe.”