“Karognis…”he said, in a voice so filled with loathing that those closest to him shivered and stepped back. “The Karognis is loose on the land and is now close to us.”
Kerrick was only half-listening for he was not interested in what Sanone was saying. “What do we do, Herilak? Do we flee once again?”
“If we flee again they will only follow again. Now I know the meaning of my dreams. This is the day that I saw coming. I will meet them and I will fight. Then I will die. But it will be a warrior’s death for many of the murgu will die with me.”
“No,” Kerrick said, the word harsh as a slap across the face. “That would be good if you were one man and wanted to die. But you are the sacripex. Do you want the hunters and the sammads to die with you? Have you forgotten that the murgu are as numberless as the sands upon the shore? In open battle we can only lose. So now you must tell me. Are you the sacripex who will lead us in battle — or are you the hunter Herilak who wishes to go alone against the murgu and die?”
The big hunter was a head taller than Kerrick and stood looking down at him, his hands opening and closing now, hands that could reach out and kill. Yet Kerrick was as angry as he, staring back at him in cold silence, waiting for his answer.
“Those are harsh words, Kerrick. No one speaks to Herilak in that manner.”
“As margalus I speak to the sacripex. To the hunter Herilak I would speak differently, for his pain is mine.” His voice softened now. “It is your choice, great Herilak, and no one can decide for you.”
Herilak stared down in silence, his fists now clenched so tightly that his knuckles were white. Then he nodded slowly, and when he spoke there was understanding and respect in his words.
“And so shall the son teach the father. You make me remember that I forced a choice upon you once, and you listened to me and you left the murgu and became a Tanu hunter once again. If you could do that, then I must do my duty as sacripex and forget what I saw in my dreams. But you are margalus. You must tell us what the murgu are doing.”
The incident was over, forgotten. Now there were decisions to be made. Kerrick looked at the Kargu hunter, eyes unfocused and looking through him, deep in thought, seeing instead the Yilanè and the fargi who had come here. Trying to see what they were doing and how were they doing it. The Kargu moved uneasily under his unseeing gaze as long moments passed before Kerrick spoke to him.
“You are a hunter. You found your sammad dead. What tracks did you find, what sign?”
“Many tracks, those of beasts I have never seen before. Came from south, go back south.”
Kerrick felt a sudden leap of hope. He turned to Herilak, translated the Kargu’s words. Groped to divine the meaning of the Yilanè movements.
“If they returned they must have been part of a larger body. A small group of fargi would not come this far, it would be impossible. Their creatures fly, they know where we are before they attack. They knew the Kargu were camped in that place so they attacked swiftly and slaughtered them. That means they know where the sammads are. And they know about the Sasku and this valley.”
Sanone’s words broke through his thoughts, drawing his attention back to the present.
“What is happening? I understand none of this.”
“I spoke of the murgu who walk like men,” Kerrick said. “They are coming now from the south, in great numbers I believe. They want only to kill us. They have ways of knowing where we are well before they attack.”
“Will they attack us as well? What will they do?” Sanone asked, an echo of Herilak’s same question.
“They will know about this valley. They will kill everyone here because you are Tanu.”
Would they do that? Kerrick thought. Yes, of course. They would surely attack the sammads at the encampment first, then come here. But when? They would have to swing wide around the valley, might even be doing that now. But would they strike now, this very afternoon? It was a terrible thought that at this very moment the sammads might be under attack, destroyed. No, the Yilanè did not think that way. Find the prey, lie up overnight, attack at dawn. They had done this in the past, it had always succeeded in the past, they would not change it now. He turned swiftly to Herilak.
“The murgu will attack the sammads at the encampment in the morning, I am sure of it. Tomorrow morning or the next one at the latest.”
“I go now to warn them. The sammads must leave at once.”
He turned and ran and Kerrick called after him.
“Where will you go? Where can you flee that they cannot follow?”
Herilak spun about, faced Kerrick and his distasteful facts.
“Where? North, that might be best, to the snows. They cannot follow us there.”
“They are too close. They will catch you in the hills.”
“Then where?”
Where? As Herilik cried the words aloud Kerrick could see the answer clearly. He pointed to the ground.
“Here. Behind the rock barrier, in this valley with no exit. Let the murgu come after us. Let them face the death-sticks and the arrows and the spears. Let their darts strike the hard rock instead of us. Let us lie and wait for them. They will not pass. They will think they have trapped us here — but it is we who will have trapped them. We have food and water here, strong spears to aid us.
“Let them attack us and die. I think that the time for running away has come to an end.” He turned to face Sanone, for their survival depended upon him now. “The decision is up to you, Sanone. The sammads can go north — or we can come into this valley and wait for the murgu attack. If you let us in you risk the lives of all your people. They may not attack…”
“They will,” Sanone said with calm assurance. “For now the future has become as clear as the past. We have lived in this valley, gathering our strength, waiting for the mastodon to return. You have done that, brought them to us so that we may defend them. In the mastodon is the power of Kadair. Outside is the Karognis seeking to destroy that power. You do not know about the Karognis but we do. As Kadair is the light and the sun, so is the Karognis the night and the darkness. As Kadair put us on earth, so does the Karognis seek to destroy us. We know of the Karognis’s existence, knew that he would come one day, and now we know his guise, know that he has come. These murgu are more than you think they are — and they are less. They are strong — but they are the Karognis on Earth and war against Kadair and his people. That is why you came to us, that is why the mastodon child Arnwheet was born. He is Kadair incarnate. We are here to see that the Karognis is stopped. Call them in, all of them, quickly. The battle is about to begin.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“How ugly these creatures are,” Vaintè said. “If anything this one is uglier than most.”
She put out one foot and turned the severed head over with her claws. There was dust now on the face and hair, caked into the dried blood of the neck.
“Different as well,” Stallan said, poking the head with her hèsotsan. “See how dark the fur is. This is a new type of ustuzou. All of the others had white skins and white fur. This one is dark. But these creatures also had sticks with sharp stones attached to them, wore scraps of dirty fur about their bodies.”
“Ustuzou,” Vaintè said firmly. “In need of killing.”
She dismissed Stallan with a movement of her arm and looked about at the organized bustle of the fargi. The sun was still well above the horizon, as it always was now when they stopped for the night, for there were many preparations to be made. While the uruktop were being unloaded and fed, other fargi were spreading the sensitive vines out in circles around the camping place. Nothing could approach now in the dark without being detected. The light-creatures had been bred to be much brighter now, and were slightly sentient so that they pointed at the area that had been disturbed, washing it with eye-burning light. Of greater interest were the bundles of melikkasei that the fargi were carefully unrolling beyond the vines. A new development, plants that were photosensitive and harmless to handle during the daylight hours. But after dark poisonous thorns sprang up from their recesses, the death in their sharp tips ready for any creature that might touch them during the night. They retracted only when the sky was bright again.