'I can't do anything.'
You must. He's fooled everyone except you. You have to save the world, Ullii. No one else can.
'Why should I?'
Because you're good, and it's your duty.
'I don't care about duty.'
But you must take retribution for Cryl-Nish's wickedness, or little Yllii will never rest in his grave.
She began to cry. 'Go away. Don't torment me.'
The only way out is to do as I say. Stop Cryl-Nish, and then Yllii will be at peace, and so will you. You can have peace forever, if you wish it.
'But what am I to do?'
First you must eat and get back your strength.
'There's nothing to eat. They took the food in the air-floater.'
Look over there, at the edge of the forest! See the ears sticking up? It's a hare, and you've been still so long it's forgotten you're here. Bend down, slowly. Pick up that egg-shaped stone.
'I can't kill a living animal,' she whispered.
If you don't, youil starve and your baby will go unavenged. Pick up the stone.
Ullii bent her knees, ever so slowly, until she could reach the stone. The bracelet slipped on her wrist and for a moment she could not remember what she was doing, or why. She shook herself, it locked again, she recalled, and her fingers closed around the stone. Warm from the sun, it felt smooth, hard and heavy.
The voice was there again. Draw back your arm, slowly.
'I've never thrown a rock in my life. I won't even hit it.' at was a comfort. just do as I say. Don't aim at the hare, for it will dart away. that tussock just to the left? Aim for the very centre of that, then throw with all your strength.
Ullii sighted on the tussock.
That's good. Now throw hard!
She hurled the stone. It went cleanly from her hand, exactly where she had aimed. The hare was slow to move, then darted to its right, directly into the path of the stone, and fell dead.
Animals did not show in her lattice, as a rule, but as the hare expired, Ullii felt a flare of pain. She ran across to the small creature, hating herself and regretting its death. She picked it up, stroking its fur. It was still warm, the eyes still bright. She had no idea what to do with it. She rarely ate meat, and then only the smallest amounts.
'What do you want me to do?' She had no knife to skin it, no flint and tinder with which to kindle a fire.
Tear off the skin with your teeth. Drink the blood before it congeals, then eat the meat and the organs. The very idea made her want to vomit.
This is your first test, Ullii, and if you fail it, you won't succeed in anything and Yllii will lie in torment for eternity.
'But it was a living creature.'
Is it wrong for the lion to kill the lamb when her cubs are hungry? Of course not. Eat it, that you may survive, that poor Yllii may be revenged, and the world saved.
Ullii put her sharp teeth to the creature's throat and began to tear at the fur.
She did not hear the voice for days after that. Ullii wandered across the plains, sheltering from the sun in the day, moving at night. She learned to hunt and kill small animals with her bare hands, or with sticks, stones, pits or snares, drinking their blood and eating their flesh raw. She did not think at all, for thinking led to all sorts of mad thoughts that she could not bear, and grief that overwhelmed her. She simply became an animal.
Then, one morning, maybe a week later, she was snapped back to full consciousness.
Wake, said the voice, and this time there was an inexorability about it that made her afraid. The voice had grown more powerful, and bleaker. It no longer sounded like Flammas. It reminded her of the evil scrutator, the dumpy- old woman. It's time!
'Time for what?' Ullii shuddered, but now she was afraid to disobey.
Time to begin your retribution. Time to set the world to rights.
'I don't understand.'
Look in your lattice. Look for the knot of Chief Scrutator Ghorr.
She searched the lattice and found it at the very limit, a long way to the south. 'I can see it.'
Call him to you.
'I don't know how.'
Change his knot. You can do that.
'I don't dare. He'll attack me.'
He's looking for you. Change it so he knows where you are, and he will come.
'I'm afraid. He's a cruel man.'
Ah, but now you can give him what he wants, he'll do.anything for you.
'What does he want?'
He wants Scrutator Flydd, Cryl-Nish Him and Irisis Stirm, and you can find them. You must, for they've all betrayed you.
'I don't know where they are.'
You can find them.
'Flydd and Irisis aren't in my lattice any more. Nish never has been.'
Ghorr will help you find them. Wherever Flydd is, there Nish will be. Call Ghorr to you.
Ullii reached into her lattice, traced out Ghorr's jagged, angry knot and began to tug at the ends. As soon as she did, a feeling of dread crept over her, a cold shivering of the flesh.
He was a wicked man, even worse than Jal-Nish. Just looking closely at his knot made her shudder with terror.
He's not the worst. Cryl-Nish is the worst, for he pretends to be.'
'Yes,' she thought. Nish is worse, and I'll use these evil people to punish him. She plucked at the knot again, and all at once felt an alertness searching for her.
Withdraw.
She drew back, shivering, though the day was warm.
Reach out again, carefully. Don't alarm him and he won't strike at you like an enemy; just make him know that you're here.
Ullii reached out, touched the knot and turned it around, and as she did so she felt Ghorr thinking, Aaahhhhhh! There she is.
Withdraw and shut down the lattice. Go out into the open. See where that great tree has fallen and the wind has piled scrub and dead glass against it? Burn it.
'I've nothing to light it with.'
'I will show you how.'
The voice had her collect dry grass and crush it between two stones until it was a bone-dry powder. Then it led Ullii around the fallen tree, picking up sticks and putting them down again until she found two different kinds of wood, one hard, the other softer, that were just right. She rubbed the hard stick back and forth across the softer one, pressing firmly, with a steady motion that she could keep up for a long time.
Eventually Ullii was rewarded by smoking wood-dust that set the grass powder ablaze. Lighting a handful of twigs, she thrust it into her prepared nest of kindling, and within minutes the timber was roaring. She stood back and waited for Ghorr's air-floater to find her. The voice in her head had gone. Ullii felt that she had taken command of her life at last.
The air-floater landed just before dusk, well away from the fire, which had consumed the centre of the vast trunk and was now creeping along the length of it. Ghorr got out. Ullii remained standing in front of the blaze, in full view. Her gut tightened as he headed towards her, robes flapping, followed by Fusshte and the dumpy old woman with the balding head.
Ghorr could have picked Ullii up in one hand; he was her peer. And yet, halfway to the fire, his stride faltered and he stopped, stung in ha.
Ullii did not meet his gaze. She did not have the strength for that kind of connection – he knew the balance had changed between them. She might be little and weak, but she had called him, and he had come. It made all the difference. Furthermore, she knew he was remembering those strange things she had done in Nennifer, that no one else on Santhenar could have explained, much less duplicated.
'I knew I'd find you,' Ghorr said.
'I summoned you.'
He smiled at her use of that word. 'Did you really? Why?'
She caught her breath. 'My brother, Mylii, is dead! The word sent a spasm through her bowel. 'Nish killed him. My baby is dead and that's Nish's fault too. He is evil and must be punished. I will find him for you.'
Chief Scrutator Ghorr's eyes narrowed. 'What about Ex-Scrutator Xervish Flydd, the greatest enemy of them all?'
'He lied to me, betrayed and abandoned me.'