After a few moments, turning away from Bel-ka-Trazet, the Tuginda said calmly, 'Sheldra, you sec that it is Lord Shardik?'
'It is Lord Shardik, saiyett,' replied the girl, in a level tone of liturgical response.
'I am going down and I wish you to come with me,' said the Tuginda.
The two women had already descended some yards when Kelderek, coming to himself, started after them. As he did so Bel-ka-Trazet caught him by the arm.
'Don't be a fool, Kelderek,' he said. 'They'll be killed. Even if they're not, this nonsense need be no business of yours.'
Kelderek stared at him in astonishment. Then, without contempt, certainly, for this grey and ravaged warrior, but with a new and strange sense of having travelled beyond his authority, he answered, 'Sir, Lord Shardik is close to death.' Quickly inclining Ids head and raising his palm to his forehead, he turned and followed the two women down the steep slope.
The Tuginda and her companion had reached the floor of the hollow and were walking swiftly, with as little hesitation as the women with the lantern had walked into the fire: and Kelderek, since he judged it better not to leap or run for fear of rousing the bear, had not overtaken them before they stopped on the nearer side of the pool. The grass was damp underfoot and he guessed that it must be watered and the pool filled from the same underground source as that which fed the brook on the open slope beyond.
The pool, knee-deep and perhaps a little broader than a man could jump, was fringed all along the further side by the scarlet trumpet-flowers, half-hidden among their masses of palmate, hairy leaves. There was a foetid smell of filth and sickness and a buzzing of flies. The bear had not moved and they could hear its laboured breadiing – a sodden, injured sound. The muzzle was dry, the pelt staring and lustreless. A glimpse of the bloodshot white of one eye showed beneath the half-closed lid. At close quarters its size was overwhelming. The shoulder rose above Kelderek like a wall, beyond which could be seen only the sky. As he stood uncertain the bear, without opening its eyes, lifted its head for a moment and then wearily let it fall again. Even so a man in grave illness tosses and moves, seeking relief, but then, finding in movement nothing but wretchedness and futility, desists.
Without thought of danger Kelderek took half a dozen splashing steps across the pool, plucked the cloth from his wounded shoulder and, soaking it in the water, held it to the bear's muzzle and moistened its tongue and lips. The jaws moved convulsively and he, seeing that the great beast was trying to chew the cloth, soaked it once more and squeezed the water into the side of its mouth.
The Tuginda, bending over the bear's flank with a frond of green fern in one hand, had evidently got rid of the flies in one of the wounds and was examining it. This done, she began searching over the whole body, sometimes parting the pelt with her fingers, sometimes using the stalk of the frond as a probe; Kelderek guessed that she was removing flies' eggs and maggots, but her face showed no disgust, only the same care and deliberation that he had seen while she dressed his shoulder.
At length she paused and beckoned to him where he stood in the pool. He scrambled up the bank, the hollow stems of the trepsis bursting under his feet with a soft 'Nop! Nop!' Feeling for a hold, he inadvertently grasped for a moment the curved claws of the off fore-paw, each as long as his hand and thick as his finger. He reached the top, stood beside Sheldra and looked down at the body.
The bear's belly and flank were marked with long, singed streaks, black or dirty grey in colour, as though scored with a burning torch or hot iron bar. In several places the pelt, four fingers thick, had been burned away altogether and the bare flesh, withered and contracted into furrows and proud ridges, was split by cracks and open sores. Here and there hung a cluster of bluebottles' eggs or a maggot that the Tuginda had overlooked. Several of the wounds were putrescent, oozing a glistening, green matter that had discoloured the shaggy hair and clotted it into stiff, dry spikes. A pulpy mess of yellow, withering trepsis showed that the helpless creature had urinated where it lay. No doubt, thought Kelderek, the hind-quarters too were fouled and full of maggots. But he felt no revulsion – only pity and a determination at all costs to play his part in saving Shardik's life.
'There is much to be done,' said the Tuginda, 'if he is not to die. We must work quickly. But first, we will go back and speak with the Baron and I will tell the priestess what we require.'
As they made their way up the side of the pit she said to Kelderek, 'Take heart, clever hunter. You had the skill to find him and God will grant us the skill to save him, never fear.'
'It was no skill of mine, saiyett -' he began, but she motioned him to silence and, turning her head, began speaking in low tones to Sheldra. ' – need both tessik and theltocarna he heard, and a few moments later,'- if he recovers we must attempt the Singing.'
Bel-ka-Trazet was standing where Kelderek had left him. Melathys, white as the moon, had risen to her feet and was standing with eyes fixed on the ground.
'There are many wounds,' said the Tuginda, 'and several are flyblown and poisoned. He must have fled from the fire across the river – but of that I was already sure when Kelderek first told us his tale.'
Bel-ka-Trazet paused as though deliberating with himself. Then, with the air of one resolved, he looked up and said, 'Saiyett, let us understand one another, you and I. You are the Tuginda and I am the High Baron of Ortelga – until someone kills me. The people consent to obey us because they believe that each of us, by one means or another, can keep them safe. Old tales, old dreams – people can be ruled and led by these, as long as they believe in them and in those who draw from them power and mystery. Your women walk on fire, take away men's names out of their minds, plunge knives into their arms and take no hurt. That is good, for the people fear and obey. But of what help to us is this business of the bear, and what use do you mean to make of! it?'
'I don't know,' answered the Tuginda, 'and this is no time to be discussing such things. At all costs we have to act quickly.'
'Nevetheless, hear me, saiyett, for you will need my help and I have learned from long experience what is most likely to follow from this deed and that. We have found a large bear – possibly the largest bear that has ever lived. Certainly I would not have believed that there could be such a bear – that I grant you. But if you heal it, what will follow? If you remain near it, it will kill you and your women and then become a terror to the whole of Ortelga, until men are forced to hunt and destroy it at the risk of their lives. Even supposing that it does not kill you, at the best it will leave the island and then you, having tried to make use of it and failed, will lose influence over the people. Believe me, saiyett, you have nothing to gain. As a memory and a legend, Shardik has power and that power is ours, but to try to make the people believe that he has returned can end in nothing but harm. Be advised by me and go back, now, to your island.'
The Tuginda waited in silence until he had finished speaking. Then, beckoning to the priestess, she said,
'Melathys, go at once to the camp and tell the girls to bring here everything we are going to need. It will be best if they paddle the canoes round the shore and land down there.' She pointed across the pit to the distant, northern shore at the foot of the long slope.
The priestess hurried away without a word and the Tuginda turned back to the hunter.