Looking forward, he gasped with horror as he saw the heaveners' tidal wave was almost upon them. The quakes were rattling his bones. The saurian stench struck him so that he could almost not breathe. His left foot trammelled the aquar's back, insisting she keep her headlong lope towards the onrushing stampede.
Still she was veering slowly to the right as Osidian had predicted she would.
The hills of muscle were almost upon them. Their backs eclipsed the sky. Then the saurians were pouring their thunder past him and he heard the thin ululating and the human cries. He saw the tiny Plainsmen scurrying among the giant's legs, faces distorted in an ecstasy of fear. He glimpsed Osidian among them like a lightning flash and then they were past and for moments he gaped at the road they had crushed across the plain as he felt the thunder recede.
He turned his aquar and saw the heaveners narrowing their herd into the cone he had helped create. On either side of the giants a hedge of smoke was rising, rooted in flame. Clouds billowed and greyed his line of sight. A tiny darting of aquar pulling flames closed the gap.
Then the storm fell silent. The mass of smoke thinned slowly as it rose into the sky. The fire was spreading, rustling, as if it were some creature scratching its back through the ferns. Turning, he saw that the drag-cradle he had been pulling was threatening to become a ball of flames.
More and more of the Tribe were coming down to gape at the captive giants. Among the younger hunters, the excitement of the chase had not yet worn off. Beaming, red-faced, they were telling everyone everything they had seen and felt. The silent reception smothered their ardour until they too were watching the heaveners nulling within the imprisoning circuit of the ditch and rampart. Pushing through the crowd searching for Fern, Carnelian and Sil found him standing staring at the heaveners through tears.
'Husband,' Sil said, and reached up to touch his face.
Fern turned and saw them. 'Seeing them there…' He blinked away his tears. 'We've robbed them of their thunder.'
The three of them looked at each other guiltily..
Sil began to cry. 'We had no choice. The Tribe…'
Fern looked at them wild-eyed. 'Galewing said the same to us as we discovered what it was we were to hunt. Many wanted to send word to the Elders, but Galewing said the women would oppose this on religious grounds and so they must not allow the Tribe to die for their beliefs.'
'Our beliefs,' said Sil.
His eyes on Fern, Carnelian began worrying if he had erred in setting his friend's safety above that of the Tribe. This was all part of Osidian's schemes. Searching, he found him towering among a group of youths. Carnelian began making his way towards them.
Krow was the first to see Carnelian approaching and, clearly troubled, he looked away.
Ravan grinned. 'Well, the Master's delivered as he said he would.'
Carnelian talked over the youth in Quya. 'My Lord, the Ochre loathe what you have made them do.'
Osidian turned, smiling. 'Have I not given them what they wanted?'
These creatures are sacred to them.'
Osidian's smile broadened and Carnelian realized, sickened, that this was the very reason for the hunt. Carnelian felt people stirring and saw they were turning their backs on the rampart. Following their gaze, he saw the Elder women approaching. The horror in their faces was clear to see. They came close enough for Carnelian to reach out and touch Akaisha but she shook his hand off as she watched the heaveners' necks crossing and recrossing against the sky.
This is unholy,' Whin cried from their midst, and many of the other Elders joined their voices to hers.
A stunned silence fell.
'But you sanctioned this,' said a voice.
'We did not sanction this? cried Whin.
Ravan confronted her. The Master's brought us more meat in one day's hunt than our warriors could've managed in two whole seasons.'
These aren't meat,' bellowed Akaisha.
Hand on hips, Ginkga was standing in front of Galewing greyed by the dust of the hunt. 'You allowed this… this sacrilege?'
When the man said nothing, she grew enraged. 'Have you forgotten that heaveners are sacred?'
'So is the survival of the Tribe,' Galewing said in a high clear voice which found many echoes in the crowd.
'Would the other Elders have us set them free?' cried Ravan.
Galewing turned regarding the people. 'If we do, we'll starve. Shall we choose life or death?'
The answer seemed to come hissing like a sandstorm. 'Life.'
This is unholy,' Carnelian heard Akaisha cry, but the rest was drowned out by the rumble of the Tribe stamping on the earth and the chant: 'Life. Life. Life.'
BETRAYAL
Venerate your aged for in their memories the past finds its only refuge.
When Poppy found Carnelian, she prevailed upon him to lift her up onto his shoulders so she might be able to look over the rampart at the heaveners. Carnelian was hardly aware of her gurgles of childish delight. He had watched the Elder women fleeing back towards the Grove. Fern, Sil, the whole Tribe was being marshalled by Galewing. Osidian stood apart, his face swathed, his eyes lazily following the carnival of preparations. It was Poppy's cry and shudder that alerted Carnelian to the first volley of javelins. Perched on the rampart, the younger men cast another volley at their trapped victims. As these dropped from their hides without leaving even a wound, there was a swell of consternation among the watchers. Carnelian lifted Poppy from his shoulders and saw how frightened she was. He did not feel he could send her back to the Grove on her own, but neither did he feel he was free to take her. Finding Sil, he was relieved when she agreed to go with her.
'Look after Fern,' Sil said. There's something wrong with him.'
The heaveners?'
'Something else. He won't tell me… perhaps you…?'
Carnelian nodded solemnly, kissed Poppy, then waved them off and went looking for Fern.
When he found him, Fern was helping some women improvise a billhook: a long pole of scouring-rush with a curved end tipped with flints. To get close to him, Carnelian became embroiled in its construction. When it was finished, many bodies were required to counterbalance it as it swung, swivelling upon the earth rampart. Swarms of children ran about screaming and laughing as if it were a game. The women waited, poised, until one of the heaveners came to eat from one of the magnolias edging the meadow, then swinging the billhook, they slashed a cut into its throat. The screaming head lifted away, seeding the air with blood. As more of the giants fell prey to the billhook, cries of amazement became laughter at how stupid the heaveners were.
Carnelian tried to strike up a conversation with Fern but he was apparently deaf to anything he said. They ended up working together in silent anger making more billhooks.
Under constant attack, the heaveners raged and stamped and backed away but, hungry, they kept coming in to feed. Blood pouring from their countless wounds soaked into the earth and, when the earth could drink no more, blood began trickling into the ditch. The slaughter went on, until, even as the sun shed its own red light over the scene, it was outdone by that gory place where the dying heaveners rolled scarlet in their own blood.
The heaveners' booming death-cries followed Carnelian and Fern all the way back to the hearth. Seeing them, Sil questioned Carnelian with her eyes. He shook his head. Heads were hanging everywhere around the hearth.
Wearing a deep and seemingly permanent frown, Akaisha welcomed her son back to the hearth and everyone else murmured their welcomes.