Fern looked up at them. 'Why do you want us to go south, Master?'
'Because that is where the lands of the Manila lie.' Consternation rippled through the crowd. 'Why should we go there?' 'To win a battle.'
The crowd erupted. A single voice rose above the din. Carnelian saw it was Ravan. 'Who will escort our people back from the mountains?'
Osidian stood closer to the edge. 'We shall return victorious with time to spare.'
Many of the upturned faces showed doubt.
Fern leapt up the first few steps of the Crag and turned to face the crowd. He pointed up at Osidian. 'Can't you see the Master is possessed? What has he brought us but strife and bloodshed?'
Carnelian swallowed hard, seeing hope in the way the crowd was warming to Fern. His friend stabbed a finger at Osidian.
'Now he wants to lead us to die in the desert or in a foreign land. Do you want this?'
The crowd growled and many shook their heads.
'Let us return to the ways of our fathers and mothers.' Seeing them waver, Fern looked up at Carnelian. 'If we must follow someone, let us follow one who has spilled no Plainsman blood except in self-defence.'
The intensity of Fern's gaze made Carnelian eager to rise to his challenge.
'Are you certain, Carnelian, you could win a pitched battle?'
He turned to look at Osidian.
'If you were to lose, it is they,' he glanced down at the crowd, 'who would lose everything.'
Osidian's conviction stirred doubt in Carnelian. As Osidian's eyes fell on the Plainsmen, he seemed to grow larger.
The Marula have already massacred two Plainsman tribes and would have done the same to the Darkcloud had they not been dealt with. This time, we were fortunate but which of you would risk being their next victims?'
Carnelian might have even then tried to wrest power from Osidian except that in his heart he feared the Marula danger.
Osidian's gaze moved over the Plainsmen. 'You can wait until they send another army or else you can march with me so that when your womenfolk return you can tell them you have destroyed this threat once and for all.'
As the Darkcloud shouted their agreement, Krow pushed to the front.
'Listen to the Master. You know my desire for revenge upon the Marula, but more than that, I never again want them to do to any other tribe what they did to mine…'
The rest the crowd drowned out. Carnelian read Osidian's satisfaction from his posture. He had won again. Fern, among the riot, looked appalled.
Carnelian glanced at Osidian, fearful. 'Now you will punish those who opposed you.'
Osidian turned to regard him. 'On the contrary, Carnelian, by permitting them to continue living I will disarm the criticism that I have ambitions to be their master.'
In the dusk they rode down the Southing. Beyond the swathe of the Southgardens, Carnelian could see the Bluedancing fires as sparks in the gloomy Eastgarden. Craning round the back of his saddle-chair, he gazed with a deep yearning at the mother trees crowding round the Crag. Then he was riding out across the final earthbridge, following Osidian into the south-west where a livid wound in the edge of the sky was all that remained of the tyrant sun.
Night smothered them. Even mounted, Carnelian could feel the heat rising from the earth. He unwound the uba from his head to let the air from the aquar's movement cool the sweat on his skin. The ground muffled the drumming footfalls of the aquar. Sleepily, Carnelian watched the riders ahead moving through the moon-glossed tendrils of the dust they raised. In one place, the plain was stone-hard, fissured and cracked, its covering of dead ferns burned away by fire. Fire. They had already ridden far from any sheltering shade. It was growing cooler and soon it would be cold, but Carnelian was already fearing the dawn.
First light revealed the Mother's Backbone rising before them. As the dawn poured the shadows of the riders out to meet the ridge, Carnelian turned to face the sun, closing his eyes against the radiance, letting it dispel the chill of the night.
Reaching the Backbone, they dismounted and led their aquar up onto the shattered black rock. Krow and Morunasa at his side, Osidian chose a spot where there might be some shade from the coming onslaught of the sun.
Carnelian and Fern exchanged wary glances. They had not spoken since the gathering in the clearing. Brooding, Ravan was keeping his distance from the Master, making Carnelian wonder what had happened between them.
He busied himself angling his aquar so that it would receive as little sun as possible, and used it and its saddle-chair to make a shelter for himself as he saw others doing. Men were looking nervously into the east, where the sun was melting up from the earth. Carnelian lay behind his aquar, dreading when it should rise so high there would be no place left to hide.
The air was a fever that made it impossible to sleep. Even though he had kept his waterskin in his aquar's shadow, each gulp was as warm as blood. He sneaked out to give the creature a drink then lay trying to ignore the sweat dewing over his body. A saltstone was passed around which burned his tongue.
At last the furnace sun began to abate. Carnelian counted each moment as he watched it fall blind into the Plain. When darkness came the air sighed a breeze of relief. He rose, feeling the day's ague still vibrating the night. They resaddled their aquar and descended the Backbone back to the plain, where they remounted. Carnelian's headache was eased by the gentle rhythm of his creature's gait.
He must have fallen asleep, for suddenly he was aware he was hearing the sea. It took moments to work out that it was sand and not spume spitting in his face. Veils of it slid hissing towards them over the ground. His aquar had lowered her head and covered her eyes with the inner lids. Not caring that they should both be blind, Carnelian pulled his uba down over his eyes.
A brightening in the margin of the sky woke him. Heads were rising, seeing it, too tired to fear it yet. As Carnelian brought his aquar to a halt with the others, one continued to amble onwards. It was Morunasa's. He looked round to see if anyone else had noticed the Maruli moving away from them. Morunasa was sitting upright, searching for something.
'He runs away,' a voice shouted in Ochre.
Arguing broke out.
'Leave him be,' cried Krow. The Master has sent him scouting.'
Grumbling, the men made their aquar kneel and Carnelian followed their lead. Eyeing the dawn, he clambered out of his chair. Nearby, the Backbone rose as an unbroken wall they could not climb. He made his aquar rise and walked her round so that she was presenting her tail to the rising sun. He made her kneel again and began working at the rope girdles that secured her saddle-chair.
A gruff voice sounded from far away. Morunasa was hurtling back, waving his hands, shouting something in Vulgate. Everyone stopped to watch. His aquar overshot their position before the Maruli managed to bring her under control. As he rode towards them, Osidian went to meet him. Carnelian could hear the mutter of their talk but not what was being said.
Osidian strode back into their midst. 'Mount up,' he commanded, causing a tumult of protest.
Carnelian watched Osidian stooping to say something into Krow's ear. The youth shouted down the noise. 'We're close to our goal. There's a river nearby. Trees.'
That last word cast its cool shade over everyone.
Trees,' the men echoed, hope widening their eyes.
'Yes, trees,' said Krow. 'If we ride now we can spend the rest of the day in shade, beside running water.' He grinned. 'Unless you lot would rather spend the day skulking here in the open?'
Everyone could already see the spindly stretch of their shadows. Though he feared the sun, Carnelian shared the general enthusiasm to go on.