Frowning, Fern watched as his brother went off to sulk on a rock. He leaned close to Carnelian. 'His behaviour has been steadily worsening. I can't understand, Carnie, why the Master tolerates it.'
Neither could Carnelian. 'Your brother has good reason to be aggrieved.'
Their eyes met and Fern nodded. Carnelian hoped for a return to their easy friendship.
It was nearing dusk when Krow sprang up and ran down the bank to the river. Carnelian could just make out Osidian and Morunasa emerging from the tangle of the banyan. He watched them winding back from rock to rock. He was dreading their return.
As they approached the shore, Krow went out to meet them. Carnelian saw the youth's dejection as the Master ignored him. Krow fell in behind him, snatching glances at his back as he picked his way among the boulders.
All three reached the shore together. As they approached, Morunasa seemed disturbed and Carnelian detected in Osidian's face the ghost of some horror he had witnessed.
'What was it you saw?' Carnelian asked in Quya.
'Cannibalism in the Labyrinth,' Osidian answered, in a tone that seemed to be one with the dismal gulping of the river.
Carnelian did not understand, did not want to understand. He noticed Osidian's left wrist was wrapped in a clot of leaves through which blood was soaking.
Tomorrow I shall leave you, Carnelian. You will remain here. I would take you with me if I dared, but I need your Chosen face to instil terror and obedience into the Plainsmen that will be staying behind to garrison this Upper Reach.'
'What's he saying?' Ravan demanded.
'He's leaving us,' snapped Carnelian. His eyes met Fern's in a mutual glance of dismay.
Krow leapt in front of Osidian. 'Let me go with you, Master.'
Osidian looked right through the youth. The Oracle Morunasa shall be my only companion.'
Of the two of them, the Maruli seemed now the taller as he regarded them all with condescension. Krow regarded him with unconcealed hatred. Ravan skulked in the shadows.
'And where does my Lord intend to go?' asked Carnelian, already knowing the answer.
Lifting his chin, Osidian turned the emerald fire in his eyes on the brooding chasm below the falls. 'Down there, the Lower Reach, land of the Manila.'
RENDER
A man's desires are the best hook to catch him.
In the dusk it was hard to see the Master on the knoll against the baobab that rose behind him like the night. Morunasa's presence was only betrayed by the blinking of his eyes.
The pale slit in the Master's uba scanned the Plainsmen he had gathered to hear him. Tomorrow, with your approval, I would go down to the land of the Manila.'
Among the crowd, Carnelian was deafened as they rose in uproar. Osidian's pale hands lifted to calm them.
'While I am away, the ladder down into the chasm must be repaired.'
The men erupted again, so that Carnelian was carried a few steps up the slope in their surge.
Fern pushed past him higher still. 'Why, Master, so that the murdering bastards can swarm up to destroy us?'
'If that had been their intention, do you not think they could have done so long ago?' Osidian's contempt withered them to silence. Their attacks on the Earthsky were incidental; merely a way in which they sought to regain access to their shrine,' he pointed, 'the Isle of Flies.
The Ladder is the only link between the Lower and this Upper Reach. When it was cut by a revolt of their pygmy slaves, they were forced to send armies through swamp and jungle up onto the Earthsky. There they killed for the water and djada that they needed to get here.'
More men moved up to join Fern; among them, Ravan. The youth stabbed a finger at Morunasa.
'If we kill the Maruli, no news will reach his people of the destruction of their expedition. They have tried twice already and failed. What makes you believe, Master, they will dare to try again?'
A Darkcloud stood forward. 'Let's burn their Isle of Flies as they burned my tribe's mother trees.'
Morunasa bared his teeth. 'Any man who crosses to the Isle will be devoured by the Darkness-under-the-Trees. Understand this, Flatlanders, you may kill me, but my brethren in the land below will never forsake the dwelling of our Lord.'
'You see?' said Osidian. They will plague us until they have their Ladder back.'
Carnelian thought it time he said something. 'Why do you need to go down there with the Maruli?'
Osidian gazed at Carnelian for some moments. To make sure they believe that there is no need to send another force.'
Carnelian could not fault this. Osidian continued.
'Enough has been said. Now you must decide what is to be done.'
With that, he turned his back on them. Carnelian pushed his way to Fern's side. His friend recoiled. 'What if he sees us together?'
'We'll have to take the risk. Too much hangs on this decision.'
Fern saw the truth of it. 'Why is he doing this? Could it be as it seems that he does not want the Marula to interfere with his plans?'
Carnelian glanced over to the ladder Osidian and Morunasa had descended earlier. 'I cannot believe that is the only reason he brought us here.'
Fern spoke in his ear. 'We could kill him now.'
Carnelian considered that, then made sure before he spoke he was not doing so for emotional reasons. 'No. If we did, we'd not only have the problem of controlling the different tribes but there would be no way of reassuring them we knew how to deal with the Marula threat.'
Fern frowned. 'Combined, we could defeat anything they threw at us.'
'Combined, perhaps…'
Fern grimaced, knowing that such unity would be nigh impossible to achieve using any methods other than the Master's.
'And besides, we'd have to leave men behind in the koppies for the Sky knows how many Witherings.'
Fern nodded, wearily. He looked around him. 'As long as we control this Upper Reach the Marula are powerless against us.'
'So we go along with him?'
Fern glanced up to where the looming baobab had swallowed the Master and the Maruli. He leaned close to Carnelian. 'And kill him when he returns.'
Their eyes met in agreement. They parted, and Fern moved among the Plainsmen giving the Master's proposal support where it was needed. When Osidian asked what they had decided, grudgingly, the Plainsmen gave his plan their assent.
They camped upon the summit of the knoll. The Plainsmen huddled gratefully round the fires they had made with the dead wood they had found lying everywhere. Carnelian sat chewing djada with Fern, Krow, Ravan and others of Akaisha's hearth. Looking round at the familiar faces helped ease his anxiety about the decision he had made. Even through his brooding, Carnelian felt he and they, even Ravan, belonged to each other.
Two shadows forming out of the darkness made them all jump.
'We shall sit with you,' one of them said. Osidian's face came into the firelight followed by Morunasa's. Osidian chose to sit between Fern and Carnelian so that the Plainsman had to move away round the fire. The Maruli found a place on Osidian's left. Carnelian fixed his gaze deep into the flames and busied himself with chewing. A waterskin was passed around. When it was Carnelian's turn he put his lips to its spout, but had to tip it so much, that he did not feel he could take more than was essential to moisten the djada. He passed the skin to Osidian who drained it.
'We need water,' said Ravan, daring to glare at the Master.
There is plenty in the river.'
His words produced a mutter of discontent in Ochre. 'What are they saying?' Osidian asked Carnelian. Carnelian told him without taking his eyes from the fire.
'If they fear to fill their skins from the Blackwater,' Morunasa said through a sneer, 'they can drink from the caches the pygmies kept in these baobabs.' He lifted a chalky hand to indicate the giants looming round them in the dark.