They're very tall,' said Fern looking into the darkness as if he were seeing one of the black men standing there. 'I saw one in Makar on our way to the Mountain. I'd forgotten his ravener grin.'
'I'm sure your mother's not forgotten,' sneered Loskai.
Fern tensed and fixed him with a look that made the smile fall from Loskai's lips.
'What about our people?' said Ravan, scowling at Loskai.
Fern turned to his brother with anger still glinting in his eyes. 'We searched the whole koppie, but found no sign of them. It's likely when they arrived it was as it is now and they went quickly home.'
'They left no sign for us? They must've known we'd be through here.'
'None we could find,' said Fern.
'It's likely they believe us dead,' said Loskai.
Ravan looked unhappy. Then we must get back as soon as we can.'
'What are they babbling about now?' Osidian asked in haughty Quyan tones.
Carnelian could see how much the sound of that language oppressed the Plainsmen. 'How they might get home as swiftly as they can.'
Osidian turned to Fern. 'How shall we get to your koppie now?'
'Without aquar…' Fern shook his head.
'Couldn't you obtain aquar from a neighbouring tribe?'
Loskai gave a sneer. 'Do you believe, Master, they would just give them to us?'
'You have enough salt to buy the aquar several times over.'
Loskai patted the shape slung across his back. This was bought with the blood of the Tribe and must not be squandered lightly.'
'Besides, Master,' said Fern, 'we know the nearest tribes are on feuding terms with the Twostone and, thus, with us too. They're more likely to take our salt than accept it in exchange for aquar.' He shook his head and looked round sadly. 'We might as well face it, we're going to have to walk.'
The youths raised a chorus of protest.
'What if these Manila moved south to attack the Koppie?' demanded Ravan.
Fern smiled wanly. The cistern here was drained dry. Loskai and I believe from what we've seen the Manila were here throughout the Withering. We all saw how little water the cistern held when we set off from here with the tributaries. For such a length of time it wouldn't have sustained a large number of them.'
They might've brought water with them,' Ravan threw back at him.
Fern shook his head. 'We saw no evidence they had aquar. Without drag-cradles, they could've carried only a few days' supply'
Ravan looked childlike.. 'Can you promise me the Koppie is safe?'
The pyre we found here contained the bones of many men. However many of them came here, when they left, their numbers were severely reduced by the prowess of the Twostone.' He twitched a smile at Krow.
'Promise me,' Ravan demanded.
Fern frowned. 'How can I do that?'
Ravan opened his mouth to say something more but Loskai spoke over him. 'Your brother's right. Tomorrow we'll gather what supplies we can and begin the journey home on foot.'
Krow demanded Carnelian return the tooth and, when he had it, he put it away with the rest somewhere in his robe.
Fern woke them from disturbed dreams into the first grey of morning. Carnelian could barely make out the faces round him but could hear in their groans how low their spirits were. Several of the youths, glancing in the direction of the massacre, drew his eyes there too. Though he could see nothing, he was glad to turn his back on it and follow Fern across the ferngarden towards the cedars.
Even as they searched for unbroken jars in the glooms beneath the fragrant trees, Carnelian felt the redness oozing up into the sky as if its hem were steeping in the blood of the massacred. He moved quickly into the dusk beneath another tree.
Eventually, homing in on Fern's call, Carnelian converged with the others on a gate in the skull wall at the western edge of the cedar grove.
This was where the bastards came in,' said Ravan, scowling.
Krow lifted his head but said nothing. Carnelian was glad of the koppie crags that stood grimly black between the youth and the massacre. As they sorted through the fernroot they had salvaged, Carnelian noticed with unease the guardian huskman lying discarded to one side staring at him. However much he moved around he could not rid himself of the mummy's attention.
At last they were ready to set off. He had volunteered to carry a waterskin. Each time he took a step he could feel the wobble in its belly of precious water. He had allowed them to tie a bale of fernroot to his back. Winding the uba over his face, he followed them out across the bridge and down an avenue of cone trees.
When he became aware of the grating sound following him, he turned and saw Krow dragging the huskman along the path by a rope. Seeing the tight mask of the youth's face, Carnelian bit back his questions.
When they reached the outmost ditch, they paused a while to prepare themselves for the brightening plain, then Fern led them out of the koppie. The scraping sound the huskman made set Carnelian to grinding his teeth. Then the sound stopped. Turning, he saw Krow standing over the huskman. He kicked it. Again. Again. Soon the huskman was bucking under a general assault as, one by one, the Ochre joined in until, at last, only Carnelian and Osidian remained aloof as they watched the Plainsmen vent their rage on the mummy. It was Fern who called a stop to the punishment. He had to drag Krow off. The youth swung at him, snarling and Fern took some blows before he managed to calm him down. Krow spat upon the huskman, turned away and began walking towards the Backbone ridge. Osidian went after him and, with his huge strides, had soon overtaken him and then they walked together, talking. As he followed with everyone else, Carnelian wondered, uneasily, what Osidian might have to say to Krow. Glancing back he saw the shrivelled, broken man, now food for scavengers.
The Backbone ran straight and true into the south. The Earthsky spread eastwards, spangled with lagoons, creeping with herds, to a vague purple fading. In the west, scarred with gullies, the land lay thralled by thorny scrub. In places the rocky road they walked lifted them high into the shimmering air, its stone sweeping up to jagged ridges on either side often too high to look over. In the morning and the afternoon, these often provided blessed shade. When the sun rose high, they would seek to clamber down to the plain or else suffer walking the black rock that would melt the air and scorch their feet even through their shoes. Sometimes the Backbone sank into the red earth, as if it were some immense, burrowing worm. Carnelian took his turn in leading expeditions from the safety of the rocks whenever a nearby source of water was spotted. Even the most brackish tasted like nectar. In the cool of the later afternoon either Fern or Loskai would brave the open plain to hunt with a party of youths. Under Carnelian's command, those who were left behind would build a fire up in the heights and wait anxiously for the hunters. Mostly they would return before nightfall. When they came empty-handed, it would be necessary to consume some of the meagre supplies.
Osidian sank into a morose silence from which Carnelian was unable to raise him. Often he chose to sit alone. Most of the youths seemed to have forgotten him, but Ravan and Krow brought him food or walked at his side during the day. Sometimes, Carnelian would find Fern regarding Osidian as if he were a puzzle to be solved. When Loskai looked in his direction at all, it was with barely concealed hatred.
The vastness of the Earthsky crushed whatever was left of Carnelian's belief that he was an angel. Osrakum and its splendours seemed faint and far away. These small, dark people toiling at his side were real. Krow's grief like an ache in Carnelian's own heart helped him at last accept he had lost his father and his other kin for ever.
Whenever he spied a koppie hill, Carnelian would long to go there, seeing it as a beguiling island adrift in the ferny ocean. Those of their party that were Ochre would force the rest to redouble their pace. Carnelian would see in their faces the desire to reach their own koppie mix with fear; the fear they talked of was that their kin must believe them dead; the fear they would not admit to was that their tribe might have suffered the same fate as the Twostone.