The Standing Dead

With her free hand Akaisha pulled something out from her robe. Carnelian made to take it but she snapped it into her fist and pulled away from him. Her eyes burned. 'You mustn't touch it. A man must never touch a sacred image of the Mother.'

Carnelian was glad he had not told her that Ebeny had given him her Little Mother to keep him safe on his journey to Osrakum.

'All Plainswomen have these from their mothers,' she said, slumping down onto a root.

Carnelian shared her bitter disappointment. 'I can think of nothing more.' He sat down beside her, resting his chin in his hand. Something occurred to him. This woman -'

'My sister.'

'Did you send other girls that year?'

Akaisha looked at him with hope. 'She was the only one. The other four were boys.'

Carnelian controlled his excitement. He showed her his palm. 'Do you remember her tattoo?' He almost groaned when he saw Akaisha's expression of strain.

'If I drew it for you?'

'Perhaps.'

Carnelian searched around for something to write on. 'Mud,' he said at last.

She understood and led him down to the path running alongside what she told him was the Homeditch.

'Wait here,' she said. She found a path down into the ditch and had soon disappeared into its gloomy depths. He waited and then she returned cradling a pool of muddy water in her hands. She found a piece of ground still bathed in the last red light of day. He cleared it of needles and she poured the water over it. Crouching, Carnelian smoothed the mud and carefully drew out the glyphs Ebeny had on her hand: Eight Nuhuron. He drew back to allow Akaisha to have a look. He chewed his lip as she peered at it. At last she turned to him, nodding, a look of almost girlish wonder on her face.

'It is the same.'

She looked away to the scarlet horizon. The east wind made her salt earrings clink. When she turned back she was frowning.

'When the Assembly voted, most of the men and some of the women voted for your deaths.'

'Mother Harth?'

'She will never forgive the killing of her son. I carried most of the women against her and we won, but we bought you only a momentary reprieve. Those who voted with me did so from fear of what might come from killing angels. It will not take them long to see you are flesh and blood.'

Carnelian's stomach clenched. His hopes had come to nothing. He felt a pang of regret that he had not after all returned to his father in Osrakum, but he dismissed this, knowing he could never have abandoned Osidian to die alone. There was nowhere else to go. He managed to find a smile for her. 'I only wish I could have told Ebeny that I met you; that I saw her people and her home.'

Akaisha was watching him. 'I can save you.'

Hope surged in Carnelian.

'I could adopt you into my hearth.'

'I don't understand.'

'Within our ditches, each hearthmother rules the children of her hearth.' 'Surely the Elders -'

She shook her head. The Assembly has no authority over a hearth nor over a hunt outside the Koppie.'

'But the Elders punished Fern.'

'It was I who set his punishment. He appeared before the Assembly merely to give an account of your journey.'

Carnelian considered everything she had said. 'Why would you do this, my mother? Surely this will bring you nothing but trouble.'

'You helped save the souls of my husband and my eldest son. Even if you had not, I would do this to keep the honour of my son who brought you here. Beyond all this, I will save you because my long-lost sister loves you.'

'You only have my word that that is so.' Akaisha smiled. 'My sister wouldn't have taught you our tongue unless she loved you. As much as you say you consider her your mother, she must have considered you her son.'

'Will the rest of your hearth welcome me?'

She grew grave. They'll accept my decision because they must, but it might take a while before you are welcome.'

'And my friend?'

She gave him a sharp look. 'You mean your brother?' 'Fern told you that?'

She nodded, still wary. When he said nothing, she said, 'I've been wondering why if you are brothers he doesn't also speak our tongue.'

'He never knew Ebeny.' Carnelian saw in her eyes that her welcome for Osidian was conditional on his relationship with him. He could not risk the truth.

'We were separated at birth.'

Akaisha still looked unconvinced. 'I do not believe he will settle in among us easily.'

Carnelian took one of her hands. 'Don't judge him too harshly, my mother. His life has been very different from mine. Besides, he has been ill and is not yet fully recovered.'

Akaisha's face softened. 'My son Ravan seems fond of him.'

Carnelian bit his lip and let that pass without comment. 'If it had not been for him, none of us would have made it here.'

She paused some moments, examining him, so that he began to fear she did not believe him. 'For your sake, he may join us too.'

Carnelian looked at his feet, ashamed of his deceptions; overcome by her kindness.

'Will you enter my hearth?'

As he looked up at her, a feeling of dread rose in him as if something fearful lurked on the edges of this decision. He mastered himself. There was no other way.

'Gladly,' he said giving her hand a squeeze.

'What's your name?' Akaisha asked Carnelian as they climbed the rootstair back up to her tree. 'Carnelian,' he said.

Her try at the Quya made him smile. 'Your accent is the same as Ebeny's.'

Her eyes sparkled. 'Is this strange name what my sister called you?'

'She called me many things.' He grinned. 'But the name she used for me; that the household used for me…' He winced at that reminder of what was the usual nature of the relationship between their two peoples. He felt she was trying hard not to judge him.

'My Plainsman hearthkin called me Carnie.'

'Well, that's what your new hearthkin shall call you too.'

When they reached her cedar, Akaisha stopped him. Carnelian watched her survey the branches with a loving gaze.

'Behold my mother tree,' she said. 'Incarnation of all my mothers. She's been here since the world was born, her roots reaching deep into Mother Earth. The women of my lineage have lived their lives out in her shade. In death, they've lain among her roots with which she has drawn their souls up into her so that, sometimes, you can hear their voices speaking from her leaves. Her shade defines our hearth's sacred rootearth. Only here may you walk barefoot as I may go uncovered.' She drew the russet blanket back, revealing black hair veined with silver all worked through with salt beads. Take care you treat her well.'

Carnelian stooped to remove his shoes, glad of the distraction to hide the shame he felt from having already sinned against Akaisha's beliefs. Not only had he followed Osidian's lead to stand unshod upon the earth but he had done nothing when Osidian led Ravan into sacrilege. Should he warn her of the unhealthy influence Osidian had over her son?

Laughing, Akaisha snatched one of his makeshift shoes away. 'Where did you get this?'

Carnelian explained that Fern had made it for him.

'Well, we'll have to see if we can't do better than that, won't we?'

A mutter of talk and some laughter came from the direction of the hearth. Carnelian could see people gathered there and that Osidian was not among them.

Akaisha looked grim. 'And now you will meet your new hearthkin and share your first meal with us.'

'I should go and fetch my brother.'

'As you will. It is our custom to wash before we eat.' She must have seen his uncertainty, for she added, 'I shall send Ravan to show you where to wash.'

Half bowing to her, Carnelian made for his sleeping hollow. He found Osidian laid out in it as if in a tomb.

'Are you awake?'