It was Akaisha who led them down to the Bloodwood Tree with Whin at her side, with Sil and the others of their daughters and grand-daughters following on behind. Carnelian was further back with Fern. Three girls walked behind them, one of them carrying a baby. The little Twostone girl brought up the rear.
The earther lay beneath the tree, most of its bones now exposed.
Akaisha wrinkled her nose up at the stench. 'We'll have to finish her today.'
'We'd have to anyway,' said Whin. 'Crowrane's hunt is supposed to be bringing in another earther today.'
After everyone's face was painted, Akaisha asked Whin to marshal them to the boulder tables and to make sure the knives were sharp, then she turned to Fern and Carnelian. 'You two know what you have to do.'
Carnelian removed the new shoes Akaisha had given him before they set off and put on the makeshift ones already stained with gore.
Sil was standing nearby rocking her baby in her arms. She looked up. 'I'll help them, my mother.'
Akaisha put a hand on her arm. She shook her head. 'No, Sil. Fern must see this through to the end, alone.'
She registered Sil's glance at Carnelian and smiled at him. 'I never imagined that any man would choose to share Fern's punishment.'
Both women smiling at him made Carnelian embarrassed. 'I owe him.'
'I don't need your gratitude,' said Fern.
Those were the first words they had spoken to each other that morning.
'Nevertheless, I will work at your side until you are released.'
Fern shrugged. Carnelian yearned to re-establish the easy friendship of the previous day, but remembering his dream, he decided it might be better to leave matters as they were.
Just before midday, it was Sil who brought Fern and Carnelian food and water as they took their rest with everyone else. Carnelian saw she had the thin Twostone girl to help her. The waif walked behind Sil taking small steps, her whole being focused on the bowl of water she was carrying.
Fern made a lunge at his wife. 'Come here, let me kiss you.'
Sil eluded him, grinning. 'Look at the state you're in. I'm not letting you anywhere near me until you wash.'
Suddenly, water exploded everywhere. Carnelian, who had been watching the play between Fern and Sil with mixed feelings, saw the little girl staring appalled, the bowl lying empty on the earth near her feet. Carnelian went cold. The last time he had seen the expression the girl had on her face was on his brother Tain's face, when Jaspar had deliberately unmasked in front of him so as to ensnare him in a threat of blinding. He followed the girl's unblinking stare to Fern, his dark skin marbled with gore.
'What's the matter with her?' Fern demanded, clearly unsettled.
Sil crouched beside the girl. 'Why did you drop the bowl?'
The girl did not seem to be aware the woman was even there. Carnelian thought he understood. He looked Fern in the eye. 'Most likely she witnessed her people being butchered by Manila.'
Fern's face blanked with understanding. Pale, Sil had turned to look at him and now turned back to the little girl. She gently stroked some hair from the girl's temples. 'It's all right, little one,' she said gently, but the girl just kept on staring.
'Make her stop,' Fern said.
Carnelian approached the girl and knelt in front of her. She looked right through him. He moved aside to let her see Fern again. 'He's a friend. He's your friend. The blood comes from there.' He pointed at the earther corpse stretching out from behind the tree, and she turned to look at it, then back at Fern.
Her eyes, so unnaturally large in her thin face, put a lump in Carnelian's throat. He smiled at her. 'What's your name?'
The second time he asked the question he was rewarded by her focusing on him. He indicated himself. 'You see, I'm just as filthy as he is. You're safe.' He would have hugged her if he had not been cohered in blood.
To everyone's surprise, the little girl said something. Carnelian did not understand and glanced urgently at Sil, who shrugged.
'I believe she's telling you her name. Poppy.'
Carnelian turned his attention back to the girl. 'Is that right? Is your name Poppy?'
The girl stared so deep into his eyes, Carnelian felt she was looking at his soul. When she surfaced, she gave him the tiniest of nods.
When they returned to their labours, Poppy sat beneath the Bloodwood Tree and did not once take her eyes off Carnelian. Any time he paused to glance back, he would find her there, gazing at him. At first he found it unsettling, but as the day wore on, he realized, with surprise, that if he had found her interest in him gone, he would have been disappointed.
He and Fern had, over the day, disassembled the remains of the earther, dragging the bones like logs. All that was left was the immense beaked head with its flaring crest and horns: clearly too heavy for them to move.
'What do we do with that?' asked Carnelian.
Fern frowned at him. 'We wait until they bring in the next one.' With that, he turned to walk towards the shade of the tree. Carnelian caught up and walked at his side. Glancing at Fern's gory, resolute face, Carnelian knew he would get nothing more out of him.
Sil came to the edge of the tree shade to meet them. 'Mother Akaisha says you might as well wash while we wait for the new earther to come in.'
Her husband acknowledged what she said with a gruff nod and walked on past her. Carnelian saw with what concern she watched him move away.
'Why's he so morose?' he asked her.
'He can't be brave all the time,' she snapped and looked at him as if had said something callous.
Carnelian was taken aback. He had sensed that Fern had reconciled himself to his punishment. Seeing the pain that lay behind her anger, Carnelian did not feel he could ask and, instead, went off to wash with Fern. Poppy eyed him as he walked sighing with pleasure at the cool relief from the sun. He smiled when he heard her creeping after him. When he turned, she froze.
'Could you please fetch us water to wash with, Poppy?'
When the girl nodded, he jogged to catch Fern. They walked together in silence.
'Poppy's bringing us water,' Carnelian said.
Fern turned, frowning. 'You mustn't get too attached to her. She has the kind of prettiness the Gatherer likes.'
When Poppy brought them water, Carnelian's gratitude made her look at her feet as she handed it to him. She stood and watched him and Fern washing each other. When they were clean, they went to sit with their backs against the tree, surveying the dazzling plain beyond the Outditch. Poppy followed them and sat herself near Carnelian. Remembering Fern's warning, he tried to take no pleasure in having her there.
Later, a dozen aquar appeared in the gate that was flanked by earther horns and that opened from the fern-meadow onto the plain. They approached, crushing the ferns in a wide arc. Ropes hitched to their crossbeams pulled taut radiuses from a common centre. The riders kept looking back over their shoulders. When they had come closer, Carnelian was able to see the boulder of flesh and hide with which they were ploughing up the meadow: another vast earther. Riders trotted up to the head of the butchered one and, slinging ropes over its horns, they made their aquar tow it away. The drag-cradles with their heaped rotting gore were hitched up and pulled away too. Soon the new earther was being tugged into position on the rusty earth under the Bloodwood Tree. The riders showed it off to the women, proudly. Among them he saw Krow and they exchanged smiles. Someone beside the youth scolded him. Startled, Krow looked round at two riders who Carnelian realized were Loskai and Crowrane. Father and son fixed Carnelian with a look of hatred that chilled him to the bone.