The Standing Dead

Poppy trailed after Carnelian as he returned with Fern, Akaisha, Whin and the others to their hearth. As he came within sight of the mother tree, anticipation of seeing Osidian filled him with dread. He put his hand on Fern's shoulder.

Tm going to see my brother.'

Fern nodded and Carnelian glanced round at Poppy, who had stopped a few steps down the rootstair and was gazing up at them.

'Could you please take her with you?'

Fern shook his head disapprovingly, but smiled. Carnelian crouched and beckoned Poppy. The girl came slowly up the steps. Even crouching, Carnelian had to look down at her.

'Will you go with Fern, Poppy?'

The girl looked up at the Plainsman and then back at Carnelian, then gave a solemn nod. Fern offered her his hand. She would only take it when Carnelian gave her a nod of approval. He let them go ahead of him. He could not help smiling each time she glanced round to make sure he was following. He parted company with them when they reached the rootearth of their hearth. He gazed off at his sleeping hollow, hesitated and, then, reluctantly, began walking towards it.

Even though he had anticipated finding Osidian weakened, what Carnelian saw shocked him. The body lying long and pale in the hollow did not give the impression of someone sleeping, but rather seemed a corpse lying in a sarcophagus.

Leaping into the hollow, Carnelian bent over it. He sought a pulse on the neck; the bony wrist. Unsure he could detect any life, Carnelian began shaking Osidian with ever increasing violence, until, coughing, he came alive. His green eyes swam. Carnelian felt himself being examined. Osidian's forehead creased.

'It's you,' he sighed.

Carnelian was shocked by how quickly he had deteriorated. 'You must eat,' he said. He leaned close and looked into the glass of Osidian's eyes. 'You must eat.'

Carnelian stumbled to his feet and almost broke into a run so that he might not hear Osidian forbidding him. People were gathering for the evening meal. He saw Akaisha with Whin and others of the women talking among the steam and smoke rising from the pots.

'Akaisha,' he said as he approached. 'Mother.'

The women all looked at him. He could see his fear reflecting in their eyes. Akaisha reached up to touch his face. 'What is it, Carnie? Why do you stare so?'

Carnelian calmed himself. 'Osidian, my… my brother, he is dying.'

Whin's face became leather. 'He's been keeping to your sleeping place, lying between the roots like one already dead.'

Carnelian searched Akaisha's eyes. He did not want to believe she wanted him to die, though he understood how it would rid her of a burden.

'He's not eaten since we arrived and was already weakened by the fever. You will let me take some food for him?'

Whin spoke: 'No one has stopped him coming to eat with us.'

Carnelian did not want to explain why Osidian had not. 'He's not like me.'

Akaisha nodded slowly, her eyes seeming to search deep into him. 'Even though you are brothers.'

Carnelian looked away ashamed of his lie and saw Whin, her lips pressing tight with disapproval. He looked down at the pots.

Take as much as you need,' Akaisha said.

Those not prepared to work should not expect the Tribe to feed them,' said Whin.

Carnelian grimaced.

Akaisha patted Carnelian's shoulder. 'Carnie has been working hard enough for the both of them. Go on, take him some broth.'

Carnelian looked for a ladle, a bowl. It was Sil who found them for him. She began to take food from a pot.

'Not so much,' he said. 'He'll not eat much if he eats at all.'

She looked up, her face full of concern. She put some of the broth back, wiped the rim and then handed Carnelian the bowl. He looked her in the eyes, thanked her, glad they seemed to be friends again, then carried the bowl away as fast as he could, trying to avoid spilling it.

'Why does the Master refuse to eat?' pleaded Ravan, following him.

Carnelian kept his gaze fixed on the hollow. 'He doesn't want to live here.'

'I've promised him everything I could think of, but he won't even talk to me.'

Carnelian felt the youth was crowding him, threatening to jostle the precious broth onto the ground. 'He's one of the Standing Dead… being here… he can't… it's hard to explain.'

Ravan's face darkened. 'It's you, you're killing him. I've seen the way you've been working on my mother. How desperate you must be that you're prepared to humiliate yourself to impress her by working with Fern. The Master would never lower himself to that and so you're getting rid of him. If he dies I'll make sure you're thrown out of the Koppie.'

Stunned, Carnelian watched Ravan move away. The urgency of Osidian's need made him resume his journey to the hollow. When he reached it, he set the bowl carefully on the nearest root, climbed over and sank into a crouch beside Osidian, who looked no better. Carnelian dug an arm under him and struggled to make him sit. Osidian's eyes opened as Carnelian propped him against the root. Carnelian glanced at the bowl nervously, worried he might knock it over. He retrieved it, balanced it on his knee, dipped a spoon into the broth then held it up to Osidian's mouth. 'Eat,' Carnelian said.

Osidian's nostrils twitched as the steam rose from the broth. His eyes focused on the spoon. Slowly, wearily, he shook his head.

'You must eat,' Carnelian pleaded.

Osidian looked into Carnelian's eyes. 'Let me die. It's better that you should let me die.'

Carnelian was seeing him through tears. 'I won't let you.'

Osidian gazed at him.

'You are my heart,' Carnelian whispered, an echo of the vows of love they had made to each other on that terrible night they had been taken in the Yden. Again he offered Osidian the broth.

Osidian's lips smiled a little. 'I cannot be less than I am.'

Seeing the death rings around Osidian's eyes, Carnelian's fear for him heated to anger. 'And what is that? A Master? One of the Chosen? A Lord of the Earth, perhaps? Such claims sound splendid in Osrakum, but looking at you so easily defeated, they are revealed to be nothing more than empty boasts. Any man can be a god behind legions, behind mountain walls. Are you brave enough to be simply a man?'

Irritation sparked in Osidian's eyes. 'You bait me as if I were a child.'

'You have been behaving like one.'

There is no life for me here.'

Then make one.'

'Labouring like a slave; living as a savage?'

These people have no slaves, and though they are poor, they have dignity. If you were to open your heart, you would see they are even possessed of a certain nobility.'

Osidian looked disgusted. They live in such ghastly squalor.'

'Are you so much more delicate than they? Or is it fear, Osidian? Are you afraid that you might be less capable of survival here than are these barbarians?'

Anger had brought Osidian fully back to life. 'What labour do you perform?'

Carnelian described the work he did.

'And this you do out of some sense of debt to your savage?'

'Fern saved our lives.'

Carnelian watched Osidian frown, then lose his gaze in the sky. He dared not breathe. Osidian's eyes fell on him. 'I shall work with you.'

Carnelian imagined Osidian, weak as he was, labouring among the flies and heat. His head shook of its own accord.

'Akaisha will find you something else until you have regained your strength.'

'Strength is not in the body but flows from the will. I shall share this penance with you.'

Carnelian did not care to argue. At that moment there was only one victory he sought. He pushed the spoon to Osidian's lips. 'Eat then.'