Without a backward glance, Osidian sent his aquar forward at a lope towards the island. Carnelian could feel the general hesitation and sent his aquar after Osidian, hoping to encourage others to follow. Even before he had caught up with Osidian, Carnelian could hear the water behind him being churned to foam by the feet of many aquar. Carnelian did not dare look to either side, lest he should break the spell that was drawing them.
At its deepest, the water came up to the high ankle of Osidian's aquar. Soon they were coming up out of it, riding along a ridge that swelled up to form the island. A few bellowers trumpeting madly defended the passage to the roost.
Osidian swung round and addressed Crowrane's hunt. Throw as quickly as you can.'
Leaning back with a weapon Ravan must have given him, Osidian hurled it whistling through the air. Soon others were being thrown from all around Carnelian. For a moment, Carnelian imagined Osidian might be their target, but the volley was falling among the saurians. Though the javelins scratched harmlessly off their hides, the bellowers dropped forward onto all fours and brought their narrow flaring crests down in front of them like shields. All the time they kept up a furious, deafening cacophony and lashed their tails. Spotting a gap in their line, Osidian crashed through. Carnelian swore under his breath, gritted his teeth and followed him. A bellower rose, falling back so heavily onto its haunches that the earth shook. Carnelian's aquar veered wildly and it was all he could do to keep her running. He rode into the shadow of the towering monster, into its musky stench. He felt it begin to avalanche towards him and threw himself forward even as it punched the ground with an impact that shuddered up through his chair and whiplashed his head against his knees. Then he was through and hurtling into a landscape of cratered mud.
Osidian's aquar slid and almost lost its footing as he forced it to a halt with his heels. Carnelian's veered just in time to avoid a collision. He swung in the saddle-chair for a moment, his heart pounding, his forehead aching from the impact with his knees. Then he became aware no one had followed them.
To one side, more bellowers were surging up out of the water lifting their long muzzles into the breeze. Others were mobbing the rookery's further shore, drowning the warcries of Ravan's diversionary force with their screeching.
Seeing Osidian staring back the way they had come, Carnelian incandesced with rage. 'Where's your God now? Are you happy?'
The line of saurians they had broken through was fragmenting as the creatures saw the tiny intruders among their nests. Suddenly, another volley of javelins fell among them and screeching, they turned aside. Riders came pouring up through the gaps, Krow at their head.
'Crowrane commanded us to retreat!'
Osidian knelt his aquar and vaulted out onto the mud.
Stunned, Carnelian was hardly aware of dismounting. Nests lay all around; craters gouged into the mud. Plainsmen were descending on every side. Osidian led some of them to face the trumpeting with their bull-roarers and javelins. Carnelian saw a volley glancing off a heaving wall of mottled hide and then saw the men around him gaping.
'Eggs,' he cried, overcoming his anger, remembering why they were there. He ran to the nearest nest and reached over its curving embankment. He burrowed his fingers into the warm rot of vegetation and touched a smooth hard shape. Quickly he scooped the stuff off to reveal a spiral of long narrow white eggs. He lifted one out. It slid in his green-slimed arms. It was three spans long and as heavy as if it were made of stone. He cradled it as he ran over to his saddle-chair.
'What do we do?' screamed Krow clutching an egg.
Carnelian looked over to where Osidian and some others had remounted. He could see they were running out of javelins. They were riding at the bellowers, bellowing, waving their arms. The creatures fell back, letting out a fearsome fanfare of outrage.
Carnelian saw Krow's panic-stricken face among others. 'Line some saddle-chairs with blankets to carry the eggs. The rest of us'll have to get out of here two to an aquar.'
They hurried to obey him. He helped them quickly ferry as many of the eggs as he could into the chairs separating each layer with the fold of a blanket.
Carnelian was not the only one to notice a change in the tone of the bellower calls. He whisked round. What he saw made him drop the egg he carried so that it smashed its yolk and foetus down his legs and feet. A deeper baying like warhorns. Fluted crests longer and more elaborate than the ones he had seen were visible above the bellowers.
Krow went white. The mothers are returning.'
A scramble began into empty saddle-chairs or clinging onto cross-poles.
A blast of screeches rolled over them as the bellower mothers saw the despoiled nests. Carnelian found himself gaping at their charge and at Osidian and the others fleeing towards him.
'Master!' shrieked a voice.
The earth quaked as the bellowers lumbered closer. Carnelian saw Osidian's aquar, readied himself and caught hold of its cross-pole as it hurtled past. The impact threatened to tear his arms from their sockets, but he managed to hang on. He was half running; half carried. His weight was unbalancing Osidian's aquar. Its pistoning leg buffeted him. Its clawed foot would shred him if he were to swing in its path. He kicked his way through a nest before he pulled his legs up. He held on desperately as they careered down the slope to the water. His legs trailed through it, the drag leeching the last strength from his arms. He squeezed his eyes closed against the pain. His hands unhooked and he smashed into the lagoon. He was drowning. His feet found the bottom and he came up coughing water, gulping for air, to see a wall of bellowers crashing towards him. He covered his head with his arms, waiting to be crushed. The wave the bellowers were driving before them washed him off his feet but he managed to regain his balance. He opened his eyes as something brushed past him. Osidian on his aquar screaming Quyan curses at the oncoming saurians. Carnelian gaped with wonder as the creatures dropped ponderously onto all fours. Their stench was overpowering. Their cries battered his ears. Then, miraculously, they began to turn away.
He remained frozen, staring until the water stopped eddying around his legs, until the flamingos had settled back down to the lagoon.
When Carnelian became undazed, the first thing he saw was the relief in Osidian's face. They gazed at each other, for a moment the lovers they had once been. Carnelian became aware of Ravan's excited voice. 'Did you see the way the bellowers obeyed the Master? Did you?'
Loskai was scowling. 'They were already pulling back before he rode at them.'
'What do we do now?' someone asked.
Crowrane seemed deaf, blind and it was to Osidian that faces were turned in awe.
The Master had them repack the eggs more carefully because some had been broken in their flight.
'Wash it all out,' barked Crowrane. 'We don't want the smell attracting raveners.'
Rage distorted his face as people, hesitating, glanced over at Osidian for instruction. Crowrane pointed out several of them.
'You and you… yes, you, Twostone, get water, now.'
Sullenly, Krow and the others did as they were told and soon came waddling back with bloated waterskins. Carnelian watched one Plainsman wash the mess out from his saddle-chair. The foetus the egg had cradled dropped onto the ground. The man had not noticed the tiny creature lying there but Ravan had and moved to retrieve it. But before he reached it, Osidian, oblivious, trampled it into the mud.