The Standing Dead

Fern pulled him back. 'Waking the huskmen is a ritual tinged with death and thus dangerous to all but the Elders.'

Carnelian nodded and sat down again. The hearth felt dead without its fire. He was cold and unhappy. Glancing at the packs all lying neatly stowed against the trunk of the mother tree, he realized he was already feeling homesick. He looked up into her branches and smiled. He would miss her and her perfume. Looking down, his eyes met Poppy's. She looked away sadly, glancing in the direction of the sleeping hollows. Where, Carnelian thought, her own tree lies buried.

The Tribe rose with the sun. Poppy's face was beautiful in its melancholy. Today we go to the mountains.'

To the mountains,' said Carnelian, searching for Akaisha. He spotted her by the rootstair marshalling the men. He set Poppy to stowing their blankets to keep her out of his way. As he approached Akaisha, the men began filing down the hill. She regarded him with a frown.

'Where are they going, my mother?'

To hitch the aquar to the drag-cradles. You should go and help them.'

'May I first speak with you?'

Akaisha thought about it. 'Wait here a moment.'

He watched her go and give some final instructions to the women, then she beckoned him. As he neared her, Sil walked past him avoiding his gaze.

Akaisha watched her move away, then glanced at Carnelian. 'You two should be better friends.'

Carnelian would have asked Akaisha what she meant but saw she had more important matters to attend to. He accompanied her as she toured the hearth. They checked each sleeping hollow to see nothing had been left behind. Then they moved towards the mother tree and made sure everything had been properly stowed among its trunks. As she strummed ropes and tucked in the corner of a blanket Akaisha mumbled at him. 'We don't want to come home and find this stuff all rotted by the rain.'

The Master…?' he began, but the stare she gave him struck him mute.

'My care is more for the lads he has with him.'

He thought of protesting but saw her mind was only half with him and could not bring himself to speak. Instead, he waited while she busied herself checking what she had already checked before.

She turned to look at him. 'Will he bring them in?'

Carnelian grew excited. 'Did he say he would?'

'My son…' Her brows creased. 'Ravan said the Master would on the condition that we should vow not to raise a hand against him. We swore on our mothers' and our fathers' bones.'

'When will they come in?'

Akaisha shrugged.

'Will we wait for them?'

Akaisha flared to anger. 'We cannot. We dare not consume another day's water here.'

Carnelian caught her eyes and saw how powerless she felt. So Osidian had won. He saw Akaisha's need for reassurance.

'He will come. Even he cannot survive here without water.' Then, as an afterthought, 'You have all the water there is.'

She put a warm hand upon his arm. 'Stay with me.'

They came round the tree and found the women already gone. All that was left was Carnelian's djada pack with their blankets that Poppy was trying to pick up.

'What are you doing?' Carnelian said, walking up to her.

'I just thought I'd carry it for a bit.'

He laughed. 'It's nearly as big as you are.' He kissed her and hoisted the pack up onto his shoulder, then, giving her his hand, the three of them began walking off towards the rootstair.

Carnelian touched Akaisha's shoulder. 'I've forgotten something, my mother.'

She raised an eyebrow. 'We'll wait.'

'You may as well go on, I'll soon catch you up.'

Akaisha shrugged, took Poppy's hand and they set off. Carnelian ran back to his sleeping hollow. Certain they were now well out of sight, he began digging where he and Poppy had buried her mother tree seed. He was despairing of finding it when he felt it in the earth. He lifted it carefully. Though its wing was black and tattered, the seed was still whole. Perhaps one day Poppy might be allowed to grow her mother tree in some garden in Osrakum. He slipped the seed carefully into an inner pocket and then ran towards the rootstair.

Carnelian and Poppy stood with Akaisha by the Lagoongate, watching the aquar go by pulling drag-cradles that sagged under their loads of swollen waterskins.

'You two can go ahead,' Akaisha told them. 'I'm just waiting to seal this gate.'

'We'll wait with you if we may, my mother,' said Carnelian.

He had already counted sixty drag-cradles and he could see an apparently endless line of them stretching off round the Homing under the cedar trees. It was strange to see aquar allowed into the Grove. Even though the morning was still cool, he savoured the comfort of having the canopy over his head.

Carnelian gazed out over the golden plain. 'No doubt we'll soon miss this shade.'

'Be sure of it,' said Akaisha.

Eventually the last drag-cradle scraped past and they were followed by a party of Elders led by Harth. She gave Carnelian a look of disapproval before addressing Akaisha. 'What's he doing here?'

'Keeping me company.'

Harth looked up at Carnelian. 'So you believe you've beaten us?'

Carnelian did not know what to say.

'How many times have I told you, Harth: Carnie is on our side.'

Harth gave a snort and moved away. Carnelian saw the other Elders were carrying two jars and, on a drag-cradle, something covered with a blanket. They came through the gate and put everything on the ground. Akaisha closed the gate and then one of the old men dipped his hand in one of the jars and brought it out black and reeking of charcoal. Reaching up, he drew his hand across the gate leaving shiny black daubs on its wicker. Harth did the same with red chalky ochre.

When they were done, the Elders all stood back and began a grumbling incantation. The blanket was pulled back to reveal a bony cadaver of a man, leathery brown, with holes for eyes, his papery lips pulled back from a yellow grin. Carnelian was reminded of nothing as much as one of the Wise he had seen unmasked, which made him shudder. He felt Poppy clutch his arm and slip her body round behind his leg.

'He can't harm you,' he said, gently.

Harth whisked round. 'He has more power than you might imagine against our enemies.'

Between them, the Elders raised the huskman and propped him up against the gate. Drawing back they began shouting at him, arraigning him with the crimes he had committed against the Tribe, promising him that if he should fulfil his duty well and protect their home, one day they would expose him on the summit of the Crag tower and allow his soul to be carried up to Father Sky.

Leaving that wizened sentinel, they wandered under the trees along the Lagooning, walking in the ruts the laden drag-cradles had gouged in the rusty earth. Fern and Sil, with Leaf strapped to her back, were waiting for them by the final gate. All together, they walked across the earthbridge into a world drenched by the gold of the sun. The Tribe and the aquar with their drag-cradles were dark motes beneath a copper sky.

Akaisha and the other Elders moved in among the people dictating the order of their march. Slowly, the aquar were formed up around the people with their burdens. Riders floated in dust clouds further out. With thin warbling cries the Tribe stirred into movement, fading Carnelian's view of the world behind their dust.

A weaving of withered ferns held the parched earth in thrall. Trees waved flags of scorched leaves at the Ochre as they passed. The herds were gone. Dust spat at them on the torrid breath of the wind. The heat was terrible. With a leaden heart, Carnelian had given up looking for Osidian. Making sure Poppy was well protected, he wrapped the cloth of his uba around his face and bowed his head to protect his eyes from the grit and glare. Blind, he trusted to the feeling in his feet, using the burn of the sun upon his forehead to tell him in which direction their path lay.