Their dark eyes were fixed on Akaisha.
Today you work elsewhere,' she said. The uncharacteristically harsh tone in her voice caused Carnelian to look at her. Akaisha's narrowing eyes, her taut thinned lips seemed to show aloofness but he knew her well enough to see her pain.
The Bluedancing women bowed a little and made their way back to gather their people and, then, woman and child, carrying mattocks, they all followed Akaisha and the Ochre down to the Bloodwood Tree.
'How shall they dig?' Akaisha asked him.
Carnelian shrugged. 'You know more about this than I do, my mother.'
She peered over the edge. 'You want us to bring this up to the condition of the Newditch?'
That would do to begin with.'
She looked up and down the length of the ditch. 'It's going to take a lot of work.'
Carnelian looked round to see the crowd of the Bluedancing. There's a lot of hands to do it.'
Akaisha frowned. 'But we've had them in the ditches since they came. Earth-moving is hard work even when a person is well fed. With what we've been giving them…' She grimaced.
Carnelian grew morose contemplating the trap Osidian had them in. The Master will keep his promise and then not only the Tribe, but the Bluedancing will have all the meat they need.'
They set the Bluedancing to working in the ditches. Carnelian wandered along the edge of the meadow, sometimes stopping to look down. Everywhere, women and children were labouring in the mud. He gazed out past the Horngate. The sun had risen high enough to melt the view and beat down on him like a migraine. An Ochre voice was barking instructions. Carnelian felt useless and worried that Osidian had only left him there to stop him interfering with whatever it was he was up to on the plain. He made for the Bloodwood Tree, seeking solitude in its shade. The rot of blood was in his nostrils even before he could see its stain in the earth. He walked round behind the tree, putting its trunk between him and the sun. Lying against its bark, he relived the times he had spent there talking with Fern. He cursed himself that he had not after all bound Osidian with an oath.
Hearing Akaisha calling his name, Carnelian walked back into the searing sun. Squinting, he could make her out, beckoning.
'We need you to check we're doing it right,' she said as he approached her.
He allowed her to lead him back to the ditch where he helped her down a crumbling slope. Soon they were among the workings. When Bluedancing turned to watch them pass, Whin forced them back to work with a shout. Carnelian's glance of surprise only served to make her angrier. He was feeling he did not know her, perhaps never had, when the anger slipped from her face like a mask and, looking ashamed, she ducked away.
'Down there,' said Akaisha pointing among the heaving backs. Carnelian saw her against the rise and fall of their mattocks, saw her distaste. His apparent detachment angered her.
'You're the one who asked for my help!'
Carnelian could find no way to explain how he was feeling. 'Please show me.'
Akaisha turned and he followed her as she wound her way through the Bluedancing. Carnelian saw it was their young women who were hacking at the muddy walls. The older women and the children were clawing the crumbled earth into baskets which, when full, they dragged one heave at a time away from the ditch wall.
'Look here,' said Akaisha and showed him with her hands where the earth on either side had been cut back. 'Is that enough?'
Carnelian's eyes were drawn back to the people slaving. He saw an old woman, an Elder by the salt beads in her hair, struggling, tugging at a basket filled with soil.
They shouldn't wear their salt, it'll be lost,' grumbled Akaisha.
The old woman was still pulling but her basket had dug into the ground. She stopped, bowed, misery making her red eyes tear.
Carnelian ran forward and, taking hold of the wrinkled hands, peeled them off the basket handle. This is too much for you, my mother.' He turned from the confusion in her gaze and tore at the handle, yanking the basket free and then dragging it until he backed into another. He strode forward looking for another one to pull. He felt a touch on his arm.
'What're you doing, Carnie?'
He looked up into Akaisha's face. 'Helping them.'
'We're helping them already,' she said, her voice unnaturally sharp. 'If it wasn't for them we'd have no need for the Master to involve us in this.' He saw the tears she was fighting as she walked away.
By order of the Elders, the Bluedancing were stripped of their salt. Akaisha and Whin stopped coming to the fern-meadow and gradually all but a few Ochre overseers began to stay away. Morose, Carnelian took to labouring in the ditch. He had the Bluedancing move their camp to the neighbouring ferngarden and made Akaisha force the Elders to send a demand to Osidian that more water must be brought to the Koppie daily for the earthworkers.
The men who brought water described the circular earthwork Osidian was making them dig near the lagoon. At night they had to light great fires to keep the raveners at bay. When asked what the earthwork was for, they would shrug and say they just did what the Master told them to. They seemed to Carnelian much grimmer than he remembered them.
These same men regularly brought with them not only water but a saurian carcass. The Tribe were beginning to feel hunger. Hearths sent people down to watch the butchering to make sure to get some of the fresh meat. It was Carnelian who insisted that the Bluedancing should at least be given the offal.
The day after the Tribe had celebrated the return of the tributaries, Carnelian was breakfasting when cries of alarm began sounding here and there in the Grove. Everyone leapt to their feet and some youngsters were sent to find out what was going on. When they returned they answered Akaisha's questions by drawing everyone to where a gap in the cedar canopy allowed them to see smoke rising in the south.
Whin exchanged an anxious look with Akaisha. 'It's too much smoke to be a beacon.'
Their koppie burns,' said Sil.
Akaisha shook her head. Their ferngardens wouldn't be dry enough.'
Poppy was clinging to him. Carnelian knew what he must be seeing was a fire in the koppie of the Bluedancing. Akaisha and Whin stared bleakly out.
'What is it that is burning, my mothers?'
Both women turned wild-eyed. Their mother trees.'
Leaving Poppy with Sil, Carnelian followed Akaisha, Whin and others of the Elders down to the Eastgarden. He sensed they were expecting trouble. The camp of the Bluedancing seemed much the same as it always did except that the women were all standing gazing to where the pall of smoke was hanging over the southern horizon.
'Imagine how they must feel,' whispered Mossie, and Ginkga shut her up with a glare.
They crossed the earthbridge and went down the Blooding, turning often to observe the motionless ranks of the Bluedancing. Akaisha took the path of barren earth to the camp. As the Ochre approached, the Bluedancing seemed unaware of them, but then some children cried out and the women turned.
'What're we going to say to them?' asked Mossie.
'Hush, dear,' said Akaisha.
The eyes of the Bluedancing, red from weeping, regarded the visitors with hatred.
'We must order them to their work,' said Whin.
'The work will make them forget,' said Ginkga.
'Would you so easily forget your mother tree?' asked Akaisha, her eyes flitting among the Bluedancing.
Carnelian could see how that thought was being passed between them with glances.
Compassion and fear warred in their faces.
Harth glared at them. 'I warned you not to trust the Standing Dead.' She advanced towards the sullen Bluedancing.
'Get to your work,' she commanded.
The Bluedancing made no move and continued to stare. Behind them Carnelian could see the smoke from the burning of their mother trees swelling the horizon.