The Kin (28 page)

Noli had been so filled with dread all day that she could hardly think. Everyone else was very jumpy, and their restlessness infected the small ones. Even Mana was fidgety, and Ko was unusually tiresome, picking fights with boys his own age, jeering at them because they didn't have words, and endlessly badgering Noli about when Suth would come back. Noli began to long for that moment too. Suth was the only one who could deal with Ko in this mood.

Time passed very slowly. She watched the shadow of the outcrop beginning to stretch across the plain, reaching one mark, and then another, and then another.

At last she heard one of the lookouts call from the ledge. She recognized Goma's voice, looked up and saw her head poking over the rim of the outcrop. Goma waved cheerfully to her and pointed east.

Noli rose and looked but could see nothing from where she stood, so she went and climbed a large boulder about ten and ten paces from the foot of the cliff.

Now, in the far distance, she saw them, four figures, still a good way off, trudging towards the outcrop. They could only be the hunters. None of them seemed to be carrying a load. Noli's heart sank. They had caught nothing.

She watched numbly for a while. She knew that she had been only pretending to hope. It was always going to be like this—Tinu, the trap, the demon lion …

She'd talk to Suth again. Perhaps she could persuade him not to try that night, to wait, and then hunt one more day …

Sighing and shaking her head, she started back to the cliff. Ko ran to meet her.

“What happens? What happens?” he asked.

“Suth comes with the hunters.”

“Where? Where?”

“Over there. Soon he is here.”

“I go see.”

“No, Ko. You stay here.”

“I go climb rock. Same as you. Noli, I, Ko, ask this.”

She gave in.

“Yes, Ko. Climb the rock. See Suth. Then come back to me.”

Ko ran off while she headed back to the cliff, trying dully to think of arguments for Suth to use. It would soon be dusk. Surely they wouldn't risk doing it after dark …

But they would. There was a good moon.

She half heard a call of warning from the ledge, not the full
Danger
bark that the Porcupines used, but the lighter one, which meant
Watch out
. Everyone's bark sounded much the same …

A pulse of alarm twitched in her mind. The bark came again. This time she listened to it. Goma, calling to her. The Porcupines around her were looking at her, pointing urgently …

She turned.

Ko wasn't there.

She moved aside and saw him. He'd been hidden by the big boulder. He was running to look for Suth. Suth and the hunters had looped aside so as to stay well clear of the big thicket. But Ko couldn't see them, and was heading straight towards it.

“Ko!” she yelled. “Stop! Come back!”

He pretended not to hear her and ran on. She yelled again and raced after him. A slight rise brought the hunters into view. They'd heard her shout and were looking towards her. She cupped her hands to her mouth and called to them.

“Ko! Stop him!”

She pointed. From where they were they couldn't see Ko, but they waved and broke into a run. Noli ran too. They all reached Ko together when he was more than halfway to the thicket.

Suth was furious. He seized Ko by the shoulders and shook him hard.

“Ko, you are bad, bad!” he snarled. “Why do you do this? Why? Bad! Bad! Bad!”

Ko burst into tears.

Ko had strong lungs. When he wailed he really bellowed, drowning all other noises. None of them heard the shouts from the outcrop until they turned towards it and saw the arms pointing from the ledge, the people streaming away to the climbing place on the far side …

They looked back and saw that the lion had come out of the thicket and was loping silently towards them.

Suth thrust Ko into Noli's arms. “Run, Noli,” he said. “We keep the lion away.”

Noli hefted Ko onto her shoulder and ran. She was used to lugging Otan around for most of the day, but Ko was a lot heavier. Before she was halfway to the outcrop, her legs began to buckle. She put Ko down, gripped his wrist and ran on.

He stumbled, wrenching his hand from her grasp. Turning to grab him again, she saw that the men had spread out into a short line and were yelling, brandishing their digging sticks, bending for stones to hurl, keeping the lion from getting too close as they retreated slowly before it.

It wasn't trying to attack them. They were too heavy for it to drag quickly away. It wanted Ko. Or Noli.

The men seemed to be holding the lion at bay, so Noli took Ko's wrist again and set off at a rapid walk, but she hadn't gone ten paces when the screams from the rock doubled.

She glanced back.

The lion had changed tactics. It was racing to one side, trying to outflank the hunters. Bal was at that end of the line, running to cut it off.

The lion was faster.

She heaved Ko up and ran. The yells from the ledge exploded again into screams. She didn't look back, but she knew the lion was past the line of men. It was still a long way to the climbing place.

She wasn't going to make it.

First One, help me!

A thought came to her:
The trap. I put Ko in the trap. Perhaps I climb the cliff. Ko is safe
.

She turned and staggered towards the sheer cliff.

Almost there. The world was turning black. Her legs were water. Her heart slammed. Her lungs wrenched for rasping breaths.

The notch in the cliff.

The trap.

She let herself stumble to her knees and with a last, grinding effort, she shoved Ko headfirst into the tunnel the men had made.

“In, Ko, in!” she gasped, and turned to face the lion. Something moved beneath her hand as she scrabbled herself around. A loose stone the men had left lying there. She picked it up and rose, swaying.

The lion faced her at the mouth of the notch. She raised the stone to her shoulder. She could barely lift it, let alone throw it. The lion hesitated. It had learned not to like stones.

Another thought came to her. She made a whisper in her mind.

Goma. Big stones. Back of ledge
.

She pictured the stones for a moment, saw them clearly, through Goma's eyes.

The lion took a pace into the mouth of the notch and paused again. Beyond it, Noli saw Suth and Net running towards her.

It took two more paces, crouched for the spring …

Now, Goma, now!

Feebly, Noli heaved the stone forward. It dropped almost at her feet. But the lion had hesitated another instant, checked by the threat.

Black shapes, falling from the sky.

Three thuds, close together, two of them loud and sharp, the other duller, slower.

A ghastly, choking cough.

Stillness. Except for the thin scrape of the lion's talons clawing the coarse dirt as the last life left the body.

Then screams of triumph from above, and the gasping breath of the hunters, and Suth's voice.

“Noli, you live!”

She couldn't answer, couldn't see him. There was a dark haze all around her, with one bright patch in the centre. In it lay the lion. Its head was two paces from her, with the mouth half open and bright blood oozing down the jaw. The back was a pulpy mess of blood and fur, looking as if it had burst. The rock that had crushed it lay against it. The hindquarters splayed out beyond.

“Where is Ko?” said Suth's voice.

The answer came, muffled, from behind her.

“I live, Suth! I am here! Do you kill the lion? I see the lion, Suth? I, Ko, ask!”

The darkness around Noli cleared at the sound. She felt her lips trying to smile as she stood aside to let Suth reach into the tunnel and haul Ko out by the legs. He dumped him right side up on the ground and shook him, but this time more gently. Beyond him Net and Kern stood watching.

“Ko, you are bad, bad,” he said. “Almost you kill Noli.”

Ko bowed his head in shame.

“Suth, I am bad, bad,” he said miserably.

He looked up, eager-eyed.

“I see the lion? I see the lion now?” he begged.

Noli laughed. At first she was laughing at Ko, then she was laughing with relief that she and Ko were safe and the lion was dead, but then the laughter took hold and came shrieking out, louder and louder, shaking her to and fro. It went on and on and she couldn't stop it.

It is the demon
, she thought.
It comes out of the lion. It goes into me. Oh, First One, help me! Drive out this demon!

Suth was holding her, making soothing noises, trying to stop her from hurting herself as her body tossed around. She saw Ko watching, aghast. That was another thing for the demon to laugh at.

A thought wormed its way in through the wild shrieking. She seized it, clung to it, followed it through to its end.

Four hunters face the lion
—
Suth, Bal, Net, Kern
.

Three are here, Suth, Net, Kern
.

So
…

The demon fled. The laughter stopped. Noli was sweating and shuddering. Her face was wet with spit. Suth loosened his grip and held her gently.

“Where is Bal?” she croaked.

She remembered she had seen him racing to head the lion off.

Still with an arm around her shoulders, Suth led her towards the open and pointed. The sun was low. The shadow of the outcrop stretched many tens of paces. On the sunlit plain just beyond it lay the dark body of a man.

Behind her Net spoke. “Bal fights the lion. It strikes him. He is dead.”

Oldtale

THE CHILDREN OF SOL

Sol came out from the Pit beneath Odutu, and he was an old man, and blind
.

Vona led him by the hand, and she was a grown woman
.

The First Ones made rain for them in the desert, and they drank
.

They came to the Good Places. People saw them. They said, “Who are you?”

They answered, “We are Sol and Vona.”

The people said, “You lie. We know Sol. He is a young man, a hero. We know Vona. She is a child.”

Sol wept
.

He said, “My people do not know me. Lead me, Vona, to where Fat Pig lairs.”

Vona led him to Dead Trees Valley. There Naga, the mother of Sol, sat at the mouth of the cave. She baked a tortoise
.

Naga looked. She saw two coming down from the
ridge, a woman and a man. The woman led the man by the hand
.

Naga said, “This is my son, Sol. Why does the woman lead him by the hand?”

They came near. She saw that Sol was an old man, and blind
.

She said, “Sol, my son, who has done this to you?”

He said, “I journeyed to the Pit beneath Odutu. I spoke with the Mother of Demons. I said, Call your children home, the demons that plague us
.

“She spat in my eyes, and I was blind. She breathed on my flesh, and I was an old man. My strength was gone. My heart was empty
.

“A First One came, my father, Black Antelope, first of the First Ones. He spoke through my mouth. The Mountain shook, the Mountain above Odutu
.

“The Mother of Demons was afraid. She called her children home. They come no more to our Good Places. I, Sol, did this, I and no other.”

Naga said, “Sol, my son, you are a hero still. I baked, this tortoise. Eat it, for you are weary.”

Sol ate and slept, as did Vona, and Naga watched over them. When her Kin returned to the cave, she told them all that Sol had said
.

Men went, swift runners, to the other Kins, and called them to Dead Trees Valley. They said, “The demons are gone. Bring food for a feast.”

Five nights and five days Sol slept, as did Vona. When they woke, the Kins were gathered, Ant Mother and Weaver and Moonhawk, Fat Pig and Snake and Crocodile, Parrot and Little Bat
.

Each spoke praise to Sol, and also to Vona, for what they had done
.

Men stood before Vona. They said, “Vona, you are a woman, and beautiful. We choose you for our mate. Which of us do you choose?”

Vona said, “I choose none of you. I choose Sol.”

Sol said, “I am an old man, and blind. Why do you choose me?”

Vona said, “You are the hero Sol. I stood with you in the Pit beneath Odutu, face to face with the Mother of Demons. I and none other did this. I was not afraid. What other woman do you choose?”

Sol said, “Vona, I choose you.”

Then they smeared their brows with salt, to show they were chosen
.

The men hunted. They killed fat deer. The women foraged. They found sweet roots and juicy berries and delicate grubs. They built great fires. They feasted
.

For nine days they feasted in Dead Trees Valley, and then they slept
.

One came to Sol as he slept, Black Antelope, first of the First Ones
.

He said, “Sol, my son, your mate Vona bears children. Eight she bears, four sons and four daughters. Soon they are men and women. Then send them by one and by one to each of the Kins, to journey and lair with them. Then the First One of that Kin comes to them, as I come to you. So with their children, and their children's children, for ever
.”

Thus it was
.

Thus it is, to this day
.

CHAPTER NINE

The Moonhawks slung Bal's body from a pole and spent two days carrying it as far as they safely could into the desert above the canyon. They took the small ones with them, and dragged branches and carried what food and water they could.

It was a big effort with so few of them, but it was their custom. Bal had been their leader. He had died the death of a hero fighting a terrible enemy, a demon lion.

In the evening they propped him against a boulder with his face to the setting sun. They put his digging stick in his right hand and his cutter in his left, with a gourd and a handful of wing nuts beside him.