The Kin (49 page)

Mana let out her breath and rose with her heart pounding. She couldn't stay here. The entrance was obvious from the shore. She picked up her gourd and fishing stick, checked quickly around that there was no other trace of her presence, and ran back down the short path. Crouching low, she scuttled along the shore to where Kern was waiting.

“Good,” he said. “Soon Moru comes. Then all are in.”

He lifted a stack of reedstems and she crawled through. Just as on the other side there was a tunnel before the path began, and a little way beyond it a trap like the one she'd seen Var and Net making. Tun was there, and the stranger woman with her child on her hip. (Noli had given them names, Ridi and Ovoth. As soon as Ridi had worked out that Tun was leader she had simply attached herself to him, and went everywhere he went.)

Mana had crossed the trap and was about to run on when Tun said, “Wait. My arm is not good. Take reeds from the trap. Not all. Some. Moru comes soon, and Kern. Then take all, quick, quick. Show Ridi. Why does Moru not come?”

Mana had never heard him sound so anxious. She laid her gourd and stick on the path and signed to Ridi to put Ovoth down. While Tun stood guard on the far side of the trap she gathered up an armful of loose reeds, passed them to Ridi and gestured to her to carry them back along the path.

The reeds were laid crisscross in several layers. Beneath them was clear water. She stripped two layers away and tested the ones she'd left by walking on them. She could feel them quake beneath her.

“Tun, do I take enough?” she asked.

He looked over his shoulder.

“Take from that side,” he said. “Leave those.”

She did as he'd said, and was about to ask him again when she heard shouts from the entrance to the path—men yelling in anger—and a moment later Moru came racing along the path towards them.

Tun stood aside to let her pass. Mana shouted to her to keep to her right as she crossed the trap but she didn't hear and trod on the weak part. Her foot went through and she started to fall, but Mana grabbed her outstretched arm and dragged her over.

Before Mana could follow a demon man appeared at the bend of the path, with another behind him. The leading one saw Tun, raised his fighting stick, and rushed at him with a yell.

“Back!” shouted Tun.

Mana turned to run. Ridi, bending to pick up Ovoth, blocked her way. She looked back and saw that Tun had retreated to the near side of the trap and was standing with his hair bushed full out and his digging stick raised to strike.

The man rushed at him and launched himself into his thrust. His front foot landed, hard, on the trap and sank straight through. He stumbled and started to fall. His momentum carried the thrust past Tun's thigh, and just missed Mana behind him. Ridi bent, grabbed the end of the fighting stick with her free hand and wrenched, just as Tun's blow slammed down into the man's back.

He screamed and collapsed, but as he fell his free hand reached out and grasped Tun's ankle. Tun was already moving back for another blow. Suddenly unbalanced, he fell on top of Mana. She was beginning to struggle up as the second man rushed towards them.

Ridi was the only one still standing. The first man had let go of his stick as he fell, but she'd kept hold of it. The second man paused for an instant, judging his leap across the trap. In that instant Ridi managed to reverse the spear, and as he sprang she screamed and darted to meet him, jabbing forward two-handed with all her strength. He didn't seem to see her. All his attention was on Tun. In the middle of his leap he drove himself onto the sharpened point of the stick. It sank into his stomach, just below the rib cage.

Ridi was knocked over backwards by the force of their meeting, but by now Mana was on her feet. Tun was still on the ground, trying to kick the first man's grip from his ankle. He had let go of his digging stick. His left arm, wounded in the earlier fight, was still almost useless to him. Mana saw the stick lying at her feet, snatched it up, took a pace forward and hammered down on the first man's head. He gave a deep grunt and let go of Tun's ankle. While Tun was getting to his feet she hammered twice more, to make sure. The last blow felt different. Something gave way beneath it. The man lay face down in the water and didn't move.

The second man was kneeling up on the edge of the trap where Mana had left the extra layers of reeds. The stick point was still in his stomach, and he was grinning taut lipped, with all his teeth showing. He dragged the stick free and started to try to rise, with the blood streaming down his belly. Tun took the digging stick from Mana, aimed, and struck him savagely on the side of the neck, above the collar bone. Still grinning, he toppled sideways on top of the other man.

They stood side by side, panting, with the dead men at their feet.

“Mana, I thank. Ridi, I thank,” said Tun. “I fear for Kern. Where is he?”

While Tun guarded the path Mana and Ridi rearranged the reeds over the trap so that they hid the water below but wouldn't take any weight. Then they waited a long while, but no one else, friend or foe, appeared along the path.

“Go, Mana,” said Tun. “Find others. Tell them our doing. Say,
Come. Make this trap strong
. I look for Kern.”

Mana hurried away. She found Yova, Moru, Rana and Galo waiting anxiously just beyond the first place where a false trail led onwards and the real path was hidden behind a screen of reeds. Moru was obviously very distressed, and the others had been trying to comfort her.

“Kern does not come?” she asked desperately.

Mana shook her head.

“It is my doing,” Moru said, croaking with grief. “I did not hear the whistle bird call. Kern came. He found me. We ran. The demon men saw us. They were five. They found the path. Kern said,
Run, Moru. I fight them
. I ran. Oh, Yova, Kern is dead.”

It was true. When they returned to the trap they found Tun there, looking very grim. He had gone to the end of the path and seen blood on the trampled reeds at the entrance. The signal stone was not in its place by the lookout, so he'd known there must still be demon men about. There was nothing to do but leave the trap as it was and wait.

Towards evening the signal rock appeared, and at last they came out. They found Kern's body some way up the hill. They knew it had to be his from the colour of the skin. Otherwise they wouldn't have known. The head was missing.

Tun stared sombrely down at the body, saying nothing. The others waited. Mana started to sob and couldn't stop. Rana knelt and held her. Dimly she was aware of Moru's voice, also racked with sobs, blaming herself over and over, and the other women trying to comfort her, though they were weeping too.

At last Tun said, “We do not leave him here.” So they lifted the battered body, two at the shoulders, two at the thighs, and Mana carrying the trailing feet, and with Tun leading carried it up to the cairn they had piled over the stranger man. They laid it down beside the cairn and heaped more rocks over it.

It was exhausting labour, but it felt to Mana that at least she was doing all she could for Kern, and this seemed to ease her grief. Before they had finished some of the others came up from the western marsh. They had seen the signal stone on their side reappear, so they knew the danger was over and had come to see what had happened.

In the late dusk they crossed the ridge and found the rest of the Kin already assembling on the hillside. They had brought food with them, but Mana was unable to eat. Someone had already run down to the marsh with the news, so instead of settling down to sleep they sat and talked it over.

The half moon was rising, but not yet above the ridge, so this slope was still in deep darkness. Only now, sitting there, unable to see the faces but listening to the well-known, troubled voices, did Mana begin to feel something deep inside her that she hadn't until now realized was there.

In the terror of the sudden attack, that had been all she had felt—terror, almost drowning her wits, spurring her to run, and then to fight. After that the immense relief of victory, and then the long anxiety of wondering what had happened to Kern, and the horror and grief of the answer.

But now, as she sat and gazed unseeing over the vague distances of the moonlit marsh, a different thought came to her.

I
have killed people
.

Yes. The attackers had been demon people, but that didn't make them any less people. Mana wasn't sorry for what she had done. If she hadn't done it, perhaps Tun would now be dead, and little Ovoth too, and she and Ridi and Yova and the other women who had been there would be being herded away to the north by their savage captors. She had had to kill the man. She was sure of that.

But despite that, everything had changed, and Mana herself would never be the same again.

She had killed people.

At last the moon crossed the ridge, and suddenly the whole slope was bathed in pale light, mottled by the dense black shadows thrown by the rocks. Tun rose.

“Hear me,” he said. “We do no death dance for Kern. The demon men take his head. They take his spirit. He is not here. I say again we do no death dance for Kern. We do this. Come.”

He led the way to a large boulder. He waited for the rest of them to gather round, and then reached up and laid his dark hand against the paler stone.

“This rock is Odutu,” he said in a low clear voice. “Odutu below the Mountain. On Odutu I say this,
These men kill Kern. He is Moonhawk. They take his head. For this I kill them, all, all. Not one lives. I, Tun, do this
. On Odutu I say these words.”

One after another all the adults, women as well as men, came to the boulder and laid their hand against it and swore the same oath. Moru could scarcely get the words out, and she was not the only one.

As she finished the triple call of a hunting moonhawk rang through the night stillness.

Oldtale

BLACK ANTELOPE'S WAKING

Black Antelope slept. He dreamed good dreams. Then a thing woke him. His waking was of this sort:

See this man. He sleeps by the fire. A log falls. Sparks jump out. One lands on the arm of the man. The pain is sharp, sharp. He wakes. He cries, “Oh!”

Such was Black Antelope's waking
.

He said in his heart, Men came to Odutu, Odutu below the Mountain. They laid their hands upon the Rock. They swore the War Oath
.

He looked down the Mountain. He saw the rock Odutu. He saw the Kins gathered about it. He breathed through his nostrils. His breath was thick mist
.

The men slept. They woke. They were in thick mist. They could not see. They searched for the rock, Odutu. They could not find it
.

Black Antelope called the First Ones about him. He
said, “The Kins swear the War Oath. Why is this? Let Moonhawk speak.”

Moonhawk said, “Parrot fights against Snake. My Kin has blood debts to settle with Parrot.”

Black Antelope said, “Parrot, why does your Kin fight against Snake?”

Parrot said, “My Kin owes Fat Pig a debt. When they fought against Parrot, Fat Pig helped them.”

Then Crocodile told the reason, and Parrot and Ant Mother and Little Bat
.

Black Antelope looked at Snake. He said, “Your man Ziul killed a woman. Why is this?”

Snake said, “He sought vengeance for the death of Meena. Fat Pig's man Mott killed her.”

Fat Pig said, “Mott was in rage, the rage of a hero. He did not see it was a woman.”

Black Antelope said, “What made this rage?”

Fat Pig said, “My man Dop hunted. Snake's man Gul hunted. There was one dilli buck. Each man said it was his. They fought. Gul won by a trick. My man Dop was dishonoured. My Kin was dishonoured.”

Weaver said, “Now I remember. Snake and Fat Pig drank stoneweed. There was much shouting. Each said his man was better. The men were Dop and Gul.”

Black Antelope said, “Is this the seed of it?”

Fat Pig and Snake were filled with shame. They hid their heads
.

Black Antelope spoke to the First Ones. He said, “You six, go now to your Kins. They did not swear the War Oath. Speak in their hearts. Say to them, This is folly. Send them back to their own Places.”

They went down the Mountain, those six. They spoke in the hearts of their Kins. It was done
.

Black Antelope spoke to Snake and to Fat Pig. He said, “This folly is your folly. You must undo it.”

They said, “We go now to our Kins. We say to them, Unswear your War Oath.”

He said, “This is not enough. On Odutu they swore, Odutu below the Mountain. How must they unswear? In their own hearts they must do it, not from your telling. I know you two. You say in your hearts, ‘I cheat Black Antelope. My Kin is mine. I wish a thing, they do it.' So now I do this to you.”

He put his nose against theirs. He breathed in. He drew their powers out of them. Fat Pig was Fat Pig no more. He was a pig of the reedbeds. He was fat
.

Snake was Snake no more. He was a tree serpent, green and black. He was long
.

They said, “Our powers are gone. Our Kins do not hear our words. We cannot speak to them.”

Black Antelope said, “I give you this. Go to your Kins. One sees you first. That one hears your words, that one only. Now, go
.”

CHAPTER FIVE

They woke with the first light. As they searched the hillside for any traces of their stay, Mana could hear a different note in their voices. Anger, as well as fear. She felt the difference in herself. The fear itself was different too, like a different taste in the mouth, not thin and acid as before, but rounder and stronger. The taste of something she could feed on, use.

She thought about it later that morning, crouching in her lookout, and decided that if it had been possible she would sooner have had the old fear back. Of course, if she needed to, she would again fight as fiercely as any of the adults who had sworn the oath. If the chance came to kill another of the demon men she would seize it. Horrible, but she'd had no choice. Why should she alone be spared the horror?