The Kin (51 page)

CHAPTER SIX

On the fourth morning demon men appeared again, soon after Mana had started her watch at the top of the western slope above the dried-out reedbed. So single-mindedly was she concentrating on searching the hillside before her that she almost missed Ko's signal from the eastern side of the ridge.

Had she really heard it? The call of the whistlebird, suddenly cut short? Or had she imagined it so strongly that the sound seemed to have crept into her memory without having come there through her hearing? Better make sure.

She gazed once more at the hillside but could see nothing new, so she left her post and crawled up towards the ridge. If Ko was still in his lookout she'd know it was a false alarm.

She was almost at the top when she heard the light click of a dislodged pebble. She froze. A moment later Ko came crawling into view.

“Mana, do you not hear me call?” he whispered. “Why do you come? Why do you not hide?”

“Ko, I think I hear,” she told him. “I do not know. You saw a thing?”

“Men come,” he said. “Three? Four? I do not know. They are careful. They move slow. They hide. Come. See.”

He turned and crawled back to the ridge. More anxiously than ever Mana checked her own side of the promontory and then followed him. He was lying behind a boulder, peering down the further side. She wormed in beside him and very slowly raised her head to see past his. The long hillside seemed as empty as ever.

“See the big rock,” he whispered. “It touches the reeds. See further, and up, a small cliff …”

Before he had finished a brief flicker of movement caught her eye, well to her left, near the bottom of the slope.

And again.

This time, ready for it, she saw it more clearly, a dark someone or something darting between two boulders. Now the hillside was empty again. But again that quick, darting movement, across the same gap—another man, the second, and a third, and a fourth, each with his fighting stick held low, at least one with a skull at his waist.

There was something puzzling about their movements. Though they were obviously taking a lot of trouble to keep under cover, they weren't being clever about it. There, now, that one crouching behind that boulder. His head and right shoulder and arm were still in clear view.

“Ko, they hide badly,” she whispered.

“They came before,” he suggested. “People were in those reeds. They found them. Now they say in their hearts,
People are there
. They hide from these people. They do not hide from us.”

Yes, that must be it. And now the four demon men were creeping down to the entrance to the path into the reedbeds. Just above it they stopped and searched the ground, once or twice pointing to some sign or mark one of them had spotted.

“What do they see?” said Ko.

“I do not know …” Mana began, but then the answer struck her. “Ah—Kern's body was there. We lifted it. We carried it away. They see this.”

More cautiously than ever the four men moved to the entrance of the path and followed each other in.

“They do not find us in the reeds,” said Ko. “Do they find their dead men? Mana, what do they do then?”

“I do not know,” she said. “I think they look more. They come up the hill. They see the other side. Ko, now I move the white stone. I say to the others,
Demon men are here
. Is this good?”

“Mana, it is good,” he said. “I stay here. I watch.”

So Mana turned back, but before she started down the western flank she checked it carefully once again. Perhaps the demon men had sent a second party of scouts, and they were already there below her. But still nothing moved, so she crawled down to the lookout and laid the signal stone flat. Bodu, with Ogad on her hip, appeared briefly at the edge of the dead reeds, waved, and slipped out of sight again. Satisfied, Mana returned to the ridge and lay down beside Ko.

Time passed. Every now and then Mana crawled back to check the western flank, saw nothing, and returned to Ko. At long last the demon men emerged and stared around. What had they found? Mana wondered. Were the bodies of the two that she and Tun and Ridi had killed still floating in the water of the trap, or had they sunk out of sight? What did these men feel if they'd found them? Were they angry, as the Kin had been about Kern, full of feelings of revenge, more savage than ever? Or was it like when a jackal was killed, and the others of the pack just sniffed for a moment at the body and moved on? Both thoughts were dreadful, but the second one was worse.

The demon men weren't making any attempt to hide now. It didn't seem to occur to them that anyone might be watching from above. They hesitated a while, touching each other from time to time. The one with the skull at his waist began to point in various directions. Then they split up, one heading on along the shoreline towards the tip of the promontory, two working across it at different angles and the fourth climbing up towards the two watchers. All four zigzagged to and fro as they went, keeping low but not taking any special trouble to hide, and covering as much ground as they could.

Mana and Ko knew at once what they were doing. This was how a hunter moved when he'd lost the trail, and was searching for some sign of his prey, a hoofprint, a stone disturbed from its bed, fur caught on a thorn, droppings.

“Soon he comes close,” Ko whispered. “Now we hide.”

They left the ridge and crawled rapidly back down to the boulder with the slot beneath it. Mana was smaller than Ko, so he wriggled in first and she then passed him the rock they would use to fill the final gap, checked that the others were in easy reach, and worked her way in beside him. As soon as she was settled they fitted the screening rocks into place, leaving themselves with three narrow cracks of light. By twisting her neck until her cheekbone was hard against the rock beneath, Mana could get her eye to the right-hand crack and see a narrow stretch of the hillside, and the reedbed beyond. Ko was better off. He could reach both of the others, and see a different bit of the slope through one, and through the other a long way out over the marsh, including the island where the Kin laired and had their fire.

So they lay in the dark and waited. While they had been watching unseen, up on the ridge, Mana had barely been afraid. Her heart had thundered at first, but more with excitement than terror. Then, as time had passed, this had quietened to the sort of steady, intent awareness that she felt while fishing.

Now, though, the heavy pulse began again, and would not calm. Time passed, slowly, slowly, with nothing to measure it. It was not yet midday, so the sun was behind her, and every shadow on the patch of hillside that she could see was hidden by the rock that cast it, and she was unable to watch it shrink.

At last she felt Ko reach for her hand and squeeze it. She moved to let him put his mouth close against her ear.

“One is below,” he breathed. “He waits. He looks here. He raises his hand. I think another is near us … He moves … I do not see him.”

Mana eased her head back to her spyhole. The wind was blowing steadily up the slope and whistling into the crack, so that if she tried to watch for any length of time her eye started to weep in the draft. She could see nothing new, but heard a soft call from somewhere down below. It was answered from very near by. A moment later Mana's narrow line of sight was briefly blocked by a dark something moving across it, and on.

“One is here,” she whispered. “He goes your way.”

“I see him,” Ko breathed. “He goes down the hill, fast, fast. Now another comes … I think they find our sleep place.”

Under the almost voiceless whisper she could hear his excitement, and shared it, despite her fear.

For some while they saw nothing more. It was very frustrating. A little below their hiding place, but out of sight for both of them, was the area where the Kin had spent the last three nights, and deliberately left the signs of their having done so. They could only guess whether the demon men had found them. But Bodu would still be watching from the reeds. She would have seen. Nar would now be racing along the path to bring the news to the island that the lair had been found …

Ah! There was a demon man!

Bent low, searching the ground, he crossed Mana's sight line and vanished.

“Smoke rises,” whispered Ko.

The man came back in the other direction, nearer. Before he moved out of sight Mana heard the same furtive call. The man looked up, turned, and stared out across the marsh, shading his eyes. Mana held her breath. This was a crucial moment. Would they work it all out? Would they understand the signs, and realize that their prey stayed far out in the marsh by day but slept the night here on the hillside? And then would they make up their minds that if they wanted to catch the Kin without having to fight their way along the maze of paths in the reedbed, full of traps and ambushes, they must come by night?

That was what the Kin were hoping for. Though Tinu's plan might work in other ways, a night attack would be far the best. Even then, the thought of all that could go wrong filled Mana with dread.

Now her man moved out of sight. Her eye was so sore from peering into the draught that she could scarcely see. She withdrew and rested it, blinking away the tears. She could hear nothing but the hiss of the wind and far birdcalls from the marsh.

She wondered what the demon men would be doing. From the way they had behaved when they had come out of the path in the eastern reedbed, it didn't look as if they had words. That was how the wordless people Mana knew, the Porcupines and the marshpeople, worked out what they were going to do. They touched each other and grunted and gestured until they had all agreed. Tor was Porcupine, and Noli was Tor's mate, but she still didn't know how they did it.

“This one sees that one's mind, I think,” she'd told Mana. “With Tor I do this little, little. For me it is hard. My mind is full of words.”

It was strange to think of the savage killers on the hillside being in any way like the kindly, gentle Tor. But there was no escape from it. They were people too. People, like Mana herself, and Ko and Suth and Noli. And she, Mana, had killed one of them. Now she was helping to try to kill many more.

The horror of the thought shuddered through her. Ko felt it, but didn't understand.

“Do not be afraid, Mana,” he whispered. “This is good. Our trap works.”

She sighed, knowing that it was no use explaining. If she'd tried, he still wouldn't have understood.

They lay in their hiding place until long past noon. Shadows appeared on the uphill side of the rocks and started to creep towards them. From time to time Mana peered through her crack, but saw no more of the demon men. Ko could reach his cracks with either eye, and give the other one a rest. He saw them several more times, lurking along the edge of the marsh. The entrance to the path was out of view, so he didn't know if they'd found it.

At last, halfway through the afternoon, Mana saw them again, climbing purposefully northward across the slope.

“I think they go,” she whispered.

They waited some while more before pushing their screening rocks aside and crawling out, aching and stiff with long stillness. They climbed to the ridge and studied the further flank, but they could see no sign of the demon men, so they lifted the signal stone into place and crept down to the marsh.

Oldtale

FARJ

Snake said in his heart, Fat Pig's plan is good. I do it too. I go to my Kin. They are at Old Woman Creek. They do not eat snake. I hide in long grasses. I wait. I see Puy, their leader. I show myself to him. He sees me first. He hears my words
.

He went to Old Woman Creek. The men hunted zebra. The women foraged. Farj tended the fire. He was old. His limbs shook. He did not see far
.

Snake said in his heart, I do not speak with old Farj. He was a strong man. He was leader. That is gone. Now he is old, he shakes, he mutters, he sees few things. No, I wait for Puy
.

Farj prayed. This was his prayer:

Snake, you are strong, you are wise
.

You guard your snakelings
.

Hear me, Farj. I am old. Soon I die
.

These are bad times, bad
.

Rage is in the men's hearts
.

My first son is dead, he is killed
.

My second son seeks vengeance
.

Soon he is killed also
.

Let me die before this
.

I, Farj, ask
.

Snake heard him. He said in his heart, This is my doing. He spoke. He said, “Farj, my snakeling, I am sad for you, sad.”

Farj did not see him well. He said, “Who speaks?”

Snake said, “I, Snake, speak. I am your First One.”

Farj knelt. He knocked his head on the ground. He clapped his hands together. He said, “Snake, First One, stop this fighting. Today the men hunt zebra. They dry meat, they put stores in their gourds. Tomorrow they seek out the men of Fat Pig. They fight yet again. Speak to them, First One. Take the rage from their hearts.”

Snake said, “Farj, I cannot do this. The men have sworn the War Oath. They must unswear it. From their hearts they must do it, not from my telling. My powers are gone. Black Antelope took them. Only one of my Kin hears my words. It is you.”

Farj said, “First One, this is hard. Rage stops the men's ears. I speak, they do not hear. What do we do?”

Snake said, “Farj, I do not know.”

He laid his ear to the ground. He heard a noise. It was of this sort:

See the mountain. Fire is inside it. Now it bursts out. Rocks fly through the air, they are red, they are hot. The mountain shakes, it roars. Far off men hear it. They listen. They say in their hearts, This is not thunder
—
it is more. Such was the noise Snake heard
.

He said, “We wait. One comes. He runs fast. He is heavy. It is Fat Pig.”