He stood in the yard for a long time as the flames ate their way upward and burst through the roof and then, as if in one giant explosion, began to consume the hut. Without looking back, without a word, he started toward the east.
As the days passed, settlements became more frequent. Usually Duwan avoided them, but, to test his pose as a Devourer, he choose to pass through one two-hut settlement where he saw only four Enemy males. There was one problem. He did not speak the language of the Devourers.
'That doesn't matter,' Jai told him. 'They will think nothing of your speaking your own language, although some of your words do sound odd. You must tell them you are from a far place. Actually, the masters mostly speak as we speak even when they are speaking among themselves.'
'You speak the Enemy's tongue, do you not?'
'I do,' she said.
'Listen, then. If something is said in the Enemy's tongue that is threatening, warn me.'
As they walked into the settlement clearing, Jai felt new importance, and she walked, perhaps, with just a bit too much pride for a pong, but the enemy males driving slaves in the gathering of the grass nuts took no notice of her, past a glance. Their eyes were on the tall, impressive figure of Duwan.
'Greetings,' Duwan said. 'I have traveled far.'
'Welcome,' one of them said. 'Cool yourself at our well. And be our guest at the evening meal.'
'You are kind,' Duwan said. 'I will accept your offer to cool myself at the well, but I beg understanding for we have far to go and must continue our travels to cover as much distance as possible before darkness.'
'You come from the west?' another of the enemy asked.
'From the southwest,' Duwan said, for both Tambol and Jai had told him that it was said that to the southwest were unknown lands leading to a great, waterless desert.
'The unknown lands?' one of the enemy asked. 'We would hear of these lands,' another said.
'There are mountains, and there the great farls roam,' Duwan said.
'And then the land where the sun bakes the earth into a dryness and there grow only sparse, dry things.' He'd never seen a desert, so he was picturing in his mind the approaches to the land of fires.
'Odd and terrible,' said a Devourer, shaking his head. 'Stay, friend, and tell us more as we celebrate the sacrifice. Our females are even now preparing it.'
At that moment Duwan heard a cry of terror and pain from one of the huts and his hand shot to his sword hilt. Tambol, seeing this reaction, came forward.
'Forgive me, masters, may the female and myself have water?' Duwan forced his rage to die, to be swallowed.
Another life had been taken, but he told himself that he, alone, could not stop the customs of the Enemy. He reminded himself of his mission.
'I beg understanding,' he said, bowing, and backing away. He saw Tambol and Jai drawing water. 'Drink your fill quickly,' he yelled, 'or feel the bite of my lash.'
Now they began passing through small villages. Duwan was discovering that the Enemy was, indeed, many in number. And he was becoming more confident. He found that if he pressed on, moving with purpose, his head high and his gaze forward, he and his companions were not bothered as they made their way past more elaborate dwellings, through the dusty streets of the villages.
And everywhere he saw the misery of the Drinkers, the pongs, the enslaved ones. Each village had its slave pen and there the pongs huddled when not working, barely sheltered from the elements with crude coverings, eating greedily of the meager ration of food allowed them by the masters. And in one village he saw the raw, obscenely naked body of a pong, peeled and hung on a post by lashed ropes that cut into the exposed, tender, bleeding flesh. He had to fight to hide his shock and disgust.
'You,' he said imperiously to Tambol, 'ask some pong what this one did.'
Tambol talked with a cringing local pong and came to report. 'He was caught stealing food, master.'
'Thus should he be served,' Duwan said, for two Enemy males were within hearing. 'Remember this example, pong, lest it be your carcass that hangs there.'
