Elnice leaped at him and slashed his cheek with her nails, leaving three welling streaks of blood. Then she turned to Hata. 'Bring the wounded. Show him what he faces.'
A wounded pong warrior was dragged to the clearing. He was peeled quickly. Skilled Devourers used sharp knives to make a circle around the pong's left arm, his uninjured arm, and then the hide of the arm was seized in powerful pincer tools and ripped off, leaving raw, unprotected flesh welling blood as the pong screamed in agony and became unconscious. The hide was like a glove, complete with fingers and thumbs. Elnice picked it up gingerly and slashed it wetly across Duwan's face.
'Your treatment will be slower,' she said.
He closed his eyes as seven wounded were peeled, first the arms, then the legs, then, in strips, the hide from the back, belly, ribs, hips. Death and the smell of it surrounded him, and the moans of it, for careful peeling left a raw, bleeding mass of flesh that lived on, often for more than a day. Fortunately for those who had been peeled, many were near death from their battle wounds so soon only two lingered, screaming in pain.
'I will give you death,' Elnice said, standing over one of the screaming masses with sword in hand. 'Tell me of this Duwan.'
'He is the Master,' the dying pong gasped. 'He came from the earth. He is the appointed one of Du, the one Du. He gave us magic to eat the green and to drink of the sun.'
'How many eat of the green?' Elnice asked. That question had been asked many times before of dying pongs.
'Tens of thousands,' the dying one said. 'And more each day.'
'Liar,' Elnice screamed, bringing down the sword to finish the pong's agony. The last survivor died as she asked her first question. Duwan wept. Even in death the warrior had been loyal. 'Tens of thousands,' he had said, and it was, as Elnice had said, a lie, for there were mere hundreds, and no one knew how many of them would survive to reach the doubtful security of the western wilderness.
'I want this one peeled with the greatest of care,' Elnice told the two guardsmen whose specialty was shown by the oddly shaped knives they carried. 'He is strong. Peel him in tiny strips. I want him to live for a day, perhaps two. Then we will see if he has had enough talking, or if he will be eager to talk, will beg to be heard, in exchange for the release of death.' A peeler came to stand beside Duwan, knife in hand, made a cut at Duwan's shoulder.
'No,' Elnice said. 'Start at his feet. You should know that he will last longer if you start there.'
She sat in a chair beside the tree and watched with slitted eyes as Duwan's left foot was lifted and the knife made an incision and the sole of his foot was peeled away. She looked up at Duwan's face, contorted in agony.
'Some find that screaming helps. It seems to use up energy and hasten death,' she said. 'Will you scream?'
He screamed, loudly and lustily, as the knife sliced and the hide was peeled from the arch of his foot and down off his horned toes. The clearing was now surrounded by soldiers. Some lay on the ground, heads cocked to see the show. Others sat, kneeled, stood. They drank their rations of wine and made wagers on how long Duwan would live once he'd been fully peeled.
It happened slowly, slowly. Little by little, strip by strip, his lower legs were bared. Flesh oozed blood. The pain of peeling made his senses reel. He screamed. And the peeled, exposed flesh burned with the slightest movement of wind, burned with a pain unlike any he had ever felt, a pain more severe than that he'd felt when the rock sucker was draining all his blood and he had cut off his own arm.
When he was without skin to mid-thigh he began to pray to Du for death. He didn't care if anyone heard him, he prayed aloud, almost screaming the name of his Du, and the High Mistress laughed.
'Pour wine on his exposed flesh and see if his du can stop the pain,' she said.
Duwan screamed and writhed against his bonds as liquid fire attacked his exposed legs.
'Your du is not on duty today,' Hata said, laughing.
'So he came from the earth,' Elnice said. 'Let us return him to the earth. Peel him to the waist and then plant him to mid-thigh in the earth. Let us see if that will awaken his du.'
Jai, of course, had not obeyed Duwan's wishes. In the darkness of the night she had whispered to Duwan the Elder, 'I go. Don't bother to follow me. Take care of your own.' Then she was gone, and Duwan the Elder could only continue, for he had the responsibility of his mate and others on his hands.
Jai lay hidden high on the side of the canyon. She had, by sheer good fortune, chosen a place where no enemy came down, and she watched the last battle with wild, desperate tears. More than once she jerked, almost making the move that would send her down the wall of the canyon to join the dying remnants of the once great pong army, but, although she had broken part of her promise, she could not bring herself to betray Duwan's orders totally.
When, at last, Duwan stood alone and then was taken she was in shock, incapable of movement, save for her eyes, and they followed him as he was carried away. She regained movement and crept along the side of the canyon to
