some of the magnolias running alongside the Outditch. As well as the Bluedancing, the whole Tribe had joined the race to harvest as much as they could before the heaveners began to rot.
Beneath palls of reeking smoke, taking a rest from the bloody work, Carnelian wandered with Poppy among the fires in a daze. Entrails were draped across the ferns like fishing nets. Expanses of hide were laid out; scarlet rugs dense with flies. In one corner of the ferngarden they were throwing everything they did not want. Much was being put onto that brown hill that usually they kept. With such an abundance of flesh, only the better cuts were being saved.
Telling Poppy to wait for him, Carnelian picked his way across the earthbridge which was slick and treacherous with mud. When he reached the Killing Field, it seemed he was standing on a sunset-reddened strand. Carcasses lay like so many beached ships, half stripped of their hulls of flesh, exposing their white ribbing. The ground was covered by a flotsam of entrails and membranes. Nearby a head as large as a man gave him a macabre grin, its lips pulled back and hanging loose. Carnelian reflected that that head had once woven among the clouds like a bird. The neck that had stretched a link between earth and sky was nailed by its vertebrae to the ground. Ruddy children scurried, laughing and shouting amidst that architecture of death, playing hide-and-seek in the caverns of the ruined heaveners.
'Enough is enough,' Carnelian said under his breath. He decided that that evening he would betray Osidian's scheme to Akaisha.
Night had already fallen when the Tribe returned exhausted to their hearths. In the face of so many people, the Elders had suspended the requirement to wash underneath the Old Bloodwood Tree. Carnelian's hearthmates' skin was caked with blood; their hair matted with gore.
Complaints rising from near the water jar drew everyone to go and see what was going on.
'It hasn't been refilled,' Akaisha said, peering into it, and then began to cry. Everyone stared open-mouthed as she stumbled off towards her hollow. Carnelian felt queasy. He must follow her and betray Osidian.
'Who was meant to fetch water today?' demanded Whin.
Everyone looked at each other but no one seemed to have an answer. Carnelian was not the only one to notice the guilty expressions on the men's faces.
'Do any of you know?'
'We were ordered not to go, my mother.'
'By whom?'
'Father Galewing.'
Whin looked weary, confused. Carnelian grew uneasy, suspecting Osidian was behind this. He realized he had not seen him for a long time. He looked back to the rootstair. Carnelian had imagined Fern was lagging behind him when he had returned with the others. A dark foreboding clutched him. His eyes met Sil's. He was sure they were sharing the same feeling.
'Did he tell you why?' asked Whin.
The men exchanged sidelong looks. It was obvious they were reluctant to speak.
Whin stepped towards them. 'Come on, out with it.'
'We were told to keep it to ourselves,' said one of them.
'So as not to worry anyone,' added another. Whin looked exasperated. 'What're you talking about?' The first man to have spoken looked to the others for permission. 'It's because of the Woading.'
Sil looked startled. 'Our neighbours, the Woading?' They've been threatening us for days.' Threatening you?' said Whin.
'Each day, the men they send to fetch water have grown in numbers.'
'And become more heavily armed,' added one of the others.
'Why have they suddenly chosen to interfere with us?'
The man shrugged. 'Our new earthwork's near where they traditionally come for water.'
'Didn't any of you think of telling the Master that that was likely to provoke them?'
Carnelian thought it unlikely Osidian had needed to be told.
The man shrugged. 'He had us dig it where the lagoon is narrowest and easy to cross.'
'What has this to do with our water supply?' demanded Whin.
The man looked at her anxiously. The Master feared the Woading might attack the hunts we send out to fetch water.'
'So we're to die of thirst instead?' 'It was to be only one day, my mother; so that we could all help making djada.' 'And tomorrow… ?'
'We'll go in force so that if they try anything, we'll be ready for them.'
'So you're all in on this?' said Whin looking round at the men.
'What do you mean, my mother?'
Whin dug the heel of her hand into her forehead. 'What I mean is, does this conspiracy spread to the other hearths?'
'Just the men.'
Whin smiled coldly at him. 'Just the men. Well, that's fine then. As long as it's just the men.'
Many of them lowered their heads. 'We assumed the Elders had approved this.'
Whin dismissed the comment with her hand and glanced at Carnelian. 'It's not you I'm angry with.'
Everyone stood in silence watching her brood. She glanced over to the sleeping hollows.
'I'm tired. We're all too tired. It'll keep until morning.'
Carnelian began moving towards the hollows.
'Where are you going?'
Carnelian faced Whin. To speak to Mother Akaisha, my mother.'
Whin shook her head. 'No you're not.' 'But there's something I want to tell her.' 'It'll keep until tomorrow.'
Carnelian saw how determined Whin was. He considered telling her, but was not sure she would believe him.
Whin looked round at her hearth, all of whom were staring at her. 'Well, are you all just going to stand there stinking of blood?'
'But the water,' said Sil.
'We'll take out what we need for drink and then we'll just have to manage with the little that is left.'
They did as she said and Carnelian joined them. There was only enough to soak into the strips they tore from a worn blanket. They used these to wipe off as much of the blood as they could, but it was impossible to get it out of their hair.
Woken by a commotion, Carnelian sat up. Shapes were moving among the hollows, where voices were loud with anger. Poppy appeared beside him. 'All the men have gone.'
He threw on his robe and went to find Akaisha. She was standing near the hearth with Whin, who had her hands on her hips.
'You don't know anything about this, do you?'
Carnelian's and Sil's eyes met.
'What do you two know?' demanded Whin.
'Yesterday, Fern was hiding something from me,' said Sil.
Carnelian began to feel afraid. Osidian was behind this.
'Look,' said Sil, pointing.
Through the canopy they could see a mass of smoke rising against the predawn sky. Carnelian judged it must be the curing fires in the Eastgarden.
Akaisha groaned. 'What're the Bluedancing up to? Who's overseeing them? They know they're supposed to wait for us. Sil, go down and see what's happening.'
'Can I go too?' asked Poppy.
Sil glanced at Carnelian, who nodded. He watched the two of them move off.
'Carnie, you're sure you don't know what's going on?' said Akaisha.
'I'm as baffled as you are, my mother,' he replied. Her sad, nervous look added to his worries.
Others of their hearthmates returned in ones and twos, shaking their heads, saying the same thing. All the men were gone and no one knew where.
