'Why would you betray your own kind?' asked Harth.
To save the Tribe.'
Harth laughed coldly. 'You expect us to believe this?'
'Mother Harth, would you believe me if I told you there are people here I've grown to love?' He allowed himself a glance at Akaisha, then returned his gaze to Harth's face.
'A pretty speech,' she said through a sneer.
T believe it to be a true one,' said Akaisha. Tell us what you told me, Carnie.'
Carnelian steeled himself. The Master manipulates you. He plots to change your world, to put himself at its centre.'
'Why would he do this?' demanded Kyte. The lust for power is in the blood of all the Standing Dead.'
Though you, of course, are different,' said Harth. Carnelian grimaced. 'I was brought up by one of your own.'
Harth raised her eyes up to the ceiling as if to say, 'that again', but she made no sound.
'You don't answer,' grumbled Crowrane.
The Master intends to conquer himself an empire in the Earthsky.'
The Standing Dead would not permit it,' said Kyte.
'It is the Standing Dead he wishes to defeat.'
The old men were frowning. To what end?'
To fight his way back into the Mountain.'
For a moment everyone looked startled, but then Crowrane burst into laughter and took with him most of the Assembly.
Carnelian endured the gale of derision.
Still chuckling, Crowrane spoke out. 'How many… how many Plainsmen do you think it would take to overcome a single dragon?'
'Have you ever seen one?' asked Kyte, grinning.
'From a distance.'
The man turned to either side. 'From a distance, he says.' There was more laughter.
'Have you seen the fortresses guarding the entrance into the Mountain?' asked Kyte.
Carnelian nodded.
'Well then. Do you believe that even if all the peoples who pay the flesh tithe rose up against the Standing Dead they could breach such defences?'
Carnelian had seen the Three Gates and knew them invulnerable.
Akaisha turned on the Assembly. 'Laugh away, but did you imagine our men could destroy one tribe or cow another?'
'Or produce as much meat in one day as we have never had in the best hunting season,' added Whin.
Carnelian watched the men lose their smiles as they considered this. 'Does it matter whether what the Master seeks is possible? Surely it is enough that he intends to try it and in so doing he will bring down disaster on the Tribe.'
Crowrane gave his wife a sly look. 'What then, Master, do you advise we do?' 'You must kill him.'
The Assembly stared at him. Harth cocked her head to one side.
'And what do you seek for this advice, your own survival?'
Carnelian looked at Akaisha sadly. 'You must kill me too. It was I who persuaded Fern to bring us here. In my heart I should have known the strife we would bring you. You showed us kindness and look how we repay you. The Master is like a ravener and must be destroyed, but still I have loved him and could not live on with my betrayal.'
The Assembly greeted his speech with silence. Akaisha had tears in her eyes. Harth rose, frowning. Her gaze lingered on Carnelian. She looked sidelong at Akaisha.
'I begin to see why you chose to give this one the protection of your hearth. Still, with his honeyed tongue he has condemned himself.'
Akaisha and Whin began speaking in Carnelian's defence but were interrupted by the curtain lifting to dazzle them all. A figure walked in which, once the gloom returned, they saw was Galewing. He had a rolled-up blanket in his arms.
'Has the Master come with you?' asked Akaisha.
Tonight he will remain at the earthwork by the lagoon.'
The sighs of relief made him uneasy. He frowned, noticing Carnelian.
'Why did you come, Galewing?' asked Harth.
The Elder smiled looking round the Assembly. ‘I’ve come directly here from the koppie of the Woading. They've accepted that from now on they shall be our children and have sent us a ransom in exchange for the bodies of their men.'
He kneeled, then laid the blanket on the bone floor and carefully rolled it out. When it was a flat rectangle like a hole, he leaned over to take the two corners furthest from him and, looking up expectantly, drew the cloth back. The Elders gasped. Laid out on the blanket were discs, pierced and whole, some rayed like suns; there were crescent moons, horned saurians in the round, lip plugs, a huge pectoral incised with figures. Every piece gleaming salt. Kyte crept close to lift a pendant from the hoard and turned it this way and that in his calloused hands. He licked it and turned, grinning.
When they questioned Galewing, he assured them the treasure was theirs.
'And our sons?' Akaisha asked.
They're spending the night in the earthwork. The Woading need time to choose the children they're going to send us to keep as a surety of their alliance with us. Until we have them here, the Master thinks it best we should protect ourselves against any reprisals.'
'Alliance?' said Akaisha.
Galewing opened his hands and looked at the faces of the Assembly. 'Subject of course to our approval.'
'Alliance for what purpose?' said Harth.
'We've promised that if they accept our rule, we shall, in time, return their children and obtain replacements for those marked for the tithe, as well as treasure to compensate them for this loss.' He indicated the salt jewels on the blanket.
'Obtain how?' said Harth, her face screwed up.
Galewing shrugged. 'Our other neighbours. It isn't as if we can trust them. We've seen one tribe attack us out of jealousy. What do you imagine will happen if we allow the others to combine against us?'
Harth blinked her disbelief. Her head was slowly shaking. She licked her lips. 'Are you possessed, Galewing?'
'Look, Harth.' Kyte was pointing at the jewels still lying on their blanket. That represents more than a year of service. More than one year of a young man's life lost to us.'
The Assembly gave his words a murmur of approval. 'It is stolen!' said Harth.
'As our children used to be before the Bluedancing came to take their place. No one here likes the taste of these changes, but we swallow them down for the good of our daughters and our sons. For my part, while the Master still spares our children and' – he pointed at the blanket – 'the blood of our men, then I shall leave him be.'
'Carnie, tell him.'
Carnelian explained what he knew and watched Galewing's frown deepen as he spoke.
'You see how dangerous he is?' said Akaisha when Carnelian was finished.
'More than a ravener,' said Galewing, 'but we have him by the throat. While it's our men he uses to do his fighting, we can have him killed at any time.'
Akaisha stood up. 'You're too complacent, Galewing. Haven't you seen how popular he's become among the Tribe?'
'Sooner or later he'll lose that. One day he'll overstretch himself, and then we'll have him.'
Mossie looked aghast at Carnelian. 'Should we be saying these things in front of him?'
'One of them is here and the other out on the plain. Even if that weren't so, do you think for a moment they
