Carnelian measured the burning distance lying between him and the Newditch and began walking. Staggering, swooning, he cursed himself that he had not drunk for a while.
At last they crossed a bridge into the delicious shade under a magnolia. Running from one shadow to the next,
Carnelian led them to the first cistern. Reluctantly, the man helped him wrestle its cover aside. Carnelian lowered a leather bucket to the water, swaying, ribboned with light. He drew the bucket up and let Krow drink first before he took a long, cool draught.
'Nectar,' Carnelian said and saw by the others' puzzled expressions that he must have spoken in Quya. The man refused a drink. He and Krow slid the cover back. A little more himself, Carnelian saw how desperate the man was that they should hurry. They jogged all the way to the Homeditch and were soon under the cedar canopy.
They took a route up the hill that was wholly in shadow. Other men, evidently all Darkcloud, were waiting anxiously by the Crag steps. As his guide ran up to them, he half turned. The stone will burn you if you touch it.'
Reaching the summit, Carnelian could feel heat radiating off the rock. They would shrivel up if they stayed too long.
'Show me,' Carnelian said.
The man led him across the summit and then pointed west over the simmering plain.
Carnelian peered and for a while could see nothing. Then he saw a dull haze smudging the horizon.
That's in the direction of your koppie?' Carnelian asked.
The man nodded, staring.
'It really is fire,' said Krow.
'Let's talk down there,' Carnelian said moving back towards the steps.
In the clearing bathed in the deep shadow of the Crag Darkcloud men collected around Carnelian. He looked into their anxious faces. 'You're worried it might be your mother trees?'
There's nothing else left to burn, Master,' said one.
'What do you want me to do?'
'Let us ride home,' said the man who had fetched him there.
Carnelian asked them to give him a little time to think. He leaned against the coolness of the Crag steps, wondering how Osidian might react to him letting them go. He imagined the Hold on its island several worlds away. He remembered how he had felt about his home. He had been unable to stop it being destroyed but the Darkcloud might still save theirs.
'I'll lead them, Master, if you want,' said Krow.
Carnelian looked round at the fretting Darkcloud.
'Gather every man you can find. We will all go together.'
While they filled waterskins and saddled aquar, Carnelian returned to the diggings. Locating some of the Bluedancing Elders, he told them he was leaving the Koppie in their care. While he was gone, they could rest from their labours. Though it had never been his intention, he realized that their children being in the hands of the Ochre would ensure their good behaviour.
He led the warriors out of the Koppie along the Southing and then turned west. He suppressed panic as he saw the green of the mother trees recede. They were adrift in a desert spined with a few charred acacias. The rest was dust and ashes. As the sun poured down its fire, Carnelian could not believe the earth would survive until the Rains. He drew his uba down over his eyes and rode blind, trusting to the Darkcloud to find their way home.
At last they came within sight of the dusty bed of a lagoon. At its narrowest point, a ring was incised into the earth.
The Master's earthwork,' said Krow.
Curious to see one of Osidian's camps, Carnelian rode closer and was surprised how small it was.
'Rather cramped,' he said to Krow, then noticed the youth was staring off across the lagoon to where smoke was rising in two columns from a koppie on the horizon.
As Carnelian's eyes met Krow's, understanding passed between them. The fires seemed man-made. But who? Carnelian watched Krow's face grow pale as his lips formed the word: Manila.
Others had seen the smoke. Several Darkcloud rode up to Carnelian clamouring. He explained what he and Krow suspected.
'We must go and kill them,' said one, his face dark with fury.
Glancing at Krow, fearing his reaction, imagining Poppy's, Carnelian shook his head. They're likely to outnumber us.'
Cries of protest rose from the Darkcloud. Carnelian regarded them, agonized. 'We must wait for the Master and then hit them with our combined forces.'
They might escape us,' said Krow.
'We risk heavy casualties, perhaps annihilation.'
'You fear them because they massacred my tribe,' said Krow through gritted teeth. 'Even with surprise on then-side, they still took a mauling. This time surprise is ours.'
Carnelian paused to watch the smoke again. It must be rising from among the Darkcloud's mother trees. He glanced round and saw their anguish. It was not hard to imagine their women's grief should they return to find their trees harmed in any way.
'I'll ask the others,' Carnelian said to Krow.
Krow's eyes flamed. 'Why ask when you can command?'
'I'll risk my blood but not that of others against their will.'
Krow rode his aquar in among the other men crying: Though we be of different tribes, we're all Plainsmen. Can we allow such defilement to go unpunished?'
Grimly, all there gave their assent.
'Very well,' said Carnelian. 'But if we are to approach unseen, we must wait for dusk.'
They found what shade they could within the earthwork and sheltered beneath blankets. Carnelian found if he sat very still, the heat rising from his body would lift his uba from his skin. As sweat trickled down his back, he carefully sipped sun-heated water from a waterskin. His slitted gaze lost hold of the white world. In a stupor he sat, tortured, imagining the disasters that might overcome their expedition.
The night was as cold as the day had been hot. Shadows in the starlight, they streamed across the lagoon bed and then began the long ride across the plain to the koppie of the Darkcloud.
A sliver moon rose as they neared the outer ditch. The Darkcloud led them across a bridge into a ferngarden. The ride to the next ditch was shorter than it would have been at the Koppie. Once across, Carnelian saw that the inner ferngardens were much wider than he was used to. To approach as silently as they could, they made their aquar walk. Carnelian had plenty of time to search the hill with its cedars and the irregular crags rising above them. All was in blackness and there was no sign of life except for the cedars shifting in a breeze that carried on it a hint of smoke.
At last they reached a bridge leading over the innermost ditch. Carnelian and Krow dismounted with the Darkcloud and watched them cross the bridge and disappear into shadow.
As he waited Carnelian listened to the sighing of their mother trees. Watching a canopy round to the north, he was sure that every so often it opened a chink through which he glimpsed what might have been a flicker of light on branches.
A single shape returning over the bridge made him jump. The Darkcloud came close enough for Carnelian to smell him.
The huskman's still in his place, Master,' said the Darkcloud. 'Some of us have gone in to scout around.'
'You should've waited for instructions,' said Krow, his voice seeming loud after the man's whisper.
Carnelian reached out and gripped Krow's shoulder, wanting to calm him. 'We need to know where they
