among the men; that many were growing uneasy with the new ways.
'The Master,' said Krow.
Osidian was coming towards them with Morunasa at his side. Carnelian saw immediately that the Maruli was possessed of a new confidence which dismayed Krow and the Darkcloud.
Osidian regarded them all as if from on high. 'Go, ready yourselves and the others. Each man should take enough djada for nine days; water for six. We march south at nightfall.'
THE VOICE OF GOD
Gods speak without words
Air mouthed by the branches of trees, by hills
Flame tongues whispering
Rain hiss and pattering rhythms
Water rumbling rolling against rock and shore
Gales screaming scouring, lifting precipices of sea
That roar as they consume
Carnelian followed Osidian down to the porch of the Ancestor House.
'What has the Maruli told you? What is it that is in the south?'
Osidian smiled. The reason why the Manila have been launching attacks into the Earthsky.'
Carnelian waited for more, but still smiling, Osidian shook his head. Carnelian glanced up to the summit where they had left Morunasa. 'You cannot trust him.'
'Do you not find that ironic coming from you, Carnelian?'
Knowing it was true just made Carnelian angry. The men will not follow you.'
There will be unrest, but they will follow me. Besides, it will be amusing to see my enemies reveal themselves.'
He turned away to look down into the clearing, which was filling up with Plainsmen. Carnelian's stomach clenched when he saw Fern was at their head. There was no way to warn him.
Fern looked up at them. 'Why do you want us to go south, Master?'
'Because that is where the lands of the Manila lie.' Consternation rippled through the crowd. 'Why should we go there?' 'To win a battle.'
The crowd erupted. A single voice rose above the din. Carnelian saw it was Ravan. 'Who will escort our people back from the mountains?'
Osidian stood closer to the edge. 'We shall return victorious with time to spare.'
Many of the upturned faces showed doubt.
Fern leapt up the first few steps of the Crag and turned to face the crowd. He pointed up at Osidian. 'Can't you see the Master is possessed? What has he brought us but strife and bloodshed?'
Carnelian swallowed hard, seeing hope in the way the crowd was warming to Fern. His friend stabbed a finger at Osidian.
'Now he wants to lead us to die in the desert or in a foreign land. Do you want this?'
The crowd growled and many shook their heads.
'Let us return to the ways of our fathers and mothers.' Seeing them waver, Fern looked up at Carnelian. 'If we must follow someone, let us follow one who has spilled no Plainsman blood except in self-defence.'
The intensity of Fern's gaze made Carnelian eager to rise to his challenge.
'Are you certain, Carnelian, you could win a pitched battle?'
He turned to look at Osidian.
'If you were to lose, it is they,' he glanced down at the crowd, 'who would lose everything.'
Osidian's conviction stirred doubt in Carnelian. As Osidian's eyes fell on the Plainsmen, he seemed to grow larger.
The Marula have already massacred two Plainsman tribes and would have done the same to the Darkcloud had they not been dealt with. This time, we were fortunate but which of you would risk being their next victims?'
Carnelian might have even then tried to wrest power from Osidian except that in his heart he feared the Marula danger.
Osidian's gaze moved over the Plainsmen. 'You can wait until they send another army or else you can march with me so that when your womenfolk return you can tell them you have destroyed this threat once and for all.'
As the Darkcloud shouted their agreement, Krow pushed to the front.
'Listen to the Master. You know my desire for revenge upon the Marula, but more than that, I never again want them to do to any other tribe what they did to mine…'
The rest the crowd drowned out. Carnelian read Osidian's satisfaction from his posture. He had won again. Fern, among the riot, looked appalled.
Carnelian glanced at Osidian, fearful. 'Now you will punish those who opposed you.'
Osidian turned to regard him. 'On the contrary, Carnelian, by permitting them to continue living I will disarm the criticism that I have ambitions to be their master.'
In the dusk they rode down the Southing. Beyond the swathe of the Southgardens, Carnelian could see the Bluedancing fires as sparks in the gloomy Eastgarden. Craning round the back of his saddle-chair, he gazed with a deep yearning at the mother trees crowding round the Crag. Then he was riding out across the final earthbridge, following Osidian into the south-west where a livid wound in the edge of the sky was all that remained of the tyrant sun.
Night smothered them. Even mounted, Carnelian could feel the heat rising from the earth. He unwound the uba from his head to let the air from the aquar's movement cool the sweat on his skin. The ground muffled the drumming footfalls of the aquar. Sleepily, Carnelian watched the riders ahead moving through the moon-glossed tendrils of the dust they raised. In one place, the plain was stone-hard, fissured and cracked, its covering of dead ferns burned away by fire. Fire. They had already ridden far from any sheltering shade. It was growing cooler and soon it would be cold, but Carnelian was already fearing the dawn.
First light revealed the Mother's Backbone rising before them. As the dawn poured the shadows of the riders out to meet the ridge, Carnelian turned to face the sun, closing his eyes against the radiance, letting it dispel the chill of the night.
Reaching the Backbone, they dismounted and led their aquar up onto the shattered black rock. Krow and Morunasa at his side, Osidian chose a spot where there might be some shade from the coming onslaught of the sun.
Carnelian and Fern exchanged wary glances. They had not spoken since the gathering in the clearing. Brooding, Ravan was keeping his distance from the Master, making Carnelian wonder what had happened between them.
He busied himself angling his aquar so that it would receive as little sun as possible, and used it and its saddle-chair to make a shelter for himself as he saw others doing. Men were looking nervously into the east, where the sun was melting up from the earth. Carnelian lay behind his aquar, dreading when it should rise so high there would be no place left to hide.
The air was a fever that made it impossible to sleep. Even though he had kept his waterskin in his aquar's shadow, each gulp was as warm as blood. He sneaked out to give the creature a drink then lay trying to ignore the sweat dewing over his body. A saltstone was passed around which burned his tongue.
At last the furnace sun began to abate. Carnelian counted each moment as he watched it fall blind into the Plain. When darkness came the air sighed a breeze of relief. He rose, feeling the day's ague still vibrating the night. They resaddled their aquar and descended the Backbone back to the plain, where they remounted.
