Morunasa glanced at him, irritated. 'Manila? Pygmies.'
Carnelian was startled. Pygmies? He looked around uneasily, fearful of why Osidian had brought them there with a lie.
The Master was peering among the trees. 'Could they be hiding?'
The Maruli raised his head and his nostrils distended. He shook his head and frowned. 'I can smell nothing but the burning.'
'Perhaps they tried to set these trees alight before they fled.'
Morunasa shook his head. They worship baobabs, which is why we used these,' he indicated the charred trees, 'as fernroot granaries.'
Osidian let his aquar wander as he leaned over the edge of his saddle-chair examining the ground. Morunasa straightened in his chair and made his aquar turn slowly on the spot, searching for something.
'It seems your problem, Maruli, has solved itself,' said Osidian.
Morunasa continued to search as if he had not heard. Krow was watching the man through slitted eyes, perhaps considering that he was the only Manila left to kill.
'Come,' Osidian said with an edge in his voice, 'fulfil the oath you made to me.'
For a moment Morunasa regarded him with a look of barely suppressed rage, then, frowning, he led them down from the knoll. When they reached the edge of the chasm, the Maruli sat, motionless, gazing at the waterfalls. He waited until Osidian was at his side before he announced: 'Behold the Voice of God.'
Emotion snagged Morunasa's voice and Carnelian was close enough to see the light of reverence in his amber eyes.
'At the moment our Lord whispers,' Morunasa said without turning, 'but soon enough you'll hear Him roar.'
Something in his tone sent a shiver down Carnelian's spine.
Morunasa turned to Osidian with a fierce intensity. 'We must cross immediately to the Isle.' 'What isle?' asked Krow.
The Maruli looked at the youth in irritation. His ashy finger pointed to the tree-capped rock which Carnelian could now see stretched upstream above the level of the waterfalls to split the river and its many streams in two.
'Can't you see it there before your eyes?' Morunasa gave the youth a feral grin. 'Pray, boy, you never have cause to see it closer.'
Krow's failure to control his unease turned to anger. He looked to Osidian for support, but the Master, unaware, was gazing at the island. The youth ducked his head so that his uba fell over his face.
'First the other place, Maruli,' Osidian said and, for a moment, Carnelian thought Morunasa was about to erupt but again he brought his fury under control.
'As the Master wishes, so shall it be done.'
Carnelian recognized the traditional invocation of a legionary auxiliary but was more concerned by what Osidian might have meant by the 'other place'. He had not forgotten that Osidian had deceived them all.
Morunasa dismounted and the others copied him. He leaned over the edge.
'See, the pygmies cut the Ladder as I described.'
Perhaps a quarter of the way down the chasm wall Carnelian could see a mess of ropes.
'From here, the cables could be drawn up,' said Osidian.
The land of the Marula lies down there, doesn't it?' asked Carnelian.
Osidian looked at him. They call it the Lower Reach.'
So that was it. This ladder was the only way up.'
Morunasa glowered at him. 'Long ago we had every foothold smoothed away.'
He turned to Osidian. 'New rope might need to be woven from baobab bark.'
Krow touched Carnelian's arm to get his attention. 'Why would the Master want to repair this ladder?' he mouthed.
Carnelian shook his head. He could not see how such a policy would do anything but increase the Marula threat.
Turning his back on the falls, Morunasa led them along the cliff to where two cables, coming up over the edge, wrapped themselves in a girdle around the trunk of a massive baobab. As the Maruli ducked under the nearest rope, Carnelian followed him with the others. Standing with the cables on either side, he peered over the edge and saw they plunged down the rock and, between them, strands were woven into netting.
'Down here?' Osidian asked Morunasa. When the Maruli gave a slow, ominous nod, Osidian turned to Carnelian and addressed him in Quya.
'Wait for me here, Carnelian. Keep the savages under your control.'
'Where are you going?'
Osidian's smile was enigmatic. 'For now, it is best you should not know.'
Annoyed, Carnelian said nothing more but watched Osidian and Morunasa lower themselves over the edge onto the netting and, slowly, begin to descend the chasm wall. He heard the rumble of approaching aquar and, turning, saw that it was Fern, Ravan and the other Plainsmen.
'What's going on?' Ravan called, sullen.
Carnelian shrugged.
Fern dismounted. The men are angry and confused.'
'So am I,' said Carnelian. He leaned over the edge and saw Osidian and Morunasa had disappeared. There must be caves down there,' Fern said.
They gave up waiting and were glad to retreat from the fearful drop into the shadow of the anchor tree. A quivering in the ladder ropes brought them back to the edge. Osidian and Morunasa were climbing the netting. As they came up, Carnelian saw a new light in Osidian's eyes. Not wishing to be denied an explanation, he did not ask, but probed Osidian's face seeking the answer for himself. Feeling Carnelian's gaze, Osidian looked at him and smiled with a warmth that took Carnelian by surprise.
'Was everything as the Maruli promised, my Lord?'
Osidian's grin was like the sun. 'Better than he promised.'
Morunasa's eyes had been looking from one to the other as they spoke, and perhaps it was the anger at not understanding that put the frown on his ashen face.
'Now we must go to the Isle of Flies,' he rumbled.
Osidian's eyes flashed. 'I've not forgotten the bargain we made, Maruli.'
He gazed across the chasm to where the island lay black between the shimmer of the falls.
Carnelian saw the light go out of Osidian's face. 'What lies there?'
'An ancient banyan.'
Carnelian regarded the island. 'Within that forest?' 'It is that forest.'
Carnelian was appalled that so much earth should be captured by a single tree. He imagined how deep the shadows must be beneath its branches. 'A fearful place.'
'Indeed,' said Morunasa, grimly. He ducked under one of the cables and Osidian followed him. Krow had to run to keep up. Beside them, his stature made him seem a child. Carnelian followed on behind with everyone else.
Fern regarded the island. 'I don't like the look of it.' 'You don't need to come,' said Carnelian. 'Are you going?'
Carnelian was struggling with the same unease, but he nodded.
Then I will go with you,' Fern said with a determination that made Carnelian smile.
They walked on, passing the knoll with its singed trees. Morunasa and Osidian were heading for where the Backbone butted onto the chasm. Morunasa bowed to something there before moving onto a ledge that ran along the chasm brink. He was quickly followed by Osidian and, more hesitantly, by Krow.
When Carnelian came closer he saw a carving of a head, thrown back as if it were pushing up out of the earth. Its mouth, hideously agape, was rimmed with splinter teeth; its tongue a spike upon which the skeleton of a man was impaled. The idol's face was crusted brown with old blood that had pooled in the mouth and empty eye- sockets, then overflowed onto the ears and stained the ground black.
Conquering dread, Carnelian peered past it and saw the path that squeezed between the sheer face of the
