As aquar sank to the ground, Carnelian's attention was attracted to one being walked towards him by Krow. They exchanged smiles.
'It's good to see you, Krow.'
'And you, Master.'
Carnelian would have liked to talk but it was not the time. He was soon preoccupied trying to get comfortable in the narrow saddle-chair. Its sides cut into his thighs. His legs, hooked awkwardly over the crossbeam, were forced almost against his chest as he angled his feet onto the aquar's back. Glancing over, he saw Osidian was having the same problem. He used his feet to make the creature rise and immediately had to turn her onto the path towards the bridge the first riders were already crossing.
Notwithstanding the discomfort, Carnelian managed to manoeuvre his aquar safely across the bridge and was soon being jogged down an avenue of magnolias to the outer ditch. He was shaken into a more natural position and was soon, in spite of his fears, enjoying the ride.
Crossing the final bridge, he looked down into the Newditch and saw it was filled with baskets and mattocks. Its inner wall was striped with the ropes that dangled down into it from the trees all along the edge. Craning round, he saw riders accompanying a group of women through the ferngarden towards the workings.
A judder in his saddle-chair forced him to look where he was going. Riders were milling in all directions.
'Master.'
It was Krow, pointing to where he should go. Carnelian thanked him and saw the riders had formed up around a solid centre of perhaps two dozen aquar yoked to drag-cradles stacked with empty waterskins. He took up a position near Osidian and Ravan who were squinting into the far distance. Only some acacias gave the view any scale. All around them were riders with unhitched javelins, with bull-roarers ready across their laps. Carnelian ran his hands along the outer surface of his saddle-chair, but could find no weapons. This discovery sunk him back into despondency.
A high warbling cry rose up and, as one, the aquar lurched forward. Carnelian attempted to settle into the rhythm of his aquar's pace, snuffling the musky breeze, trying to lull his unease by listening to the chatter of the riders, the hiss of ferns along his aquar's flanks. Every so often he had to adjust his position to alleviate the discomfort. He looked back to see how much the Koppie had receded. The air had grown hot enough to make it waver like a mirage. He thought of Fern already labouring among the flies under the Bloodwood Tree. When he lost sight of the Koppie altogether, a stab in his stomach was the realization he might never see it again.
Their shadows were short by the time the land ahead began to pool with fire. The incandescence of the lagoon twitched and flickered as herds slid before it. Soon Carnelian could see its full horizontal stretch and the creeping mass of saurians. The riders had fallen silent, their shoulders and arms tense as they made slow scanning turns with their heads.
As the hunt drew closer to the water, the herds resolved into the individual boulders of backs; into necks that stretched to the very tops of the acacias. Several times the hunt curved a detour round what appeared to be rocks nestling among the ferns. When one of these lifted a head larger than a man and grinned a mouth packed with dagger teeth, a trickle of sweat ran down Carnelian's spine. It made him understand why his aquar was holding her head so high, shifting it nervously from side to side, hardly blinking her huge eyes.
Entering a herd, Carnelian began to feel as much as hear their lumbering thunder. Horned heads were everywhere cropping the ferns. Sometimes one would lift dull eyes to watch them pass. On occasion, this lifting would cause so many heads to rise it was as if a host lying hidden in the ferns sprang up in ambush.
The herds crowded the lagoon margin. Out from the shore, the water was dulled by drifts of wading birds. Islands rose here and there that Carnelian might have imagined to be cities except their towers were shifting more than they should in the melting air.
Crowrane led them parallel to and at some distance from the shore. When they spotted a thinning in the herd, they slowed to a walk and began veering in the direction of the water. Carnelian gaped at an assembly of mountainous heaveners, their heads reaching far out over the lagoon. He watched one rising, leaking water, climbing so high he had to crane to see it swaying black in the blinding sky.
As they neared the shore, Carnelian saw how nervously the riders were spreading out, javelins and bull- roarers hanging from their hands. Some dismounted and, looking round them all the time, led the aquar with the drag-cradles to the water.
No one seemed to be looking at him. Carnelian allowed himself to relax a little. It was hard to believe all these preparations were an elaborate attempt on his life and Osidian's.
Locating Krow, Carnelian rode towards him. 'What can we do to help?'
The youth pinched his lips together with his fingers, which gesture Carnelian read as meaning he should speak more quietly. Krow caused his mount to kneel and climbed out. Carnelian waited for Osidian and Ravan to dismount before doing the same. Standing on tremoring earth, he glanced at the heaveners. It seemed madness to walk so near such giants. One detonated a snort. Its hide rippled as the water made the journey down its throat. Its musk weighed the air.
Krow took Carnelian's arm and pulled. 'Come on,' he whispered.
Carnelian and the others followed Krow to a drag-cradle from which men were distributing waterskins. Carnelian was given one. Making sure Osidian was close, Carnelian returned with Krow to the lagoon. Earth began softening to mud. They waded out into the lapping water and Carnelian sank his waterskin as he saw Krow was doing. He narrowed his eyes against the swaying dazzle. Warm water licked up his body. He opened the mouth of the waterskin and it began to swallow. Shadow slipped over him as if from a cloud. A wave surging up his chest made him lose his footing for a moment. A glistening wall was rising from the lagoon as a heavener lifted its leg from the water. Wading deeper, the vast arch of its back eclipsed the sun. Fear mixed with wonder as, riding the surge, Carnelian watched the monster lead a procession of heaveners away from the shore.
His waterskin was drowning and so he drew it up, folded its neck, secured it, then hefted it round onto his shoulder. He plodded back to the drag-cradle where he swung it into the arms of a man who was stacking them. Carnelian took an empty waterskin. Other drag-cradles were being loaded nearby. A rising falling whistling made him whisk round, his heart hammering. Three riders were arcing bull-roarers round their heads, focusing on an earther which was ambling towards the cradles. The creature made Carnelian remember the Bloodwood Tree. The bull-roarers spinning faster opened the whistling to a moan. The bull swung away and they chased him from the drag-cradles.
Carnelian became aware Crowrane and Galewing, standing together, were watching him while speaking to each other. He was sure they would not make their move until they were far from the dangerous shore.
Osidian and Ravan were still in the lagoon filling waterskins. Wading out to them, Carnelian saw Osidian was gazing at a nearby island crowded with crested saurians. 'Are they nesting?'
'Yes, Master,' Ravan replied.
Their eggs would make good eating.'
'Such roosts are impregnable.'
Aware of Carnelian's presence, Osidian turned and acknowledged him with a frown. 'What's wrong?'
Still brooding over Fern, Carnelian did not answer quickly.
'My Lord seems distracted,' Osidian said. 'Is it that he fears the saurians, or perhaps, the savages?'
The shift into Quya was shocking. 'Both are unsettling,' Carnelian said in Vulgate.
'Is my Lord missing the blood and gore of his previous employment?' Osidian said, insisting on Quya. 'Is it then your savage friend you miss, Carnelian?'
Carnelian groaned. 'Why do you even now persist -?'
That some matter is perturbing my Lord can easily be read from his face.'
'If you must know…' Carnelian was aware Ravan was there trying to glean what was being talked about. 'I discovered last night that when the childgatherer comes, his brother,' he indicated Ravan, 'will have to be handed over for punishment.'
'You are being melodramatic, Carnelian.'
Carnelian flared into anger. 'He saved your life not once but several times.'
Osidian grew pale. 'How often do you intend to throw that back in my face? The savage broke the vows he swore of service to my father. Crucifixion is the price the Commonwealth demands for such sacrilege.'
Carnelian's anger cooled to ice. 'You knew this was going to happen?'
