I am not yet ready.'
'Ready for what? Who is it that seeks…?' Carnelian remembered whose creatures the childgatherers were. 'How could the Wise know we are here?'
'I did not say that they know where we are precisely, but you yourself told me they saw where we left the Guarded Land; saw our captors were from this plain.' Osidian smiled a dark smile. 'Of course, down here, without their watch-towers, they can only fumble blindly hoping to find. The fact they have set their childgatherers to the search implies much.'
Carnelian thought about it. 'Otherwise it would be the legions that sought us out.'
Osidian's smile grew colder still. 'My mother would see to that.'
Then they do this without her knowledge. Why?'
Osidian frowned. 'Who knows what has come to pass in Osrakum since we left.' He smiled again. 'Still, this development is suggestive.'
He leered at Carnelian. Tell me, my Lord, shall we allow ourselves to be found?'
Carnelian regarded him with horror. 'Why would the Wise seek to know where we are, other than to destroy us?'
'Or by finding us, pull down my beloved mother.'
Cold rage infused into Carnelian. 'If we are found here these people will be punished.'
'Exterminated,' said Osidian, taking pleasure in the word.
'You two Standing Dead, dismount,' commanded Crowrane, but Carnelian ignored him and addressed Osidian.
'I will not allow you to endanger the Ochre.'
Osidian sneered. 'Will not allow? I do not yet choose to reveal myself to the Wise, but you can be certain my decision pays little heed to your threats, Carnelian; even less to what might happen to these.' He indicated the people round them with a dismissive gesture of his hand. 'I have other plans.' Osidian turned his aquar with his feet. 'Come.'
'Dismount, I say,' bellowed Crowrane. 'Surround them.'
Carnelian saw Ravan, Krow, others of the young men of the hunt hanging back, looking from their Elder to the Master.
'Where?' Carnelian asked Osidian. 'We shall return to our quarry.'
Carnelian glanced at Crowrane, who was pouring threats on the youths. The two of us, Osidian? Alone?'
'And why not. Do you fear the predators?' He snorted. 'You are transparent, Carnelian. You hope to save your barbarian boy.'
Carnelian glared at Osidian, hating him. 'We both know he cannot be saved.'
'What then?'
'Poppy.'
Osidian frowned hearing the name. 'Akaisha means to give her up to the childgatherer.' Osidian dropped his head in exasperation. He looked up. 'And?'
'I will not let her do it.'
Osidian let his head flop back closing his eyes and groaned. 'And if you go back in there and the ammonites see you? I thought my Lord expressed the wish to save his precious barbarians?'
'I will be careful.'
Osidian fixed him with the terrible green intensity of his eyes. 'I forbid it. This course of action imperils your life.'
'Nevertheless, I will attempt to save the girl,' said Carnelian and coaxed his aquar forward towards the bridge.
Ravan began pleading with Osidian who turned on him. 'Choose to follow me or remain.'
He glared at Krow. 'You too.'
The youth moved his aquar to Osidian's side.
'My mother will expel you from our hearth,' cried Loskai.
'So be it,' said Krow.
This exchange seemed to make Ravan decide. 'I'm yours, Master.'
Crowrane raged. 'I'm your huntfather. You will obey me.'
Carnelian could not bear to watch any longer and directed his aquar towards the bridge.
'You mustn't,' the women cried trying to grab hold of his saddle-chair. The Elders…'
'Hang the Elders,' Carnelian cried, making his aquar advance through them, then, when he was sure they would not be hurt, he spurred his aquar into a run across the bridge. He was through the gate before they could bar it against him. Once in the ferngarden he glanced back and saw Osidian already riding away with Krow, Ravan and some others.
THE CHILDGATHERER
The flesh tithe is a core instrument of the Policy of Domination.
Ammonites of the appropriate lores and levels (feel the appendices attached to this reel) are despatched annually to perform a demographic audit and evaluation of the tributary populations.
It is the core of the Policy of Domination that the tributary populations shall enforce the strictures of the auditing procedure upon themselves. In seeking to protect their own offspring from the tithe, kin can be expected to betray any infringement by others in the group. The greatest benefit accruing from this technique is not that it compels obedience without expense to the Commonwealth, but rather that it foments internecine conflict in the tributary populations precisely at the points where its individuals are most closely bonded.
Morbid silence reigned beneath the mother trees as Carnelian crept up rootstairs and along paths fearing that, at any moment, he might be spotted. It seemed that the brooding menace of the faraway swamp had come to lair in the Grove. Peering through the branches of a cedar he spied people engaged in furtive rituals around its trunk.
When he reached Akaisha's tree he did not approach it by its open, downhill side, but instead ducked under the uphill branches. Hearing voices, he remained crouched, peering across the sleeping hollows to where he could see many of his hearthmates. Sil's lilt carrying through the silence was answered by her mother's heavier tones. Imagining Whin's reaction to seeing him there, Carnelian's courage slipped away. The danger he was putting them in froze his feet to the ground. This is my home, he told himself, but did not believe it. Not today. Today you are a Master; one of the Standing Dead. One of the monsters who have sent their servants to rape the Tribe of its children. He despised the arrogance that had made him imagine that he could save Poppy. In the gloom beneath the cedar, a boy was being prepared by his mother. Who was there to take care of Poppy, to give her comfort? It was her need that melted Carnelian into motion. The cedar bristled against his shoulders, then he was able to straighten up and, shaken by his heart, he began to wind his way through the hollows.
'Great Mother!' cried Sil.
Grief drained the blood from his head as Carnelian saw Fern standing beside her.
'You're not welcome here,' shrieked Sil. 'You brought the Gatherer.'
Carnelian could do nothing but stare at the accursed legionary collar gleaming darkly at Fern's throat.
'Why are you here?' his friend asked.
Akaisha appeared with Whin. 'Are you trying to get us all killed?'
'Where's the other one of your kind?' asked Whin.
'Out on the plain,' Carnelian answered.
Akaisha grasped Carnelian's arm. 'Didn't they catch you at the Newditch? Did no one warn you? We sent
