“Have they been this late before?”
“No. My orders are specific. There is a party of armed guards with them who bring them back at this time each day.”
“Then this is the first time that they have not returned at the specified time?”
“Yes.”
“What can be done?”
“Nothing until morning.”
Vainte was possessed by a sense of disaster, and all those present shared it. “I will want a very large armed party ready to leave at dawn. I will lead it.”
Vainte was awake when the first light filtered through the trees. Fargi were sent to summon Kerrick. He yawned and stretched and followed after the Eistaa, still not completely awake. Vainte had not summoned Alakensi but she came along as well. Eager as always to see anything that she might report on to Malsas‹. Stallan and the armed guards were already boarding the boats when they arrived at the river’s edge. This was not Kerrick’s first ride in a boat, but he still found the creatures fascinating. This one had just been fed and the legs and tail of a baby alligator were still hanging from its mouth. The creature’s little eyes, set under the shell, bulged slightly as the wet skin contracted with effort and the rest of the alligator vanished from sight. He climbed aboard with the others. The pilot bent and shouted a command into the boat’s ear opening. The flesh beneath them began to pump rhythmically and jet out water. The small flotilla moved out into the stream beneath the blood-red dawn sky.
Stallan was in the lead boat, showing the way. Fields moving slowly by on each side, the animals there either fleeing from them, or looking on with gross stupidity at their passage. Beyond the drained fields were carefully preserved and fenced areas of swamp. Large trees that were well-rooted in the mud had been left standing and were connected by the living fence. This had been grown in place, vines that were both flexible and strong. They had to be, for the urukub inside were the largest creatures on earth. Their immense forms sent waves of water surging through the fences when they moved; their tiny heads seemed grotesquely small on the ends of their long necks. They browsed the trees above, dredged deep in the swamp below for underwater plants.
One of their young, already bigger than a mastodon, cried out shrilly as it splashed and swam to safety when the boats passed close. Kerrick had never been to this part of the city before so he carefully memorized the course that they were following.
When they had passed the last field the uncleared swamp began; Stallan led the small flotilla into a narrow channel. Tall trees rose up on all sides, their water roots lifting high above the boats. Flowers grew in great profusion here, white moss hung from the boughs above. Biting insects rose in clouds and Kerrick slapped at the ones that landed on him and began to regret that he had come on this trip. Not that there had been any choice.
They went slower now, wending their way through ever narrower channels, until Stallan finally signalled a stop.
“This is where they were working,” she called out.
The silence closed in when Stallan stopped speaking. A bird flew by overhead cackling loudly, but there was no other sound. Nor was there anything to see. The guards clutched at their weapons, looking about in all directions. Nothing. It was Vainte who broke the deadly silence.
“They must be found. Spread out through these channels. Stay alert.”
Kerrick had good eyesight and caught the movement first.
“There!” he called out. “In that waterway. I saw something move.”
Every weapon was pointed that way in an instant, until Stallan commanded them to be raised.
“You will be shooting and killing each other. Or me. I’m going in there. Point your hesotsan some other way.”
Her boat slipped forward slowly, Stallan standing with one foot on the thing’s shell, peering ahead into the leaf-shrouded darkness.
“It’s all right,” she called back. “It’s one of our own boats.” Then, after a long moment of silence, she added reluctantly, “It’s empty.”
The other boat shivered when her boat bumped against it, shivered even more when Stallan jumped into it. It took shouted commands, and a good kicking, before the boat backed away from the bank. As it approached the other boats Stallan was silent — but her pointing finger was explanation enough.
There was something stuck into the boat’s thick hide. Stallan reached down and pulled it free and the boat quivered with pain. Kerrick felt his heart beat loudly in his chest as Stallan held the object out for them to see.
A Tanu arrow!
Stallan dipped the arrow in the river to wash it clean, then leaned out and handed it to Vainte. She turned it over and over in her hands, reading a detestable message there that arched her thick body with anger and detestation. When she looked up at Kerrick he cowered back as though from a blow.
“You recognize this, don’t you? I also know what it is. An ustuzou artifact with a sharp tip of stone. There are more of your disgusting ustuzou out there. We did not kill them all. But we will now. Kill them all, every one. Find them and slaughter them. This land of Gendasi is large, but not large enough to hide your ustuzou. It will be Yilane or ustuzou — and it will be Yilane who prevail.
There were hisses of agreement from all who heard her and Kerrick felt a sudden fear that he would be the first to be killed. Vainte raised the arrow to throw it far from her, then lowered it and grew silent. Then she looked at Kerrick with a sudden new interest.
The deaths of Sokain and the others would now have a purpose, she thought. She sat silent and unmoving for a long time, not seeing Alakensi or any of the others, but looking into a distance at something visible only to her. They waited patiently until she moved again and spoke.
“Stallan, you will search until you are sure that all those missing are gone. Return before dark. I am going back to the city now. My duty is there.”.
She sat in immobile silence all of the way back to Alpeasak. She had to. Her plan was finished and complete and if she dared move at all everyone would read it clearly. Only when they were at the dock and climbing back onto the shore did she move. Her eyes slipped across Alakensi’s broad back, hesitated a second and moved on.
The plan was indeed made.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
No trace of the surveying party was ever found. The arrow was grim evidence of their fate. Vainte went alone to her chamber where she put it away with the other ustuzou artifacts that they had captured, in the chests that grew from the walls. Then she sat on her seat of power and sent for Vanalpe and Stallan, who arrived with the ever-present Alakensi close behind her. Kerrick looked in as well, but fled at her gesture. She could not bear the thought of an ustuzou presence now. The three of them conferred for a long time with Stallan about the security of the city. There would be more traps, more guards — but no more survey parties for the time being. After this she dismissed them and called in one of the fargi she had recently promoted to assist her, the one who could speak the best.
“The uruketo will be here soon. When it leaves I want you to leave with it. I want you to return to Inegban* and seek out Malsas‹. You are to tell her what I will now tell to you. You will tell her in exactly the way I tell you. Do you understand?”
“I do, Eistaa. I will do as you command.”
“Here is the message. Greetings, Malsas‹, I bring you a message from Vainte in Alpeasak. This is a sad and anger-filled message of great concern. Some are dead. Sokain is dead. She and the other Yilane were killed by ustuzou, the same kind of ustuzou who slaughtered on the birth beaches. We did not see them but our knowledge is certain. We found a weapon of wood and stone of the kind that they use. These ustuzou must be found and
