their problems.
“The murgu are like the leaves and as numberless as leaves. You tell us that they have the death-sticks. How can we fight against creatures like this? And why should we? If we risk death fighting them — what do we win? It is food and not warfare that we must have.”
There was a murmur of approval when he finished speaking. Only Herilak seemed to disagree.
“It is food you must have, revenge that I will have,” he said grimly. “A way must be found to kill these murgu to the south. When they are dead there will be good hunting down the coast.”
There was much discussion and crosstalk after this, but nothing could be decided. In the end Herilak signed to Ortnar and they rose and left. Kerrick watched them go — but hesitated to follow them. His lust for revenge did not match theirs. If they did not call to him maybe he would not have to join them. He could stay here by the fire and join the talk with the other hunters. Perhaps he might even stay here with this sammad and hunt and forget the murgu.
But this was not the answer. He knew what the others here did not. He knew that the Yilane would not forget him nor the rest of the Tanu. Their hatred ran too deep. They would send out the raptors and find every sammad and would not rest until they had all been destroyed. Ulfadan and Kellimans and their people feared only the winter and their hunger and the other Tanu — when the certain killer was just over the horizon.
No one took notice when Kerrick picked up his spear and left. He found his two companions at a fire of their own and he joined them there. Herilak poked at the fire with a stick, looking deep into it as though searching for an answer among the flames.
“We are only three,” he said. “We cannot fight the murgu alone — but we will if we have to.” He turned to Kerrick. “You know about the murgu — which we do not. Tell us of them. Tell us how they wage war.”
Kerrick rubbed his jaw in thought before he spoke. Slowly and hesitatingly. “It is not easy to talk of. You will have to know about their city first, and how they are ruled. You must understand the fargi and the Yilane and just how they go about doing things.”
“Then you will tell us,” Herilak said.
Kerrick found it difficult at first to speak of things in Tanu that he had never thought of in that language. He had to find new words for scenes he was familiar with, new ways of describing concepts totally alien to these hunters. They questioned him over and over again about things they could not understand. In the end they had some idea of how the Yilane society worked, although they had little idea why it did so.
Herilak stared in silence at his clenched fists where they rested on his thighs, seeking to grasp the meaning of what he heard. In the end he had to shake his head.
“I will never understand the murgu and I think that I will not try. It is enough to know what they do. The large bird flies high to watch us, then returns and tells them where a sammad is so they can attack it. Is that right?”
Kerrick started to protest — then changed his mind and nodded agreement. The details were not important as long as they had some understanding of what the Yilane were doing. “When they know where a sammad has stopped they prepare an attack. Fargi with weapons go out on the boats. They come from the sea suddenly and kill everything as you know.”
“But you spoke of more than that,” Herilak said. “Do they not camp on the shore the night before they attack?”
“Yes, that is the way that they do it. They stop as close as they can, spend the night, then leave their food supplies behind them in order to attack at dawn on the following morning.”
“Do they always do it this way?”
“Always? I don’t know. I’ve only been with them twice. But, just a moment, that doesn’t matter. The way they think, the way they do things, they would do it the same every time. As long as something is successful they will not change it.”
“Then we must find a way of using that knowledge to destroy them in turn.”
“How will you do that?” Ortnar asked.
“I do not know yet. We must think about it and plan until we find a way. We are hunters. We know how to stalk our prey. We will find a way to stalk and kill the murgu.”
Kerrick had been silent, lost in thought, seeing the destruction of a sammad as no one else could. He had once been on the shore when the attack had come, could still feel the horror when the dark forms had appeared from the sea. But he had also been there with the attackers, traveled from Alpeasak. He had watched the preparations for the attack, had listened to the orders and knew exactly how it all had been done. Now he had to combine these two opposite points of view and find some way of turning things around.
“Turn it around,” he said aloud. Then shouted it again when they looked up at him. “Turn it around! But in order to do that we will need Ulfadan and Kellimans and their sammads. We must explain to them, make them understand and help us. Here is what we will then do. We will march south with the sammads and hunt. The hunting will be good and there will be much food. But once we go south our presence is sure to be discovered by the murgu, for they will be told about us by the great bird. But we will keep close watch and when we see the great bird we will also know what is going to happen. When we see the bird we must send out hunters to watch the beaches. Then we will know when the attack is coming and we will be ready. Instead of running we will fight and kill them.”
“That is dangerous,” Herilak said. “If we take the sammads we will be risking the lives of the women and the children, all those who cannot fight. There must be a better plan or these sammads will not take the risk of coming with us. Think again. Wasn’t there something you told me that was very important, something about the night? The murgu don’t like to go about at night?”
“I don’t think it is just like that. Their bodies are different from ours. They must sleep at night, always. It is the way they are.”
Herilak jumped to his feet, roaring with sudden enthusiasm. “The way we are we sleep at night as well — but we do not have to, not all of the time. So this is the thing that we will do. We will talk to the hunters and convince them that they should go south along the shore and hunt because of the coming hunger. In this way the sammads will get food for the winter. But while we are hunting we will watch always for the great bird that speaks to the murgu. When the bird sees us we will then send hunters to hide where they can watch the beaches to the south. When the murgu stop for the night we will know where they are. We will then come forward during the darkness. The hunters only. We will go in silence and in silence come to the beaches.”
He clenched his fists and slammed them together. “Then we will fall upon them in the night. We will spear them while they sleep, rout them, kill them just as they have killed us.” Afire with enthusiasm he rose and walked rapidly back to the circle of hunters. “They must be told. They must be convinced.”
It was not an easy thing to do. Ortnar and Kerrick joined him and explained the idea over and over again. About how the murgu attacked and how they could be defeated. They repeated themselves and explained exactly how they could hunt and get food for the winter. And kill murgu.
Ulfadan was greatly troubled by all this, as was the other sammadar. It was too new an idea — and too dangerous a one.
“You are asking me to risk all of our lives on this plan,” Ulfadan said. “You ask us to stake our women and our children out like bait for a longtooth to take so that it can be speared. This is a great deal to ask.”
“It is — and it is not,” Herilak said. “Perhaps you have no choice. Without food few will last the winter. And you cannot hunt here. Come south, we know the hunting is good there.”
“We know the murgu are there.”
“Yes — but this time we will be on the lookout for them. If you like, we will not wait until we see the great bird, but will have hunters always hidden on the beaches ahead. They will warn of any attack. When the murgu reach the beach we will know the attack is near. The warning will be given. In that way the tents and all else can be loaded on the travois during the night, the boys will drive the mastodons inland away from the shore, taking the women and all the small children with them. They will be out of danger that way. It is a risk, but it is a risk that you will have to take. Either that or die in the snows this winter. Without food none of you will see the spring.”
“You speak harshly, Herilak,” Kellimans said angrily.
“I speak only the truth, sammadar. The decision is up to your people. We have said what we have to say. Now we will leave.”
