when Enge called to her.
“Vainte, I cannot understand what kind of creature made these wounds. They are all single cuts or punctures, as though the creature had only a single horn or claw.”
“Nenitesk have a single horn on the end of their noses, large and rough, while huruksast also have a single horn.”
“Gigantic, slow, stupid creatures, they could not have done this. You yourself warned me of the dangers of the jungles here. Unknown beasts, fast and deadly.”
“Where were the guards? They knew the dangers, why were they not doing their duty?”
“They were,” Erafnais said, walking slowly back down the beach. “All dead. Killed the same way.”
“Impossible! Their weapons?”
“Unused. Fully loaded. This creature, these creatures, so deadly…”
One of the crewmembers was calling out to them from far down the beach, her body movements unclear at this distance, the sound of her voice muffled. She ran towards them, clearly greatly agitated. She would stop, attempt to speak for an instant, then run closer until finally her meaning was finally understood.
“I have found a trail… come now… there is blood.”
There was uncontrolled terror in her voice that added grim weight to what she had said. Vainte led the others as they moved quickly to join her.
“I followed the trail, Highest,” the crewmember said, pointing into the trees. “There was more than one of the creatures, five I think, a number of tracks. All of them end at the water’s edge. They are gone. But there is something else, something you must see!”
“What?”
“A killing place of much blood and bones. But something… else. You must see for yourself.”
They could hear the angry buzzing of the flies even before they reached the spot. There were indeed signs of great slaughter here, but something more important. Their guide pointed at the ground in silence.
Pieces of charred wood and ashes lay in a heap. From the center a gray curl of smoke lifted up.
“Fire?” Vainte said aloud, as puzzled by its presence here as the others. She had seen it before and did not like it. “Stay back, you fool,” she ordered as the commander reached down towards the smoking ashes. “That is fire. It is very hot and it hurts.”
“I did not know,” Erafnais apologized. “I have heard of it but I have never seen it.”
“There is something else,” the crewmember said. “On the shore there is mud. It has been baked hard by the sun. There are footprints on it, very clear. I tore one free, it is there.”
Vainte strode over and looked down at the cracked disc of mud, bending over and poking at the indentations in the hard surface.
“These creatures are small, very small, smaller than we are. These pads are soft with no marks of claws. Tso! Look there — count!”
She straightened up and spun about to face the others, extending one hand with fingers outspread, angry color rippling across her palm.
“Five toes, that’s what they have, not four. Who knows what kind of beasts have five toes?” Silence was her only answer. “There are too many mysteries here. I don’t like it. How many guards were there?”
“Three,” Erafnais said. “One at each end of the beach, the third near the center…”
She broke off as one of the crewmembers came crashing through the undergrowth behind them. “There is a small boat,” she called out. “Landing on the beach.”
When Vainte came out from under the trees she saw that the boat was rocking in the surf, laden with containers of some kind. One of the occupants was holding on to the boat so the creature would not stray: the other two were on the beach staring at the corpses. They turned about as Vainte approached and she saw the twisted wire necklace that one of them wore about her neck. Vainte stared at it.
“You are the esekasak, she who defends the birth beaches — why were you not here defending your charges?”
The esekasak’s nostrils widened with rage. “Who are you to talk to me like that—”
“I am Vainte who is now Eistaa of this city. Now answer my question, low one, for I lose patience.”
The esekasak touched her lips in supplication, stumbling backward a step as she did. “Excuse me, Highest, I didn’t know. The shock, these deaths…”
“Are your responsibility. Where were you?”
“The city, getting food and the new guard.”
“How long have you been away?”
“Just two days, Highest, as always.”
“As always!” Vainte could feel herself swelling with rage that added harsh emphasis to her words. “I understand none of this. Why do you leave your beach to go to the city by sea? Where is the Wall of Thorns, the defenses?”
“Not yet grown, Highest, unsafe. The river is being widened and deepened and has not been cleared of the dangerous beasts yet. It was decided for safety’s sake to site the birth beach on the ocean, temporarily of course.”
“Safety’s sake!” Vainte could no longer control her rage as she pointed at the corpses, shouting. “They are dead — all of them. Your responsibility. Would that you were dead with them. For this, the greatest of crimes, I demand the greatest of penalties. You are ejected from this city, from the society of speakers, to rejoin the speechless. You will not live long, but every moment until you die you will remember that it was your charge, your responsibility, your mistake that brought on this sentence.” Vainte stepped forward and hooked her thumbs around the metal emblem of high office and pulled hard, tearing it free. The broken ends cutting the esekasak’s neck. She hurled it into the surf as she chanted the litany of depersonalization.
“I strip you of your charge. All of those present here strip you of your rank for your failure of responsibility. Every citizen of Inegban*, the city that is our home, every Yilane alive joins us in stripping you of your citizenship. Now I take away your name and no one living will speak it aloud again but will speak instead of Lekmelik, darkness of evil. I return you to the nameless and speechless. Go.”
Vainte pointed to the ocean, frightening in her wrath. The depersonalized esekasak fell to her knees, stretched full length in the sand at Vainte’s feet. Her words were barely understandable.
“Not that, no, I beg. Not to blame, it was Deeste who ordered it, forced us. There should have been no births, she didn’t enforce sexual discipline, I cannot be blamed for that, there should have been no births. What has happened is not my fault…”
Her voice rumbled in her throat, then died away; the movement of her limbs slowed and stopped.
“Turn the creature over,” Vainte ordered.
Erafnais signaled two of her crew members who hauled at the limp body until it flopped on its back. Lekmelik’s eyes were open and staring, her breathing already slowed. She would be dead soon. Justice had been done. Vainte nodded approval, then dismissed the creature from her thoughts completely; there was too much to do.
“Erafnais, you will stay here and see that the bodies are disposed of,” she ordered. “Then bring the uruketo to the city. I will go now in this boat. I want to see this Eistaa Deeste who I was sent here to replace.”
As Vainte stepped aboard the boat the guard there signaled humbly for permission to speak. She spoke slowly, with some effort. “It will not be possible for you to see Deeste. Deeste is dead. For many days now. It was the fever, she was one of the last to die.”
“Then my arrival has been delayed too long already.” Vainte seated herself as the guard spoke commandingly into the boat’s ear. The creature’s flesh pulsed as it started forward, moved by the jet of water it expelled.
“Tell me about the city,” Vainte said. “But first, your name.” She spoke quietly, warmly. This guard was not to blame for the killings, she had not been on duty. Now Vainte must think of the city, find the allies she would need if the work were to be done correctly.
“I am Inlenat,” she said, no longer as fearful as she had been. “It will be a good city, we all want it that way. We work hard, though there are many difficulties and problems.”
“Was Deeste one of the problems?”
Inlenat turned her hands away to hide the color of her emotions. “It is not for me to say. I have only been a
