more than all of them.” Her anger faded as fast as it had come and she smiled at him. “All of those things are true.”
“If you say so. But you must know that nothing now is clear to me. I look at the sunshine and I see only darkness. If we stay here we will certainly be found by the murgu one day. If we go to the other sammads we join them in death when Vainte attacks them. What shall we do?” He thought of what she had said, searching her words for some help. There was a glimmering there. “What you said just now about crossing the ocean. I did that in the belly of a murgu beast. But there are others who cross on top of the water.”
Armun nodded. “The Paramutan. They sail the ocean to spear the uluruaq, that is what they told us.”
“Yes, they must be able to do that. The Paramutan who brought us south, they said that they would return here to fish. If only we could go with them. But we don’t know what is on the other side of the ocean. Death could wait there as well as it waits here. We should not cross until we know what is there. By then it could be too late. What should we do? Perhaps I should join them. Cross with them to the other side of the ocean. They said that there was a cold land there. But south of the cold land it will be warm; I know because I have been there. It is the land of the murgu and they only live where it is hot. But perhaps I can find a land between the heat and the ice where we could live and hunt. Perhaps.”
He seized her hands, trembling with excitement. “I could go with the Paramutan now and search for a place of safety over there, find somewhere to the south of the ice and north of the murgu. It might be all right, there might be hunting. Then I would come back for you. We would be able to leave here and find a place that is safe. While I am away you will be all right as long as you stay under cover and watch out for the birds. You will have food and you will be safe until I return. Don’t you think this is something that I could do, that might save us all?”
Kerrick was so absorbed with his new plans, at the thought that there might be a way out of this trap, that he was not aware of the coldness that replaced the warmth in her face, the stillness of her features, was unaware of how she felt until she spoke.
“No. You cannot do that. You will not leave me.”
He looked at her, shocked at the rebuff, his temper rising.
“You cannot order me. I do this for all of us and it is I who will risk crossing the cold sea…”
He grew silent as she reached over and placed her fingers gently over his mouth.
“You take the wrong meaning from my words and that is my fault. I spoke quickly out of fear. My true meaning is that I will not leave you, ever again. Where you go, there will I go also. Once we were apart and each came to the very edge of death seeking the other. That was too terrible and must never happen again. You are my sammadar — and I am your sammad. If you wish to cross the sea, we will cross the sea. But you will not go alone. I will go with you wherever you want to go. I will aid you with my strength and ask only a single thing. Never leave me again. We will both go together.”
He understood for he felt the same way. Had been alone all of his life — as she had been — until he had found her. He had no words to speak his feelings and held to her tightly, as she did him.
But there were still dangers that must be considered.
“I must go,” he said. “If you will go with me that will be better. But we cannot bring all the others until we are sure there is a safe place for them to go to.”
For Armun this was a bad thought, a tearing thought. Must she leave her son here and cross the sea? Was there no alternative? She could think of none. It would have to be done this way. It was not a good answer — but it was the only answer. She would have to be the strong one and the practical one now. She considered carefully before she spoke.
“You yourself have said how safe it is here. Harl will hunt, he is no longer a child. Ortnar is needed to watch over everything until we return. Arnwheet and the girl will be no trouble — she is already learning to find plants in the forest, to cook and to do woman’s work.”
“You would leave the boy?” he asked, stunned. This is not what he would have expected.
“I would. He is everything to me and I do not wish to be parted from him — but I will leave him. I can go away from him, leave him in another’s care until I return, I can do that. It is you whom I will never leave.”
“I must think about this,” Kerrick said, shocked by the granite-like hardness of her feelings, her resolve.
“There is nothing to think about,” she said with steadfast determination. “It has been decided. Now you will make the detailed plans and we will do as you say.”
The strength of her support forced him to believe that it could be done. What were the alternatives? Follow the sammads to the valley? And if they did not die during the march they would die there when Vainte brought her poison thorns and darts, her numberless fargi. Stay here? It was a life with no future. There would only be a lifetime hiding here with the Yilane city close by, and they would surely be discovered one day. It was all right for the two males, they had no choice, had nowhere else to go. Yet he would have to think about them as well; he must talk to them about his plan.
Imehei moaned aloud when he went to speak to them. “Do not leave again, too terrible to consider.”
“Satisfactory here, desire you stay,” Nadaske said firmly.
Kerrick shaped his limbs into orders from her-on-high to lowest-creatures-below. “You will not be eaten or killed. Now all I ask you to do is simply to cross over with me to the other camp now and talk about this thing. I want you all there when I speak of the future. You do not fear fresh-from-sea, Arnwheet, and have marched with Ortnar. Nothing will happen to you. Now come.”
It took a long time for him to convince them — but he was firm. His plans were made; he must cross the ocean and find a safe haven for his sammad. He was not going to let these two stand in his way. He forced them to go with him then, but they sat as far from the others as they could, leaning against each other, filled with fear.
Kerrick stood between the two groups. He looked at the two Yilane males to one side, rigid with terror — or at least pretending to be. On the other side Ortnar sat slumped against a tree and glowered. The rest of the Tanu beside him seemed accustomed to the murgu now, particularly when Arnwheet crossed over and showed Imehei his latest treasure, a bone whistle that Ortnar had made. And there were no weapons present, he had seen to that.
It was going to be all right. It had to be all right. Perhaps this was only a plan born of desperation. That did not matter. He must see it through.
“What I am going to tell you now is important — to all of us,” he said in Tanu, then turned to the Yilane.
“A speaking-of-importance. Attention and obedience.”
Then he told them all that Armun and he were going away for a time, but they would be back.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
umnuniheikel tsanapsoruud marikekso.
Good meat cannot be prepared without the death of a beast.
“And what are these,” Vainte asked, laying the pictures out on the work area before her.
“Just received — just formed,” Anatempe said, sorting the prints in order in a line, then pointing at the nearby model of the Gendasi landscape with her thumb. “A high-flying bird which went along this part of the coastline here, almost due west of us. The fleeing ustuzou could be along the shore here.”
“But nothing is visible!” Vainte made sharp snapping motions of disgust and annoyance. “There are only clouds in the picture.”
“Unhappily that is true. But another bird has been dispatched—”
“And by the time it gets there the ustuzou will be long gone. I want them — not pictures of clouds!” Her hands shook with the violence of her emotions and she dashed all of the pictures to the ground with a sweep of
