Stone Spring Part 42

'Yes. And most probably have never even heard of Etxelur, or Pretani. And yet here we are preparing to make war.'

'Yes. And a war like no other waged before.'

'Why do we hate Northland so much, do you think?'

The priest looked at him, startled. 'That's an odd question.'

Shade was the Root, after all, and he saw that Resin wasn't sure how to answer his question safely. 'I know I have my own history with Etxelur. My brother, my father, both dead at my own hands.' He touched the scars on his forehead, his body's memory of those terrible times. 'That wouldn't have happened if not for Northlanders. And Zesi has her own grudges. Maybe we wouldn't be mounting this war if not for her. But it was easy enough to stir everybody up for the campaign, even though it's turned out to be so complicated, with the trading, the stone and the slaves, all Hollow's schemes. We were ready for the war, even if we didn't know it.'

Resin nodded. 'I remember your father. He loathed Etxelur, and all Northlanders. Fat lazy rooting pigs, he called them. He always tried to stir up trouble with them.'

'Why?'

'He hated their country, for it is so easy.'

'Easy?'

'You know the stories of our G.o.ds as well as I do.' Resin rapped his head with his knuckles. 'Better, probably. How our earliest ancestors were hunters carved by the Old G.o.ds from twigs of the World Tree. They stalked giant animals over the open plains. But then the Old G.o.ds lost a war with the forest G.o.ds, the walking trees. The forest took over the land, and the giant animals all died, because they couldn't live in the forest. New animals were born from the leaf mulch that covered everything, the pigs and the roe deer and the aurochs, but they were small and clever creatures that were much harder to hunt. Our grand-fathers survived, but had to work hard for it. Thus the Old G.o.ds abandoned us. Maybe your father, contemplating such stories and looking down on a prospect like this, envied those who lived so easily there. Because it's like how things were for us in the olden days.'

Shade rubbed his chin. 'But I grew up here too. Why don't I think that way?'

Resin sighed. 'Because your father had a decent priest at his side. A man who would sit with him in the evenings, and chew over the old stories. Whereas you have had me, a poppy-ridden half-ghost, weak and useless and addled.'

Shade patted him on the back. 'I'm glad to be getting you back. I have a feeling I will need your wisdom in the coming months - win or lose.'

Resin looked faintly shocked. 'You're not thinking about defeat?'

'In this mortal world, nothing is impossible. But even if we win Etxelur, what then? We've come so far, fighting and conquering, all the way to the edge of Northland. If I take Etxelur, who shall I fight then - the sea, the clouds?'

'Hmm. You'd better think of something. Your hunters are used to fighting now, the rush of blood, the rewards. They need it the way I needed the poppy - and I know how bad a need like that can be.'

'And must it go on for ever?'

The priest turned to the dawn light. 'I don't know. We've changed so much, just in the months since Zesi came to us and started showing us this way of war. We were always a combative lot, brawling with each other as soon as we broke out of our mothers' wombs. But now it's different. You and Bark and Zesi have a.s.sembled the largest and most organised group of fighters in the history of the world - or if there's ever been a mightier band I've never heard of it. On this quest for Etxelur our bodies are undertaking a great journey. And so, I believe, are our spirits.'

'For better or worse,' Shade said grimly.

'Indeed. For better or worse-'

'Shade!' It was Bark's voice; they both turned.

Bark was walking up the slope towards them. Over his shoulder he had a sack of netting that contained something that squirmed and wriggled.

Behind him two children followed, half-running to keep up with Bark's powerful, impatient strides. They were Acorn, Shade saw with dismay, and Knot, Alder's son, the boy his daughter had been spending so much time with.

Resin glanced at Shade and rolled his eyes.

Bark stood before them, panting. 'I thought I'd better come to you with this.' He dumped the net sack on the floor. Inside was a Leafy Boy, a young one, small and scrawny, underfed - no use to the hunters, and probably close to death, Shade thought dispa.s.sionately. The child struggled, feebly, tangled up in the net, and he reached out skinny arms towards Acorn.

'There's your problem,' Bark said. 'We found it when we kicked the Leafies awake this morning. Acorn wasn't far away. As soon as this one got the chance it ran across and attacked her.'

'He didn't attack me, stupid,' Acorn snapped. 'Little Shade was just frightened.'

The priest was grinning. ' "Little Shade"? Well, I can see the resemblance, though the boy has better manners-'

'Oh, shut up,' Shade said tiredly.

'Your daughter's been feeding it,' Bark growled. 'Trained it to get used to her.'

Acorn said, 'What does it matter? Look how skinny he is! He's hardly big enough to fight, is he?'

'Why it matters,' Bark said heavily, 'is because it stirred up the other Leafies. Confused them, you might say. They went crazy, and had to be beaten.' He glared at Acorn. 'We were going to have a mock battle today. I'm sorry to say it, but you've wrecked the whole day.'

Acorn stared back at him, and then looked to her father for support. When none was forthcoming she burst into tears. Knot went over to her protectively, but he didn't quite have the nerve to put his arms around her, Shade saw, amused.

The storm of tears blew itself out. 'I'm sorry. I didn't know I was doing wrong. But it was wrong, wasn't it?'

Shade nodded approvingly. That was the kind of response he'd always encouraged in her. 'I think it's obvious what you have to do. This little one can't go back to the other Leafies. Can it, Bark?'

The burly man shook his head. 'She's spoiled it, and it spoils the others. Sorry, child.'

Acorn's eyes were round. 'Father, why's he sorry?'

'Because you're going to have to get rid of it.'

Her hand flew to her mouth. 'No! I can't . . . How can I kill him?'

'You have your knife.' A flint blade with a handle wrapped in thread and resin to protect her small fingers, but as sharp as any Shade owned himself. 'Don't let it out of the net. Just take it off somewhere. You've killed before.' Hare, a small calf; any Pretani child had to become used to killing. 'Do it quickly and it won't suffer.'

'I can't.'

'You must,' Knot said. He looked up bravely at Shade. 'I'll help her carry it away. Am I allowed to do that? She'll have to kill it herself, of course.'

He was so young himself, but he seemed to care for Acorn. His presence would be a comfort for the girl. 'Get it done. Then come straight back to the clearing. All right?'

'Yes,' both Acorn and Knot mumbled.

'Come on,' Shade said to Resin and Bark. 'What a start to the day.' He strode off, leading the others back towards the camp. He deliberately didn't look back at his daughter.

78.

The Leafy child in the sack was heavy, but it wasn't difficult for Acorn and Knot to drag him across the ridge.

The Leafy didn't fight or struggle. He seemed to be rea.s.sured by Acorn's presence. He obviously had no idea what he was being led to. It was all very sad, Knot thought.

Which made him clear in his own mind about what he was going to do.

They reached a small stand of windblown trees. They laid the child down on the leaf-strewn ground at the foot of a twisted oak, and looked at each other, panting. Acorn had been in control in front of her father, but she was angry now. 'Why are you still here? Come to make sure I do what my father told me?'

That stung him. 'No. Nothing like that. Have you got your knife?'

She dug it out from under her tunic. It was slung on her waist from a leather belt. 'I always have to carry it, my father says.'

'Can I see?'

She handed it over. He hefted it, considering. It was the best-made knife he'd ever handled. Then he crouched down and began to cut at the net, slicing through one braid after another.

Acorn was shocked. 'What are you doing?'

'Solving the problem.' He dug out his own knife, and pa.s.sed hers back. 'Here. Help me. Cut over there. The sooner we can get him out of here the better.'

She stared for one heartbeat, then dropped to her knees and began to saw at the net.

Between them they soon had it cut open, and they pulled it back from the Leafy Boy. The child sat up and stared at them both. Knot made a false lunge. 'Go, go!'

The child quailed. For an instant Knot thought he might run to Acorn again. But some deeper instinct cut in, and he ran off in a blur of motion, scampering up the nearest tree like a squirrel.

Acorn laughed. Then she held her cheeks in dismay. 'What have we done? If they find out-'

'They won't.'

'But what if he goes back to find the other Leafies? When he turns up alive back in the clearing-'

'He'd have to cross open ground to get back, and a Leafy wouldn't do that.' Then he held his breath, hoping against hope that she wouldn't ask any more questions. He had no idea how this little boy was going to survive, alone. Let her work that out for herself, later; she was a year younger than he was. For now this was all he could do for the child, and for her.

She smiled, and his heart thumped. 'Thanks-'

A dead leaf crackled.

Obeying an ancient instinct he put his hand over her mouth, his finger to his lips.

Then, together, they turned, and crept silently through the little copse towards the source of the noise. It surely wasn't anything dangerous, he told himself, his heart hammering. A deer, maybe. A young calf. Maybe a squirrel making an early start on its nut cache.

But now he heard voices, male tones murmuring. People. He saw the horror on Acorn's face. Had they been followed? Was their defiance of Shade already betrayed?

He hushed Acorn again and crept further forward alone, deeper into the copse, letting his eyes adjust to the leafy shade. And there, beyond a screen of trees, he saw two men. One he recognised: it was the Eel-folk slave, True, the clever one who helped the Pretani men organise the others. The other he didn't recognise. It was a younger man with a strange tattoo on his bare belly, three circles around the navel cut through by a vertical line. They were talking urgently, but very quietly.

They were hiding, keeping some secret, just as he and Acorn were.

He waited, scarcely breathing, until they were done. At last they nodded to each other, broke away, and left the copse, True heading back towards the Pretani's clearing.

Knot came back to Acorn. She was sitting on the ground near the ruin of the net, legs folded under her. He described what he'd seen.

She frowned, a crease appearing in the perfect skin between her eyes. 'Something's wrong,' she said. 'True's a slave. He shouldn't be sneaking around like that.'

Knot said, 'We can't tell anyone.'

'We have to-'

'We can't! If we do they will come here to check, and they'll find no Leafy Boy bones. They'll know we lied!' And while Acorn might be spared by her father, he knew he would be punished severely.

'But True and the man-'

'Maybe it was nothing,' he said. 'What can one slave do to harm your father and all his hunters?' He covered her hands with his. 'Let's forget we ever saw this. Now, come and help me trap a hare or something. We should spill some blood on ourselves to make it look real.'

Subdued, barely talking, they made their way out of the little copse and back towards the clearing.

79.

'Talk to me,' Dolphin snapped.

Wise just looked at her.

Barefoot, he walked in the wet sand close to the sea's shallow, lapping edge. He had a basket hung around his neck full of the c.o.c.kles he'd been picking from the exposed rocks. His two wives and four children combed the beach with him, the children laden with their own small baskets. Gulls wheeled, competing for the food, but they scattered when the children clapped their hands.

It was noon, and still summer, only a couple of months after the solstice, an oppressive, colourless time of year, and though the sun was obscured by a lid of cloud the heat by the sea was intense.

One of the children splashed another, accidentally, and they giggled together, just like kids playing on a beach. But one of the women muttered a soft word in the tongue of the Eel folk, and they glanced uneasily at Dolphin, and fell silent.

Still Wise did not reply.

Dolphin snapped again, 'Talk to me, or may the little mother of the sea drown you in her wrath.'

He glanced at his family. 'Scaring children,' he said in his softly accented traders' tongue. 'Walk.' Still bending to pick c.o.c.kles off the rocks, he turned and walked slowly away from the children.

She fumed, but followed. 'You wouldn't talk to a Pretani that way, would you?'

'You are not Pretani,' he said simply. 'Will talk take long?'