West of Eden

talk to me?"
    Kerrick had heard their voices. He climbed slowly to his feet, although his broken leg had set well it was still sore when he rested his weight on it, and emerged from the tent. Harl turned to face him. The boy's face was drawn and pale and there were smears upon his cheeks as though tears had been rubbed away.
    "You are the margalus and know all about murgu, that is what I have been told."
    "What do you want?"
    "Come with me, please, it is important. There is something I must show you."
    There were strange beasts of all kinds here, Kerrick knew. The boy must have found something that he didn't recognize. He started to turn him away, then thought better of it. It might be something dangerous; he had better look at it. Kerrick nodded then followed the boy away from the fire. As soon as they were far enough distant so that Armun could not overhear him the boy stopped.
    "I have killed an owl," he said, his voice trembling. Kerrick wondered at this, then remembered the West of Eden - Harry Harrison
    stories that Fraken told about the owls and knew why the boy was so frightened. He must find some way to reassure him without violating Fraken's teachings and beliefs.
    "It is not good to kill an owl," he said. "But you should not let it bother you too much…"
    "That is not it. There is something else."
    Harl bent and dragged the owl out from under a bush by the end of one long wing, then held it up so that the light of the nearest fires fell upon it.
    "This is why I came to you," Harl said, pointing to the black lump on the owl's leg.
    Kerrick bent close to look. The light from the fire reflected back a quick spark as the creature's eye opened and closed again.
    Kerrick straightened up slowly, then reached out and took the bird from the boy's hands. "You did the right thing," he said. "It is wrong to shoot owls, but this is not an owl that we know. This is a marag owl.
    You were right to kill it, right to come to me. Now run quickly, find the hunter Herilak, tell him to come to my tent at once. Tell him what we have seen on the owl's leg."
    Har-Havola came as well when he heard what the boy had found, and Sorli who now was sammadar in Ulfadan's place. They looked at the dead bird and the live marag with its black claws clamped about the owl's leg. Sorli shuddered when the large eye opened and stared at him, then slowly closed again.
    "What is the meaning of this?" Herilak asked.
    "It means that the murgu know that we are here," Kerrick said. "They no longer send the raptors to spy us out for too many did not return. The owl can fly at night, can see in the dark." He poked the black creature with his fingertip and its cool skin twitched, then was still. "This marag can see in the darkness too. It has seen us and told the murgu. It may have seen us many times."
    "Which could mean that the murgu might be on their way now to attack us," Herilak said, his voice cold as death.
    Kerrick shook his head, his face grim. "Not may be—but must be. It is warm enough for them this far south even at this time of year. They have sought for us, and this creature has told them where we camp.
    They will seek vengeance, there is no doubt of that."
    "What do we do?" Har-Havola asked, glancing up at the star-filled sky. "Can we go north? It is not yet spring."
    "We may have to go, spring or no spring," Kerrick said. "We will have to decide about that. In the West of Eden - Harry Harrison
    meantime we must know if we are to be attacked. Hunters will go south along the riverbank, hunters who are the strongest runners. They must go one, even two days' march south of this camp and watch the river.
    If they see the murgu boats they must warn us at once."
    "Sigurnath and Peremandu," Har-Havola said. "They are the fastest of foot in my sammad. They have run after deer in the mountains and they run as fast as the deer."
    "They leave at dawn," Herilak said.
    "There are some of my hunters who have not returned," Sorli said. "They have traveled far and sleep away. We cannot leave this place until they come back."
    Kerrick looked into the fire as though searching for an answer there. "I feel we should not wait any longer than that. We must go north as soon as your hunters return."
    "It is frozen still, there is no hunting," Har-Havola protested.
    "We have food," Kerrick said. "We have our own meat and the meat in bladders that we took from the murgu. We can eat that and we can live. If we stay here they will fall upon us. I feel that, I know