Winter in Eden

woke Lanefenuu, sending her into an instant fury. The transparent disc in the wall of her sleeping chamber was barely lit; it must just be dawn. And who dared to make those sounds in her ambesed! It was the sound of attention-to-speaking, loud and arrogant. She was on her feet in the instant, tearing great gouges from the matted flooring with her claws as she stamped her way out of the chamber.
    A single Yilanè stood in the center of the ambesed, of strange color, deformed. When she saw Lanefenuu appear she called out, muffled by her lack of tail.
    "Lanefenuu, Eistaa of Ikhalmenets, step forward. I will talk with you."
    The insult of the form of address; Lanefenuu was roaring with rage. Sunlight spread across the ground and she stopped in her tracks, tail lifted with surprise. The Yilanè could speak—but it was no Yilanè.
    "Ustuzou! Here?"
    "I am Kerrick. Of great strength and great anger."
    Lanefenuu walked slowly forward, numb with disbelief. It was an ustuzou, pallid of skin, fur around its middle, fur on its head and face, empty-handed, glowing metal around its neck. The ustuzou Kerrick as Vaintè had described it.
    "I have come with a warning," the ustuzou said, arrogance and insult in its mode of address. Lanefenuu's crest flared with her instant anger.
    "Warning? To me? You ask only for death, ustuzou."
    She strode forward, menace in every movement, but stopped when he framed certainty-of-destruction.
    "I bring only death and pain, Eistaa. The death is here already and more will come if you do not listen to that which I will tell you. Death doubled. Death twice."
    There was sudden motion at the ambesed entrance and they both looked at the hurrying Yilanè who appeared, mouth gaping wide with the heat of her rapid movements.
    "Death," the newcomer said, with the same controllers of urgency and strength that Kerrick had used.
    Lanefenuu was crushed back onto her tail, numbed by shock, silent while the Yilanè shaped what she had Winter in Eden - Harry Harrison
    to say.
    "Sent by Muruspe—urgency of message. The uruketo she commands—death. It is dead. Suddenly dead in the night. And another uruketo. Dead. Two dead."
    Lanefenuu's cry of pain cut the air. She who had commanded an uruketo herself, who had spent her life with and for the great creatures, whose city boasted more and better uruketo than any other. Now. Two of them. Dead. She turned in pain, twisted by pain, to look at the great carving of the uruketo above her, of her likeness high on its fin. Two dead. What had the ustuzou said? She turned slowly to face the terrible creature.
    "Two dead," Kerrick said again with the grimmest of controllers. "Now we will talk, Eistaa."
    He signed instant-dismissal to the messenger, from highest to lowest and the Yilanè turned and hurried away. Even this presumption of power in her presence did not disturb Lanefenuu, could not penetrate the grief she felt at her irreplaceable loss.
    "Who are you?" she asked, the question muffled by her pain. "What do you want here?"
    "I am Kerrick-highest and I am Eistaa of all the Tanu whom you call ustuzou. I have brought you death.
    Now I will bring you life. It is I who commanded the killing of the uruketo. Those I order did this thing."
    "Why?"
    "Why? You dare to ask why? You who have sent Vaintè to slaughter those I rule, to pursue them and kill them and keep on killing them. I will tell you why they were killed. One was killed to show you my strength, that I can reach wherever I wish, kill whatever or whoever I want. But the death of just one might have been thought to be an accident. Two dead is no accident. All could have died as easily. I did this thing so you would know who I am, what forces I command, so you will do what I will ask you to do."
    Lanefenuu's roar of anger cut him off. She stumbled forward, thumbs outstretched and jaws agape, teeth ready. Kerrick did not move but instead spoke with insult and arrogance.
    "Kill me and you will not die. Kill me and all of your uruketo will be dead. Is that what you want, Eistaa?
    The death of your uruketo and the death of your city? If you want that—then strike swiftly before you can think and change your mind."
    Lanefenuu trembled with her inner conflicts, accustomed to a lifetime of command, holding the power of life and death, taking orders from no one. That this ustuzou could speak to her in this manner! She was losing control.
    Winter in Eden - Harry Harrison
    Kerrick dare not step away from her or change the