Winter in Eden

cold Winter in Eden - Harry Harrison
    winters that brought fear to the Yilanè of Entoban* where one city stretched out to brush against another city. When winter came to the northern cities they could stay and die. Or cross the ocean—and make war.
    That was what Vaintè told them; he had heard her, knew that she would go on doing that until she was killed.
    Someday. Not now; she was beyond his reach. What he must do now was to get inside her head and discover what she was planning. He knew her as well as anyone did, far better than the other Yilanè. So what would she do next?
    One thing was certain, she was not alone. An entire fleet of uruketo could be lying just over the horizon, filled with armed fargi, ready to invade. It was a frightening thought. A wail of agony cut through his thoughts and he turned to see that the Sasku had arrived. Sanone came first, the women following behind tearing at their hair when they saw the dead hunter. Sanone looked from the corpse to Kerrick, then out to sea.
    "They have returned as you said they would. Now we must defend ourselves. What must we do?"
    "Post guards night and day. The beaches and all of the ways into the city must be watched. They will come back."
    "By sea?"
    Kerrick hesitated. "I don't know. They have always attacked from the ocean before, when they could, that is their way. But that was when they had this city and small boats. And they did attack us by land. No, it won't be from the water next time, I am sure of that. We must keep watch here—and on all sides."
    "Is that all that we do? Just stand and watch and wait like animals to be slaughtered?" Kerrick caught the bitterness in his voice.
    "We will do more than that, Sanone. We know about them now. You will have your best trackers go north and south along the coast to find their base. When we have found them—then we will kill them.
    And for that we will need help. The sammadar who lives for the death of the murgu. We need those Tanu hunters, their knowledge of the forests and their strength. You must find your two strongest runners, who can go day after day and still keep on. Send them north to find the Tanu, to get the message to Herilak that he must join us with all the hunters he can bring. If he is told there are murgu for the killing—then he'll come."
    "Winter is here and the snows are deep in the north. They would never reach the sammads. Even if they did the hunters might not leave in the depths of winter. You ask too much, Kerrick, ask Sasku to die without reason."
    "Death may be here already. We need their aid. We must get it."
    Winter in Eden - Harry Harrison
    Sanone shook his head unhappily. "If we are to die then we will die. Where Kadair leads we can only follow. He brought us here for his reasons. Here we must stay for we came in the mastodon's footsteps.
    But I cannot ask Sasku to die in winter snow just for an idea. In the spring it will be different. We will decide then what must be done. All we can do now is try to divine Kadair's will."
    Kerrick started to speak in anger—then controlled himself. He was not quite sure just what Kadair did will, except he always seemed to will it when the old man needed his arguments reinforced. Yet there was truth in what he said. Sasku might not get through where Tanu could, they were not used to the winter.
    And even if they did—there was no way to be sure that Herilak would answer his call for help. They would have to wait until spring.
    If they had that much time.
    CHAPTER ELEVEN
    South of the city, south of the river, the swamps began. Here the tangled jungle and marsh came down almost to the ocean's edge, made walking impossible except along the beach. Just above the surf line, long-legged sea birds were tearing at a dead hardalt that had been washed ashore. They suddenly took alarm and hurled themselves into the air, flying and screeching in circles as the two Sasku came warily along the beach. Their white headbands were each daubed with a spot of ochre to show that they were on a very serious mission. They did not seem happy about it. They looked at the jungle wall with obvious fear, pointing their death-sticks at invisible threats. As they passed the corpse of the hardalt Meskawino looked at it with disgust.
    "It was better in the valley," he said. "We should have stayed there."
    "The murgu came to the valley to destroy us—have you forgotten that already?" Nenne said. "It was Kadair's will that we come to this place to destroy them, and