Winter in Eden

that we have done."
    "They return."
    "We will kill these too. You whimper like a baby, Meskawino."
    Meskawino was too filled with fear to even notice the insult. Life here by the ocean was not at all to his liking, too different from the ordered existence he had enjoyed in their protected valley. How he longed for those solid stone walls.
    "There, ahead, what is it?" Nenne said.
    Winter in Eden - Harry Harrison
    Meskawino stopped, took a backward step. "I see nothing." His voice was hoarse with fear.
    "Out to sea, floating in the water—and there is another one."
    There were indeed things there, objects, but too distant to make out what they were. Meskawino tried to pull back, to return.
    "We must tell Kerrick what we have seen, this is important."
    Nenne stuck his tongue far out, a gesture of great contempt. "What are you, Meskawino? Woman or Sasku? Do you run in fear from logs floating in the ocean? What do you tell Kerrick and Sanone? That we have seen something. They will ask us what—then what will you tell them?"
    "You should not have done with your tongue like that at me."
    "My tongue stays in my mouth as long as you behave like a Sasku. We will go south and see if we can discover what it is we have seen."
    "We go south," Meskawino said with resignation, sure that he was going to his certain death.
    They kept away from the surf, as close to the trees as they could get, walking in careful fear. But the beach was empty. When they came to a surf-eroded headland they climbed up through the scrub and palmettos, still going warily although they knew they could not be seen from the ocean. At the crest they parted the boughs with care and looked through.
    "Murgu!" Meskawino moaned, falling forward with his face in his hands.
    Nenne was not that easily frightened. The murgu were not close but were farther down the shore and in the sea. There were ship-beasts, the same as the one that had taken the survivors away when they had burned the city. He had seen it with his own eyes so knew what it looked like. But there were more of them in the ocean here, the count of two hands. And smaller ones as well plying back and forth to the shore bearing the killer murgu. They were being landed on the shore, were doing something there, he could not tell what because a wall of brush hid them from sight. Out to sea he could see more of the ship-beasts approaching, coming from the direction of the island there. It was all very strange.
    "We must get closer, see what they are doing," Nenne said. Meskawino just moaned, his face still buried in his hands. Nenne looked down at him and felt sorrow. Meskawino's father and his only brother had been killed by the murgu. Anger and revenge had brought Meskawino here and he had fought well. That time was past. All of the deaths had done something to him and he was like a broken thing. Nenne had tried to shame him into being a Sasku once again, but it was no good. He reached down and touched him lightly on the shoulder. "Go back, Meskawino. Tell them what we have found. I am going to get closer, to see if I can find out what work of Karognis they are up to. Go back."
    Winter in Eden - Harry Harrison
    The fear was still there when Meskawino lifted his face, but relief as well. "I cannot help it, Nenne, it is not of my doing. I would go with you if I could. But my feet will not go forward, only back. I will tell them."
    Nenne watched as he sped back along the beach, his feet indeed working very well in that direction, then turned away. Now he would find out what was happening on the shore. With all the woodcraft he possessed he moved into the forest and went forward in silence.
    It took a very long time and the sun was slanting down the sky before he was close enough to see the barrier clearly. It rose high, shielding the beach and the land behind it, stretching out into the sea. It was made of bushes of some kind, with large green leaves, though other kinds of darker growths were mixed in with it. He started forward along the forest's edge when he saw the first body. Then another and another. He stood as paralyzed as Meskawino for a long time, horrified, before he could make himself take step after careful step back away from the place.
    Although he trotted back along the sand at a steady ground-eating pace, he never caught up with Meskawino who must have run far faster, driven by his fears. For the first time Nenne could understand how the other felt.
    Kerrick had heard of the Yilanè presence