Winter in Eden

forgotten, dropping to the ground.
    "The first," Sanone said. "As you said, so it begins. A child, a small girl, playing at the riverbank when a thorn rose out of the sand and drove into her foot and she died. We dug the plant out of the ground with spears, it was as small as my hand, burnt it in the fire. But how could it come there—in the center of the city?"
    "Many ways. They could put seeds in the river upstream. They could be fed to birds to fall with their excrement. They are very wise, the Yilanè who make new things grow. When they do a thing they do it well. Everyone must be warned, precautions taken. Or do we leave?"
    Sanone seemed older than his years at this moment, the lines in his face deeper. "I do not know. We will Winter in Eden - Harry Harrison
    talk again tonight. Meanwhile there are certain things I must do to understand Kadair's meaning in all this. It is very hard to know exactly what is the correct thing that must be done."
    Kerrick went with Sanone to see the remains of the plant, poked at it with a stick. "Very small—but the thorns are just as big as those on the full-size plants. Were there any more?"
    "We searched. Just this one."
    "Everyone must wear leather around their feet. Strange plants must not be touched. The bigger children must look after the smaller ones. The children must stay in certain areas which will be gone over very carefully every morning."
    After this Kerrick was hungry and went to the fire where Nenne's woman, Matili, always made room for him. She baked delicious meat in the ashes, coated it with clay that hardened so the meat was both tender and juicy. With this she had a paste in little dishes, made of fruit that had been mashed with salt and hot chilies, that the meat could be dipped into. It was very good and he was hungry.
    Yet when he came to the fire Matili looked up at him coldly and made a gesture he had never seen before; with her hand held vertically in front of her nose, between her eyes. When he spoke to her she did not answer, but instead turned away and ran into the room where she and Nenne slept. It was mystifying and Kerrick was about to leave when Nenne appeared.
    "I hope you are not hungry, Kerrick, for there is no meat." He kept his face averted when he said this, which was not his way.
    "What is wrong with Matili?" Kerrick asked. "And why did she hold her hand like this?"
    He repeated the gesture with his hand. But like a Yilanè he saw the hand gesture as part of a whole that involved the entire body, all of the limbs. So without realizing it he dropped his shoulder, held his hand before his chest in a protective, feminine gesture, even for one instant stood with his legs just as Matili had stood. Nenne saw this writhing movement and did not understand it, like many things he did not understand about Kerrick. He did not like them either, but he kept his feelings to himself. The moment had come to tell Kerrick; it was time that he understood. "Come over here, I will try to explain."
    They walked under the trees until they could not be overheard. "It was the words you spoke last night.
    You talked with the manduktos, you shouted and many heard. Matili has been told what you said. What she did with her hand when she saw you, that is what foolish women do to turn Karognis away from them."
    Kerrick was puzzled. "My words last night—and Karognis? I do not understand."
    "Karognis is the evil one, as evil as the murgu, his eyes must not rest upon one or harm will befall."
    Winter in Eden - Harry Harrison
    "What have I to do with Karognis?"
    "Some say you speak with the tongue of Karognis. You spoke words about Kadair that were overheard.
    That was not a good thing to do."
    Kerrick looked at the grim expression on Nenne's face and knew that although he might deny it, he really felt the same as Matili did. The Sasku listened to the manduktos and understood them when they talked about the living world, how Kadair had made all of the world, and how all things in the world knew that.
    In this they were like the Tanu who saw life around them in everything, the animals and the birds, even the rivers and trees. Knowing where this life came from they would never speak of Ermanpadar with other than deepest respect. Kerrick always forgot this, had not grown up with these strong beliefs as the Tanu and the Sasku had done. He tried to make amends.
    "I spoke in anger and fear. Tell Matili that it was not myself talking, what I said I did not mean."
    "I must