Winter in Eden

the end he turned on his heel and stamped away, brushing past Sanone without even a sideward glance.
    "There is trouble?" Sanone asked.
    Trouble? Armun dead. Kerrick still could not accept this reality. It took an effort to speak to Sanone.
    "The sammadars of the Tanu are coming here. I have told them if they want death-sticks they must stay in the city. They must bring the sammads here. We will band together to defend each other—there is no other way."
    Nor was there. The sammadars talked, long and angrily, sucked smoke from the pipe and passed it on.
    They would decide to stay; they had no other choice. Kerrick did not take part in the discussion, ignored the angry looks from them when Herilak told of his ultimatum. How they felt was of no importance to him. Tanu and Sasku would stay here, would leave only if they were driven out. Through the haze of his troubled and angry thoughts he became aware that a hunter stood before him. It took him a moment to realize that it was Ortnar. When he saw this he waved the hunter forward.
    "Here, sit in the shade beside me and tell me about Armun."
    "You have spoken of this to Herilak already?"
    "He told me that he ordered her to stay in the encampment, ordered that she not be helped. Yet you went to her aid. What happened?"
    Ortnar was not happy. He spoke in a low whisper, his head lowered, his long hair hanging over his face.
    "This has pulled me in two directions at the same time, Kerrick, still pulls me. Herilak was my sammadar, we two are the only two still alive from the sammad killed by the murgu. That is a bond that is hard to break. When Herilak ordered none to help Armun I obeyed for it was a good decision. The path was long and dangerous. Yet when she asked me to help her I felt that she was right too. This pulled me apart and in my stupidity I gave her only half the help she needed. I should have given her all, gone with her, I know that now. I told her the path and gave her my death-stick. Half help."
    "The others gave her none, Ortnar. You were her only friend."
    "I told Herilak what I had done. He struck me down and I lay as one dead for two days, this I have been told. Here is where he struck in his anger." Ortnar's fingers crept to the crown of his head, fingered the scar there on his scalp. "I am no longer of his sammad; he has not spoken to me since."
    Winter in Eden - Harry Harrison
    He raised his face and interrupted before Kerrick could speak. "I had to tell you this first, so you would know what happened. Since then I have looked for traces of her, scouting as we came east. I could find nothing—no bones or skeletons of any of them. There were three of them who left together, Armun and your son, and a boy who she took with them. There should have been some trace. I asked all the hunters we met but none had seen them. But there was one, a hunter who traded stone knives for furs, who traded with the Paramutan to the north. He understands some of their talk. He was told that a woman with hair like ours was with them in their place, a woman with children."
    Kerrick seized him by the arms, pulled him to his feet and shook him wildly.
    "What are you saying—do you know what you are saying?"
    Ortnar smiled and nodded his head. "I know. I came south to tell you this. Now I go north while it is still summer to find the Paramutan, to find Armun if I can. I will bring her to you…"
    "No, no need for that."
    In an instant everything had changed for Kerrick. He straightened up as though an invisible weight had slipped from his shoulders. The future was suddenly as clear as a path, stretching sharply marked out ahead of him, like Kadair's footsteps stamped into stone that Sanone always talked about. He looked past Ortnar, to the city street that led to the north.
    "There is no need for you to go—I will do that myself. The sammads will stay here; the city will be defended. Herilak knows how to kill the murgu—he won't need any instructions from me for that. I will go north and find her."
    "Not alone, Kerrick. I have no sammad except yours now. Lead and I will follow. We will do this together for two spears are stronger than one."
    "You are right—I will not stop you." Kerrick smiled. "And you are the better hunter by far. We would go hungry if we depended upon the skill of my bow."
    "We will go fast with little time for hunting. If there is the gray murgu meat we will take that to eat."
    "Yes, there is still a good supply. Fresh meat is much preferred by the