Winter in Eden

were alive! Some had escaped before the city fell, that is what Erafnais had said, perhaps most of them. They would have gone back to the valley of the Sasku, all of the survivors, and the Tanu would have gone with them. Vaintè had sworn to follow, had not done it yet. They were still alive.
    It rained again during the night but stopped soon after dawn. Kerrick wanted to go faster but it was too hot and damp here under the trees. The sun was out, bright fingers of light piercing the green canopy above, but water still dripped from the leaves. The moss and grass underfoot made it easy to walk quietly as long as he took care. His hèsotsan was ready in his hands, the other one slung across his back with the maps, for there were predators here. Game as well, though he did not want to take the time to hunt. He wanted to return to the camping place by the lake as soon as possible.
    "I heard you coming," Harl said from behind the tree. "Thought you were a murgu."
    Kerrick turned, startled, then smiled at the boy. Harl was a Tanu raised in the forest; Kerrick knew that he would never be as good a tracker or hunter. "Tell me of the camp," he said.
    "I killed a deer yesterday, a buck; it had seven points on its horns."
    "We will all eat well. Other than that, has there been… any trouble?"
    "The murgu you mean? They stay far away from us; we never see them." The boy's eyes never rested as Winter in Eden - Harry Harrison
    they moved through the forest, searching on all sides. Though he apparently did not look where he was walking he never made a sound; a twig hidden by the grass cracked when Kerrick stepped on it. "I'll go ahead, tell them that you are coming," Harl said.
    "Do that." To carry the good news—or to get away from his mastodon tread? Kerrick smiled as the boy swiftly moved out of sight.
    They were all waiting for him when he came to the camp, Arnwheet running out shrieking with happiness, to be swung high into the air. Armun smiling, Ortnar leaning heavily on his crutch, looking grim as always. Kerrick told them at once what he had discovered.
    "The sammads are no longer in Deifoben—but they are alive. And I have another death-stick and these maps. There is more—but water first, I've come a long way."
    He sluiced it over his head, gasping, drank great mouthfuls. Then sat and told them what he had seen, what had happened.
    "But you cannot know where the sammads are," Ortnar said when he had done.
    "There is only one place to go—back to the valley. The Sasku know the trail very well. They have many death-sticks. The murgu will find them hard to kill."
    "Yet the murgu you spoke with said they would be followed, attacked," Armun said, worriedly. "Should we not go to them, warn them."
    "They know well enough." His words were grim as were his thoughts. What could he do? What could anyone do? Was there never to be an end to the killing? It was Vaintè who did this. Without her there might be an end to the fighting.
    But she was far from his spear or arrow, could not be killed.
    There was nothing that could be done, that was the answer. Nothing. The sammads would flee—and the Yilanè would follow. That was the repellent yet inescapable truth.
    CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
    That afternoon Kerrick crossed the invisible boundary between the two camps to return the hèsotsan to the males. They would need it for their hunting, having no proficiency with spear or bow. Arnwheet saw him leave, called out then ran after him. The boy had one of Erafnais's charts tucked under his arm; he Winter in Eden - Harry Harrison
    was fascinated by the colors and was the only one besides his father who seemed at all interested in the Yilanè artefacts. Kerrick took him by the free hand and they walked slowly together under the trees.
    Kerrick was cheered by the small hand in his, the boy's presence and affection, but could not escape from the ever-present feeling of despair.
    "One who has gone returns," Kerrick called out when he saw Imehei. "Information to impart of great importance."
    Nadaske heard the sound of his voice and pushed his head out of their sleeping shelter to see what he was saying. "Pleasure to see-again," he said, and there was a movement of undisguised relief as he spoke.
    "Agreement," Imehei said. "Death from vicious ustuzou threatened us each instant you were departed."
    Kerrick ignored the obvious exaggeration and returned the hèsotsan with a signed gratitude-for-use. In response to the querying movements from the two