Mists of Dawn (65 page)

Like
a
well-drilled
team,
the
Danequa
went
into action.
Every
person
knew
his
place—knew
what
to do
and
how
to
do
it.
The
old
men
stationed
themselves
at
the
foot
of
a
jagged
cliff
that
offered
a
drop of
fully
one
hundred
yards
to
solid
rock
below—a
product
of
the
great
earth
cracks
and
fissures
which
resulted
from
the
passing
of
the
glacial
ice.
The
Danequa had
obviously
used
the
cliff
before,
because
Mark could
see
plenty
of
bones
around.
Huge
bones
.
.
.

The
women
and
children,
armed
with
all
sorts
of noisemakers
and
robes,
spread
out
behind
rocks
leading
to
the
cliff.
They
formed
a
long
V-shaped
funnel, with
the
narrow
end
opening
on
the
cliff.
Except
for the
rocks,
the
women
and
children
were
unprotected. They
had
only
their
noisemakers,
their
robes
to
flap— and
their
raw
courage,
of
which
there
was
a
plentiful supply.

Nranquar,
the
only
man
who
had
been
completely hostile
to
Mark,
led
the
warriors
around
in
a
wide circle.
Mark
felt
the
grass
play
out
under
his
feet, and
quite
suddenly
they
were
walking
on
ice.
The footing
was
difficult,
but
the
Danequa
did
not
make a
sound.
It
was
darker
now,
just
before
the
dawn, and
there
was
no
talking.
Even
Fang,
struggling
to walk
on
the
ice,
was
completely
quiet.
He
seemed to
know,
as
did
Mark,
that
if
he
made
a
sound
Nranquar
would
destroy
him
without
an
instant’s
hesitation.

Nranquar
had
taken
them
neatly
into
position
now. They
were
behind
the
mammoth
herd,
between
the huge
animals
and
the
open
ice
sheet.
The
men
of the
Danequa
arranged
themselves
in
a
broad
semicircle
behind
the
quaro,
waiting
silently
in
the
darkness.
Mark,
Tlaxcan,
and
old
Roqan,
who,
although somewhat
lame,
had
insisted
on
staying
with
the
warriors,
built
up
a
pile
of
kindling
wood
on
the
ice. The
wood
had
been
carried
with
them,
and
it
was arranged
in
a
curious
fashion.
First
there
were
wood shavings,
to
serve
as
paper.
Then
smaller
sticks
were added,
and
after
them
larger
ones.
The
largest
wood used
in
the
actual
fire
consisted
of
sticks
not
over
an inch
in
diameter,
and
wide
air
spaces
were
left
between
them.
It
was
essential
that
the
fire
catch
in
a hurry
when
it
was
lighted,
for
the
failure
of
the
fire would
mean
disaster.
Placed
carefully
end
to
end around
the
fire,
with
only
their
tips
in
the
flame
area, were
dried
and
treated
torches,
one
for
each
warrior.