Shardik (12 page)

Kelderek stood for some time looking out towards the moonlit reeds. At length he said,

‘And the Vessels, saiyett? You said that we were the Vessels.’

‘I was taught long ago
that
God will bless al
l men by revealing a great truth th
rough Shardik and
through
two chosen vessels, a man and a woman. But
those
vessels He will first shatter to fragments and then Himself fashion them again to His purpose.’

‘What does this mean?’

‘I don’t know,’ answered
the
Tuginda. ‘But of this you can be sure,
Kelderek
Ze
nzuata. If this is indeed Lord Shardik, as I, like you, believe,
then
there will be good reason why you and none
other
have been chosen to find and to serve him — yes, even though you yourself cannot guess what that reason may be.’

‘I am no warrior, saiyett. I -‘

‘It has never been foretold that Shardik’s return will necessarily mean
that
power and rule is to be restored to
the
Orte
lgans. Indeed, there is a saying, “God does not do the same thing twice.” ‘

‘Then, saiyett, if we find him, what are we to do?’

‘Simply wait upon God,’ she replied. ‘If our eyes and cars are open in all humility, it will be shown us what we are to do. And you
had better be ready, Kelderek, and submit yourself with a humble and honest heart, for the accomplishment of God’s purpose may well depend upon that He can tell us nothing if we will not hear. If you and I are right, our lives will soon cease to be our own to do with as we will.’

She began to walk slowly back towards the fire and Kelderek walked beside her. As they readied it she clasped his hand. ‘Have you the skill to track a bear?’ ‘It is very dangerous, saiyett, believe me. The risk -‘ ‘We can only have faith. Your task will be to find the bear. As for me, I have learned in long years the mysteries of the Tuginda, but neither I nor any woman alive has ever performed them, nor ever seen them performed, in the presence of Lord Shardik. God’s will be done.’

She was whispering, for they had passed the fire and were standing among the sleeping women.

‘You must get some rest now, Kelderek,’ she said, ‘for we have much to do tomorrow.’

‘As you say, saiyett. Shall I wake two of the girls? One alone may give way to fear.’

The Tuginda looked down at the breathing figures, their tranquillity seeming as light, remote and precarious as that of fish poised in deep water.

‘Let the poor lasses rest,’ she said. ‘I will take the watch myself.’

10
The Finding of Shardik

As the sun rose higher and moved southward round
the
hill,
the
watery glitter from the reed-beds, reflected into the trees along the shore, was sifted upwards through the translucent leaves, to encounter at last and be dimmed by the direct rays penetrating among the higher branches. A green, faint light, twice-reflected, shone down from the under-sides of the leaves, speckling the bare ground between the tree trunks, placing the faintest of shadows beside fallen
twigs,
glistening in tiny points upon the domes of pebbles. Dappled by
the
continual movement of the sunlit water, the leaves seemed stirred as though by a breeze. Yet this apparent disturbance was an illusion: there was no wind, the trees were still in the heat and nothing moved except the river flowing outside. 68

Kelderek
was standing near the shore, listening to the sounds from the jungle inland. He could tell that since his adventure of two days before - even since their landing the previous night - the confusion in the forest had lessened and the agitation of movement subsided. There were fewer cries of alarm, fewer stardings of birds and flights of monkeys through the trees. No doubt many of the fugitive creatures had already fallen prey to others. Of those surviving, most must have begun to move eastwards down the island in search of food and safety. Some, probably, had taken to the water again, making for the Telthearna’s southern bank on the opposite side of the strait. He had seen prints here and there in the mud and narrow passages broken through the reeds. The thought came to him, ‘Suppose
he
should be gone? Suppose
he
is no longer on the island?’

‘We would be safe then,’ he thought, ‘and my life, like a stream after a cloudburst, would return between
the
banks where it ran two days ago.’ He turned his head towards the Tuginda who, with Bel-ka-Trazet, was standing a little way off among the trees. ‘But I could not become once more
the
man who fled from the leopard. Two days - I have lived two years! Even if I were to know that Shardik will kill me - and like enough he will - still I could not find it in my heart to pray that we should find him gone.’

The more he considered, however, the more he felt it probable that the bear was not far away. He recalled its clumsy, weary gait as it made off through the bushes and how it had winced in pain when it scraped its side against the tree. Huge and fearsome though it was,
there
had been something pitiable about the creature he had seen. If he were right and it had been hurt in some way, it would be more than dangerous to approach. He had better put out of his mind for the moment all thought of Shardik
the
Power of God, and address himself to the daunting task - surely sufficient to the day, if ever a task was - of finding Shardik the bear.

Returning to the Tuginda and the Baron, he told them how he read the signs of the forest. Then he suggested that for a start, they might go over the ground which he had covered two days before, and so come to the place where he had first seen the bear. He showed them where he had come ashore and how he had tried to slip unseen past the leopard and then to walk away from it. They made their way inland among the bushes, followed by Melathys and the girl Sheldra,

Since they had left the camp Melathys had spoken scarcely a word. Glancing behind him, Kelderek saw her drawn face, very pale in the heat, as she lifted a trembling hand to wipe the sweat from her temples. He felt full of pity for her. What work was this for a
beautiful young woman, to take part in tracking an injured bear? It would have been better to have left her in
the
camp and to have brought a second girl from among the servants; one dour and stolid as Sheldra, who looked as though she would not notice a bear if it stood on her toe.

As they approached the foot of the hill he led the way through the thicker undergrowth to the place where he had wounded the leopard. By chance he came upon his arrow and, picking it up, fitted the notch to
the
string of the bow he was carrying. He drew the bow a
little
, frowning uneasily, for he disliked it and missed his own. This was the bow of one of the girls - too light and pliant: he might have saved himself the trouble of bringing it. He wondered what that surly fool Taphro had done
with
his bow. ‘If ever we get back,’ he thought, ‘I’ll ask the Baron to order it to be restored to me.’

They went on cautio
usly. ‘This is where I fell, sa
iyett,’ he whispered, ‘and see, here are the marks the leopard made.’

‘And the bear?
^’
asked the Tuginda, speaking as
quietly
as he.

‘He stood below, saiyett,’ replied Kelderek, pointing down the bank, ‘but he did not need to reach up to strike
the
leopard. He struck sideways -
thus
.’

The Tuginda gazed down the extent of the steep bank, drew in her breath and looked first at Bel-ka-Trazet and then back at the hunter.

‘Are you sure?’ she asked.

‘The leopard, as it crouched, was looking upwards into the bear’s face, saiyett,’ replied
Kelderek
. ‘I can see it still, and
the
white fur beneath its chin.’

The Tuginda was silent, as though trying to imagine more clearly the gigantic figure that had reared itself, brisding and snarling, above the level of the ban
k on which they stood. At length
she said to
Bel
-ka-Trazet,

‘Is it possible?’

‘I would think not,
saiyett
,’ replied the Baron, shrugging his shoulders.

‘Well, let us go down,’ she said. Kelderek offered her his arm, but she gestured to him to turn back for
Melathys
. The priestess’s breathing was quick and irregular and she leaned hard on him, hesitating at every step. When they reached the foot of the bank she set her back against a tree, bit her lip and closed her eyes. He was about to speak to her when the Tuginda laid a hand on his shoulder.

‘You did not sec the bear again after it left you here?’

‘No, saiyett,’ he replied. ‘That’s the way it went - through those bushes.’ He went across to the tree agains
t which the bear had
scraped its injured side. ‘It has not returned this way.’ He paused a few moments and then, trying to speak calmly, asked, ‘Am I to track it now?’

‘We must find
the
bear if we can,
Kelderek
. Why else have we come?’

‘Then, saiyett, it will be best if I go alone. The bear may be close and above all I must be silent.’

*I will come
with
you,’ said Bel-ka-Trazet.

He unclasped the chain at his throat, took off his fur cloak and laid it on the ground. His left shoulder, like his face, was mutilated - humped and knotted as the exposed root of a tree.
Kelderek
thought, ‘He wears the cloak to conceal it.’

They had gone only a few yards when the hunter perceived the tracks of the leopard,
partly
trodden out by those of the bear. The leopard, he supposed, had been injured but had tried to escape; and the bear had pursued it. Soon they came upon the leopard’s body, already half-devoured by vermin and insects. There were no signs of a struggle and the bear’s trail led on through the bushes to emerge in open, stone-strewn woodland. Here, for the first time, it was possible to see some distance ahead between the trees. They halted on the edge of the undergrowth, listening and watching, but nothing moved and a
ll was quiet save for the chitte
ring of parakeets in the branches.

‘No harm in the women coming this far,’ said Bel-ka-Trazet in his ear: and a moment later he had slipped noiselessly back into the undergrowth.

Kelderek
, left alone, tried to guess which way the bear might have taken. The stony ground showed no tracks, however, and he felt himself at a loss. The Baron did not return and he wondered whether perhaps Melathys might have fainted or been taken ill. At last, growing weary of waiting, he counted a hundred paces to his right and then began to move slowly in a wide half-circle, examining
the
ground for the least sign - tracks, claw-marks, droppings or shreds of hair.

He had completed perhaps half this task without success when he came once more to the edge of a belt of undergrowth. It did not extend far, for he could glimpse open ground beyond. On impulse he crept through it and came out at the top of a grassy slope, bordered on each side by forest and stretching away to
the
norther
n shore of the island and the Telthe
arna beyond. Some little way from where he stood was a hollow - a kind of pit about a stone’s throw across. It was surrounded by bushes and tall weeds, and from somewhere in the same direction came a faint sound of water. He might as well go and drink, he thought, before returning. To recover the bear’s tracks, now that
they
had lost them, would probably prove a long and arduous business.

Setti
ng off across the open ground, he saw that there was indeed a brook running down
the
slope beyond
the
hollow. The hollow was not dire
ctly
in his way, but out of mere curiosity he turned aside
and looked down into it. Instantl
y he dropped on his hands and knees, concealing himself behind a thick clump of weeds near the verge.

He could feel the pulse behind his knee like a finger plucking the tendon and his heart was beating so viol
ently
that
he seemed to hear it.
He waited, but there was no other sound. Cauti
ously he raised his head and looked down once more.