Shardik (25 page)

tree had been slashed white, high up, by the bear’s claws. She knew that it was not two hours since Shardik had deliberately lain in wait for and killed a man. In this mood he might well kill again - might lie in wait for those who tracked him or steal, elusive and silent, through the woods until he was behind them and the pursuers became
the
pursued.

The strain of
the
past month had told increasingly upon the priestess. She was the oldest of the women who had followed Shardik down
Ortelga
and across the Telthe
arna strait, and though her belief in his divine power was untouched by the least doubt, she had felt also - more and more as the days went by - the hardship of the l
ife and the continual fear of death
. The young risk their lives heedlessly - often actually for sport - but their ciders, even while they may grow in humility and selflessness, grow also in prudence and in regard for their own lives, those
little
portions of time
in which they hope to create something fit to be offered at last to God. Rantzay, novice mistress and Warden of the Ledges, had not, like Melathys, been caught unawares by the sudden coming of Shardik like a thief in the night. From the moment when the Tuginda’s message had reached Quiso, she had known what would be required of her. Since then, day after day, she had been driving her gaunt and ageing body over the rocky hillsides and through the thickets of the island, struggling with her own fear even while she calmed some near-hysterical girl and persuaded her to take part once more in the Singing: or herself took the girl’s place and felt yet again
the
slow response of
her muscles to the bear’s lithe
, unpredic
table movements. On Quiso Anthre
d, the woman struck down and killed among the trees by the shore, had been first her servant, then her pupil and finally her closest friend. Once, in a dream, she had embraced her as her own child and together they had dug up and burned that day in the rains, long ago, when Rantzay’s disappointed father, frightened at last by her waking fits, her swoons and the voices that spoke and babbled from her at these rimes, had gone to
the
High Baron to offer to the Ledges his ugly, unmarriageablc tent-pole of a daughter. She had recalled the dream as she performed the traditional rite of burning Anthred’s quiver, bow and wooden rings upon her grave by the Telthearna strait

By what means was Shardik to be brought into the open and drugged insensible: and if
the
means she chose were faulty, how many lives would be lost with nothing to show? She returned to the girls, who were standing together a
little
way off, looking down into the valley.

‘When did he last eat?’

‘No one has seen him eat, madam, since he left Ortelga yesterday morning.’

“Then he is likely to be looking for food now. The Tuginda and Lord
Kelderek
say that he is to be drugged.’

‘Can we not follow him, madam,’ said Nito, ‘and put down meat or fish with tessik hidden in it?’

‘Lord Kelderek says he must not fall asleep in the thick forest If it can be accomplished, he is to return here.’

‘He will hardly return here, madam,’ said Nito, nodding her head towards
the
road below.

At the foot of the slope fires were already burning and the sounds came up of many men at work; sudden cries of urgency or warning, the flat ringing of a hammer on iron, the gushing of flame fanned by a bellows, the rasp of a saw, the tap-tap-tap of a mallet and chisel. They could see
Kelderek
going from one group to another, conferring, pointing, nodding his head while he talked. As they watched, Sheldra left his side and came climbing quickly towards them. Impassive as usual, she showed no excitement or breathlessness as she stood before Rantzay and raised her palm to her forehead.

‘Lord Kelderek asks whether Shardik has yet gone far and what is to be done?’

‘He may well ask - and he a hunter. Does he think Shardik is likely to stay near
that
stinking smoke and tumult?’

‘Lord Kelderek has ordered that some goats should be driven higher up the valley and tethered on the edge of the forest He hopes that if Lord Shardik can be prevented from hunting or feeding elsewhere, he may perhaps make his way towards them and that you may find means, madam, to drug him there.’

‘Go back and tell Lord
Kelderek
that if it can be done we will find a way to do it, with God’s help. Zilth£, Nito; go back to
the
camp and bring up what meat you can find and all the tcssik that is there - the green leaves as well” as the dried powder. And you
are
to bring the
other
drug too — the theltocarna.’

‘But the
ltocarna can be administered only in a wound, madam, and not in food: it must be mingled with the blood.’

‘I know that as well as you,’ snapped Rantzay, ‘and I have already told you to bring it. There are six or seven gall-bladders packed
with
moss in a wooden box
with
a sealed lid. Handle it carefully - the bladders must not be broken. I will send back one of the other girls to meet you here and bring you on to join us, wherever we may be.’

The long and dangerous search for Shardik, w
estward through the forest, conti
nued
until
after noon, and when at last Zilthe” came running between
the
trees to say that she had caught sight of the bear prowling along the bank of a stream not far away, Rantzay already felt herself on the point of collapse from strain and fatigue. She followed the gir
l slowly through a grove of myrtl
es and out into an expanse of tall, yellow grass buzzing with
insects in the sun. Here Zilthe
pointed to the bank of the stream.

Shardik gave no sign that he had seen
them
. He was fishing -splashing in and out of the water and every now and then scooping out a fish to flap and jump on the stony bank before he held it down and ate it in two or three bites. Watching him, Rantzay’s heart sank. To approach him was more than she dared attempt. The girls, she knew, would not refuse to obey her if she ordered
them
to do it But what end would it serve? Suppose they could, somehow, succeed in startling him from the brook, what then? How were they to drive or entice him to return in the direction from which he had come?

She went back to the trees and lay prone, her chin propped on her hands. The girls, gathering about her, waited for her to speak, but she said nothing. The shadows moved over the ground be
fore her eyes and the flies settl
ed at the corners of her mouth. The heat was intense but she gave no sign of discomfort only now and then standing up to look at the bear and then lying down as before.

At length Shardik left the stream and stretched himself out in a patch of great hemlock plants not far from where the priestess was lying. She could hear the hollow sound of the stems as they snapped and sec the white umbels of bloom toppling and falling as the bear rolled among them. The silence returned, and with it the weight of her impossible task and the agony of her determination. In her perplexed exhaustion she thought with envy of her friend, free at last from every burden - from the laborious dedication of the Ledges and the continual fatigue and fear of
the
last weeks. If one had power to change the past - it was a favourite fantasy with her, though one which she had never shared, even with Anthred. If she had power to change the past
at
what point would she enter it, to do so? At that night on the beach o£ Quiso, a month ago? This time she would not guide them inland, but turn them back,
the
night-messengers, the heralds of Shardik.

It was da
rk. It was night. She and Anthre
d were standing once more on the stony beach with the flat, green lantern between
them
, splashing the shallow water with their staves.

‘Go back!’ she cried into the darkness. ‘Go back, return whence you came! You should never have come here! I - yes, I myself - am the voice of God and that is the message I am sent to deliver to you!’

She felt Anthred clutch at her arm, but pushed her aside. The windless, moonless darkness was thick about
them
: only the sky retained a faint trace of light. Something was approaching, splashing slowly and heavily towards the shore. A huge, black shape loomed above her, its lowered head turning from side to side, the
mouth
open, the breath foetid and rank. She faced it imperiously. Once she and it had gone their several ways, then - ah!
then
she would return
with
Anth
red to find her girlhood, to turn its course away from Quiso for ever. She raised her arm and was about to speak again, but the presence, with a soft, shaggy slapping of wet feet on
the
shore, passed by her and was gone into
the
wooded island.

There was a blinding light and a noise of scolding birds. Rantzay looked about her in bew
ilderment. She was standing knee
-deep in the dry, tawny grass. The sun was thinly covered
with
a fleece of cloud and suddenly a long, distant roll of thunder ran round the edge of the sky. Some insect had stung her on
the
neck and her fingers, as she drew them across the place, came away smeared w
ith blood. She was alone. Anthre
d was dead and she herself was standing in the dried-up, bitter forest south of
the
Te
lthearna. The tears flowed sil
ently
down her haggard, dusty face as she bent forward, supporting herself upon her staff.

After a few moments she bit hard upon her hand, drew herself up and gazed about her. Some distance away, Nito looked out from among the trees and then approached, staring at her incredulously.

‘Madam - what - the bear - what have you done? Are you unharmed? Wait - lean on me. I - oh, I was afraid - I am so much afraid -‘

‘The bear?’ said Rantzay. ‘Where is the bear?’

As she spoke, she noticed for the first time a broad path flattened through the grass besi
de her and on it, here and there
, the tracks of Shardik, broader than roof-tiles. She bent down. The smell of the bear was plain. It could have passed only since she had last seen it among the hemlocks. Dazed, she raised her hands to her face and was about to ask Nito what had happened, when she became conscious of yet one more bodily affliction. Her tears fell again — tears of shame and degradation.

‘Nito, I -
I
am going down to the stream. Go and tell the girls to follow Lord Shardik at once. Then wait for me here. You and I will overtake them.’

In the water she stripped and washed her body and fouled clothes as well as she could. On Quiso it had been easier; often Anthred had been able to perceive when one of her fits was coming on and had contrived to help her to save her dignity and authority. Now there was not one of the girls whom she could think of as her friend. Looking back, she caught a gl
impse of Nito loitering discreetl
y among
the
trees. She would know what had happened, of course, and tell others.

They must not be too long in catching up. Left to themselves the girls would not be steady, and if by some incredible stroke of fortune Shardik were indeed to return whence he had come, nevertheless without herself they could not be relied upon to do their utmost -to death if necessary - to carry out the Tuginda’s instructions.

She and Nito had not gone far when she realized that the fit had left her dulled and stupefied. She longed to rest Perhaps, she thought Shardik would stop or turn aside before the evening, and Lord Kelderek would be forced to allow them another day. But each time they came up with one or other of the girls waiting to show them the direction, the news was that the bear was still wandering slowly south-eastward, as though making for the hill-country below Gelt

Evening came on. Rantzay’s pace had become a limping hobble from one tree-trunk to the next; yet still she exhorted Nito to keep her eyes open, to make sure of the right way forward and to call from time to time in hope of hearing a reply from ahead. Vaguely, she was aware of twilight, of the fall of darkness and later of moonlight among the trees; of intermittent thunder, far off, and of swift momentary gusts of wind. Once she saw Anthred standing among the trees and was about to speak to her when her friend smiled, laid a ringed finger to her lips and disappeared.

At last in clear moonlight at some mid hour of the night she looked about her and realized
that
she had caught up with the girls. They were standing close together, in a whispering group; but as she approached, leaning on Nito’s arm, they all turned towards her and fell silent To her their silence seemed full of dislike and resentment. If she had hoped for comradeship or sympathy at the end of this bitter journey, she was clearly to be disappointed. Handing her staff to Nito she drew herself up, almost crying out as she put her full weight upon the broken-blistered soles of her feet