The Standing Dead - Stone Dance of the Chameleon 02 (95 page)

When they questioned Galewing, he assured them the treasure was theirs.

'And our sons?' Akaisha asked.

They're spending the night in the earthwork. The Woading need time to choose the children they're going to send us to keep as a surety of their alliance with us. Until we have them here, the Master thinks it best we should protect ourselves against any reprisals.'

'Alliance?' said Akaisha.

Galewing opened his hands and looked at the faces of the Assembly. 'Subject of course to our approval.'

'Alliance for what purpose?' said Harth.

'We've promised that if they accept our rule, we shall, in time, return their children and obtain replacements for those marked for the tithe, as well as treasure to compensate them for this loss.' He indicated the salt jewels on the blanket.

'Obtain how?' said Harth, her face screwed up.

Galewing shrugged. 'Our other neighbours. It isn't as if we can trust them. We've seen one tribe attack us out of jealousy. What do you imagine will happen if we allow the others to combine against us?'

Harth blinked her disbelief. Her head was slowly shaking. She licked her lips. 'Are you possessed, Galewing?'

'Look, Harth.' Kyte was pointing at the jewels still lying on their blanket. That represents more than a year of service. More than one year of a young man's life lost to us.'

The Assembly gave his words a murmur of approval. 'It is stolen!' said Harth.

'As our children used to be before the Bluedancing came to take their place. No one here likes the taste of these changes, but we swallow them down for the good of our daughters and our sons. For my part, while the Master still spares our children and' - he pointed at the blanket - 'the blood of our men, then I shall leave him be.'

'Carnie, tell him.'

Carnelian
explained what he knew and watched Galewing's frown deepen as he spoke.

'You see how dangerous he is?' said Akaisha when
Carnelian
was finished.

'More than a ravener,' said Galewing, 'but we have him by the throat. While it's our men he uses to do his fighting, we can have him killed at any time.'

Akaisha stood up. 'You're too complacent, Galewing. Haven't you seen how popular he's become among the Tribe?'

'Sooner or later he'll lose that. One day he'll overstretch himself, and then we'll have him.'

Mossie looked aghast at
Carnelian
. 'Should we be saying these things in front of him?'

'One of them is here and the other out on the plain. Even if that weren't so, do you think for a moment they don't know how we must be feeling about all this?'

The woman sat down cowed.

Harth raised her eyes. 'And this overstretching, does it not occur to you that should it happen it might well bring disaster down on us all?'

Carnelian had to speak. 'Listen to Mother Harth. Time is running out for you. Daily he grows more powerful among the young.'

The Assembly rose in stormy protest. 'Do you suggest that our own children would turn against us?'

'Underestimate the Master at your peril,' Carnelian cried above the din.

'We know you bleed, white man. If you bleed, we can kill you,' Crowrane cried back.

'Leave us now,' Akaisha said to Carnelian, fear for him bright in her eyes.

He stood for some moments regarding her. She lifted her chin, urging him to go. Bending, he passed under the curtain and into the brilliance of the day. He descended to the Grove, then walked to his mother tree. He lay in his hollow waiting, watching through the branches wisps of clouds changing shape in the sky.

When Akaisha came he saw in her face what she had come to say.

'We shall light the signal fire. When our men return, we shall kill the Master.'

Carnelian's stomach clenched. So it was done. 'Who can you trust to do it?'

Akaisha's face set into a mask. 'We shall do it ourselves.'

He met her eyes. 'And what is to happen to me?' Her eyes twitched as she regarded him. 'Carnie, you too are to die.'

Smoke rising from the Crag brought the Tribe running to see what was wrong. Standing on the summit near the fire, Carnelian was watching for Osidian's return. Crowrane

and a couple of the other veterans armed with spears stood around him and he had been told that if he should cause any trouble, they would run him through. Narrowing his eyes, Carnelian could see nothing but a speckling of herds clinging to the horizon.

A shout made everyone rise to their feet. Carnelian watched riders detach from the herds: a dark rivulet trickling towards him. In the vanguard was the figure Carnelian sought; a giant among the rest.

Carnelian waited with the Elders in the Ancestor House. Outside, down the steps, the Tribe had gathered in the clearing, so many their crowd stretched off into the mottled shade. All eyes were turned up to the little house of bones.

Eyeing Crowrane, Kyte and the others waiting beside the doorway, Carnelian felt the depth of his betrayal. Looking round, he saw shame on every face. It reminded him how far these people had been pushed that they dared not trust their own children; that they should be prepared to defile their most sacred place with murder. His eyes locked with those of Akaisha, who twitched a smile.

They heard the footfalls on the porch outside. The assassins narrowed their eyes and readied their spears. Carnelian wanted to turn away but refused to allow himself the cowardice of not watching Osidian die. He had asked the Elders to allow him to deliver the fatal blow, but they had refused him, staring. Carnelian was filled with fear at how close his own death was, but his heart welcomed it.

The curtain lifted and a figure stood framed by the dazzle of the day. It walked in and was followed by another and another, and Crowrane and the others drew back, protesting that these people, whoever they were, had not been given permission to come in. The last figure to enter eclipsed all light. Carnelian struggled for his vision to return and saw it was Ravan and some other youths, with Osidian standing behind them a marble colossus against the bone traceries of the wall. Amidst the storm of protests, Carnelian had attention for nothing but Osidian's face. There was a stillness in his downcast eyes. Carnelian knew that manner, that stance: it was the imperial demeanour of a Master.

As Osidian lifted his gaze, Carnelian felt the Elders quail but it was Ravan who spoke.

'Why are you armed, my fathers?'

Crowrane and the others regarded the spears in their hands with a kind of surprise.

'Is it perhaps because of the emergency that made you light the signal fire?'

The Elders had fallen silent, their gaze focused on Ravan.

'What is it that made you light the fire, my fathers and mothers?'

Kyte spoke up: The Master is a danger to the Tribe.'

Ravan affected surprise. 'A danger? Did he not save us from the Bluedancing and the Woading? From famine? Did he not free our children from the tithe?'

'But why has he done these things, my son?' said Akaisha.

'He seeks power,' said Harth.

To make war first on the tribes and then the Standing Dead,' said Ginkga.

'He's ravener possessed,' cried Crowrane.

Ravan smiled. 'It seems to me it is you who are possessed.' He pointed at Crowrane's spear. 'You were going to spill his blood here, on the sacred floor of our mother's bones.'

Many of the Assembly cast down their eyes, ashamed.

Carnelian stepped forward. 'Listen to them, Ravan, everything they're saying is true.'

'You have already betrayed the Master once and now you try to do so again.'

Carnelian felt Osidian's gaze and was drawn to meet his eyes. Expecting hatred, he was shocked to see there nothing but an amusement that chilled him to the core.

Ravan stepped towards the Elders. 'You fear the Master because he does what you cannot do. You disgust me. Is there anything you would not do to keep your bony grip on power?'

Akaisha leapt to her feet in fury. 'Be silent.'

'I will not, mother.' He regarded the old with sad contempt. 'You are few and we, the young, are many. You cling to the old ways and cannot see the new world we are making. You are unfit to rule and so, reluctantly, we shall have to rule in your place.'

Slaughter is the mother of new worlds.

(from the 'Book of the Sorcerers')

The Tribe will not let you rule,' cried Harth.

The young men will,' replied Ravan. He smiled. 'Without us the Tribe will have no water and the Koppie will be exposed defenceless to our enemies.'

Ginkga looked aghast. 'You're prepared to threaten your own people?'

'It is the men who shall protect them from all want, as we have always done.'

Crowrane stood forward. 'We are the protectors of the Tribe.'

Mossie was crying. 'Our children will not turn away from us.'

Ravan opened his arms wide. 'Ask them.'

The Elders did, all at once, some petitioning, some threatening their grandsons. The youths standing behind Ravan went paler, but they held their place and nodded.

As they fell silent, Akaisha raised her voice. 'You, Ravan and this gang of boys might be prepared to betray your people, but we shall see how many of the rest will support you.'

Ravan glanced at Osidian then looked back at his

mother. 'You should consider carefully before doing anything that might lead to bloodshed.'

Akaisha blinked and stared at her son as if she was seeing him for the first time. Around her, the other Elders seemed to sag and age before Carnelian's eyes.

'Go now,' Ravan said, harshly. 'Prepare the people for the new world.'

Some glared at him through their tears, but even they obeyed him. As they filed past,
Carnelian
felt ashamed. Akaisha looked at him, but he could not bear to see her face and turned away. He kept his gaze averted as they shuffled past him. Finally, the curtain fell and the gloom returned.

'Are you sure, Master, they will not raise the Tribe against us?' whispered Ravan.

They will do nothing,' said Osidian. 'Now go and steady the men.'

Ravan gazed at him for some moments, before he too left.

Left alone, Carnelian looked at Osidian. Their eyes met.

'If they do nothing it is only because they love their people.'

Osidian smiled. That, of course, formed a part of my calculations. Come, Carnelian, are you not even a little relieved I have survived this attempt on my life?'

Carnelian was not sure what he felt. He himself had been given back his life, but at what price? There was triumph in Osidian's beautiful face. Carnelian became possessed by a need for light and air. He pushed past Osidian and out from the room of bones. The Tribe in turmoil at his feet was receiving the first of the Elders into their midst; panic already spreading.

Armed youths did not stop him reaching the steps. On the ground, the crowds parted before him and he moved swiftly into the shadow of a mother tree. He picked up speed, until he was almost running down a rootstair, his gaze fixed on the brightness of the ferngarden. He did not look to either side until he had left the cedars behind and was walking waist-high through rusding ferns, dizzy in the sun.

He went down to the Eastgarden where the Bluedancing were working among the fires and tresdes. He allowed himself only a glance over to the Killing Field with its heaps of bones. When he neared the Blooding Ditch, his pace slowed. He crossed another bridge into the inner ferngardens and, from the shade of the Old Bloodwood Tree, regarded the Grove where the Elders were spreading the news of their overthrow. His eyes ranged over the delicately shifting cedar canopy. There lay what he now called home and yet he had allowed it to be destroyed as he and his father had allowed the Hold to be pillaged by Aurum and Jaspar. Was he cursed to be involved in the destruction of everything he loved?

He imagined Akaisha's pain and wanted to go and beg forgiveness for what he had brought upon them.. He looked up at the cedar hill and his stomach churned. He overcame shame, fear of the rejection that might await him, and forced himself to begin walking towards it.

People turned away from him as he climbed the hill; from fear or hatred, Carnelian could not tell. He did not allow himself to hesitate when he came within sight of Akaisha's mother tree. His hearthmates were there, under her branches, gathered near the hearth. Approaching, his spirits lifted as he saw Poppy gazing at him and Fern alive and well.

'You can stop pretending now, Master,' Fern said.

The tone as much as the form of address wounded Carnelian.

Fern turned to his mother, it's clear now that this one's been working with the Master all along.'

Akaisha looked at her son with puffy eyes, confused. 'But he betrayed the Master's schemes to me.'

'Wasn't it that very betrayal that led the Assembly to make the decision which more than anything made the men give the Master their support?'

Fern turned on Carnelian with hatred in his eyes. 'Did you imagine us too stupid to work it out?'

Poppy pushed between them and glared at Fern. 'You leave Carnie alone.'

Carnelian vaguely tried to calm her, shook his head, i don't know what... it can't be ...'

'How else could the Master know the Elders were going to try to kill him today?'

Appalled, Carnelian tried to imagine another explanation.

Sil's eyes widened. 'You're not denying it, Carnie.'

Carnelian felt Poppy's little hand slip into his and gripped it. 'If this is true then the Master used me. I swear on my blood I acted in good faith.'

Fern snorted. 'You Standing Dead are better at using people than keeping promises.'

Poppy cringed at every word.

'How could the Master persuade so many of our people to turn against us?' said Whin, still in shock from what had happened in the Ancestor House.

'For two moons he has filled our minds with the proofs of his invincibility,' said Fern. 'Many have come to believe he will make the Ochre feared and respected among the tribes. After all, did he not win the battle against the Bluedancing, against the Woading? Did he not bring us the meat he promised?'

Carnelian felt sick as Fern's words forced the pieces to form a mosaic in his mind. He saw it all. How easily he had allowed himself to be manipulated. He shook his head, trying to disbelieve it. 'I thought he did it from spite, but it was policy, calculated to break up the cohesion of the Tribe.'

Fern frowned then continued. 'He chose to site his earthwork camp near the lagoon at the best crossing into Woading territory. I believe he only burned the Bluedancing mother trees to frighten and provoke the Woading and our other neighbours. He judged that our absence during his heavener hunt would give the Woading a chance to explore the earthwork.' He regarded Carnelian through slitted eyes. The Master knew very well that every Woading who had done his service in the legions would recognize it to be a military camp. Frightened we meant to strike against them, they struck first and when they did, he was ready for them.'

He looked at Akaisha and Whin. 'When we saw your signal, he claimed the Skyfather had come in a dream to warn him; jealous of his successes, fearful their power would pass to the warriors, the Elders had determined to treacherously murder him.' Fern's face showed disgust. 'Ravan dutifully stirred up the men by listing all the Master had done for us; instilling fear of the revenge the Woading would take once they knew we no longer had him to lead us.'

Whin ignited. 'You knew all this yet didn't act.'

Fern confronted her. 'What could I do alone against the others? My great mistake was to have faith in the wisdom of the Elders.'

The people round about gasped. Poppy's second hand joined the first and held on to Carnelian's fingers. Fern ducked an apology to his mother, then to Whin who seemed to subside.

'I can't deny we acted foolishly.'

'Can it be true that the Skyfather spoke to him?' said Fern.

The glance he gave Carnelian was filled with misery.

Akaisha was gazing at her son, aghast. 'I no longer know what is true and what is not.'

Whin gave her a look of concern. 'Go and rest, dear. I'll handle this.'

Akaisha nodded and Whin sent one of her daughters with her. The hearth watched the two move away with dismay. Carnelian understood. Like them he had come to rely on Akaisha's strength.

Sil regarded Carnelian tearfully. 'If you have betrayed us, Carnie, then there is no hope, for you have seen how weak we have become.'

Reaching out with his free hand, Carnelian clasped Sil's hands and looked her in the eyes. 'If it is all as Fern says, then I have been a fool, an instrument in the Master's hand.' He let her go, freed himself from Poppy's grip and spun round looking at every face. 'He made
you
slaughter heaveners; can you not believe it possible / could be used without my knowledge?'

. Carnelian saw with relief that even Fern was no longer certain of his guilt.

'Do you still believe the Master intends to attack the Standing Dead?' asked Whin.

'I'm sure of it, my mother.'

'You believe he cannot win?'

Carnelian considered the changes Osidian had wrought upon the Ochre. 'I have only one certainty; if he is not stopped, the Master will bring disaster on the Tribe.'

'How do we free ourselves from him?' said Sil expressing the general feeling. She caught a look in her husband's eyes and her face grew pale. She grabbed him.

'He'd kill you!'

Fern pulled himself free.

Carnelian understood. 'Listen to her, you'd never get close enough.'

Fern grew enraged. 'What do you suggest?'

Examining his friend's eyes, Carnelian knew there was only one way. 'I'll do it.'

Fern narrowed his eyes, judging him.

'What will you do, Master?' said another voice.

No one had noticed Ravan approaching. People looked at each other, fearing he had heard everything. Ravan frowned, sensing a conspiracy.

'Why've you come?' Whin asked, coldly.

'Because the Master wishes to see this one here.' He indicated Carnelian with his chin.

Fern gave his brother a look filled with contempt. 'I thought it was the young who now ruled the Tribe?'

Ravan found he was enringed by his scowling hearth-mates. He blushed and walked away. The Master doesn't like to be kept waiting.'

Carnelian saw Poppy forgotten, crying. He pushed her towards Sil. Receiving nods of encouragement, he went after Ravan.

Carnelian quickly caught up with Ravan. As he fell in beside him, the youth moved his head to one side but did not look at him.

'Now we have the power, everything will be much better. The Tribe will soon come to see we were justified in what we've done.'

'Your mother doesn't see it that way.'

'She's an old woman and should be glad to be free of the burdens of rule.'

Carnelian watched Ravan from the corners of his eyes. 'Fern was right, it is not the young but the Master who now rules.'

'What if it were true? The Master will make the Ochre great among the tribes.'

'You fool yourself, Ravan. You must know by now he cares for nothing but himself: Plainsmen are nothing more to him than savages. If it suited his purposes, he would care no more about the Ochre than he did the heaveners.'

Ravan turned on him, eyes flaming. Though you look like him, you're nothing alike. You don't know what he cares about. Because you've betrayed him do you expect everyone to be as treacherous as you?'

That barb struck home. Carnelian found he was remembering the love he had had for Osidian; the part he had played in bringing him to the Earthsky. He suppressed all guilt. Now he had to steel himself to murder him.

Young men standing with spears at the foot of the Crag steps moved aside to let Ravan and Carnelian climb them. Reaching the summit, Carnelian pulled his uba up over his nose so that only his eyes were exposed to the withering sun. Ravan led him across the burning rock to where Osidian stood massive, shrouded black with Krow and some other guards.

'Go and make the preparations for immediate departure,' Osidian said.

Krow gave a nod. As he passed Carnelian on the way to the steps, they exchanged grim greetings.

Osidian gave the iron spear he was holding to Ravan and beckoned. 'Come, my Lord.'

Carnelian fell in beside him and they walked together in silence. He was aware Ravan and the others were following. He watched Osidian gaze out over the plain and saw how close he was to the edge of the Crag. A lunge, then a push and he would be over.

'Have you nothing to say, Carnelian?'

Carnelian looked up and was immediately transfixed by Osidian's jade eyes. Was there sadness there?

'I betrayed you.'

'Yes, you betrayed me.'

Carnelian had expected anger, dissimulation, but not this sadness which struck at his heart. 'Stop pretending. I know you manipulated me as you have everyone and everything since we came here.'

Osidian looked up into the sky. 'Did your barbarian friends help you work that out?'

The contempt stung, but it was fear for Akaisha, Fern and the others that possessed him. To protect them, he must kill Osidian.