Return to Eden by Harry Harrison Read Free Book Online Page B

the knife. "This is the difference. Despite what I have done to him, despite my treatment of his sammad, he did this. Stopped the murgu and made them send this to us to let us know that he had stopped the attacks."
    Herilak lowered the knife and looked across the fire. "Tell me, Sanone, have we done all that we promised to do? When our death-sticks died and we came to that city on the shore, Kerrick told us what must be done and all the sammadars agreed to do as he asked. We received new death-sticks only when we agreed that we would stay with you in the city and defend it. Have we done that?"
    "It is finished. The city was well defended until we were forced out. The murgu who followed us you attacked with all the skills of the hunters of the Tanu. Now we are safe, for I believe as you do that this was the message of the knife. If yours is the wish to leave, and the wish of the hunters of the sammads as well, then you must leave."
    "And the death-sticks?"
    "Yours by right. How do the other sammadars feel of this matter?"
    "In agreement, all in agreement. It takes but your word to release us."
    "And where will you go?"
    "North!" Herilak's nostrils flared as he smelled the forests and the snow. "This warm land is not for us, not to spend all of the days of our lives."
    "Then go now to the others. Tell them what we both now know. That Kerrick released us from the murgu.
    So there is no more need for you to remain."
    Herilak sprang to his feet, held the knife high and shouted his pleasure, his voice echoing from the valley walls. Sanone nodded with understanding. This valley was the Sasku home, their refuge, their existence.
    But for the hunters of the north it was only a trap.
    He knew that before the sun had set again they would be gone. Knew also that when the other sammads went to the forests to hunt as they always had, that Herilak would not go their way. He would go east to the ocean, then south again to the murgu city. His life would not be his own, not until he had offered it to Kerrick to take or refuse.
    It was almost dawn before fatigue closed Kerrick's eyes. Sleep would not come earlier. He had sat by the dead fire and looked out across the lake. At the calm water and the stars that marched slowly across the sky, tharms of dead warriors in their nightly progression. They moved overhead steadily until they vanished from sight in the waters of the lake. When the moon had set as well and the night darkened, that must have been when he fell asleep.
    He awoke with a start, the grayness of dawn around him, aware of a touch on his shoulder. He rolled over to see the girl, Darras, there.
    "What is it?" He choked out the words, filled with fear.
    'You must come now." She turned and hurried away and he rose and ran after her, passed her and threw open the skin entrance to their tent.
    "Armun!"
    "It is all right," her voice spoke from the darkness. "Nothing is wrong. Come see your daughter."
    He pulled the flap wide and in the faint light saw that she was smiling up at him.
    "I was so worried," she said. "I had the great fear that the baby would be like me, with my lip, but now that fear is gone."
    He dropped down beside her, weak with relief, and turned back the skins from the baby's face. It was wrinkled and red, eyes shut, mewling faintly.
    "It is sick—something is wrong!"
    "No. That is the way babies always look when they are born. Now we will sleep, but only after you put a name to her. It is known that a baby without a name is in very great danger."
    "What will her name be then?"
    "That is not for me to decide," she said with firm disapproval. "She is your daughter. You must name her.
    A girl's name, one that is important to you."
    "Armun, that is a name of great importance to me."
    "That is not done, two of the same name. The best name is of someone who died who was of importance."
    "Ysel." The name came to his lips without his bidding; he had not thought of her for years. "She died, I lived. Vaintè killed her."
    "Then