Part 30 (1/2)

Had Wobeku not then dropped the blowgun, however, Dobanpu would have turned the death tearing through E the death of the cobra's bite, knowing-if he knew anything-that when he breathed his last, the whole tribe would be cheering and drinking ale, Emwaya most of all!

He did stuth on the rain-slick ground The h

Fro up, spears held ready

They were just old enough to guard the flocks and carry the lesser spears, the bidui boys, as the Ichiribu called them

It was taboo for a full warrior such as Wobeku to slay theht theht, as Valeria was clanless, if not a witch He also did not care to start iven to the women would come to him if he slew these boys, and most of them would come after he died

Wobeku crept forith his hunter's skill, using the bushes for cover, and also to protect hi down The thunder and rain drowned out any sound he made

Closer to his canoe, he saw that the craft was safe, even if half filled with rainwater A smaller canoe was drawn up on the shore next to it The boys ht in the downpour and paddled for shore, then seen the hidden canoe and thought itplace

Bold boys, to be out on the lake after dark, especially on a night like this, with a druhten easily Did he have anything with him-?

The brush crackled and crunched behind Wobeku, as if a great stone was rolling downhill He looked behind him, nearly fell out from beneath the bush, and cursed aloud

Aondo was stu from half a score of cuts He must have run blindly into a thorn thicket at soht, for he was not only bloody, but next to naked He held a spear in one bloody hand, and a club was thrust through the belt that was nearly his only garment

The bidui leaped up as Aondo burst into the open Both boys raised their spears, and one also unslung a stone-rope tied around his waist

”Give me that canoe,” Aondo said At least that hat Wobeku thought he said; it sounded rowl than a hu man as if he were indeed less than huht

It happened in the space between one breath and the next The bidui with the stone-rope began to whirl it about his head, while his coht spear aiive his friend tiood cast Perhaps he also hoped to penetrate Aondo's madness and remind him of the taboos

Aondo's fist smashed into the boy's face The youth flew backward as if tossed by an ox The sound of his skull striking a rock on the shore was even louder than the crashi+ng of the thunder, or so it seemed to Wobeku

The second boy ht Aondo's ar man's chest Aondo tossed his spear to his unha it The boy died, pinned to a tree like a ave Aondo no time to savor victory or to lament the doom he had earned The sround toward the shore in strides that were almost leaps

Half-mad as he was, Aondo still sensed another's presence Both strength and speed had left hiin to raise it before Wobeku flung his own spear

It pierced Aondo's belly, and the warrior's breath hissed out of hiripped the spear-shaft and seemed to realize what it was, and where it was

Wobeku, meanwhile, reached his canoe and slashed at the vine rope It parted, he lifted the paddle and thrust at the water, and Aondo gave a cry such as the ears of h the ears of the Gods, either Then the big warrior leaped froht into the stern of Wobeku's canoe

The canoe shattered like a stick struck with an ax Aondo plunged under the water, then thrashed to the surface, blood and splinters spreading around hi headfirst in water so shallow that he nearly dashed his brains out on the rocks at the bottom

Aondo screaain as soripped him around the waist He rose half out of the water, ar wildly at what held him; he even pulled the spear fro helped Spray led with the rain as the crocodile thrashed its tail,away from the shore Aondo ith it For a moment, his chest and head were still above water, then only his head; then Wobeku heard a gurgle and saw nothing but a swirl of foaered out of the water, knelt on the shore, and spewed When he could stand, he could see only the rain and the biduis' canoe It was small even for hiain need a canoe

Wobeku did No one on the island, after the boys' bodies were found and no sign of Aondo was seen, would doubt that it was Wobeku who had cursed himself by the three deaths Out on the lake, Wobeku would not need to subment save the Gods' They knew that he was innocent, at least of the boys' blood

If the Gods knew anything, which was a question Wobeku did not expect to have answered tonight He slid into the canoe, tested the balance of the boy-sized paddles, cast off the vine, and pushed hard away from the shore By the tin of the shore itself was lost in the rain Wobeku was alone with the lake, the Gods, and his fear of what Chabano would say of this night's work