Part 13 (1/2)
”Are you all right? You were sitting on thatI couldn't catch you before you fell,” she said ”You're bleeding!”
Gently, the elf-woman eased hily to stop his shaking From a canteen she tilted water on his face, wiped aeat and blood
Sunbright craned his head to see, to orient himself Oh, yes They were six or seven e, in the worst of the wasteland Three days ago Sunbright had drunk his last sip of water, eaten the last scrap of ave a view in all directions Then he'd lowered his head, and prayed, and waited, while Knucklebones patiently tended ca Then, after three days of broiling in the sun and shi+vering by night, a vision had coht creaked He could barely speak, for his tongue ollen from thirst Knucklebones cooed and trickled water in his uine Mountain, with a cleft like blood, where the grasslands end, and rise to mountain and forest”
”And e find there?” she asked, bandaging the scrape on his forehead
”I've no idea,” he rasped, then accepted more water ”It's the place A raven showed me Our fate lies there”
Knucklebones frowned, blew out her cheeks, coers, and said, ”I believe you I just hope you can convince the tribe”
Rengarth Barbarians were never easily convinced
They argued for days until the shaky rafters of the co Smoke from sacred pipes was blown back and forth by shouts, accusations of cowardice and betrayal, threats and challenges, fistfights, scoldings, tears, pleas Talk went in circles and off on tangents Stories were recounted and corrected Prayers were offered
Ti, ”We n soil will be the death of our tribe!”
”All right,” bellowed Magichunger, the loudest, ”but why go the path Sunbright suggests? He's not a real sha! The Gods wouldn't speak to hio his route”
An angry chorus shouted hi went on outside where the walls of the common house had been removed Anyone who'd killed an enemy or born a child could speak in council, and over three hundred barbarians gathered every night Soer and thrust it into Sunbright's hands
”Tell the stick, just a plain stick with a skunk's skull atop Yet when raised, only the wielder could speak As if by h ”I don't claie,” hie said evenly, ”but Ithe Gods for a destination I was rewarded with a dreae-froo there” He lowered the stick as if it were suddenly too heavy
Someone amended, ”And we can't stay here!”
”But hoe know?” soain
Sunbright slued, his knees toasted at the council fire, yet toes dug his kidneys The rooed bodies
Knucklebones, who'd been silent for days, took his hand to rest on her knee ”How o on?” she asked quietly
”Forever, I fear,” sighed the shaman ”You can't believe how hardheaded barbarians can be My people don't remove rock slides froh”
”I believe it, but tell me ” the thief said, more loudly now because of the noise ”that blood oath that Thornwing started that night Most of the tribe sith her, right? But what did they swear to do?”
”Hunh?” Sunbright grunted, rubbed his burning eyes, and cudgeled his brain ”UmmThey swore tofollow o”
Sunbright peered at her stupidly, as if she'd spoken a foreign tongue
”Go” Her handtouine Mountain The ones ore the oath led the new idea in his head: he had asnew customs as anyone ”They only swore that if I were driven out”
”Driven out, walk out, there's little difference,” Knucklebones said as she nudged hi to stop this blather! We'll be rotted to skeletons before this bunch agrees on whether snow falls down or up!”
Sunbright untangled his legs to rise, , ”On the tundra, it so to keep his attention focussed
The sha he wished the speaking stick, butit high, he stated, ”Couine Mountain I ask those who took the blood oath to follow me to
follow me” He handed the stick to someone, and plunked down
If Knucklebones expected that thunderclap to still the audience, she was disappointed Shouting erupted louder than before A dozen hands grabbed for the stick Tears flowed At soer whirled and punched athe hotheads Folks cheered and booed
Crawling around the fire, Sunbright spoke in Forestvictory's ear The wo all over with forearot it She held it high and shouted, and gradually the brawl subsided Men and woled, rubbed bloody noses with skinned knuckles
In the hush, Forestvictory proclaiested we need a trail chief to oversee the journey I volunteer unless someone else wants the chore No? Then I too will pack at dawn, and leave the next dawn Anyone who goes with usstick, and er, so whether the blood oath applied, but as h to er, held out, but when asked what they intended to do instead, gave no answer
”Is the tribe to split then? Such a thing estured, took the stick, waited for silence Finally he said, ”So soo, and some will stay It ether we are strong, singly we are weak Yet I would ask one thing The path we travel will be dangerous Weani I think we should elect a war chief to oversee our defense And for that task, a hard and thankless one, I suggest Magichunger”
For the first tier rubbed his nose, scratched blood froht across the so along”
”No trick,” said Sunbright ”You're our best fighter, after Blinddru, and by tradition neither of them can be war chief I knoe've never been friends, and you resentinto the tribe, but reat boon if you helped Certainly we can use your scrapping sht arm, and those of your friends”
The burly entle request ”As war chief,” he gruhters in skirmishes? And when attacked, everyone ht nodded, as did older folks recalling tier turned, and ued while the rest of the tribe waited Finally Magichunger turned, rubbed his nose again as if e hand-in-hand under desert-bright stars, Knucklebones said, ”You were very clever in there, Sunbright”
”Not so clever,” he said ”Just desperate to get my tribe off this ash heap It reminds me of the worst corners of the hell I almost didn't escape, but at least then I left my enemies behind”
”What?” The part-elf looked up, but his hawk's face was only a silhouette against stars ”What do you es forever, Knucklebones Fro back to the day New Man rose froe, and will throw their lives away getting it With us wild folk, the heart often overrules the head
”Magichunger will always be my enemy And his friends and family too I must beware his knife in my back, awake and asleep Many others don't like my new customs, or neists to old ones, and for us to survive will take ic, I fear”