The Kin (25 page)

“We forage,” he said. “Lion finds us. It follows us to this place. We wait here. Lion sees the bait. It comes. We push rocks”—he mimed the sudden violent shove—“the lion is there”—he pointed again to the bottom of the notch, and then slammed his clenched fist down onto his open palm—“the lion is dead,” he said.

Yes, it might work, Noli thought. They'd need to be lucky. Clearly there were problems.

“Bait for lion?” she asked. “This lion eats people.”

Suth's excited mood faltered. He glanced at Tinu.

“I am bait,” said Tinu, mumbling as usual, but managing to sound as if this were an ordinary suggestion, like using garri-leaf paste to bait a ground rat trap.

“No!” exclaimed Noli, horrified. “Suth, this is dangerous, dangerous!”

“I say this, too,” said Suth. “I say we use animal meat for bait.”

“Lion wants people …” Tinu persisted. “Noli, I make lair … I pile rocks … Many, many … small hole … lion comes … I go in hole … Lion too big …”

While she struggled with the words, she moved her hands to show how she would pile her fortress into the point of the notch, so that when the lion was trying to find a way in, it would be directly below the ledge.

Tinu gazed eagerly at Noli, as if this were a really interesting idea she ached to try out. Again, it might work. When the Kin had been forced to spend a night somewhere they didn't feel safe, they used to wall off any nooks and crannies they could find, so that at least the small ones could sleep secure. But a wall thick enough to keep a lion out …

“Tinu, a lion is strong, strong,” Noli said. “Suth, I say no to this.”

“Noli, you are right,” he said, but then sighed with worry.

“This lion is old,” he said. “Deer, zebras, they run quick, quick. Our small ones are good prey for it. It comes where people are. Noli, it comes.”

Suth and Noli went alone to the drinking place to fill the gourd, as before, and then again they foraged with great caution. They didn't take the usual midday rest but worked on, because this was the safest part of the day, when even a hungry lion would be resting somewhere in the shade.

When they had enough they returned by way of the river to their safe lair, gathering any fuel they could find on the way. Even the small ones had a branch to drag over the last stretch.

The sun was still high when they reached the outcrop. The bare rock of its summit was scorchingly hot, but the ledge above the notch faced east, so it was now in shade, and they climbed down there to rest.

After a while, Tinu touched Noli's arm.

“Noli,” she said, pleadingly, “I go down … make trap … You watch … for lion …”

“Tinu, I say this trap is dangerous. Suth says this also.”

“I try … only. See how … I, Tinu … ask.”

“Suth, what do you say?”

Suth looked at Tinu and smiled.

“Body so little, spirit so big,” he said. “Can I stop her?”

This was nonsense, of course. Tinu worshipped Suth. She wouldn't have gone against his wishes for anything in the world. But he, in turn, trusted Tinu. If Tinu thought she could build herself a trap strong enough to keep the lion out, Suth was ready to let her try, at least.

Perhaps Suth was right, but Noli hated it. This lion wasn't like other lions.

It was a demon lion.

“Noli, this lion comes,” said Suth quietly. “Tomorrow, next day … I do not know. But it comes. Noli, we must kill this lion.”

She rose without a word and went to the outer end of the ledge. From there she could see all this side of the plain to the snow-rimmed mountains. The air was so clear that she felt she could have seen a small bird perched on a branch half a day's journey away.

She studied the nearer ground, looking for anywhere a lion might lurk. There were two danger spots. Almost straight ahead of her a large patch of thicket reached towards the outcrop. Its nearest bushes were tens and tens and more tens of paces away. A little further off, to her right, a low mound hid the ground beyond it.

How fast could a lion come? Suppose she saw it at once, and shouted. Would Tinu have time to race around to the further side and scramble out of reach? Yes, she decided, with a little to spare.

What else?

She looked to her left. There was clear ground for a long way here. The nearest cover …

She stiffened. Something was moving this way. Several creatures, a small group. She screwed up her eyes …

“Suth!” she cried. “Suth!”

He was beside her at once, staring along the line of her pointing arm. She waited. Her heart hammered.

“It is people,” Suth murmured. “They come.”

They watched in silence. Slowly the people came nearer. Noli counted eight of them. Now she could see the heads, the arms, the steady swing of legs.

“Their skins are dark,” said Suth, still quietly. “I think these are Kin.”

Oldtale

SOL'S DREAM

Sol fought with demons
.

For tens of moons he fought them, resting neither by night nor by day. They fled from him, and he pursued them. None dared stand against him
.

Sol fought with a yellow demon. The demon fled. Sol pursued him far and far, to the salt pans beyond Lusan-of-the-Ants
.

There Sol flung his digging stick Monoko at the demon and pierced him through. The yellow blood flowed out of him. Thus the salt from those pans is yellow to this day
.

Sol said, “For tens of moons I have fought with demons. I rested neither by night nor by day. I am tired. Now I sleep.”

At Lusan-of-the-Ants, he slept. There Sol dreamed his dream
.

One came to him that had neither shape nor smell. One spoke in a voice that made no sound
.

The One said, “Sol, my son.”

Sol said, “Father, I listen.”

The One said, “For tens of moons you have fought demons, but they are no fewer. You slay one demon. The Mother of Demons gives birth to ten more. In the Pit beneath the Mountain, the Mountain above Odutu, there she gives birth. Go now to the Mother of Demons. Stand before her. Speak to her
.”

Sol said, “Father, what do I say?”

The One said, “Speak to her and the words are given to you.”

Sol said, “Father, how can I find the way to the Pit beneath the Mountain? The Mother of Demons makes a magic so that no man and no woman can find it. Her magic is strong, strong.”

The One said, “Go, journey among the Kins. You do not ask for food. One gives it to you. That one is your guide.”

Then the dream left Sol, and he was awake
.

Sol went. He journeyed among the Kins. Men met him, hunting deer. They said, “Sol, we would give you food, but we have none. The demons drive away all the deer.”

Women met him, foraging for seed. They said, “Sol, we would give you food, but we have none. The demons shrivel the grasses.”

A child met him, a girl who turned over rocks to see what she could find, for she had no father or mother
.

She said, “Sol, see, I find a thickworm. Cut out the poison part, and I give you half.”

Sol took the thickworm. With his cutter Ban-ban he cut out the poison part. Half of the worm he ate, and half he gave to the girl
.

He said, “What is your name, and what is your Kin?”

She said, “My name is Vona. My Kin is Weaver.”

He said, “Now I speak with your mother.”

She said, “A demon brought a sickness. My mother is dead. My father also.”

He said, “Vona, you are my guide to the Pit beneath the Mountain. You are not a man nor a woman, but a child. The Mother of Demons makes no magic against you.”

She said, “Sol, I do not know where this place is.”

He said, “Close your eyes.”

Vona closed her eyes, and Sol turned her around and around
.

He said, “Do not open your eyes. Point to me now which way we go.”

Vona pointed. She said, “We go this way.”

Then Sol put her on his shoulder, and they set forth
.

CHAPTER SEVEN

The eight newcomers moved steadily closer in the heavy evening light. The sun was full in their faces. The shadow of the outcrop stretched towards them. There was no way they could have seen Suth and Noli standing on the ledge below the summit.

At first they had seemed to be deliberately heading for the outcrop, but they veered aside and it looked as if they would pass to the left. Then they veered back, and Noli realized that they had made the detour so as not to come too close to the big thicket.

“See, they fear the lion also,” said Suth.

As they had turned, the leader had gestured to point out the new direction.

There'd been something about the way he did it …

Noli stared. Yes, the way he walked, the way he held himself …

“That is Bal!” she said.

Suth gave a shout of joy.

“They are Moonhawk! They live!” he cried.

He scrambled to the summit and waved his digging stick and hallooed.

The newcomers halted and shaded their eyes, trying to see who had called.

Noli had felt the same pulse of joy and excitement, but then, in the next breath, doubt and fear.

Where were the others?

Nine moons before, when she and Suth had turned back to rescue Tinu and the small ones, they had left ten people and six more sleeping in the desert—five men, six women, three of them carrying babies, and a boy and a girl. The girl, Shuja, had been Noli's particular friend.

Now she could see only Bal and two other men, four women, and someone younger walking behind. She couldn't see if it was a girl or a boy. Only one of the women was carrying a baby. Noli hadn't seen it till now.

That made nine, not eight. So seven were missing.

The foot Suth had seen in the lion's lair. That must have belonged to one of them. Oh, let it not have been Shuja!

Had the lion taken them all? Or other lions? Were all the lions in this place demon lions?

“Come,” called Suth from above. “We go to greet them.”

Noli shuddered herself out of her horrors, passed the small ones up to Suth, and scrambled up herself. They climbed down to the plain, collected Tinu, and met the newcomers just beyond the long shadow of the outcrop. Bal's party halted, astonished, as they recognized who they were. Noli was delighted to see that Shuja was there.

Suth raised his right hand in greeting.

“Bal, it is I, Suth,” he said. “Here are Noli and Tinu, and the little ones, Ko and Mana and Otan. We live. We rejoice to see you.”

Bal didn't answer. It was as if he didn't believe what was happening. When he had last seen Suth, Suth had been a child. He would never have dared to speak to the leader of his Kin as Suth had just spoken, a man speaking to a man.

The others seemed just as puzzled and astonished.

“See, he has the man scar!” exclaimed Toba. “When did he go to Odutu to be made a man?”

“I did not go to Odutu,” said Suth calmly. “I fought a leopard. Alone, I killed it. I thrust my digging stick in its throat. It died. See, here, how I fought the leopard.”

He pointed to the raking scars on his left shoulder, and the small curved one on his cheek, where the leopard had slashed him. The others stared. To kill a leopard single-handed was a big boast—big, big. It was a deed for a hero in the Oldtales.

Bal snorted in disbelief.

“Bal, this is true,” said Noli.

“Yes, Bal, Suth killed the leopard,” said Ko. “I, Ko, eat the leopard's heart.”

Still Bal didn't answer. Noli wondered what had happened to him. A few moons before, when he'd led the remaining Moonhawks into the desert, no child would have dared to address him as Noli and Ko just had. His hair would have bushed right out. He would have roared and towered over them while they cringed at his feet.

Now he just snorted again and changed the subject.

“You have fire?” he asked. “We saw fire, far off.”

“We have a fire log,” said Suth. “We made it. Come. Now we make fire. Bring wood.”

Suth and the men and two of the women went off to collect fuel, while Noli showed the rest the easiest way to climb the outcrop. Tinu started a fire with the fuel they had, and they settled down and waited for the wood-gatherers to join them.

This was the first chance Noli had to talk to Shuja. She was eager to know what had been happening to her.

“You were ten and six more,” she said. “Now you are nine. Where are the others? I see your mother. I do not see Yova, your mother's sister, and Sidi. I do not see Sidi's mate, Tun, or his brother, Var, or Pul.”

Noli particularly hoped Tun was all right. He was a good man, quiet and strong, the only person Bal would listen to in his rages. Net was in Bal's group, but he was too anxious to be relied on; so was Kern, who was friendly enough but a little lazy.

“I tell you,” said Shuja. “Two days we were in the desert. Our gourds were empty. We had no water. Sidi's baby died, and Yova's. The mothers had no milk. Almost we all died. Then we smelled water. We found a great canyon. Water in the bottom. We climbed down. It was hard. Sidi fell. She died. We came to the bottom. There was a river. We drank, we found food. In the canyon were …”

She shook her head frowning.

“We did not know what they were. When we saw them, we said,
These are people
. Bal spoke to them. They did not speak back. They grunted. They barked. Bal said,
These are animals. They are animal people
. They were angry to see us. They did not let us eat their food. They drove us away. We went further. We found more animal people. They drove us away. We came to these places.

“We rejoiced. Here was food, here was water. Here were no people, no animal people. We saw lions, but we were not afraid. We kept watch. We said,
These are Good Places. They are ours
.