The Standing Dead - Stone Dance of the Chameleon 02 (83 page)

When
the
familiar
shape
of
the
Koppie
was
spied
against the
stormy
sky,
the
Tribe
wept
tears
of
joy
and,
imagining themselves
already
sitting
under
their
trees,
felt
suddenly exhausted.
They
struggled
on,
cursing
every
step,
urging each
other
to
ever
greater
speed
with
promises
of
the homely
comforts
of
their
hearths.

When
they
were
close
enough,
their
march
dissolved into
a
furious
dash
to
see
who
would
be
first
to
reach
the outer
Lagoonbridge.
Carnelian's
heart
was
pounding.
He too
was
desperate
to
be
safe
within
the
rings
of
the Koppie's
ditches.
He
almost
gave
way
to
the
eagerness
he could
feel
his
aquar
had
to
join
the
race,
but
then
he
saw sullen
Ravan,
nervous
Krow,
and
between
them
Osidian, his
ivory
face
indifferent
to
the
Tribe's
excitement.
This Masterly
serenity
disturbed
Carnelian
and
forced
him
to remember
the
Bluedancing.
Craning
round,
he
saw
them stretching
away
so
far
behind
they
seemed
to
be
a
frayed hem
to
the
stormclouds.
They
showed
no
joy
but
only
a sad
weariness.
For
them
there
would
never
again
be a
homecoming.

The
Koppie's
welcome
was
everything
Carnelian
had hoped
for.
That
first
night,
the
Tribe
held
a
solemn
feast of
thanksgiving
for
their
safe
return;
for
the
Father's
rain that
they
prayed
would
renew
the
Earth
and
bring
healthy children
and
easy
births.
Loskai
and
the
other
men
who had
fallen
in
the
battl
e
were
given
sky-burial.
The Bluedancing
killed
by
Osidian
in
the
raid
was
to
work
out his
debt
to
the
Tribe
as
a
huskman.
Whin
and
her husband,
Ravenseye,
among
others,
were
elevated
to
the Elders.

The
hearth
had
returned
to
find
every
branch
of Akaisha's
mother
tree
edged
with
new
jade
growth
and the
rootearth
beneath
littered
with
her
seeds,
many
of which
had
germinated.
Both
seeds
and
seedlings
were lovingly
plucked
and
buried
deep
among
their
mother's roots.
Now
that
Poppy
had
been
reprieved,
Carnelian asked
Akaisha
if
she
might
be
allowed
to
plant
her
seed. Tenderly,
Akaisha
had
told
him
it
was
already
too
late that
year
but
that
she
would
talk
to
the
other
Elders
and see
if
it
might
be
allowed
before
they
set
off
on
their
next migration.

Rain
continued
to
fall
in
heavy,
but
intermittent showers.
Sometimes,
the
clouds
would
tease
apart
revealing
sky
that
was
the
purest
blue.
The
red
earth
responded by
uncurling
fresh
fronds
into
the
humid
warming
days and,
as
if
this
were
a
sign,
the
women
of
the
Tribe
seemed to
give
birth
all
at
once.
Soon
the
sun
was
reigning
over
a world
so
green
it
hurt
Carnelian's
eyes.
Ambling,
the saurian
giants
returned,
their
herds
stretching
along the
horizon.

Carnelian
slipped
back
naturally
into
the
rhythms
of koppie
life.
It
was
better
this
time,
because
Fern
no longer
had
to
work
beneath
the
Bloodwood
Tree.
He became
the
companion
Osidian
had
long
ceased
to
be. The
Elders
and
others
muttered
against
the
Master
when he
made
himself
a
hearth
under
one
of
the
unclaimed cedars
that
buttressed
the
Homeditch,
though
none opposed
him
openly.
Ravan,
Krow
and
many
other
youths joined
him
there
and
each
day
he
would
lead
them
to fetch
water.
To
meet
the
needs
of
the
Koppie,
almost
three times
as
many
men
and
aquar
were
needed
now.
Ravan relayed
Osidian's
wishes
to
the
men
and
they
obeyed willingly.
Since
the
battle,
many
would
follow
no
other.

Each
day
when
they
set
off
they
would
ride
down
the leafy
avenue
past
the
encampment
of
the
Bluedancing which
lay
between
the
Homeditch
and
the
Outditch.
The femgarden
had
become
a
village
from
which
smoke
was always
rising.
The
Bluedancing
were
brought
water
and what
food
the
Tribe
did
not
need.
In
return,
the
women and
children
replaced
the
men
at
the
ditches,
labouring in
the
mud
to
shore
them
up
where
the
Rains
had
brought collapse.
There
were
so
many
new
workers
that
even
the Ochre
women
began
to
free
themselves
from
this
heavy work.
They
told
themselves
it
was
necessary,
because
the men
had
to
hunt
more
often
and
the
women
to
gather
more fernroot
to
maintain
an
adequate
food
supply.
Eventually, the
only
Ochre
remaining
at
the
earthworkings
were
those who
acted
as
overseers.

One
evening,
as
they
sat
around
the
hearth,
the
discussion turned,
as
it
often
did,
to
the
subject
of
the
Bluedancing.