The Tattooed Tribes (20 page)

“
We are,” he agreed. “But not as far behind
as you think. They’ve not been moving as fast as we have and they
took their time killing Clieviis and his wife, especially his
wife.’”

Lucien
suddenly felt ill.

“
And they’ve not been in any hurry since,”
Jon continued. “You probably didn’t work out just how long they
stopped each time they camped, but several times it was a lot
longer than overnight.”

“
Were they hunting?”

“
They certainly stopped to hunt at least
twice. I’m glad you spotted the sign, but there were at least a
dozen times when they made scarcely a mile or two before they
stopped again and were there for a couple of days.”

Lucien’s brow
cleared.

“
I saw that,” he said, triumphantly. “But I
thought I’d got it all wrong and had mixed up human shit with
animal shit.”

“
Why didn’t you ask?” Jon
demanded.

“
I can’t keep coming to you every time I
tread in something and asking which arse it came out of!” Lucien
retorted.

Jon gave a
shout of laughter and told him that matching the shit to the arse
was a vital tool for any woodsman.

Lucien grinned
back, but was not to be diverted. “Why are they going so
slowly?”

“
I have an idea,” Jon replied, but he
refused to be drawn further on what the idea was.

“
You know enough for the time being,” he
said. “I think we’ll gain even more on them, they aren’t exactly
competent, are they?”

“
I was wondering about that,” Lucien
admitted.

“
And you were right to wonder,” Jon
replied. “You found the arrow which pointed us in the right
direction. Can you imagine Iesgood or Vlic losing and leaving an
arrow?”

Lucien shook
his head- they were precious items that took time and skill to
make, the loss of one was a major blow.

“
Or make a paddle unfit for
purpose?”

Again Lucien
shook his head.

“
And they’re moving slowly and they’re
slovenly,” Jon continued.

“
Settlers?” Lucien suggested after a
moment’s thought, keeping his voice down.

“
That was my first thought,” Jon admitted.
“But for all their apparent lack of craft, they show knowledge and
skills I don’t think any ordinary settlers would
possess.”

“
But tribal people wouldn’t do something
like this,” Lucien protested. “Not to each other!”

“
I’ve told you how many people there are
out here in the wilderness,” Jon reminded him. “And not all of them
are like the river folk. We’ve only the sketchiest idea of how
people have developed to the south and east.”

“
But this lot know about canoes and the
river …” Lucien began.

“
I know,” Jon replied. “But it would be
best if you didn’t talk about any of this. There is a
reason.”

“
But …”

“
Let’s make it an order, shall we, that way
you
might
remember
to keep your mouth shut.”

The following
morning they set off upstream again and came to the first
confluence around noon. It had a wild look to it as it poured into
the main channel, full of rippling under currents and snarling
eddies. The calm water on the other side of the river was full of
debris, leaves, and twigs and in some places whole logs washed down
from somewhere. The men speculated about a cascade not too far up
or maybe a beaver damn that had catastrophically failed. They all
agreed it was probably impassable by canoe, but a small party of
two boats was despatched to check things out.

They re-joined
the main fleet by nightfall, reporting a series of small, but near
vertical falls and not a trace of human beings.

They had
camped on an island in the middle of the river. It had formed where
three or four creeks came wandering out of the surrounding forest
to empty into the main channel. The great river itself narrowed as
it went back into the forest, dumping whatever silt it had picked
up on its way from far beyond and creating a series of these small
sandy places just above the water line.

It made a
comfortable resting place and one where plans could be made,
equipment checked and decisions taken about the next stage of the
search.

The following
day the band divided. Canoes headed off in every direction, taking
small parties of men down each of the tributaries.

Lucien watched
them go, and then joined Jon, who with Iesgood was to carry on up
the main part of the river.

“
Should we have divided our force?” Lucien
asked Jon. He had once read a book on tactics and while much of it
went completely over his head, this principle of military thinking
had taken root.

“
I’m not happy about it,” Jon admitted.
“But we’ve a lot of ground to cover and Iesgood is the soldier
here. In matters of war I have to be guided by him.”

Lucien pulled
a long face. “I just have this feeling that when we do find this
bunch, they aren’t going to play by The People’s rules.”

Jon’s look of
approval at this statement made Lucien feel rather pleased with
himself.

“
You’re probably right,” he said. “So keep
your rifle dry and make sure your ammunition is where you can find
it in a hurry, but you do
nothing
unless I say so.”

“
Yes, sir,” Lucien muttered, but resolved
to be alert.

There was more
danger here than he had considered when they left the village. Then
it had all seemed like an adventure, but as time went along and the
full implications of what those they were searching for had done
and were, presumably, more than happy to do again, bore in upon
him, he began to realise the true seriousness of the situation.

He was also
bothered by what was going to happen when they finally caught up
with their quarry. Bothered, but also excited and eager for
whatever sort of fight there was going to be.

They followed
the main channel for three full days, but it became harder and
harder work as the river narrowed and the banks began to rise on
either side of them and the power of the downstream current became
more and more demanding. Lucien began to develop muscles in his
arms and chest to make his shirt strain at the seams.

It was Vlic
who spotted the wrecked canoe first. His cry brought the paddles to
the break position and all eyes went to the half-submerged boat
lolling and banging itself to splinters against some rocks.

“
Looks like they may have struck here,”
Iesgood called as he moved over the water towards it. “Yes! There
are a couple of broken ribs and there’s a hole in the
hull.”

Jon paddled
over to inspect the damage.

“
This will have slowed them,” he said with
some satisfaction. “And we know which way they are
heading.”

After some
discussion, four boats were sent back to collect the rest of the
war band, and Iesgood and Jon continued on up stream.

The only
interruption to the powerful downward surge of water was from a
small sluggish stream that joined the river at an angle and went
back into the hills following the contours. It was half choked with
reeds and the water barely moved.

“
We should have a look up there,” Lucien
said, but Jon shook his head.

“
They won’t have gone that way,” he
replied. “It will be impassable in a few hundred yards. It’s not
even a proper creek, just run off from the hills. It will end in
marsh quickly and I don’t want to get stuck in that sort of
muck.”

“
I don’t think so,” Lucien said, craning
his head back to look up the fast disappearing course.

“
We don’t have the manpower for detours at
the moment,” Jon replied, “When the rest of the band comes up, if
we still haven’t found them, we may go back and take a
look.”

“
We should do it now,” Lucien
insisted.

Jon sighed.
“Why?”

“
Cos it’s easy paddling,” Lucien responded.
“And I think they’re too lazy or too useless to tackle this part of
the river.”

They were
traversing areas of white water, steering a dangerous path between
rocks and areas of deep surging pools.

“
Maybe,” Jon replied, “But for now, we go
on.”

“
But …”

“
Shut up, Lucien!”

Lucien did,
but his face set in his old mulish expression and, seeing it, Jon
decided a little discipline was required and gave him a lecture on
the subject of orders and the need not to question them, which made
all the men in the nearby boats grin and Lucien wish he could
quietly drown himself.

Jon had some
sympathy with the boy’s disappointment and no wish to discourage
him, but he was not prepared to allow him to have his own way on
flimsy evidence, and he certainly did not want him to get any ideas
about independent action.

When they
camped, he assured his apprentice that if they found nothing in the
next couple of days, they would return and give his idea a try.
Lucien’s apparent acceptance of this and his dutiful responses
lulled Jon into a state of false security.

Chapter
14

Vlic was awoken
by someone’s hand clamped firmly over his mouth.

“
Shush!” Lucien commanded, glancing in the
direction of the nodding guard.

Silently Vlic
threw back his blankets and followed him away to the river’s edge
where the sound of the rushing water would mask their voices.

“
What’s up?” he demanded.

“
I’m thinking of going back to that slow
stream, the one full of reeds,” Lucien replied.

“
Why?”

“
Because I’m certain they went that
way.”

Vlic frowned.
“What makes you so sure?”

“
If I wasn’t a good canoeist and I’d
already lost one boat, that’s the way I’d go. There’s no way that
idle bunch would have come this far, its bloody hard
work.”

The logic of
this was not lost on Vlic. “Dad’s keeping something from me,” he
confided. “He knows or suspects something about these people he’s
not telling me and I don’t know why.”

Lucien nodded.
“Jon told me to keep my mouth shut when I started asking
questions.”

They both
reflected silently on the strange behaviour of adults and then
Vlic, who was way better at thinking from cause to effect than
Lucien, said, “We’ll be in a hell of a lot of trouble if we go back
without telling anyone.”

Lucien shook
his head. “Not if we’re right.”

Vlic’s teeth
flashed white in the darkness. “Don’t talk rubbish.”

“
Well, maybe a bit of trouble,” Lucien
admitted. “What’s up? Scared of a bit of grief?”

“
I’m never sure with you if it’s bravery or
stupidity,” Vlic said. “Or perhaps Harabin
dheillwer
doesn’t have as heavy a hand as my
father.”

Lucien
grinned. “I’m not sure either,” he admitted. “Are you coming or
not?”

“
Of course I’m coming.”

They slipped
quietly back to the camp and gathered their weapons and some food,
but as they prepared to go a figure loomed out of the darkness. It
was all Lucien could do to bite back the exclamation that rushed to
his lips.

“
Where are you going?” one of the girls
asked softly.

He considered
lying to her, he even wondered if she might be silently
overpowered, tied and gagged, but it took little further thought to
dismiss this as ridiculous.

Knowing she
could raise a fuss in a fraction of a second and Jon would be even
angrier with him if he lied; he decided to tell her the truth.

“
We want to see if our prey went up the
stream we passed,” he whispered back.

She was silent
and unmoving. He could see she knew exactly which stream he meant
and he could also see from the look of speculation that crossed her
face the same idea had occurred to her.

There was a pause that went on for far
longer than either boy liked; then she whispered, “Two days. If you
aren’t back by dusk the day after tomorrow I will tell
Harabin
dheillwer
where
you’ve gone.”

She melted
back into the darkness to take up her guard again.

“
That was lucky,” Vlic remarked when they
were far enough from the camp for speech.

“
Why?” Lucien demanded.

“
Us getting permission from one of the
girls.”

“
Will it make a difference?” Lucien asked,
surprised.

“
Well, it will as far as I’m concerned,”
Vlic replied cheerfully. “Dad can’t say anything if one of the
women said it was okay. I’m not sure if your Guild has the same
sort of customs and rules.”

“
If it does, I haven’t heard it
yet.”

It was an
interesting and adventurous night. The half-moon provided a small
amount of light, but barely enough to make a shine on the river.
After a brief discussion they had decided not to ‘borrow’ a canoe,
reasoning to each other it would be dangerous to paddle an unknown
stretch of water in the near dark, chancing hidden rocks and unseen
eddies, but secretly acknowledging they did not dare. Even Lucien
was not prepared to face those consequences.

It was hard
finding their way back. In places the bank was treacherous where
the river had undercut it and tree roots had weakened the soil.