He walked away, musing on the disturbing fatalism of those words. He was almost back at the signal cabin before he realized he’d left the fish behind. Astrud greeted him, and immediately accused him.
“You’ve been with that girl!”
“I talked to her, yes.” He was abstracted, still back at the strange cottage in spirit, still seeing the girl’s cold face.
“It’s not like you’re thinking, Astrud. She’s an odd person, but I think she could help us a lot.” He leaned out of the window, looking east. It was possible to see where the old sailway had run; the jungle was thinner, the roof of the trees just a little lower. From a certain position he could just see the ocean, probably fifteen kilometers away. “If they ever came after us,” he said, “I think she would hide us and look after us.”
“Why? Because she likes you?”
“Because it might fit in with the nature of the Ifalong,” he said, and she stared at him.
Later Raoul tackled him. “We have to move on, father.”
“I think this will suit us fine, Raoul.”
“You didn’t see the way she looked! She’s after us, I know that — and she’ll be bringing a few grupos with her!”
“Are you still talking about that felina?”
“Yes I am, and I think she’s a lot more important than that bruja you’re always with. It seems to me she’s got you twisted around her finger! ‘You will take your place in the scheme of things,’ mimicked Raoul furiously. “What about us, father? What about mother and me?”
By the Sword of Agni, he thought, the young bastard’s been following me. Tonio glanced around, saw Astrud was out of earshot, and said, “The jungle is a dangerous place, Raoul. Particularly that valley where the girl lives. You could get yourself killed, going in there.” He said this quietly, and there was no doubt as to his meaning. A different world, he thought. Survival of the individual is what counts.
Raoul had backed off as though Tonio had struck him, and now he was staring incredulously at him. “Are you threatening me, father?”
“Just pointing out the dangers.”
“Right,” said Raoul. “I understand.…”
They hadn’t made such quick progress as Karina had hoped. After a few kilometers’ climbing they’d left the sailway on the Pegman’s advice, heading south.
“Tonio will have made for Buique,” said Enri, but he lied. “This is the quickest way. The sailway took a roundabout route, because of the gradients.”
His own fury at the death of Saba had subsided and he was regretting telling the El Tigre grupo where Tonio might be. There had been enough killing. He’d heard some of the screaming from Rangua during the previous night and he knew that, so far, Karina had had no part in it. He wanted it to stay that way.
They spent the night a few kilometers below Buique, having bypassed the area where the Pegman supposed Tonio to be. Congratulating himself, he settled down to sleep. Tomorrow he would continue the wild-goose chase until Karina cooled her intentions. He slept heavily and it seemed only a moment later that it was dawn and Karina was shaking him awake, oblivious of the fact that her breasts jiggled in full view under the loose neck of her tunic.
“Enri! Wake up! Look!” She shook his shoulder violently and he dragged his gaze away from her to look in the direction she indicated.
A wisp of smoke rose above the trees, several kilometers below them.
“We’ve come too far,” said Karina.
“We can’t be sure it’s them.”
“Of course it’s them! Who else but a True Human like Tonio would kindle the Wrath of Agni? And now —” her eyes narrowed to fierce slits as she squinted against the wet brightness of the rising sun “— we’ve got them! Now we close in. Come on, Enri!”
Resignedly, the Pegman allowed himself to be led downhill, and soon they came across the upper reaches of the old sailway.
“We should never have left the track,” said Karina, with a glance at Enri.
“You’ve met Astrud?” asked the Pegman later.
“No. I’ve seen her, though.”
“She’s a nice woman. Simple, really. Very religious — she really believes the Examples. I was in her house once, and I saw texts all over the walls.”
“I know. I … kind of spied on them a while back, and I saw into the house.”
“And you want to kill her.”
“Rayo had metal bearings! How two-faced can she be!”
“She didn’t know. I’ll swear to that, Karina.”
“Huh.”
They scrambled down further, walking in the bed of a little stream which followed the sailway. Then Enri said,
“You know.… One time, I thought you rather liked Raoul.”
She didn’t turn round. “Oh?”
“Well.… I hear you rode with him up to Rangua one day — and got into quite some trouble about it, so they say. And you followed him into the delta.…”
“And I got caught, and he didn’t do a thing to help me! Mordecai, what a creep! He’s weak, weak!”
“You’re right. He doesn’t have the guts to stand up to his father. It’s the way True Humans are raised, I suppose.”
“Maybe,” said Karina.
Later the track levelled out to a platform and there, barely visible among the dense trees, was a signal tower.
“Look at this, Enri!” Karina stood in a glade. At her feet, the remains of a fire smouldered. “They’re here.” Her gaze snapped this way and that, finally dwelling thoughtfully on the signal cabin at the top of the tower. “Up there,” she said.
But the cabin was empty. There were signs of recent habitation however; some food, skins, and blankets laid on the floor.
“Right,” said Karina grimly as they climbed down to the foot of the ladder. “They’re not far off, and the trail’s still warm. We’ve got them, Enri. Follow me, and don’t think of making any loud noises.”
Raising her head, she sniffed the air delicately.
“Are you sure you don’t mind?” asked Tonio. “Four fish would probably be enough, but five would be better. They’re quite small. My wife, she must learn to eat.…”
“The valley will be in balance again before long,” Leitha said. “When you arrived there was a certain imbalance, but that will right itself. Meanwhile you can keep the fish.”
She looked at him in a way which he might have thought calculating — but dead eyes cannot calculate. His gaze strayed to the water. Today the fishing had been good — and there was another big fish there. He’d seen it. Not so big as Torpad, but big enough.
Yet the blood lust had left him. When he’d successfully shot his first small fish and laid it on the grass there had been no elation; just a relief that his hunger would be appeased.
Suddenly, the Dedo stood, glanced around, then walked off up the trail without a word. He watched her go. It was warm in the sun and he was drowsy. He’d lost all sense of time, but figured he ought to be getting back. The signal cabin had begun to feel like home; although Astrud’s mood had become unpredictable, and Raoul was showing signs of youthful rebelliousness.…
In fact Astrud was close by at that moment, having tired of fixing up the cabin, and having begun to wonder, not for the first time, just what Tonio spent his days doing.
She emerged from the trees in time to see the Dedo disappearing up the trail. Tonio sat by the stream as though in a trance. He’d taken off most of his clothes and he looked pale and flabby. Rage began to gnaw at her. She stormed down to the riverbank.
“You’ve been with that girl!”
“Yes.”
“Well, it’s not right! I’ve been working back there while you spend your time idling about with some forest girl!”
“I wasn’t idling. I caught some fish.” He indicated them.
“I won’t have you playing around with that girl! Listen, Tonio, I haven’t stuck by you all this time for you to run off into the woods with some Specialist.”
“Leitha isn’t a Spec
ialist.”
“And you know all about Specialists, don’t you? After all, you killed plenty of them!”
“What’s happening here?” Raoul pushed his way out of the bush. “I could hear you a kilometer away.”
“Your father’s running out on us, that’s what!”
There was a strange expression on Tonio’s face, and he was blinking rapidly. “I thought I told you not to come this way,” he said. “It’s dangerous. You could cause an imbalance.”
“A what?”
“It’s claptrap,” said Astrud furiously. “Claptrap he teamed from that girl. Since he met her he’s been coming out with all kinds of queer things!”
Tonio was blinking at the water. “Nothing to be done.…”
“There’s one thing to be done. You come with us back to the cabin, right now!”
“Two happentracks. I do, or I don’t.” A tic was twitching in Tonio’s cheek. Soon Astrud might start screaming. It was in the nearby Ifalong.
“Come on, Tonio,” she said, suddenly more gentle. “You’re not yourself. It’s the reaction. The humidity. Come —”
She broke off, staring.
Tonio had picked up one of the fish. It had been dead for a couple of hours and it was stiff. He clutched it in his fist with the head uppermost.
He regarded it thoughtfully.
Astrud was still. Raoul was still. The forest was silent.
Tonio put the head in his mouth and bit it off, with a crunch, just as though he was eating a stick of celery.
Astrud screamed.
Blood trickled down Tonio’s chin as he chewed, watching her vacantly. He took another bite, stripping flesh from the backbone. He chewed with his mouth open. His teeth shone crimson with blood while his tongue rolled a wad of flesh and bones.
Raoul uttered a bellow of despair and ran, pushing his way blindly through the undergrowth.
“Listen.… What’s that?” said Karina.
Away to the left they could hear a crashing as a heavy body plunged through the forest.
“A tapir,” said Enri. “There are lots of them around these parts. They get scared by a noise, and they just run off into the bush.”
They heard a woman’s voice; a low, breathless sobbing.
“Tapir, huh?” said Karina. “Come on. This way. She’s headed back to the signal cabin.”
“Just Astrud?” The Pegman stayed where he was. “She’s not so important, is she? Tonio’s still up ahead. He’s the one you really want.”
As Karina stood irresolute, staring this way and that into the dense foliage, she caught sight of movement. “Quiet.…” she whispered, and began to creep forward, one careful step at a time.
There was the flick of a black cloak, half-seen. Karina crept on, her heart pounding, her fingers hooked into talons. It was Tonio — it had to be. It was too tall for Astrud. A twig snapped under her foot and she swore under her breath; but, a moment later, she saw the quarry again, crossing a clearing where water flowed.
On the ground beside the river lay some dead fish, one of them half-eaten. “See this?” she said to the Pegman as he hurried up. “They’re eating meat, now. Hunting, kindling the Wrath of Agni — it shows the kind of things True Humans will do, when they think nobody’s watching.”
“I’m a True Human,” Enri reminded her, not for the first time.
Now Karina began to run, plunging through brush which slashed at her legs, climbing rocks, clawing her way up through the jungle and wondering at her quarry’s speed. She climbed on, the Pegman puffing behind her with no pretence at stealth, and emerged into, sudden sunshine.
She was standing on a ridge of short grass and rocky outcroppings which marked the northern boundary of the valley. Fifty meters away the cloaked figure stood in the sun.
And between Karina and this figure lay a ravine with sheer walls, a hundred meters deep.
She stared. “How …?” It never occurred to her that there might have been two cloaked figures and the Dedo, calculating happentracks, slipped away unseen.
The Pegman uttered a wordless exclamation.
The figure was turning round, slowly, to look at them. The cloak fell away from the face, and the sunlight shone on pale skin, jet black hair. It wasn’t Tonio.
It was the handmaiden.
The sun lit the eroded fissures of her burned face and the wind caught her hair, lifting it. Karina’s eyes narrowed as the light seemed to intensify painfully — and suddenly the handmaiden was beautiful. Karina couldn’t see the Marks of Agni any more; only the eyes and the oval outlines of the face; the tall, slim figure and the lifting hair.
And the Pegman was shouting a name, over and over.
“Corriente! Corriente!”
The imbalance resolved.
Astrud ran. She blundered through thickets, flung herself across streams, and burst out of the jungle onto the slopes of the ridge. Her mind was afire with horror and disgust. Every rock, every tree was Tonio, his face an animal’s face as he munched raw flesh, snorting with gratification. She stumbled up the slope and down the other side, falling several times, picking herself up and plunging on, scratched and bruised, the heat burning the strength out of her.
She had to get back among real people.
She would pick up a few things from the cabin, then follow the track down to Palhoa. She stumbled on, reached the cabin at last, threw herself at the ladder and began to climb.
The ninth rung split.
She fell, seeing Tonio’s face in the ground as it rushed up to hit her. Later she climbed again, dragging herself up with arms shaking from the effort, one leg almost useless. She crawled across the cabin floor, caught hold of the control arms and pulled herself to her feet. Holding onto her last glimmer of consciousness she worked the arms, catching the sun’s rays in the battery of hemitrexes, directing the beam downhill, noting the way the jungle shadows brightened and following the line until she was sure the people in Palhoa must see the distant blaze of light.…
She fell to the floor, and prayed that someone was looking her way. Some kindly mountain-woman, long-necked with head held high, her eye caught by the sudden glare.…
Much later she awakened. It was almost dark.
Somebody, something, was in the cabin with her.
“Tonio …?”
“Rest easy for a moment. I’ve almost done.”
It was a woman’s voice.
“What … what are you doing here? Where’s Tonio?”
“You can stand now. Your ankle was badly injured, but I’ve healed it.” Leitha slipped a smooth stone into her pocket and helped Astrud to her feet. “You signalled the village. You shouldn’t have done that. It introduces new factors and creates new happentracks. You’re not very rational, are you? I have to get you away from here. There is a need for you in the Ifalong.”
They walked. The forest was waking up for the night. Astrud’s leg felt good and she found time to wonder at the healing powers of this strange girl; then her mind clouded over. This was the woman who had taken Tonio away from her.
“Why did you do it?” she asked.
“Don’t talk. It isn’t safe to be out, tonight. There’s an imbalance.”
They descended the ridge into the secret valley and it was very dark among the trees, and the animals seemed to be all around them. Astrud started as a tapir, head down, burst from the undergrowth and pounded so close that it brushed her in passing. She waited, shivering, for its pursuer to appear. Leitha drew her on, and soon they were fording a stream.
“What’s that?” There was a big shadow on the bed of the stream, and for a terrified instant Astrud thought it was a cai-man, about to snap at her.
And Leitha said, “Torpad.… He’s just a big fish.”
Later they reached the stone cottage. It was empty and weirdly illuminated, and again Astrud asked, “Where’s Tonio?”
“He’s been helping me restore the balance.”
“Balance?” Astrud was intimidated by this cold, s
elf-possessed girl. It was quite obvious, now, that Tonio had not been involved with her in any romantic sense. This girl had never had a man, and never would — although she was quite beautiful in an icy way. Astrud had misjudged Tonio. In a moment she would find him, and apologize to him.… “Tonio’s coming with me. We’re leaving.”
“Well, that’s possible, on certain remote happentracks. But very unlikely. The chances are, you will die.”
The cold eyes watched her.
“I’m getting out of here!” Astrud ran for the door, suddenly terrified in a mindless way, in the way of a hunted animal.
“You’ll only hasten your own end,” the Dedo called after her.
So Astrud ran into the night and stood there for a moment, heart pounding, looking this way and that. She didn’t know where Tonio was, but she knew she must find him quickly. They had to get out of this valley, away from the threats of this girl. She called his name, listened for a reply, but heard only the sound of night hunting.
“Tonio!” she called again.
There was a bright moon above and she could see well enough to discern a trail leading downhill. She thought it was the one she’d come by, but she couldn’t be sure. Had she been in the cottage for long? She broke into a run. She didn’t look back.
Leitha was watching her from the doorway; watching and calculating, because that was her Duty. She weighed predator against prey, scavenger against carrion. She considered the grass, and the deer. Her mind dwelt briefly on the ants and the anteater, the tapir and the rainfall. She listened to the wind and the birds, and the sound of Astrud’s retreating footsteps.
She contemplated the Ifalong.
Astrud ran.
A jaguar killed a pacarana.…
Bantus lumbered through the forest. He ignored the deer which swerved in front of him, and he paid no heed to the tapir which he could hear browsing nearby.
Tonight was fish night.
The certainty was within his being, like a command which he couldn’t help but obey. He salivated, anticipating the flavor of fresh blood. There was a rightness about the night. He could sense a rhythm and a pattern, and his own place in it.
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