“Where the river meets a frozen stream, water bursts into the air with great noise. And mighty towers built of stone stand up into the sky.” Such was Baruin’s report, and the first description of Embruddock.
He described how our stone towers stand in rows, and are decorated with brightly painted skulls, to ward off intruders.
They stood in a shallow valley full of gravel, discussing what should be done. Two more hunters arrived, dragging a trapper they had caught returning to Embruddock. They threw him to the ground and kicked him. He said that the Den tribe lived in Embruddock, and were peaceful.
Hearing there were more Dens about, the five elders immediately said that they should make a detour round the hamlet. They were shouted down. The younger men said that they should attack immediately; they could then be accepted on a basis of equality by this distantly related tribe. The women vociferously agreed, thinking it would be pleasant to live in stone buildings.
Excitement rose. The trapper was clubbed to death. All—men, women, and children—dipped their fingers in his blood and drank, that they might prevail before the day was done.
The body was thrown to the dogs and birds.
“Dresyl and I will go forward and take in the lie of the land,” Little Yuli said. He stared challengingly at the men about him; they dropped their gaze and said nothing. “We will win the day for you. If we do so, then we shall be in command, and will tolerate no more nonsense from these old men. If we lose the day, then you can throw our bodies to the animals.”
“And,” said the next speaker to take up the story, “at Little Yuli’s brave speech, the canine company looked up from their feast and yelped their agreement.” The audience smiled seriously, recalling that detail from the past that was like a dream.
Now the story of that past became more tense. The audience drank less rathel as it listened to how Dresyl and Little Yuli, the cousin-brothers, planned to take the silent town. With them went five chosen heroes, their names well-remembered: Baruin, Skelit, Maldik, Curwayn, and Big Afardl, who was killed that day, and by a woman’s hand.
The rest of the party remained where they were, so that the noise of their hounds did not give the game away.
Beyond the icy river was no snow. Grass grew. Hot water gushed into the air, sending curtains of steam across the area.
“It’s true,” murmured the audience. “It still occurs as you say.”
A woman drove black hairy pigs up a path. Two children played naked among the waters. The invaders watched.
They saw our stone towers, the strong ones, the ruinous ones, all laid out in streets. And the old city wall reduced to rubble. They marvelled.
Dresyl and Yuli skirted Embruddock alone. They saw how square our towers are, with walls sloping inwards all the way up, so that the room on the top floor is always smaller than those below. How we keep our animals in the bottom floor for warmth—up the ramp to save them in case the Voral floods. They saw all the animal skulls, brightly painted and facing out, to scare intruders. We always had a sorceress, didn’t we, friends? At this period, it was Loil Bry.
Well, the cousin-brothers also saw two aged sentries up on top of the big tower—this very tower, friends—and in no time they had nipped in and despatched the greybeards. Blood flowed, I have to tell.
“The flower,” someone called.
Oh, yes. The flower was important. Remember how the lake people said that the cousin-brothers would meet with the same destiny? Yet when Dresyl grinned and said, “We will do well ruling this town, brother,” Yuli was looking at the little flowers at his feet, flowers with pale petals—probably scantiom.
“A good climate,” he said, in surprise, and plucked the flower and ate it.
They were scared when they first heard the Hour-Whistler blow, for that famous geyser, known to all, was not known to them. They recovered, and then disposed their forces so as to be prepared for the time when both sentinels were set and the hunters of Embruddock returned home, bearing with them the spoils of the chase, all unsuspecting.