The leper’s son sighed his impatience, which angered Shaithis a little: he wasn’t used to dull, squat creatures playing the equal with him. ‘Now let me repeat myself,’ Arkis grunted. ‘They guard Volse’s flyer, and guard it well! They’re likewise well-fuelled, which we’re not. And as you yourself have just this minute pointed out, the Ferenc’s a bloody giant!’
Shaithis flared his nostrils and for a moment thought to leave the fool to his own devices. Except that would also mean leaving him to the tender mercies of the others -eventually. And Shaithis wanted Arkis for himself -eventually. But these were thoughts he steered inwards, lest Arkis hear them. ‘And can they guard two beasts?’ he said. ‘And did you think I’d walked here, Arkis Dire-death?’ (the idiot’s other name).
It stopped Arkis dead. ‘Eh? Another flyer? I haven’t seen it. But then, I’ve not dared venture too far out on the ice lest they see me! Where then, this flyer?’
‘Where I sent it,’ said Shaithis. ‘Still good and fresh and . . . wait a moment – ‘ He sent out a beast-oriented thought: Do you hear me? – and in return sensed life flickering still, but burning very low. ‘Aye, and not yet bled to death. Not quite.’
‘They know it’s there, that great vat of filth and the Ferenc?’
‘Of course, else I’d not require assistance from you.’
‘Hah!’ Arkis cried. ‘I might have known it! Something for nothing? What? Think again, Arkis my lad. This is the Grand Lord Shaithis you’re talking to. Oh, let’s be friends, Arkis – because I’ve need of you!’
‘So be it.’ Shaithis shrugged. ‘I merely envisaged a joint venture which would furnish joint returns, that’s all. Equal shares. But something for nothing? What, and did you think this was Sunside at sundown, with plenty of sweet Traveller game afoot?’ He made as if to turn away. ‘Starve, then.’
‘Wait!’ The other took a pace closer. And in a more reasonable tone: ‘What’s your plan?’
‘None,’ said Shaithis, ‘except to eat.’
‘Eh?’
Shaithis’s turn to sigh. ‘Listen, and I’ll ask you again: can they guard two flyers, Volse and the Ferenc?’
‘Certainly – a man to each.’
‘But we are two men!’
‘And if they’re both together?’
‘Then one beast goes unguarded! Has the cold numbed your once agile brain, Arkis?’ (That last was a lie, but a little flattery wouldn’t hurt.)
‘Hmm!’ The leper’s son thought about it for a moment, then scowled and stabbed a finger at Shaithis. ‘Very well – but if we come upon Volse Pinescu on his own, we kill him. And I want his heart! Is it a deal?’
‘Agreed,’ said Shaithis. ‘Actually, I should think it’s the only part worth eating.’
‘Hah!’ Arkis snorted. And: ‘Har, har! Oh, ha – ha -haaa.r he laughed, in his way.
And: Go on, laugh, Shaithis kept his thoughts hidden. But when Volse and Fess are done for, you’re next, bone-brain! And out loud: ‘Now guard your thoughts. We go out onto the ice . . .’
Volse Pinescu’s flyer was rimed with frost, stiff as a board.
Still Arkis Leperson would have set to, but Shaithis
cautioned him: ‘Let’s not waste valuable time here. What?
Why, you’d wear those tusks of yours to stumps on this!’ Arkis turned to him with a scowl. ‘It’s food, isn’t it?’ ‘Aye.’ Shaithis nodded. ‘And half a mile over there a lot more of it – but thick, red and flowing in juicy pipes. Good beasts I breed, Arkis, of the finest flesh. Now listen: do you sense our enemies? No? Neither do I. So today they’re not doing much guarding, right?’
Arkis sniffed the icy air. ‘It worries me. What are they up to, d’you suppose?’
Time for supposing after we’ve filled our bellies.’ Shaithis had already set off across the blue foxfire ice. And Arkis came shambling after. Shaithis glanced back once and nodded, then faced forward and grinned his sly grin as of old. Ever the leader, Shaithis, and how easy once more to take up the mantle. And behind him Arkis Leperson, like a dog to heel . . .
A wind came up.
While Shaithis and Arkis Leperson, called Diredeath, sat in a cave carved by Volse and Fess in the underbelly of Shaithis’s flyer and sipped the feebly pulsing juices of that now insensate beast, the radiant stars were blotted out by dark, scudding clouds. Snow came down in a shortlived blizzard, which loaned the ice a thin, soft coating.