Next Oroll, Geret, and some others came up, and I gave them each one of the little closed copper vessels. Geret looked uneasily at me, but he took the thing and said nothing, yet his eyes flickered a lot. I lifted up the bowl of incense by the tongs, and tipped out the contents at their feet. Then I touched each vessel, one by one. And each man opened and drew out what was inside. Each item is very tiny, but a symbol, and it is the order in which they are discovered which is supposed to convey a meaning. First was the red clay disc which is the sun, and after that, the black wood oblong which means bad luck. After these, the white bead which is snow, the green bead which is warm weather, the yellow oval of good fortune, and the blue circle which has another circle cut away from the inside of it, and means the god’s pleasure.
There are twenty or so of these vessels, all in all, and everyone must be brought by the healer, and given out at random-the god guiding her hand, naturally. Still, it would be easy to mark the vessels so that one could identify which was which-a tiny scratch mark to the copper, discernible by the sensitive hand-yet there was no need. You could twist the meaning any way you chose. Today, it was this: Sibbos told us that to wait for the thaw-the sun-would be bad luck since there would be heavy snow and not good weather. Good fortune came by placing ourselves trustingly in the hands of Sibbos and going on toward the tunnel. It would have been equally simple to say-wait for the thaw, it is bad luck to go across the snow. Good weather is coming and good fortune, and the god smiles on us.
Nevertheless, the healer’s interpretation is final.
Oroll and the men who wanted to move on grunted and nodded. The Others looked sullen. Only Geret spoke up.
“I defy the reading. Uasti should have done it. This mangirl isn’t a true diviner. I don’t trust her judgment.”
There was a tense quiet in the cave. The fires crackled.
“Do you argue with your god, Geret?” I asked.
“With you I argue.”
The time had come for me to finish his troublemaking. I looked at him, and his eyes could not slither from the grasp of mine. It was very quick, and I knew I had him.
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“Then, Geret,” I said, “you anger Sibbos. Put down his vessel before he burns your hand in his fury.”
Almost at once Geret yelled, and dropped the little copper pot. His palm was red and blistering, A cry of amazement went up, a few screams, and much jostling as those farthest from us tried to discover what had happened. I dipped my fingers in the water cup and flung a few drops in Geret’s face. He came awake at once and clutched his hand. Oroll nodded to me.
“Truly, Uasti has chosen well. You’ve the true knowledge of the god. Foolish for anyone to question it.”
He moved aside to let me pass. I went by, down between the people, who moved apart for me, and back to the wagon.
I set the things in their places. Uasti was sitting very still in her chair, her eyes glittering slightly in the gloom.
“It is done,” I said.
She did not answer. Then I saw the strange, blood-red necklace around her throat. The horror I felt is quite inexpressible. I wanted to shriek and shriek, but somehow I kept it down, like vomit. I thought for a moment a wild animal had got in, but no animal was so neat in what it did. There was a great deal of blood, I was already covered in it, having come in among it without thinking. And then the screaming started, and I thought at first it was me. But it was another. The girl who had been Uasti’s was running up between the wagon-lanes, yelling and weeping and tearing her hair. In a moment men and women were running to her, running back with her toward the wagon. They wrenched open the flaps, and light speared at us, Uasti and I.
“Her! Her!” the girl wailed, hysterical with malice and fury, and terror at what she had done. “Look at her, covered with the old one’s blood! Vampire!”
Her frenzy caught at them like flame in dry grass. It was the women who came at me. I was pulled down from the wagon, onto my face, then rolled onto my back. There was the sensation of many hands holding me helpless, fingers in my hair and clothes, straining and biting into my flesh, the great mist of faces, bestial and intent. I was choked and blinded by panic and shock, and I knew it would be now, after all, that I should die. Those hands hitting at me, all one bruising blow falling again and again. Blood salt in my mouth from a loosened tooth. It scarcely seemed to matter what damage they did if I was to die anyway-I only wanted to lose consciousness and feel no more of it.
But I could not quite let go. Beyond the blur of pain, I
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heard a dim bellowing of men’s angry voices, then the high calls of women, and suddenly my attackers were being pulled off me and slung aside. Strong, rough, but helpful hands had me now. I was being lifted away-I glimpsed faces, and one face in particular, the full red-lipped face of Geret-and found, surprised, it was his men, not Droll’s, who had rescued me.
This was his wagon, richly hung and rather cluttered. Two lamps overhead-greenish gold between my slitted lids, already puffy and closing. The shireen had saved me a little, but not much. Cautiously I probed at the tooth, which wobbled unpleasantly. Yet I knew enough now to realize that if I left it alone, it would have grown back into its socket by morning. As for my body, the robe was stripped away in great rents and holes, one breast and most of my legs bare. The flesh was streaked with blood and purple with bruises, and my head ached from the handfuls of hair they had wrenched out.
Beyond the wagon, I could still hear shouts and screaming, but it grew quieter gradually.
I lay and waited for Geret.
When he came in, through the flap I glimpsed for a moment the circle of his men guarding the wagon.
“Well,” he said, and chuckled. “Not a pretty sight, not pretty at all. They’ve made a bad mess of you, warriorwoman. What would your tribe say now, eh? The warrior who couldn’t even hold off a pack of girls.”
I did not bother to answer; besides, it would have hurt too much.
He got the lamps down on their chains, and lowered the wicks. The light became very dull and murky, but I could still see enough to know when he hoisted up his robe and lowered his leggings, and came at me with his enraged manhood wagging. He ripped off the last of the robe, but did not touch the shireen. He had no interest in faces, that one. Neither did he have time to notice anything else.
When he was finished, he rolled aside and lay on his back.
“You there,” he said, “tribal mare. Have the sense to see Geret has broken you at last. I know you’re not strong enough to turn on me, but in case you think you are, there are twenty men outside, and I’ve only to call.”
I wondered how true that was, remembering the first day, and how the henchmen had grinned at his discomfort. But perhaps he had picked his guard better this time.
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“I will not hurt you,” I managed to say.
He cursed.
“You know they’ll kill you for murdering the old bitch? Not a nice killing either. The women have a very high regard for their healer. I might be able to save your skin-what they’ve left you of it. But I ask myself if I should. I don’t know how you managed that trick with the copper, but I don’t take kindly to it.”
I was drowsy. I had learned to take my safety where I found it, and I knew now what must be done. Uasti had taught me something more than the arts of eye and hand, which had already been in me, though without discipline. And I did not grieve for Uasti, for she was not one to pity or be sad over, even in murder and death. Her face had been calm and silent above the slashed throat.
And her vengeance was coming.
4
I woke early, sensing day without any smell or sight to indicate it, holed up as we were. Geret was snoring on his back, and oblivious, as I examined myself. I was healed. Only the very deepest scratches and cuts had left a fault mauve scar, but that would be gone before the day was over. The tooth was whole in my mouth. Even the soreness in my hair had vanished, and the hair-growth seemed unimpaired.