The doors of the two aircraft closed, and the engines started, sending up swirls of dust. The onlookers, meaning just about the entire female and juvenile population that was left, crowded to the side of the settlement to watch. The sounds intensified, and the smaller craft lifted off first to make a slow circuit west above the lake. The larger craft rose to join it as came back over, and the two departed toward the southeast, climbing slowly. The onlookers watched in awe until the two dots were lost against the overcast, and then dispersed to return to their various chores. Yobu turned back to some clay he was mixing. Leisha had shown him some basics of writing, and he was looking for a more permanent way of preserving the markings she had made for him on pieces of paper. Calina, who had been watching the warriors’ departure from behind him, was by his table, looking down at them.
“Clay turns hard like rock when it dries,” he explained. “I thought we could make the marks in it and keep them from being lost.”
“I can help you with this, Yobu,” she said distantly.
“You? . . . You know the shapes and how to join them?”
“I did once, a little . . . when I was very young. I had forgotten. Like you, I am remembering things.”
Yobu looked at her. “When you were a child . . .” A new possibility that he hadn’t thought of opened up in his mind. “We could teach the children too.” But even as he spoke the words, the flame died from his eyes.
“It would not be permitted,” Calina said, voicing it for him. “Rakki would not let others with an ability he doesn’t possess make him look inferior. And he would not have the patience to sit for many hours and learn. His way is for things that are swift and sure.”
She was right, of course. Yobu nodded and sighed. Calina looked away suddenly. A commotion was coming from somewhere outside. They moved to the rail at the edge of the porch and looked out. Something was happening below, somewhere by the creek. They moved out from the hut to where they could see. A tall figure, walking unsteadily, was coming up the slope from the direction of the lake. It was one of the Sky People; but Yobu had never before seen one of them looking like this. He was dirty and disheveled, with eyes white and staring from a blackened face, his clothing reduced to tatters and covered in mud. Several of the women who were near began following behind and to the side of the stranger, moving warily, keeping their distance. Three of the youths ran toward him with spears, conscious of their self-imposed status as the settlement’s new guardians. They menaced and shouted warnings, but the figure kept coming until he was a few yards from Yobu and Calina.
He uttered some words but Yobu didn’t understand. The stranger pointed to himself and gestured back the way he had come, then showed two fingers. “Two . . . Another.” He made the same gestures again along with more that involved showing both hands and making waving motions in the air.
“There is another,” Calina said. “I think he’s saying the other can’t move. He must be hurt or sick.”
Yobu’s first thought was that another aircraft had come down short, but he quickly realized that couldn’t be so: the other Sky People would have known and not just left in the way they had. The figure was acting as if it knew Yobu. Yobu looked more closely. After some effort, he realized it was the one who had faced Rakki at the first meeting with the Sky People, and who Rakki had thought was the “head god.” From what Yobu had seen, he was not one of those who had given Rakki the guns. So had he come here as a friend or an enemy?
“He was here before,” Calina said. “It is the one they call Keene.” The Sky Man nodded at the sound of his name.
“Yes, I recognize him.” But still Yobu wavered, unsure what to do.