Maybe it had been the Oldworlders’ way. But the Oldworlders no longer possessed the caves.
With the Swamp People’s domain now extending up to the caves, it had become important to learn more of the territories that lay beyond. The expedition that Rakki would be leading tomorrow was to be a long-range exploration lasting many days to reconnoiter the more distant terrain and search for signs of other habitation and resources that might be of use. Two others would accompany him in addition to Gap Teeth and Shingral. A small, lightly equipped party would move faster and cover more ground than a large group; and in the event of there being any hostile presence out there, they would be less conspicuous and thus not so likely to draw followers back.
Rakki straightened up and reached for the “gun” that he had propped against the rock wall. It was time he went to check on how the other preparations were going. Jemmo carried a gun as a symbol of rank, and he had thought better of trying to oppose the demand when Rakki claimed the right to one too. Even to be confronted by a refusal would have been unacceptably insulting to Rakki’s pride and made an immediate resolution unavoidable, which Jemmo evidently didn’t want to precipitate yet.
The number of guns they had obtained from the Cavers was five plus another two—White Head had taught Rakki the words for numbers as far as the fingers on one hand. He said there were more that he would tell later. The remaining five guns were kept under guard until it was decided who would have them. But in truth, their value at present went little farther than being just emblems to instill awe. Sims, one of the other Oldworlders who had been spared in addition to White Head and Yellow Hair, had explained the function of bullets, but there were so few of them that Jemmo had been loathe to expend any on learning. But the dilemma then, as Rakki pointed out, had been that the weapons would never be of use if no one could use them. In the end, they had compromised by going out to some open ground beyond the rampart with Sims, taking five and one bullets. Sims had used two of them to demonstrate the technique for directing the bullet to hit a reed basket placed on a rock half a bowshot away. With the remaining four, Rakki and Jemmo tried two each. On Rakki’s first attempt the gun kicked unexpectedly causing him to drop it, and he didn’t know where the bullet went. He managed to hold onto the gun for the second, but again missed. Jemmo did no better. So the problem remained unsolved of how to learn to use the guns and be left with enough bullets to ever fight with them. One of the hopes for the reconnaissance tour was that it might locate more bullets. Rakki didn’t think it very likely, since apart from the things in the caves and a few oddments like his edged metal club—which he had found and reclaimed—he had seen hardly any traces of Oldworld things. But at least, now he had some idea what an ammunition box looked like.
As he lifted the weapon, he couldn’t resist running a finger again over its gray metal lines. The precision and form of the pieces and how they fitted together, and the way it opened for the bullets to be inserted, still astounded him. Apart from crude bending or sharpening on a stone, he had never heard of ways of cutting or shaping objects of metal. He remembered White Head’s words about gods who once flew above the sky and built shining tower-caves like ant mounds that stood higher than the cliffs. He looked across at where White Head was squatting.
“The birds that the gods flew in. They were made from metal too, like this?”
“Yes. Shells of metal. Like giant eggs with metal wings.”
“And all gods carried guns, like this?”
“The god-warriors carried them. Armies bigger in number than the herd of cows that I tended.”
Rakki couldn’t comprehend how anything could stand before that many guns. He often suspected that White Head exaggerated wildly. He didn’t like the thought that White Head might be making a fool of him. “So many not possible.” He shook his head pointedly, meaning it as a warning. “You tell me things as they were, Oldworld man. Only truth with Rakki.”