He forced aside the relics of the chaplains’ teachings about reliance on visions, and composed himself to concentrate on his duties as interpreter.
“We saw no signs of organization on the way here,” the captain was saying. “Does it break down at night, or is it always the same?”
“At the beginning there was some semblance of order among the invaders,” Shash said. He was tired but coherent; his older brother Chard was slumped to the point where he looked as though he needed a sitting-pit, and paying scant attention. “They were able to confront us and— well, that was how we lost Burney. We were fit and rational, and thought they would be too. We now believe they must have been the first of their folk to work out what was happening, to decide that they must leave home and take over someone else’s territory. And we assume that others fell in behind them when they realized this was their only hope, but by then they were—well—disturbed. And on the way I guess they infected others with their craziness.”
“That fits,” Skilluck muttered. “Any idea how far north they came from?”
“What few people we’ve been able to capture and feed up to the stage where they can talk normally—and there aren’t many of those—all agree that the cold weather reaches down to the very pith of this continent. If my brother were better he could tell you more. But he’s exhausted.” Shash spread his claws helplessly. “The further from the sea, it seems, the worse the cold! We know that water retains heat longer than dry land, but even so, this is terrifying! Are we due for frost and snow here in Hearthome? We’ve never seen such things! One could imagine the whole world turning into a frozen ball!”
“I don’t think we have to fear that,” Wellearn said, a little surprised at himself. He parted from Embery and leaned forward. “The way Chard explained it to me, warmth at the equator turns water into vapor, so clouds turn into ice at the poles. But if the sun goes on getting warmer—”
“Quite right!” said Chard unexpectedly, and lapsed back into distraction.
“Forget the theories!” Skilluck snapped. “We need to decide on a plan of action! I have one. We should simply—”
“But what about the Blade of Heaven?”—from Toughide.
“Oh, that!” Chard roused himself completely. “We know about such phenomena. When a star—like the famous New Star—explodes, it throws off gobbets which cool down in the interstellar void. If one approaches another sun, it warms up and boils off part of itself. All this follows from the teaching Jing bequeathed.”
“Is this going to save our lives?” Skilluck shouted, erupting to full height. “Are you coining with us? Are you prepared to give us what you want to preserve from Hearthome? Make your minds up now!”
He was so patently correct, Wellearn found himself upright alongside him.
“Yes! And whatever else you give us, we must have the whole of Jing’s scriptures!”
“Creshban!” Skilluck shouted, and the other captains echoed him. “If nothing else, we must have the secret of creshban!”
The wind had shifted; there was something menacing in the air that affected their weather-sense, making tempers raw, and it wasn’t just smoke.
After a pause filled only by the noise of the crazy folk smashing and ripping through the city, Shash said heavily, “There’s no secret to creshban. We don’t know why, but fresh sour juices of new-budded fruits or even new-sprouted leaves will do the job so long as they have no animal matter at the roots. Nothing from a briq’s back—nothing from a cemetery—only shoots that spring from new bare ground. I’ll give you seeds that produce the most suitable plants, but … Well, essentially it’s like eating a proper diet at home, instead of wandering across a desert or an ocean and living on stored food.”
“That simple?” Skilluck whispered. “If we’d known—”
“If you’d known you’d never have come back,” said Chard unexpectedly. “You said that in Forbish, didn’t you?”
There was a thunderstruck pause, while Wellearn registered the fact that he had not actually translated the last statement, and the rest of the Wego captains were looking blank.