When the edge of the sun neared the horizon, Ulf took himself off into the middle of the bushes, and sat cross legged, his back against the twisted root of a tree. It was time he tried to make contact with Siris. Since they were roughly in the same longitude, they should observe the sunset at the same time. Their agreement was to attempt contact as the sun touched the horizon. This moment seemed to facilitate contact between minds.
Niall moved his position slightly so he could watch his father. Ulf was tired, and instead of relaxing, might easily fall asleep. Therefore he intended to keep Ulf in sight, and to make some small movement to arouse his attention if he seemed to be dozing.
Suddenly, he stiffened with horror. In the twisted root behind his father, something was moving. As he watched, the long, sinuous body of a grey centipede crawled into the open. It was about three feet long, and the many-jointed antennae were vibrating curiously; it had sensed intruders in its territory. But it had not yet noticed Ulf, who was sitting still as a stone. Niall had seen very few centipedes, and the movement of their tiny legs fascinated and repelled him. Unlike the millipede, the centipede is poisonous; this one was of the soil-burrowing type. And when, in the course of its cautious survey of its territory, it became aware of the man, its head reared upward into a position of alertness, revealing poison claws like those of a spider.
While Ulf remained still, he was in no danger. But if he became aware of the centipede, and moved suddenly, he would instantly be bitten.
Niall also realised that Ingeld was lying in a position from which she could see Ulf. Her eyes were closed; but if she opened them and saw the centipede, she would scream.
Niall suppressed the panic surging in his veins and made his mind calm. At that moment, Ulf’s deeper breathing indicated that he had made contact. The centipede was still poised, its poison claws within a few inches of Ulf’s bare back. But as Ulf remained immobile, this fighting posture gradually relaxed. Very cautiously, Niall looked around for his spear; it was propped against the trunk of the tree a few feet away. Moving very slowly, in case he disturbed Ingeld, he reached out towards it. It was slightly too far for his reach; he had to edge forward. His hand closed round its shaft; silently, he raised it into the throwing position. But Ulf’s breathing told him that he was still in contact. Everything was silent. Then Ingeld stirred, and the bone bracelets on her wrists rattled. Instantly, the centipede was again in the striking position. When silence ensued, it again relaxed. A full minute went by. Suddenly, Ulf sighed deeply and stirred. Without hesitation, Niall hurled the spear. It struck the ground a few inches from the centipede, but its momentum drove it on so that its point ploughed through the ground and under the centipede’s belly. Startled, Ulf looked round. The spear had carried the centipede several feet away. A moment later, Niall was standing over it with his father’s spear, stabbing the writhing body again and again. Ingeld woke up, saw what was happening, and screamed piercingly. Two minutes earlier, the scream would have cost Ulf his life. Now it only galvanised him into action; he seized the other spear and helped Niall dispatch the thrashing predator, whose erect fangs were now harmless since the head was half-severed from the body.
When the creature lay still, Ulf placed his hand briefly on Niall’s head. “Good work, son.” He seldom addressed Niall as “son”, and Niall blushed with pleasure.
Ingeld was still frantic. “Oh, let’s get away from here! It’s horrible. . .”
Ulf shrugged. “It should be safe enough now.” He prodded with his spear deep into the roots of the tree.
“I can’t bear it here!” Her voice was tense with hysteria.
Ulf sighed. “There’s no point in moving until the moon rises. We can’t see where we’re going.”
“Then I’m going over there!” And she moved out into the open, fifty yards away, and sat there defiantly. Niall wanted to tell her that she was in more danger from scorpions and centipedes in the open than under the bushes, but decided it was not worth the effort. The thought that they would soon be seeing the last of her filled him with relief.
An hour later, the moon rose and they began the march south. A few miles on, they came upon a well-worn road that seemed to run from the plateau in the direction of the salt lake. They followed this for the remainder of the night. Often they were alarmed by movements from the desert on either side of them — scrabbling noises, scuttling sounds, and on one occasion a menacing hiss — but they saw nothing; few desert creatures would risk attacking a group of three.
When the moon set, they rested for an hour. Ingeld flung herself down on the ground and gave a deep sigh. Ulf lay on his back, using a flat stone as a pillow. Niall preferred to sit with his back against a boulder; the sounds from the desert had made him nervous. He began to doze, but a rustling sound woke him; he listened intently, but there was no further noise. He allowed himself to relax, while concentrating at the same time. Because of his fatigue, it worked more easily than usual, and he suddenly experienced that deep inner quiet as if he had walked into some vast empty hall. Ingeld stirred, and as his attention switched to her, he became aware of her thoughts: of her feeling of weariness and her resentment at the efforts she was being forced to make. He saw that she felt no gratitude towards himself or his father for bringing her this far: only a feeling of angry contempt. She was, he now realised, deeply resentful about the deaths of Thorg and Hrolf, and blamed them on Ulf and Veig. Still nursing her sense of injury, she fell asleep. Ulf was already asleep; when Niall turned his attention to his father, he was aware of a sensation like a grey, pulsating mass, full of images and dreams.
When he used this new sense of inwardness to scan the desert, he immediately became aware of hundreds of living creatures: beetles, spiders, ants, solifugids, centipedes, rodents, all thinking about food. It was a strange sensation, like becoming the desert. Some of the creatures — the grey spiders, for example — were aware that his mind was scanning them; others were completely oblivious.
Something was disturbing him, like a nagging worry at the back of his mind. His mind came back to the here-and-now and he realised it was already daylight. Then he started as something brushed his leg. He was sitting in the midst of small, moving bodies, dark, hairy creatures like caterpillars that had emerged from the underbrush a few feet from the road. His first thought was that they were poisonous centipedes; a closer look revealed that they had the typical hump-backed locomotion of a caterpillar. Their length varied between six inches and a foot. Ingeld was lying on her back, her mouth open, her arm flung above her head, and one of the caterpillars was crawling over her dress. Niall bestirred himself to shake her awake. At that moment, the caterpillar rose up on her chest, like a striking snake, and made a plunge forward. Ingeld woke up and began to choke. To his horror, Niall realised that the creature was in her mouth, about six inches of its length hanging over her chin; as he watched, the six inches diminished to three. Ingeld was thrashing and struggling helplessly. Niall rushed forward, grabbed at the creature’s furry body and pulled violently. It came out, struggling and writhing, and he felt its sharp mandibles bite his wrist. Ingeld began to be sick. As he hurled the creature to the ground, Niall became aware of others crawling up his legs and saw that his father’s body was also covered. As Niall yelled, Ulf woke with a start and jumped to his feet. One of the hairy creatures tried to enter his mouth; he clenched his teeth, biting its head off, and hurled the rest to the ground.
Ignoring their baggage, they ran, beating off caterpillars that tried to climb their legs. Fifty yards away, they halted; the caterpillars had made no attempt to follow. Ingeld was gasping convulsively, and Ulf, his face distorted by disgust, spat repeatedly to clear his mouth. The air was filled with a sickening smell like rotting vegetation.
Niall said: “What are they?”
“Bore worms. One of the vilest creatures in the desert. Ugh!” He spat again.
Ingeld, sobbing like a frightened child, said: “It tried to get into my mouth.”
Ulf nodded. “And if it had succeeded, you’d be dead by now. They feed off intestines.”