“Look at them,” Stallan said, disgust and repugnance in every movement. “I brought them here, forced them to safety in the water—and still they die. They close their stupid eyes, roll back their heads, and die.”
“Their city is dead,” Vaintè said wearily. “So they are dead. They have been cast out. There are your deathless ones if you wish to see who lives.” Her movements were rich with disgust when she indicated the group of Yilanè standing knee-deep in the river.
“The Daughters of Death,” Stallan said, her disgust just as clear. “That is all that remains of Alpèasak? Just those?”
“You forget us, Stallan.”
“I remember that you and I are here—but I do not understand why we are not dead with the rest.”
“We live because we hate too much. Hate the ustuzou who did this. Now we know why they came here. They brought their fire and they have burned our city…”
“There, look, a uruketo! Coming towards the beach.” Vaintè looked at the dark form slipping through the waves. “I ordered them away when the fire came close, told them to return when it was gone.”
Enge saw the uruketo as well and left the other survivors and waded ashore. Vaintè saw her coming and chose to ignore her attitude of inquiry. When Enge saw this she stood before Vaintè and spoke.
“What of us, Vaintè. The uruketo comes close yet you choose not to speak to us.”
“That is my choice. Alpèasak is dead and I wish you all dead as well. You will remain here.”
“A harsh judgement, Vaintè, to those who have never harmed you. Harshly spoken to one’s efenselè.”
“I disown you, want no part of you. It was you who sowed weakness among the Yilanè when we needed all of our strength. Die here.”
Enge looked at her efenselè, at Vaintè who had been the strongest and best, and rejection and distaste were in every line of her body.
“You whose hatred has destroyed Alpèasak, you disown me? I accept that and say that everything that has been between us will be no more. Now it is I who disown you and will obey you no longer.”
She turned her back on Vaintè and saw the uruketo close offshore, called out to the Daughters.
“We leave here. Swim to the uruketo.”
“Kill them, Stallan!” Vaintè screeched. “Shoot them down.”
Stallan turned and raise her hèsotsan, ignoring Enge’s cries of pain, aimed, and fired dart after dart at the swimming Yilanè. Her aim was good and one after another was hit and sank beneath the water. Then the hèsotsan was empty and she lowered it and looked about for more darts.
The survivors had reached the uruketo, the scientist, Akotolp, and a male among them, when Enge turned away. “You bring only death, Vaintè,” she said. “You have become a creature of death. If it were possible I would abandon all of my beliefs just to end your life.”
“Do it then,” Vaintè said mockingly, turning and raising her head so the skin was taut on her neck. “Bite. You have teeth. Do it.”
Enge swayed forward, then back, for she could not kill, not even one so deserving of death as Vaintè.
Vaintè lowered her head, began to speak—but was stopped by Stallan’s harsh cry.
“Ustuzou!”
Vaintè spun about, saw them running towards her waving hèsotsan and pointed sticks. With instant decision she closed her thumbs and clubbed Enge to the ground with her fist. “Stallan,” she called out as she dove towards the water, “to the uruketo.”
This was what Kerrick saw as he ran up the river bank. The dead Yilanè on all sides, the living in the water. A single one standing, looking towards them, a Yilanè he would never forget.
“Don’t shoot!” he called out loudly, then again in Sasku. “That marag is mine.” Then he spoke in Yilanè as he went on, his meaning blurred by his running but still clear.
“It is I, Stallan, the ustuzou who hates you and means to kill you. Do you flee, great coward, or do you wait for me?” Stallan did not need these taunts, barely heard them. For her the sight of Kerrick’s running figure was enough. This was the creature she hated more than anything else in the world, the ustuzou that had destroyed Alpèasak. She dropped the empty hèsotsan and roaring with rage she charged at him.