Winter in Eden

Meskawino stopped, took a backward step. “I see nothing.” His voice was hoarse with fear.

“Out to sea, floating in the water — and there is another one.”

There were indeed things there, objects, but too distant to make out what they were. Meskawino tried to pull back, to return.

“We must tell Kerrick what we have seen, this is important.”

Ne

“You should not have done with your tongue like that at me.”

“My tongue stays in my mouth as long as you behave like a Sasku. We will go south and see if we can discover what it is we have seen.”

“We go south,” Meskawino said with resignation, sure that he was going to his certain death.

They kept away from the surf, as close to the trees as they could get, walking in careful fear. But the beach was empty. When they came to a surf-eroded headland they climbed up through the scrub and palmettos, still going warily although they knew they could not be seen from the ocean. At the crest they parted the boughs with care and looked through.

“Murgu!” Meskawino moaned, falling forward with his face in his hands.

Ne

“We must get closer, see what they are doing,” Ne

The fear was still there when Meskawino lifted his face, but relief as well. “I ca

Ne

It took a very long time and the sun was slanting down the sky before he was close enough to see the barrier clearly. It rose high, shielding the beach and the land behind it, stretching out into the sea. It was made of bushes of some kind, with large green leaves, though other kinds of darker growths were mixed in with it. He started forward along the forest’s edge when he saw the first body. Then another and another. He stood as paralyzed as Meskawino for a long time, horrified, before he could make himself take step after careful step back away from the place.

Although he trotted back along the sand at a steady ground-eating pace, he never caught up with Meskawino who must have run far faster, driven by his fears. For the first time Ne

Kerrick had heard of the Yilanè presence from Meskawino so had to labor hard to control his impatience as Ne

“At first it was just one, a deer that had come to graze the shrubs. Dead, the vine with thorns wrapped about its leg. Then I saw the others, some just bones, creatures of all kinds, even murgu beasts, that had died on the growing wall. Birds as well, sea birds and others who had landed — and never left. Whatever grows there is living death that kills whatever comes near it.”

“But why? What can it mean?” Sanone asked, and the other listeners nodded in puzzled agreement.

“What does it mean?” Kerrick’s voice was grim when he spoke. “Nothing good for us. Think of it. The murgu are here in force with many of their beast-ships. They have a base on that island offshore where we ca

“It is far from us,” Meskawino said in a faint but hopeful voice.

“It is now,” Kerrick said with no hope at all in his. “It will come closer or another one will grow closer, we can be sure of that. They are changing their tactics and I grow afraid. When they attacked us before this they sent armed fargi against us and they were destroyed. Now I have the great fear that the one who leads them is pla

How deadly was it — and how vulnerable? With this thought came a sickening fear. When he spoke again they could all hear it in his voice.

“I must go see this barrier on the shore. Will you show me, Ne

“I will go with you. Now?”

“No, you must rest, and it is late. We will go in the morning.”

They left at dawn, going forward carefully and steadily, following the footsteps made the day before where they were still visible above the high-tide mark. By midday they had the barrier in sight, a green arc cut in from the sea. But there was one difference.

“They are gone,” Ne

Kerrick suspected some trap. The sea was empty, the afternoon haze making the island gray in the distance. There were other, smaller islands beyond it; Kerrick remembered them when he had passed in the uruketo, an entire chain of them. Alakas-aksehent, the succession of golden, tumbled stones. A perfect place to come ashore from the sea, to be safe from anyone on the mainland. But the arc of death planted on the shore — what did it mean?

“I will climb that tree, the tall one,” Ne

He was a good climber, had climbed the valley wall many times, and this was much easier. Small twigs and leaves rained down as he swarmed up the wide branches. He stayed just a moment, then returned as quickly as he had gone.

“Nothing,” he said, his voice puzzled. “There is simply sand inside. Empty, the creatures who were there yesterday are gone. Unless they are buried in the sand — they are gone.”

“We will go to the place you watched from before, close to the killing area,” Kerrick said, taking up his bow while Ne

The corpse of the deer was there, now buzzing with flies, beyond it the green wall studded with the dead creatures. Kerrick flexed his bow and selected an arrow while Ne