Wallbreaker had already moved in all his possessions. He was waiting for them amidst a pile of junk metal. He kept sorting through it, ignoring their presence for many heartbeats. He had even failed to hug them on their safe return. He was chief now, Stopmouth thought; he couldn’t be seen to favour his brother over any other hunter. And perhaps he was unwell, for his skin shone with perspiration as if he too had just returned from a patrol. Eventually he climbed up onto a fur-covered block that Speareye used on special occasions, and had Mossheart bring them bowls of water. Stopmouth saw that her belly had begun to show. He grinned at her but got no response, and she left quickly.
Then the two hunters gave Wallbreaker a full report of what they’d seen. He surprised them by smiling at last.
‘This is good news, my friends, not bad as you seem to think.’ He got down from Speareye’s seat and began drawing in the dirt of the floor. ‘We are here…’ He made an X. ‘The Armourbacks and their Hopper friends started here…’ Another X. ‘Now they’ve moved into Hairbeast and Flim, separated from home by Clawfolk and Human. Stupid! So stupid! They must think themselves as powerful as spirits.’
‘But there are s-s-so m-many of them,’ said Stopmouth. ‘Three s-s-species of them. And they have already k-k-k-killed so many of our h-hunters.’
‘Sure,’ said Wallbreaker, ‘but every time they fight somebody, they lose a few of their own. Even the Flim must have killed some when they were taken. And the Hairbeasts would certainly have killed a lot. Our enemies have spent too many lives too foolishly, and we will be the ones to finish them off!’
‘I like this talk of their foolishness,’ said Rockface, ‘even if I hate Armourback flesh.’
‘You’ll have to get used to the taste!’ said Wallbreaker. ‘We all will.’
His confidence was inspiring. Rockface left, grinning, and was sure to spread the good news far and wide. Stopmouth hung around for a few minutes afterwards. He wanted to talk to Wallbreaker about the rumours surrounding Indrani, to assure his brother there was no truth in them. He didn’t get a chance.
‘Not now, brother,’ said the chief. The confidence he’d displayed in front of Rockface had disappeared. ‘I need to consult with my best warriors about the fight that is coming.’ He waved the back of his hand towards Stopmouth. ‘We’ll talk another day.’
Stopmouth had no choice but to go. He felt a tightening in his gut as he walked home.
Indrani was waiting for him with the roasted flesh of a Wetlane beast. He looked at her, really looked at her, and she looked back; straight into his eyes. She was not Mossheart. Mossheart didn’t have such fine cheekbones, nor black hair which, while still short, was lustrous. Mossheart had crooked teeth like any normal woman. She’d never seen him as anything other than a path to Wallbreaker.
He took his food outside to break the spell. When he sat in the doorway, Indrani came and squeezed in beside him. He should have pushed her away. But how could he explain that to her? He’d never minded before, never been as aware of her as he was now. As they ate together, people watched and whispered.
Desperate to distract himself from her proximity, Stopmouth told her what he’d seen in Claw-Ways. Her Human was improving and he thought this time she might understand most if not all of what he was saying. Not that she’d care much: every time in the past when he had begun to tell her about hunting, she’d told him in broken Human that she didn’t want to hear about it. ‘Not want you talk about bad men do,’ she always said.
Today, though, she ate her flesh and listened, sensing his fears. After a few minutes her expression changed from one of reassurance to shock. She jumped to her feet like a panicked Flim.
‘Armourback!’ she spluttered. ‘Armourback work to Hoppers? Work to Flyers?’
‘Work with Flyers.’
‘You never tell me!’ She ran into the house, then out again, eyes wild. ‘They have the–the…No word for it! My head is empty. They have a metal…a metal thing they use to talk to Hoppers. You understand, Shtop-Mou? They cannot have this thing!’
‘I’m sorry, Indrani, I don’t understand. We have metal too. There are bits of Globes all over the place now.’
‘Not metal, Shtop-Mou!’ She clenched and unclenched her fists. ‘A thing of metal, a very different thing.’
Stopmouth could only shrug, while she became more and more frustrated with his lack of understanding and her own lack of speech. She looked like a woman whose child was to be volunteered. She stopped for a moment and screwed her eyes shut, muttering in her baby talk. He saw her look up to the Roof with her deep, black eyes. Then she pointed at it. ‘See the…the Globes? They are of metal, yes?’
‘Yes.’ Even the shape of her arm caught his attention now.
‘I come out of Globe, yes? You see I come, yes?’
‘Yes.’ The hair on her head had grown back, but none showed on her skin. He didn’t want her to catch him staring, but she had shut her eyes again, struggling for words. ‘The Globe is a thing of metal that goes into air. The thing the Armourback has is a different thing of metal that talk Flyer talk to Flyer, Hopper talk to Hopper, yes?’
He had no idea what she meant. And yet…A metal object such as a Globe allowed the human Indrani to fly. Could not a magic object exist that would allow beasts to understand each other? If the Armourbacks had got their claws on such a treasure, it would explain why they had suddenly been able to make common cause with two other species. Stopmouth jumped to his feet, excited at last for reasons that did not shame him.
‘By the ancestors!’ he exclaimed. ‘This thing…this different thing. If we c-can take it away from the Armourbacks, they won’t be able to talk to the H-Hoppers any more?’
Indrani nodded.
‘You must tell W-W-Wallbreaker.’
‘No!’ she shot back. ‘You tell to him!’ The mention of Wallbreaker’s name had worked its usual sour magic on her features. Lovely features, he thought, and turned away from her to calm the beating of his heart. This woman was not just married to his brother, she was married to the chief. For her to be living with another man was an unprecedented scandal among the Tribe, and Indrani had only been allowed to get away with it so far because she had fallen out of the sky. As her speech improved and the novelty wore off, Wallbreaker would be left with no choice but to volunteer her. That decision might have already been taken–the Tribe had lost its greatest hunters. It needed flesh more than ever if it was to survive. Stopmouth had to stop thinking about Indrani, stop looking at her. He had to get her living with Wallbreaker at all costs or see her sacrificed.
‘Indrani, you must tell W-Wallbreaker. The Tribe won’t take the threat seriously if it comes from me.’
She pursed her dark lips and hissed some gibberish at him. But finally she turned and walked towards Centre Square, making Stopmouth scamper to keep up.
‘It can’t be true,’ said the chief when Indrani told him. They’d found Wallbreaker and Mossheart alone in their house. In spite of the presence of his first wife, the chief’s eyes had lit up when Indrani arrived. Then he saw Stopmouth too, and smiled more than seemed natural. Mossheart turned her back and took the stairs for the roof. She didn’t return.
After a clumsy silence, Wallbreaker questioned Indrani as closely as her broken speech would allow. His lingering stares made her uncomfortable at first, but gradually his fascination with the subject had him hopping in his seat with excitement and Stopmouth grinned to see his brother returned once more to himself.
‘If they only have this one metal thing, this…let’s call it a Talker…Yes, Talker sounds right. But if they only have one, then how can the Armourbacks and their friends be in three separate areas at once and still work together? When the Armourback chief takes the Talker out of an area, co-operation there must stop.’
‘Only n-need it when p-p-planning,’ said Stopmouth.
‘True.’ Wallbreaker formed his lips into a genuine smile. ‘And if we can attack them in a place where they don’t have the Talker,
they won’t be able to adapt their plans quickly. We could really hurt them.’ Then he frowned. ‘Tell me, my wife, if they can talk to Flyers and Hoppers, could they talk to others as well? Bloodskins, Clawfolk?’
‘Can talk with all,’ said Indrani, and added, ‘Not wife of you!’
‘Why n-n-not us?’ said Stopmouth quickly. ‘Why n-n-not the H-Hairbeasts?’
‘Dear brother,’ said Wallbreaker, his tone almost sneering, ‘if you invite everybody to the feast, there’s no one left to eat.’ He stroked his chin. ‘Perhaps there’s no point in attacking them, after all. What’s to stop them replacing their losses through alliance with yet another species? No, the only way to survive this is to find the Talker and seize it for ourselves.’ Wallbreaker turned his gaze back to Indrani. ‘Go home, wife,’ he said.
‘I not your wife. I never say it!’
‘I want to speak to my brother alone. Goodbye, Indrani. Go home.’ She scowled, but left them.
Wallbreaker fixed his gaze on the younger man, until Stopmouth felt himself squirm. I’ve done nothing wrong! But the gaze didn’t shift for what seemed like tens of thousands of heartbeats.
‘How are you healing, Stopmouth?’
‘W-w-well.’ Stopmouth felt himself relax. ‘I r-r-run every d-d-day.’
‘Good,’ said Wallbreaker. ‘You would have been volunteered long ago had I not been able to keep you fed. And Indrani too. A lot of people want her to volunteer, you know. Especially the women. But I married her out of kindness. To keep her safe. And you safe too, because she has no small talent for healing. Some people would find it very funny if, after all that, the chief’s brother were to betray him with his own wife.’ Wallbreaker laughed. ‘Some fools are saying that you are already betraying me. Can you believe that, Stopmouth? They say you’re laughing behind my back!’
‘N-n-n-never!’
‘Why not? Don’t you find her beautiful?’ Stopmouth could only look away. Wallbreaker got to his feet and shoved Stopmouth violently with both hands, knocking him back hard so that he hit the wall and slid to the floor, winded.
‘Why, Stopmouth?’
‘I d-didn’t—’
‘I didn’t say that you did.’ His voice turned to a whisper. ‘But you want to. Don’t you? What is it about my wives, Stopmouth? I would have paid bride price for you to the father of any girl you wanted. But no. Always my women. First Mossheart and now poor, unnatural Indrani. I’m a laughing stock. I’m the only chief who can get the Tribe through the horror that’s coming. But I can’t be chief if I allow this situation with Indrani to go on. You understand that, Stopmouth?’
‘W-will you v-v-v-volunteer m-m-m-me?’
‘Who do you think you’re talking to?’ shouted Wallbreaker suddenly. ‘Crunchfist?’
Then he calmed again. ‘Not a bad idea, Stopmouth. But I will waste none of our people for selfish reasons. No brother of mine will volunteer until he’s too old to lift a spear. In fact, if we could gain control of the Talker, no human would ever have to volunteer again. We could co-operate with other strong peoples. Even’–he grimaced–‘with the Armourbacks…No, I won’t waste you, Stopmouth. Let’s make a deal. I don’t want Indrani. I’d willingly set the ugly beast aside and allow you to marry her.’
Stopmouth tried to prevent a smile from spreading across his face and failed. He couldn’t remember a moment in his life when he’d been more happy. He reached out to hug his brother, but Wallbreaker threw him back again, even harder than before.
‘No, Stopmouth.’ He was speaking through clenched teeth. Why was he still angry? He’d just said he didn’t even want her. ‘Not so easy! If I set her aside for you, my chieftainship would be ruined for ever. This will only work if I can provide us with a victory so stunning that no hunter would dare to question my manhood. You understand? If you want Indrani, then I want the Talker.’ His eyes bored into Stopmouth. ‘Someone’s going to have to get it for me.’
‘W-who?’
Wallbreaker just kept staring.
9.
THE ALLIANCE ATTACKS
Stopmouth carried the last of Mother’s hides to the new house near Centre Square. He wasn’t sure he liked it: the buildings were smaller here and other houses crowded in on either side. To tell the truth, nobody wanted to move, but Wallbreaker had ordered the Tribe to pull in as close together as possible. ‘For protection,’ he said. ‘A smaller perimeter will be easier to defend.’
A number of families had disobeyed. The chief just ignored them. ‘They’ll come round,’ he muttered, ‘when they’ve wasted a few more lives.’
Stopmouth still felt bad about what had happened between them and desperately wanted to patch things up. However, the chief was always busy and only spoke to his brother to give him instructions. He seemed to have orders for everybody these days, even the children.
One day he told the Tribe’s women to stop pounding skins for a few days to build barriers instead. ‘I want them blocking every street within a short walk from my house,’ said Wallbreaker. He showed them where, always making sure that this new border had plenty of space in front of it so that intruders wouldn’t be able to leap across from nearby buildings. Men were drafted in as well. Traps were dug in the streets, both inside and outside the barriers; boulders were hoisted onto roofs. As work progressed, accidents reduced the number of mouths to feed and created volunteers to keep the others strong.
Stopmouth’s own strength came back to him as he worked, and new muscle developed where little had been before. He showed other men how to make spear-points from Armourback shell and soon every fragment of it in the Ways had been used for weapons.
Now and again word came through from the families who’d stayed beyond the protection of the new walls. One day a hunter visiting his uncle discovered only blood. Other homes were found abandoned too. In the end the last survivors moved into the centre.
Now all hunting parties left with Wallbreaker’s permission and hunted only where he ordered them to go.
‘I can’t stand this,’ said Rockface one day. His had been the last family to retreat from near the old border. ‘I found my infant playing with a pair of Hoppers. They were leading her away. Couldn’t even be bothered to carry her!’ He grinned. ‘I made her a cot out of one of them.’
He watched Stopmouth filing at a piece of Armourback shell for a time. Then he stood up again and wandered restlessly from one side of the small room to the other. ‘I can’t bear it!’ he said finally. ‘Crunchfist wouldn’t have retreated like this, hey?’ Then his eyes lit up. ‘Say, Stopmouth, since you and Windbreaker don’t seem to be talking much these days, how about the two of us sneaking into Clawfolk to see if we can’t sling a Flyer, hey? It’ll be like old times.’
Stopmouth could never think of Rockface’s ‘old times’ without a shiver of fear running up his spine. But he needed the big man: no one else was willing to go along with Wallbreaker’s mad scheme to steal the Talker. Rockface, on the other hand, had begged to go.
I must be crazy, thought Stopmouth. And yet the young hunter prayed every night that an opportunity to capture the magical device would arise soon. If he survived, he, Stopmouth, would have a chance to seek happiness. In the meantime Indrani, who’d learned enough Human by now to understand the peril in which she’d placed both herself and Stopmouth, had finally agreed to avoid further scandal by moving into Wallbreaker’s house. She’d been promised her own room and would pretend to obey the chief. Stopmouth was to keep his distance. When the Talker was found, Indrani would be free to live where she pleased, while Stopmouth would be free to woo her.
He hadn’t shared the last part with her. His stutter didn’t like the idea of wooing and silenced any attempts to broach the subject. But things would be different after the Talker. He felt sure of it.
He sighed, smiling.
‘Thinking of our coming adventure, hey?’ asked Rockface, souring the mood again.
Right on cue, Rockface’s boy, Littleknife, ran up to them, covered in sw
eat and dust. ‘The chief wants to see the two of you at once. You’re to bring your weapons.’
‘Thank you,’ said Stopmouth, his stomach churning.
Rockface whooped. ‘See you there!’ he shouted. He flung the child over his shoulder and ran off. Stopmouth collected his latest spear and a favourite sling. He didn’t bother with stones or water skins–he’d find plenty of both waiting for him. Then he moved out into the crowded streets of the reduced perimeter. News travelled even faster than in the old days. People buzzed with excitement and fear. Stopmouth didn’t pause to ask what was happening. He could guess well enough.
Wallbreaker was waiting for him with Mossheart. The chief had no smile for his brother. A cold nod was all. In the background Indrani busied herself pounding hides where anybody could see her. She never looked up at the sound of Stopmouth’s voice, but he thought she stuck to her task with more single-mindedness than was natural. Her hair looked tangled and filthy. Not like her. But who had time for combs these days? Suddenly he realized he was staring. Mossheart smirked, but her husband was positively shaking, as if poised for violence.
Stopmouth lowered his eyes and was relieved when Rockface arrived, too excited to feel any of the mounting tension.
Eventually Wallbreaker spoke, more calmly than his brother could have imagined possible. ‘Our scouts have spotted large numbers of Armourbacks and Hoppers moving together outside the walls of Hairbeast-Ways. You realize what this means?’
‘They’ll try to take us,’ said Rockface, ‘before they take the Clawfolk!’
‘Oh, certainly that,’ said Wallbreaker. Since becoming chief he’d worried less and less about showing contempt for those who didn’t see things as quickly as he did. ‘More importantly, the object we seek, the Talker, is in Hairbeast-Ways. It has to be to co-ordinate all that moving about. And yes, Rockface, they’re coming for us. Maybe even tonight.’
‘You w-w-want us to l-l-leave n-n-now?’
The Inferior Page 10
