Bernard Cornwell - Stonehenge

Rallin stood to greet Saban. 'You bring us news,' he said flatly.

Morthor also stood. His skin was chalked white and his empty eye-sockets had been rimmed with red ochre. 'Is that you, Saban?'

'It is.'

Morthor smiled. 'You are well?'

'He crawls in his brother's shadow like a worm,' Derrewyn said, staying seated. She was thinner than ever and her pale skin was stretched taut across her cheekbones, making her dark eyes look very large. Her hair was gathered at the nape of her neck, but Saban saw she had discarded the necklace of her dead child's bones. Perhaps that was because she now had another child, the daughter who lay in her arms and who was a dark-haired girl no older than Lallic. 'Saban has come, father,' Derrewyn went on, to tell us that Lengar is dead, that Camaban is chief and that Ratharryn threatens war if we do not meekly allow them to take stones from our hills.'

'Is it true?' Rallin asked.

'Of course it is true!' Derrewyn hissed at him. 'I felt Lengar's death here!' She slapped her belly, making Merrel cry aloud. With surprising gentleness, Derrewyn stroked her daughter's forehead and crooned a few words to soothe the girl. 'I felt his death when the nutshell was broken. Did you bring me his head, Saban?'

He held out the bag. 'Here.'

'It will match Jegar's,' she said, gesturing for Saban to drop the bag. He obeyed, spilling Lengar's bloody head onto the grass, then he looked at her hut and saw that Jegar's skull was displayed on a pole beside its door.

Rallin and Morthor sat, and Saban followed their example. 'So why are you here, Saban?' Rallin asked.

'What Derrewyn says is true,' Saban said. 'Camaban is now chief of Ratharryn and he does not want war with you. He wants peace and he wishes to take stones from your hills. That is all I came to say.'

'Lengar is truly dead?' blind Morthor asked.

'Truly dead,' Saban confirmed.

'Lahanna did that!' Morthor said, and raised his eye-sockets to the sky. 'If I could weep,' he added, 'I would shed tears of joy.'

Derrewyn ignored her father's pleasure. 'And why do you want stones?' she asked.

'We wish to build a temple,' Saban said. 'It will be a great temple to bring us peace. That is all we want, peace.'

'We have a great temple here,' Rallin said, 'and your people can come and worship.'

'Your temple has not brought the land peace,' Saban said.

'And yours will?' Derrewyn asked sourly.

'It will bring peace and happiness,' Saban said.

'Peace and happiness!' Derrewyn laughed. 'You sound like a child, Saban! And Camaban has already been here. He crawled to me in the summer and begged for stones, and I will give you now the same answer I gave him then. You may have your stones, Saban of Ratharryn, when you return Sannas's spirit to her ancestors.'

'Sannas's spirit?' Saban asked.

'Who stole her last breath?' Derrewyn demanded fiercely. 'Camaban did! And she can have no peace while Camaban holds her breath in his belly. So bring me Camaban's head, Saban, and I will exchange it for a stone.'

Saban looked at Rallin, hoping for a kinder answer. 'We have no quarrel with Cathallo,' Saban said.

'No quarrel!' Derrewyn screamed, startling her child again. 'Ratharryn brought Outfolk to the heartland, and worse, you brought an Outfolk temple. How long before you march the brides to the fire? And for what? For Slaol! Slaol who deserted us, Slaol who brought the Outfolk vermin to our land, Slaol who gives us winter, Slaol who would destroy us if we did not have Lahanna and Garlanna to protect us. No quarrel? I have a quarrel.' She suddenly pushed her crying daughter into the arms of a slave, then stripped the cloak from her upper body to show Saban the three lozenges, the one great and the two small, hanging between her small breasts. 'It burns!' she said, tapping the large piece of gold. 'It burns me night and day, but it reminds me of Slaol's evil.' She wailed, swaying from side to side. 'Yet Lahanna has promised us victory. She has promised that we shall destroy you. We shall cage up your Slaol and burn your corpses to fill his nostrils with filth.' She stood, leaving the cloak on the ground, and brandished the human thigh bone that Sannas had once wielded. 'You shall have no stones,' she declared, 'and you shall have no peace.'

Saban tried a last time. 'I would that my children grew up in a land of peace,' he said.

'I want the same,' Rallin answered, glancing at Merrel who lay in the slave's arms, 'but there cannot be peace so long as Camaban has Sannas's spirit.'

'Our ancestors are unhappy,' Morthor explained. 'They want Sannas to join them. Send us Camaban, Saban, and we shall give you stones.'

'Or tell Camaban to make war on us,' Derrewyn sneered. 'You think he is a warrior? Let him come to our spears! And tell him, Saban, that when he comes we shall tear the flesh from his bones piece by piece and we shall make him scream for three days and three nights and at their end I will take his soul and the soul of Sannas.' She spat into the fire, then plucked the cloak from the ground to cover her nakedness. 'I thank you for Lengar's head,' she said coldly, 'but have nothing to give you in return.' She took her daughter back, then stalked to her hut and ducked inside.

Saban looked at Rallin. 'Do women make the law here?'

'Lahanna does,' Rallin said curtly. He stood, and pulled Morthor to his feet. 'You should leave now,' he told Saban.

'There will be war if I leave.'

'There will be war whether you leave or stay,' Rallin said. 'We have known nothing but war with Ratharryn since your father died. Do you think we can so quickly make peace?' Rallin shook his head. 'Go,' he said, 'just

go.'

So Saban went.

And the war would go on.

—«»—«»—«»—

Camaban did not seem surprised or disappointed that Saban's mission had failed. 'They want war,' he said. Camaban was at the Sky Temple where Saban found him brooding over the twin rings of Sarmennyn's stones. 'Cathallo thinks that with Lengar dead we shall be easy prey to their spears,' Camaban went on. 'They think I cannot lead men into battle.'

'They said as much,' Saban confessed.

'Good!' Camaban said happily. 'I like an enemy who underestimates me, it makes his humiliation so much easier.' He raised his voice so that Gundur and Vakkal, the war leaders of Ratharryn who were among his entourage, could hear him. 'Men think war is the application of force, but it isn't. War is the application of thought. Cleverness. And I think we should march tomorrow, straight across the marshes, over the hills and into Cathallo.'

Gundur half smiled. 'We have tried that before,' he said softly, 'and failed.'

'You've tried everything and failed,' Camaban retorted.

'And we hear Cathallo is filled with spearmen,' Vakkal put in. 'They expected to meet our forces and the men of Drewenna and so they gathered their allies.'

'But they will know Drewenna has deserted us,' Camaban said, 'and will hardly believe we dare to attack them. What better time to do so?'

'They're probably planning to attack us,' Gundur said gloomily.

'You always think of difficulties!' Camaban shouted at them, astonishing both men. 'How can you win a war if all you do is worry about losing one? Are you women?' He limped towards the warriors. 'We shall leave tomorrow morning, we shall attack in the next dawn and we shall win. Slaol has promised it. Understand? Slaol has promised it!'

Gundur bowed his head, though he was plainly unhappy with Camaban's decision. 'We shall march tomorrow,' he reluctantly agreed, then plucked Vakkal's elbow and walked back to the settlement to warn his spearmen.

Camaban watched the two warriors walk away, then laughed. 'We'd better win now or those two will want my head.'

'It will be hard to win,' Saban said carefully, 'for Cathallo seems to know everything we do. They must have spies here and they will know you're coming.'