Noman Read Free Page B

between the tents. We're turning into farmers!"
    The Tigers laughed at that. Farmers were soft, peaceable, helpless. Their only purpose was to grow food for spikers to rob.
    "We go when I say we go," said the Wildman.
    Snakey sprang up at that, offended, and strode off. His men followed. The Wildman didn't seem to notice that they'd gone.
    Morning Star met Snakey on his way out as she entered the command tent.
    "Heya, Star," said Snakey.
    "Heya, Snakey."
    "Wake him up for me." Snakey nodded back towards the Wildman. "Too hot to be doing nothing."
    Morning Star dipped herself a cup of water from one of the vats. The Wildman lay on his cushions and cracked nuts and gazed at nothing.
    Now, said Morning Star to herself. Now.
    "I was down by the river," she said.
    The Wildman went on cracking nuts.
    "Watched the boys shaving heads, painting faces."
    Still he didn't turn to look at her. But he was listening.

    "Someone has to say it," she said.
    "What?"
    "Too many Tigers, Wildman. Can't go on like this."
    "Don't see why not."
    "Yes, you do."
    He put another nut in his mouth and cracked it and spat out the shell. He did it all slowly, as if in a dream. So Morning Star found the courage to say what she knew, so that he would wake up.
    "He means to kill you," she said.
    He turned to her with empty eyes.
    "Who?"
    "Snakey."
    "Snakey?" he said. "No. You're wrong there, Star."
    "I can see his colors," she said, speaking low. "I'm not wrong. He's going to kill you."
    "No," said the Wildman, shaking his head. "Snakey won't kill me. Snakey loves me."
    Suddenly he woke from his dream and his eyes flashed with anger.
    "Why do you say that? What's Snakey ever done to you? Are you jealous?"
    "No, no—"
    "You want me to have no friends but you?"
    "No—"
    "You want to have no one love me but you?"
    This was far worse than anything she had prepared herself to face. His words wounded her and shamed her. She turned away, unable to speak.
    "Snakey watched over me when I was five years old!" Now he was shouting, out of control. "Snakey was father and mother to me! Snakey saved my life every single day! What have you ever done for me?"

    There was nothing she could say. All she wanted to do now was to get away without crying in front of him.
    "You say you love me. Well, I don't want your kind of love!"
    She kept her head averted and waved one hand to say, Yes, I understand; no more. She left him there, forcing herself not to run, feeling a stinging in her eyes.
    Outside the command tent the sudden brightness of the sunlight dazzled her. She shielded her eyes with one hand and faced the ground. As she did so, the ground turned dark. Frightened, she looked up and saw the same darkness everywhere, as if night had descended. The tents lining the street were black masses, past which walked gray people, casting black shadows. Beyond the great camp the hills were gray, beneath a leaden sky. All color had been drained from the world.
    She closed her eyes and leaned against a tent pole, breathing rapidly.
    I'm losing control of the colors. I'm going mad.
    When she opened her eyes again the world had returned to its proper hues. Morning Star gave herself a shake and walked away rapidly across the camp. When she was sure she was far enough away not to be seen, she let the tears come.
    "This can't go on," she told herself.
    ***
    Once Morning Star had left, the Wildman's mood changed. His anger faded, and he found himself consumed with restlessness. He stamped up and down the shaded length of the command tent, and kicked away the pile of cushions on which he had been sitting, and trod with one bare foot on the little heap of nutshells, and shouted out loud at the stab of pain.

    Then he strode away down the main street towards the river.
    As he walked, buried doubts began to surface. All round him was the great army he had called into being. Not just the fighting men: the women, the children, the cart oxen and the milk cows, the huts and the wagons, the cats and