It took him a while to work up enough nerve to speak with Zelana about the matter.
Are you busy? he asked her one bright, sunny morning as the Seagull raced down along the east coast and Zelana was standing alone near the bow.
Are we having some sort of problem? she asked him.
Well, I hope not, he replied. Do you think you could see your way clear to persuade Sorgan Hook-Beak to avoid the bay of Lattash?
Is there something wrong with Lattash, Red-Beard?
New Lattash, he corrected her. Old Lattash was just fine, but its not there any more. Its New Lattash thats got me worried.
And whys that, dear boy?
Boy? Red-Beard found the term to be a bit offensive.
Its just a relative term, she said, smiling. Whats troubling you so much, Red-Beard?
Id really be much happier if word that Im here on the Seagull didnt leak out anywhere in the vicinity of the new village.
Its your home, isnt it?
Well, it used to be. After my uncle White-Braid came apart when Old Lattash was buried by that lava flow, the villagers decided that I should be the chief.
It seems that Id heard about that. Did I ever congratulate you?
No, and I think Id like to keep it that way. To be honest about it, I didnt want to be the chief, and I still dont. If Im lucky, these wars in the other parts of the Land of Dhrall will go on and on for years. Ive never wanted to be the chief of the tribe, and I still dont.
Zelana laughed. You and my sister make a very odd pair, Red-Beard. She wants all that authority and adoration, but you keep running away from it.
How can she stand all that foolishness?
It makes her feel important, Red-Beard, and being important takes some of the sting out of the fact that our older brother out-ranks her in this particular cycle. She paused, looking thoughtfully at Red-Beard. You do know about our cycles, dont you, Red-Beard? she asked.
Sort of. As I understand it, you and your family stay awake for a thousand years, and then you hand your task off to some younger relatives and take a long nap. Is that anywhere close to what happens?
Fairly close except that your number isnt quite right. Our cycles are twenty-five times longer than one thousand.
Red-Beard blinked. Youve been awake for that long? he asked her in a voice filled with wonder.
Not quite yet, but its getting closer to nap-time. When our current cycle began, people your species were at a very primitive level. They hadnt even discovered fire yet, and their most sophisticated weapon was the club. In many ways, this is the most important period in the history of the world. The man-things your species spend most of their time changing things. That makes this particular cycle very significant and very dangerous. There are some things that should not be changed and that brings us to the Vlagh. Do you know anything about bees?
Red-Beard shrugged. They make honey, and they sting anybody who tries to steal it. Honey tastes good but not so good that Id want to get stung a thousand times just to gather it up.
Wise decision, Red-Beard. Bees and a number of other varieties of insects have developed very complex societies that are designed to expand their territories and their food supply. Thats what these wars here in the Land of Dhrall are all about. Unfortunately, the Vlagh is an imitator. When one of the creatures of the Wasteland sees a characteristic that seems useful, the Vlagh starts experimenting, and its next hatch will have a variation of that characteristic.
So we end up with bug-men who know how to talk.
Not exactly bug-men, Red-Beard. Bug-women would come closer to whats really happening. There arent really very many males among the creatures of the Wasteland. Theyre almost all females, but the Vlagh herself is the only one that lays eggs thousands and thousands of eggs at a time.
I dont think baby bug-people would be very dangerous, Red-Beard scoffed.
Maybe not, but they grow very fast.
How fast?
Theyre adults within a week. Of course, they only live for about six weeks, but a new generation is already in the works. The outlanders weve hired to help us dont fully understand this, but its not really necessary for them to understand. Its probably better that they dont. If they knew that the Vlagh can replace all the ones our friends kill in about two weeks, there isnt enough gold in the whole world to have persuaded them to come here and help us. Why are you telling me all this, Zelana? Red-Beard asked her.
She shrugged. A few people need to know whats really happening, Red-Beard, and you just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Ill have a word with Sorgan about your problem, and if its really necessary for the Seagull to go on into the bay of Lattash, well find someplace to hide you so that the people of your tribe wont be able to find you.
That definitely takes a load off my mind. Red-Beard hesitated. You do understand why I dont want any part of being the chief of the tribe, dont you? he asked her.
It has something to do with freedom, doesnt it?
Exactly. He frowned slightly. You went right straight to the point, Zelana. How did you pick it up so fast?
Ive already been there, Red-Beard. Thats why I went off to the Isle of Thurn a long time ago. If you think that being chief would be unbearably tedious, take a long, hard look at being god. Just like you, I didnt want any part of that, so I ran away. I spent thousands of years in my pink grotto composing music, writing poetry, and playing with my pink dolphins. Then my big brother brought Eleria to me, and my whole world changed.
You love her, though, dont you?
Zelana sighed. More than anything in the whole world. Thats what Dahlaine had in mind when he foisted the Dreamers on us in the first place. In a certain sense, it was very cruel, but it was necessary.
Well, Im not really all that necessary where the tribes concerned. They can find somebody else to sit around being important. Then a thought came to Red-Beard, and he suddenly burst out laughing.
Whats so funny?
I know whod make the best chief the tribes ever had, he replied. The tribe might not like it very much at least the men wouldnt but Planter really should be the chief.
Zelana smiled. She already is, Red-Beard. She doesnt need the title. The tribe does what she wants done, and thats what really counts, wouldnt you say?
Not out loud, I wouldnt, Red-Beard replied.
The wind was coming out of the east when Sorgan Hook-Beaks fleet of longships rounded the first peninsula jutting out from the south coast of Veltans Domain, and when that wind caught the sails, they billowed out with a booming sound. It seemed to Red-Beard that the longships almost flew toward the west. He had a few suspicions about that. Zelana and her family frequently spoke of tampering, and a wind coming from the east was very unusual. West winds and south winds were fairly common at this time of the year, but east and north? Not too likely.
The Seagull rounded the third and last peninsula on the south coast of Veltans Domain a few days later, and then the Maag fleet turned north. The weather seemed to have a faint smell of early autumn now, and Red-Beard began to feel that seasonal urge to go hunting. Autumn had always been the time to lay in a good supply of food to get the tribe through the coming winter.
He was standing near the slender bow of the Seagull with Zelanas older brother about midmorning one day when Sorgan Hook-Beak came forward to join them. I got to thinking last night that it might be a good idea for me and my men to know a bit about the people of your Domain, Lord Dahlaine, he said. My cousin Skell discovered that its not a good idea to turn Maags loose on the natives of this part of the world when they havent got the faintest idea of what the local customs are.
You could be right about that, Captain, Dahlaine agreed. I suppose a little conference in your cabin might be in order along about now. There are few peculiarities in my Domain that you should all know about.
Sorgans cabin at the stern of the Seagull wasnt really very large, so things were just a bit crowded when they gathered there about a quarter of an hour later.
Captain Hook-Beak spoke with me a little while ago, and he wanted to know a few things about the people of my Domain, Zelanas big brother told them. Its not a bad idea, really. Ill give you a sort of general idea about my people and the general layout of the country up there, and then Ill answer any questions you might have.
He sounds a lot like a chief of one of our tribes, doesnt he, Longbow? Red-Beard said quietly to his friend.
Some things are always the same, friend Red-Beard, Longbow replied. A chief is a chief, no matter where he lives.
When we get to the north of sister Zelanas Domain, well go ashore in the Tonthakan nation, Dahlaine began.
Nation? Zelana asked curiously.
Its an idea I came up with quite some time ago, dear sister, Dahlaine replied. It was the best way I could think of to put an end to those silly wars between the various tribes. There are three significantly different cultures in my domain, so I set up three nations Tonthakan, Matakan, and Atazakan and the various tribes in those nations settle their differences with conferences instead of wars.
What an unnatural sort of thing, Red-Beard said in mock disapproval.
Be nice, Zelana chided him.
Sorry, he replied, although he didnt really mean it.
The nation of Tonthakan lies along the western coast of my Domain, Dahlaine continued, and its very similar in terrain and culture to sister Zelanas Domain. The mountains are steep and rugged, the forests are dense and mostly evergreens, and there are several varieties of deer roaming through those forests. The Tonthakans are primarily hunters, and theyre quite good with their bows. Im sure that Longbow and Red-Beard will feel pretty much at home in that region except that the winters are longer and colder than they are farther to the south. It wont be quite as noticeable in the autumn, but the days are longer in the summer up there and shorter in the winter. He glanced at Keselo. Im sure our learned young friend from the Trogite Empire can explain that for us.
It has to do with the tilt of our world, Lord Dahlaine, Keselo replied. Our world isnt exactly plumb and square in relation to the sun, and thats what accounts for the seasons. She spins, and thats what gives us days and nights, and she travels around the sun in what scholars call an orbit. If she didnt spin, half the world would live in perpetual daylight, and the other half would live in the dark, but its that slight lopsidedness that gives us the seasons.
Ive always known that there was something wrong with this world, Rabbit said with no hint of a smile.
I wouldnt really call it wrong, Rabbit, Keselo told him. If it werent for the changing of the seasons, I dont think anything alive could be here. Perpetual summer might sound nice, but I dont think it really would be.
Pushing on, then, Dahlaine said. The central region of my Domain is a large area of meadowland thats primarily grassland with very few trees.
That turned out to be very useful last spring, Longbow said.
I dont think I quite follow you there, Longbow, Dahlaine said with a slightly puzzled look.
It has to do with certain customs in Zelanas Domain, Longbow replied. There are certain tasks that we call mens work and others called womens work. Men are supposed to hunt and fight wars, and women are supposed to plant vegetables and cook supper. It might sound sort of fair, but it seems to give the men of any tribe a lot of spare time to sit around talking about hunting and fighting. When the fire-mountains won the first war for us, Red-Beards village, Lattash, was buried under melted rock, so the people had to move to a place on down the bay from the old one. There was open land that should have given the women plenty of room for planting except that it was covered with thick sod. Cutting away the sod would normally be womens work, but Old-Bear, the chief of my tribe, told us that he had once visited that grassland you just described, and that while he was there, he saw the lodges made of sod rather than tree-limbs. Building lodges is mens work, so after Red-Beards tribe had settled in their new village, the men built the traditional tree-limb lodges, but the wind blew quite a bit harder where the new village was located, and one night, all of the lodges were blown down.
That must have been a very strong wind, the farmer Omago said.
Not quite that strong, Longbow replied with a grin. Red-Beard and I gave it a bit of help. Then the next morning we put on long faces and told the men of the tribe that tree-limb lodges werent strong enough to stand up in windy-village, and we suggested sod instead. The men grumbled a bit, but they went on out into the meadow and started digging up sod for all they were worth, while the women came along behind them planting beans and other things that are good to eat. Nobody was offended, and nobody will starve to death this coming winter.
You two are a couple of very devious people, Omagos wife Ara observed.
One should always do ones best when the well-being of the tribes involved, Red-Beard replied sententiously.
The pretty lady actually laughed.
Pushing on, then, Dahlaine continued. There are a few herds of those various deer near the western mountains in Matakan, but the most numerous creatures in Matakan are the bison. Theyre quite a bit larger than deer, and they have horns instead of antlers. Since the winters are very cold in my Domain, the bison have dense fur, and their hides are quite a bit thicker. Arrows might penetrate that fur and hide, but spears seem to work better. Dahlaine went on to describe the Matans spear thrower again.
Something like that would be very difficult to aim, it seems to me, Rabbit said.
The Matans practice a lot, and theyre good enough to bring home a lot of bison meat.
Thats what counts, Longbow said. Their spearheads are stone, arent they?