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.The near-blind snakeeyes glowed with a dark malevolence that went out slowly, like the embers of a dying fire.The talons ofthe body gripped and ungripped on an invisible prey.Jakkin walked around the back of the drakk and suddenly stabbed at it with his knife.He cut into thedrakk body again and again, as if he could, by his actions, cut away his own fears.A viscous bloodpulsed out at each cut.He jabbed at the drakk until his arm was tired.Then, finally exhausted, hestopped and looked around for the others.The six bonders stood in a circle under the tree, knives drawn, waiting.When no other drakk flew down,Likkarn gestured them away.He walked around the tree, girdling it quickly with the stinger.The tree fell,heavily, its descent slowed by its close neighbors.At last its leafy crown was caught securely betweentwo other trees.It hung there low enough for their knives.The bonders moved toward the tree, circling it.Jakkin stood be hind them, peering over Jo-Janekk sshoulder.Likkarn pointed with his stinger and grunted.In the topmost leaves was a nest of kkhan reeds plastered together with dragon fewmets.The reed topswere arranged in such a way that the nest looked exactly like a spikka leaf.Even close up, it was difficultto distinguish it.Suddenly a small snakehead peered over the side of the nest.Then another.Jakk7incounted quickly.There were seven young drakk hissing furiously up at them.They could not fly yet andtried to hide under one another. Seven, called out Likkarn in a doomsday voice slightly obscured by his mask. Be sure.Seven.The men marched into the leaves and stabbed the squirming little horrors with their knives, severing theheads from the bodies.The drakklings died quickly, leaving the dreadful stench behind.Their thick, darkblood coated the knives and had to be washed off immediately in the sand.Even then, the blood left pitsand ruts in the shine.They buried the remains of the drakk and their nest in a great hole they dug out beneath the fallen tree.Reluctantly Jakkin climbed the rest of the trees, his knife always at the ready in his clenched teeth, but hefound nothing else.On their march back to the bondhouse for hour-long showers in hot water with strong yellow soap,Likkam spoke only once. I don t like it, he said. The female and the young.Where was the male? I don t like it. Perhaps she had mated before she came here, offered Crikk.:,Yes, that s it, said Kkittakk. Perhaps, said Balakk.But like Likkam he was not happy.Likkam took out some weed and, with one hand, rolled it mechanically into a thin red cylinder.He hadalready started smoking it by the time they entered the courtyard.They left him alone and hurried intotheir showers.Old Likk-and-Spittle may have been worried, Jakkin thought, but not enough to lay off the weed.SoJakkin wasn t worried either.He had dipped his knife into a drakk s blood and come out a man.Surelyhe was ready to tackle anything now.He thought of his dragon waiting out in the sand.See, thou mighty fighter, he called to it in his mind.I am a mighty fighter, too.chapter 18AT THE DINNER table, the talk was all about the fight with the drakk.The boys had the story fromJakkin at least three times, in three different versions.Each time the tale ended with his killing the drakkand then the hour-long attempt at scrubbing the smell from his hide. It lingers, said Jakkin. Gods, how it lingers. You re telling me, Slakk put in, holding his nose.Errikkin jabbed Slakk in the ribs, and they all laughed. And my jaw still aches from holding the knife in my teeth.Jakkin waggled his jaw at them and they nodded admiringly. I wish I had been there, Errikkin said wistfully.Jakkin did not tell them how he had bloodied his knife in the back of a dead drakk, and how wet theinside of his coveralls had been, and how next time, if there were a next time, he would never take adrink in the middle of a roundup.But he did add,  Each of the men on the march is going to get part ofthe bounty.Eight drakks.I m to have a full seventh share. He did not have to say a man s share.Thatwas understood.Errikkin interrupted. You should get it.After all, you were in the most danger, climbing up the tree. Not really, Slakk said. Remember, he was dropping fast, while the others were standing still below. But he was closest, said Enikkin.The boys began to take sides, some supporting Errikkin with great vehemence, and one or two restatingSlakk s argument.Jakkin stopped them by banging his spoon on the table. Enough, he said. What matters is that I have filled my bag with this fight.Or at least, he addedtruthfully,  a bit more gold will clink in it.And&  He paused for effect.They listened. And? asked Er-rikkin, right on cue. And I have been given tomorrow as an additional Bond-Off day.I don t have to work.I can go where Iwant. Jakkin spoke the words with a kind of sly joy. And where will you go? The questioner was one of the youngest boys, little L erikk, Frankkalin s son. Do you need to ask? said Slakk.He began pounding his fist on the table. Akki, Akki, Akki.The others laughingly joined in.Jakkin looked quickly over at the pair-bonders table.Since Akki was not there, he smiled and let themgo on.What did it matter how wrong they were? He knew he would be spending first his night and thenhis Bond-Off day out on the sands with his dragon.chapter 19JAKMN LEFT DIRECTLY after dinner, strolling off down the road as if going toward the town for anevening at the local stews.It was a long walk, nearly fifteen kilometers, but he shrugged off a ride withsome of the others.Let them think what they liked; he had jangled his bag at them, clanking with thebounty coins.Let them make false guesses.When he was passed by no more nursery trucks (bought dearly, he knew, from the star traders at Rokk)and he could see no road dust deviling up from tires or feet either ahead of him or behind, Jakkindoubled back halfway, crossed the weir, and headed out over the sand.Once, hearing the noise of a vehicle far off down the road, and seeing the telltale dust spiraling up, he haddug a quick depression in the sand and snuggled into it.But the truck roared by without stopping, and herealized that he had not really needed to hide.He was already far enough away from the road.Still, heknew that care was more important now than ever.Bending over and brooming his footsteps, he scuttledlike a lizard over the ocean of sand.He noticed that his prints from the night before were gone, and hethanked the intermittent south wind for helping him keep his secret.He reached the oasis before the first moon had lipped the horizon.That gave him four hours at the veryleast.Nothing stirred.The air was incredibly still.The weed and wort patch had stopped smolderingexcept for one lone stalk that sent a gentle puff of smoke into the air.Without wind to move it off, thesmoke cloud hung around the tip of the plant.From where he stood, Jakkin could see the toothed leavesof the plant partially unrolled, maroon sap veins like road maps running through them.Tomorrow hewould stan crushing the most mature leaves.A sudden little wind squalled through the patch, coming from nowhere.The leaves trembled, dipped.Asquickly as it had come, the wind puffed itself out in the patch.Jakkin smiled and went over to the reed shelter.Before he got there, a cascade of muted colors burstinto his head. Thou mighty snatchling!  he cried. Thou hast sensed my coming [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]