第43节

'I'm not surprised the Yama-Shita... went. for the throat,' husked Mr

Snow.

'Yeah, but it's not entirely my fault,' protested Steve.

'The Heron Pool was blown apart because the Shogun wanted to crush the

conspiracy against him. And the reason we got mixed up in it was

because of your deal with Lord Yama-Shita. If you hadn't sent Cadillac

and Clearwater over there none of this would have happened!" 'Just

doing what I was told..."

'You mean by the Sky Voices? Talisman?"

'The Path is drawn, Brickman. Someone once said: "All the world's a

stage, and all the men and women merely players"."

'Yeah..." Steve was unaware of the immense legacy of dramatic art and

literature that had been buried by the Holocaust so the quotation made

little sense.

'Anyway,' he continued, 'Cadillac fell on his feet, but for a while she

had a really bad time. So when we blew up the Heron Pool, she took the

opportunity to even the score - saving our necks in the process. Do

you blame her?"

'No." Mr Snow gave a breathy laugh. 'Life isn't fair is it? Poor old

Prime-Cut ' 'The big-noise from the D'Troit?"

'Yes. Apart from us having done a deal with the Federation, every

charge he levelled against us was true."

'And in spite of that you ran rings round him."

'So everyone says. But I didn't lie."

'Well, except for that bit about The Chosen."

'That wasn't a lie. You are one of The Chosen."

Steve frowned. 'But I'm not a Mute."

'No." Mr Snow closed his eyes and let his head fall onto the furs that

covered the sloping backrest.

Not yet, Brickman. Not yet...

Having reached a measure of agreement, the delegations spent the sixth

and seventh day trading amongst themselves.

In addition to preserving most of the goods they had brought with them

to trade with the Iron Masters, everyone who was not engaged in

deciding the future of the Plainfolk had been busily scouring the

battlefield for whatever they could find: crossbows, bolts, knives,

items of clothing, Iron Master swords, helmets and body armour, ship's

cannon - the list was endless. The dead even their own - were too

numerous to cope with. Unable to give them the usual burial rites or

collect them in heaps for burning, the corpses were stripped and left

for the circling death-birds.

Those who decided they had too many crossbows and not enough bolts, or

preferred to exchange both for samurai long-swords, set up an impromptu

arms bazaar.

Their initiative was quickly followed by their rivals and it was not

long before each delegation set out its other wares - food, furs, dried

fish and buffalo meat, dream-cap and rainbow-grass.

It proved to be a novel and rewarding experience, and everyone promised

to bring similar goods to the proposed meeting of the Plainfolk Council

at Sioux Falls.

Why, they asked each other, had no one ever thought of this before?

Nobody suggested trading the surviving journey-men. The idea that

males and females from one clan might take partners from another was so

radical it simply never entered anyone's head.

Laden with their booty, the clan delegations bade each other farewell

and went their various ways. The happiest were the journey-men and

-women who had been chosen to make the journey down the Great River and

were going home instead. But their joy at returning to their families

was muted by the loss of their clan-brothers and sisters. The general

mood was one of sombre optimism.

There could be no going back, and no one looked back as another

wheeling flock of death-birds, drawn in from all corners of the sky,

swooped down to join those al