had received no wounds.
Lileem described Agave and his preferences in terms of offerings, then said gravely, ‘Flick has seen the dehara, the gods. We see them together now. They are pouring out of the stars.’
‘The Kakkahaar have a dehar,’ Ulaume said. ‘His name is Hubisag, and he sounds similar to your Agave.’
‘I remember you calling on him,’ Lileem said, ‘though you don’t do that now.’
‘I am far from home,’ Ulaume said, ‘and in a landscape of agave. I will acknowledge its god, if that is what it takes.’ Now he looked at Flick directly. ‘I danced in Hubisag’s honour for my tribe. Perhaps I miss it. I like these ideas you have. They make sense.’
Astounded, Flick could only nod and turn away feeling embarrassed. Ulaume’s approval was somehow worse than his scorn.
Much to her annoyance, Lileem was told to remain at the white house while the rest of them went hunting. ‘You might be a prodigy,’ Ulaume said, ‘but you’re still a child and you’ve never done anything like this. Show your maturity now and accept you might mess things up.’
Grudgingly, she agreed, and watched the rest of them forlornly from the lighted window as they crept down the hill. It was clear in her face she was aggrieved to miss the nearest thing to an adventure since Flick had arrived at the settlement.
Mima had brought a more sumptuous meal than usual: a whole freshly cooked chicken in herbs, which filled the night air with mouth-watering fragrance. This she laid down in the usual place and the three of them took up their positions, each armed with an improvised blow gun, created from some hollow metal tubing Flick had found in the stable block behind the house. The guns were armed with agave darts. They waited for most of the night and Flick was beginning to think that Terez was wise to them and wouldn’t show, when his senses detected a furtive movement in a stand of sumac bushes. The movements came closer to his position, shaking the leaves of a feathery esperanza. He became utterly still and strained all of his senses out into the darkness. He could sense also the alert tension of his companions. Suddenly there was a soft rushing sound and the esperanza shook violently. Someone, possibly Mima, had fired a dart.
Flick saw a dark scrabbling shape emerge from the bushes and scuttle on all fours across a narrow open space, heading for the other side of the settlement. He was too far away to fire, but then the shape jerked almost upright, its feet leaving the ground. It uttered an enraged shriek and tried to run. At that moment, Ulaume dropped down from his hiding place on one of the roofs, clearly having fired a dart. Terez was so quick, like a monstrous spider. Flick saw a brief struggle, heard a cry. There seemed to be a dark, noxious smoke hanging over the whole scene, and Flick feared that Ulaume would be consumed by it. A sickly putrid smell like rotting vegetation filled the air. Flick called out, and his voice sounded low and slurred. Ulaume snarled and cursed, then Terez had managed to wriggle away from him. Like a black wraith, he shot off into the shadows between the buildings.
‘Damn!’ Flick said aloud.
Mima jumped across from a neighbouring roof, wiped her upper lip, which was sweating. ‘I think he took Ulaume’s dart. We can follow.’
She leapt down to the ground, landing on all fours, her hair swinging wildly as she glanced around her. Quickly, she glanced up at Flick. ‘Come on!’
It was her brother they were trying to capture. Her only surviving brother, in whatever form he took.
Flick jumped down beside her. Close by, Ulaume was trying to examine the top of his right arm by starlight. ‘Bit me,’ he said, ‘felt like to the bone.’
‘Which way did he go?’ Mima asked.
‘He’ll have got away by now,’ Flick said.
‘No, he took the dart in the neck,’ Ulaume said. ‘I saw it.’
‘Which way?’ Mima almost screamed.
Ulaume indicated with a jerk of his head. ‘That way.’
She was gone in an instant.
Ulaume crumpled to his knees in the dirt, holding on his arm. ‘That thing smacked me in the head too. It has a lot of strength.’
Flick squatted down beside him. ‘You should go back to the house. Clean the wound. Get Lileem to give you some healing. I’ll go and find Mima.’
‘Be careful,’ Ulaume said. ‘That thing’s unnatural.’
Flick stood up, but hesitated before following Mima.
‘I know