Cuckoo's Egg Read Online Free PDF Page A

Believe me in this. You hurt now. But you did what I asked.
    That was brave."
    Muscles in Thorn's face shook, as in some dire chill. His limbs convulsed.
    Stopped. Duun kept on his massage until the shiver passed. Thorn's eyes lost their wild look. They were wide and moiled with forethought and calculations. (What else does he want? What did I win? What did I do?
    What next?)
    Duun let go. Motioned at the bloodstained weapons. "Clean them. I'll show you how."
    Thorn stirred, edged closer to the array of weapons on the blanket. "You said—" he began.
    "I said?"
    "We'd go hunting. You said— we'd go hunting today."
    "That we will. We won't eat tonight if we don't take something."
    Thorn's eyes flicked up a second time; Thorn could do that, without turning his head. The look hoped for a joke and Duun made his face implacable.

    25

    Cuckoo's Egg

    There was no question, of course. The place was full of unwary game. No one hunted it much. Yet. And a hatani could, in the most desolate place, find some sustenance.
    But Thorn would discover this when he was hungry. When he had tried for himself and understood that he was too loud and too awkward.
    When he had seen what was in the land, and what the wild things knew.
    "I promised you a knife."
    A glance upward, wary interest. A stare of white wide eyes.
    "The wer -knife. The one you used. That would be a good one for you. You can have it if you like. It's a very good blade. You have to keep it spotless.
    Even fingers stain it. I'll show you how to keep it."
    Thorn picked it up again, by the hilt. Held it.

    * * *
The gangling boy came up the trail, thinking he was alert: Duun knew.
    Thorn looked this way and that: his callused feet made very little noise on the dusty track among the rocks.
    "Up," Duun hissed. "Look up. "
    Thorn's head came up. Duun had already moved, lost in the brush.
    The boy was still looking up when Duun hit him in the back with a thrown stone. Thorn spun about and threw. Thorn's stone rattled away down among brush and rock. Duun had evaded it with a fluid shift of his hip, and stood untouched.
    "Too late," Duun said. "You're dead. I'm not."
    Thorn's shoulders slumped. He bent his head in shame.

    26

    Cuckoo's Egg

    Whirled and sped another rock underhand.
    Duun evaded that one too without more than shifting stance. Thorn did not look surprised, only exhausted. Beaten at last.
    Duun grinned. "Better. That did surprise me." The grin faded. "But your choosing this track up didn't. That was your first mistake. How did I know? Can you figure that?"
    Thorn gasped for breath. Hunkered down on the path, arms on scabbed knees. "Because I was tired. The climb's easier."
    "Better still. You're right. Think ahead next time. And think in all directions. You know this path. You should have seen these rocks in your head before you came to them."
    No answer. Thorn knew. Duun knew that he knew. Thorn wiped his forearm across his face and smeared dust across the sweat. Even at this range he stank of heat.
    "Also," Duun reminded him with delicacy, "when you came round the mountain the wind was coming at your shoulder, at an angle to the rocks.
    Do you see why that should have warned you?"
    Thorn blinked sweat and wiped again. He had grown rangier, longer of limb. The belly had gone hollow beneath the ribs, ridged with muscle above the wrap about his loins. Brushscars showed white on his skin.
    "Scent," he said. He gasped for breath. There was chagrin in his half-drowned face. "Sorry. I'm sorry, Duun."
    "Sorry won't save you. Scent-deaf doesn't mean the world is. You're dead, Thorn."
    "Yes, Duun." A faint, hoarse voice. Shoulders slumped again. "You won't catch me again."
    "Won't I?"

    27

    Cuckoo's Egg

    "Duun— I'm hungry, Duun! "
    Duun spun around the other side of the tree, leaned there looking at him and scowling. "Hunt, then. Fool. Don't tell me what your needs are. I'll know where to find you. Don't trust me, Thorn."
    "I'm not playing, Duun!"
    "Then neither will I be."