“There were signs of walking around the hèsotsan pit, bent grass, scuffed ground, clear prints of Yilanè feet in mud. Made yesterday. I searched and found nothing. Then I saw that many of the hèsotsan were feeding in the water and not at the spot where meat is left for them. I entered the water, drove them off, and found this. There are two others.”

She bent and picked up the smaller bundle and shook out a Yilanè skull. The scientists signed dismay and shock. It grew worse. She unwrapped the other bundle to reveal an even more gruesome mass of flesh and bone.

“It is a Yilanè rib cage,” Akotolp said. “Flesh still adheres, tendons and muscle attachments are there.” She poked it with her thumb. “Recently dead, not an ancient body.”

“Could she have been alive yesterday?” Lanefenuu asked.

“Yes, certainly,” she said with modifiers of horror of discovery.

“I feel as you do. Horror and curiosity of reason as well. What happened? Did they fall in? Were they alive or dead when they entered the water? And when I thought of this I remembered the number three. And three hunters who left this city once and never returned. They were searched for but never found. Three and three—and one. The one is the Yilanè who came to this city and seized a male from the sea and who died. Three and three and one. Now I speak to you, Akotolp, and you, Ukhereb, Yilanè of science. Three strange things have happened, three things without explanation and I am not pleased. Now I want you to tell me—are they related? Is there a common factor with three and three and one?”

Ukhereb hesitated, trying to make an evaluation. Akotolp shook the fat wattles of her neck and spoke with feeling. “Common factor. Death of three and one, possibility of death of three. Perhaps certainty, or three would have returned. Death outside our city, coming into our city. Not death from the inside. Facts needed. Birds to fly again.”

“The birds that were used to watch the fleeing ustuzou?”

“Those, Eistaa. They have not been used for a long time. There was boredom of looking at pictures of trees and beach.”

Lanefenuu snapped her jaw with anger. “End of boredom! Something out there is causing death in my city. I want you to find out what is happening. End of mystery—then end of deaths.”

“It shall be as you order. Suggestion of increase in armed guards at all times. More plants of poison to be sown about the walls.”

“Do that. And report daily what you see on all sides.”

The scientists signed obedience and loyalty and left. They walked slowly, deep in thought.

“There has been peace since we returned to the city,” Ukhereb said. “Has killing started again? Have we not had enough? Is it possible that ustuzou of death caused this?”