“Herilak, look—this is what the city is like. They have a model there that I have studied so long that I know it by heart, even now. This is what it looks like. The sea is here, these are the beaches, then the wall. Here is the ambesed, a big empty space where they all meet.”

Herilak watched intently as Kerrick sketched the city, then the fields about it.

“The fields surround the city in circles, wider and wider, and the ruutsa are right here.”

Herilak looked closely at the scratched lines, tugging at his beard in thought. “Are you sure that is where we are? It has been a long time since you left this place, they might have changed the fields, moved the beasts around.”

“Never, not the Yilanè. What is, is, and never changes. Little things may be different from day to day, but once a thing is set it is that way forever.”

“Then I believe you, since you are the only one who knows the murgu so well. . .”

A cry of pain cut him off and they turned to see one of the Sasku hunters rear up, then fall heavily to the ground. They ran to his aid and Herilak reached to tear the thorn-tipped vine from his arm: Kerrick stopped him.

“Don’t touch that—or you are dead too. It is too late to help him. The poison is in his body.”

The Sasku’s back arched with pain and there was foam on his lips, pink with blood where he had bitten his tongue. He was paralyzed and unconscious—but it took him a long time to die.

“Unless you want this kind of death, don’t let anything touch you until we are well inside the fields,” Kerrick said. “Watch where you walk, don’t brush against any kind of plant. Some of the vines will stick to you, or as you have just seen—others will kill.”

“Is all of the city like this?” Herilak asked.

“No, just the outer edge. To keep marauding animals—and Tanu—away. Once we get past this barrier the only danger will be from armed guards. They are protected and hidden behind walls and may be hard to see.”

“But they must sleep at night,” Herilak said.

“They must, but there may be night alarms here now. We will find their positions and stay well clear of them.”

“What is the plan then?”

Kerrick went back to the diagram on the ground and pointed to the outer circle. “We must get past these fields. Most of these creatures, grass-eating ones like the ruutsa in this field, won’t attack unless they are disturbed.”