"Our friend seeks to be an obedient servant of Lurgha."
Ross picked up his bow. "The tribe is out to hunt us?"
"Lurgha has ordered--out of thin air again--that any traders who escaped
are to be brought in and introduced to him personally at the sacrifice
for the enrichment of the fields!"
The old, old gift of blood and life at the spring sowing. Ross recalled
grisly details from his cram lessons. Any wandering stranger or enemy
tribesman taken in a raid before that day would meet such a fate. On
unlucky years when people were not available a deer or wolf might serve.
But the best sacrifice of all was a man. So Lurgha had decreed--from the
air--that traders were his meat? What of Ashe? Let any hunter from the
village track him down.
"We have to move fast," Ross told McNeil as he took up the rope which
made a leading cord for Lal. Ashe would want to question the tribesman
about this second order from Lurgha.
Impatient as Ross was, he had to mend his pace to accommodate McNeil.
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