The Amtrack Wars - Earth Thunder Part 86

'And then move on to Sioux Falls."

'Yes. For the Plainfolk Council. It'd be crazy for us to go all the way to Wyoming in this weather then have to come all the way back again."

Clearwater brushed a fleck of snow from Sand-Wolf's face, re-adjusted his hood, then surveyed the cheerful throng of Mutes who milled around them. 'Do you think they'll have room for all of us?"

Having got this far, Cadillac had no intention of letting the freed Mutes disperse. They, along with the goods and animals he had acquired, were a vital part of the triumphal entry he planned to make at the second Plainfolk Council. Despite his youth, he wanted to come away from that meeting as the leading policy-maker of the She-Kargo faction.

'We'll make our own room,' he said. 'We've got tents, poles, rolls of sailcloth, food - ' He broke off as Buffalo-Soldier appeared. Just the man I need."

They both climbed up onto one of the ox-carts to get a clear view over the crowd. 'Now - where exactly do we go from here?"

Buffalo-Soldier cast a loving eye over the surrounding terrain. 'Many snows have fallen since I last stood here but that is the one thing I have not forgotten. The smell and the shape of this land is in my blood." He pointed in the direction of his home turf. 'You will find my people beyond the third hill."

As he spoke, the Shawnessee hunting party, who had been watching the proceedings from a safe distance, decided to send up a 'white arrow', a smoking tuft of gra.s.s tied to a crossbow bolt. It was the signal used when opposing groups of Mutes wished to parley.

Cadillac watched the trail of white smoke rise towards the dark grey blanket of cloud then curve down towards them. The Mutes cl.u.s.tered around him greeted it with the traditional cry of approval.

'Heyyyaaaghh!" Buffalo-Soldier leapt off the cart and darted forward to join several Mutes who were running towards the point where they expected the smoking arrow to land. When they got there, they formed a loose arc and stood with upturned faces as it fell towards them. The bolt buried its point in the snow-covered ground a few yards in front of where they stood, extinguis.h.i.+ng the smouldering tuft of gra.s.s.

Cadillac waited expectantly as the Mutes cl.u.s.tered round it. They would be looking for the notches on the shank - the clan mark which established owners.h.i.+p.

Buffalo-Soldier gave a delighted whoop, grabbed the arrow and ran back towards the crowd, waving it excitedly in the air. 'Shawnessee, Shawnessee. Shawnessee!!" 'Heyy-yaaaghh!" The watching crowd of returnees gave a ragged shout as the hunting party rose into view and formed a line along the crest of a rise to the south of the landing beach. Each one raised an arm and displayed the open palm - the traditional sign of greeting.

The crowd responded. 'Heyy-yaaghh! Heyyyaaghh!--Heyyyaaghh!"

Cadillac looked down at Roz and Clearwater and turned on his modest 'man of the moment' smile.

'What did I tell you? Stick with me and you can't go wrong."

Clearwater eyed Roz. 'I see what you mean." Cadillac was becoming more and more like Steve. But not copying him. It was as if their two personalities were fusing together ....

In Sara-kusa, Ais.h.i.+ Sakimoto and the other leading members of the Yama-s.h.i.+ta family were still shaking their heads over their copy of Cadillac's shopping list.

The baffled whispers quickly became howls of rage and disbelief as the bills from outside suppliers started coming in and the abacus beads clicked to and fro under the nimble fingers of their accounting staff.

Day after day the cost of their largesse mounted inexorably, like a rising tide, and with it came the growing realisation they had been duped.

But how? What on earth, they asked each other, had persuaded them to do such a thing?! The Mute witches had made no threats, had conjured up no demons. They had been immensely grateful, and the family had been delighted to provide them with what they had asked for.

Everyone could remember the overwhelming feeling of joy as they waved goodbye to their guests from the dockside, but now that the euphoria had worn off they realised it was not at all what they had intended.

These d.a.m.ned gra.s.s-monkeys were supposed to have been dismissed with a flea in their ear - instead of which they had sailed away with an emperor's ransom!

At the second Plainfolk Council, Roz and Clearwater were content to let Cadillac steal the limelight. The freed Mutes were given a rapturous welcome from their clansmen; the animals, tools, weapons and other goods were shared out between the various bloodlines.

Everyone undertook to make weapons, but some clans were allotted specific tasks- the breeding of horses, oxen, pigs and poultry which would then be traded as their numbers grew; others took on the job of making carts and simple sailboats for use on the lakes and rivers. In the years to come, transportation and communications would play a key role in bringing and holding the Plainfolk together.

Striking the balance wasn't easy, but eventually a consensus was reached and no one was left feeling deprived. The plan was to build on the inter-clan trading that had proved so successful the previous year, but Cadillac proposed that from now on, bartering should be a year-round process. Delegations from each clan would still meet at the annual Plainfolk Council, but the venue should be changed from year to year. So far, these gatherings had managed to avoid the attention of 'arrowheads' from the Federation, but they could not expect to remain immune to attack from the air.

Cadillac also won the delegates' support for two other parts of his master plan: first, the setting up of a skills cadre, formed by the newly-returned Mutes. Aided by wordsmiths from the three bloodlines, they would draw together everything they had learned about animal husbandry, crop cultivation and the other occupations which had filled their working day. The wordsmiths would help to organise this information into a coherent body of knowledge, and the ex-slaves - who had already broken through the mental barriers that separated one clan from another - would become the first generation of itinerant teachers who would train others to pa.s.s on what they had learned, and so the process would be repeated until all the Plainfolk were versed in the 'New Ways'.

The second proposal involved the election of equal numbers of male and female delegates to a permanent council which would travel around the territory held by the Plainfolk, visiting the various clans to bring them up to 'date with what was happening elsewhere, check on how they were progressing and settle any disputes that had arisen with their neighbours.

Cadillac knew that the changes he was trying to introduce were not going to bring peace and harmony overnight, but when the Second Council broke up and the delegations departed, he had every reason to feel satisfied with what had been accomplished. Best of all, he had established his authority and, despite his youth, had gained the respect previously accorded to his much-loved teacher, Mr Snow.

Through the late spring and summer, as Roz's child grew within her, and Sand-Wolf learned first to crawl, then attempted to take his first faltering steps, Clearwater was never far from her side. Both had now settled down to life with the Clan M'Kenzi, and had become firm friends of Magnum-Force, the clan's female wordsmith.

Cadillac, now heavily into his role as the first of The Chosen, was totally immersed in his twin tasks as head teacher and member of the roving Plainfolk Council.

Both took him away for weeks at a time, but he had promised faithfully that he would be at Roz's side during the last month of her pregnancy from mid-August to mid-September when the baby was due.

All the Plainfolk knew of the eruption - the word that the great mountain in the West had spoken with a tongue of flame had been pa.s.sed around during the gathering at Sioux Falls. Everyone's expectations had been raised, but Cadillac still had no idea that the Sky Voices had told Roz she was carrying Talisman.

An inner voice also told her she should pa.s.s on the parts of her medical knowledge that could be usefully applied in a world where there were no thermometers, stethoscopes or diagnostic instruments of any kind, no antibiotics, sterile bandages, swabs, IV-drips, scalpels, suture needles, thread, clamps- in a word, nothing.

Apart from Dream Cap - a narcotic used as a painkiller - all the Mutes had were herbal remedies to cure sickness, stop infection and heal wounds. They knew how to set simple bone fractures and amputate limbs, and there was the occasional shaman, like Mr Snow, who had 'healing hands', but basically, only the healthy survived. The process of natural selection.

As a doctor, Roz's primary concern was the coming birth of her child.

Her studies had covered the various stages of pregnancy and childbirth and it was this, above all, that she wanted to pa.s.s on to Clearwater.

All clans had female elders who acted as midwives, but their knowledge was based on practical experience and observation. It was totally unscientific and they had very little idea of what happened inside the womb.

The fact that infant mortality was relatively low and complications few was entirely due to the basic toughness and physical fitness of female Mutes.

Roz had Mute blood in her veins, but she had been brought up in a softer environment, inoculated against infection and knew far too much for her own peace of mind about the changes taking place inside her body and the dozen and one things that could go wrong.

There was also one extra factor the video-texts hadn't covered - the telepathic link with Steve and its bizarre side-effect which caused her body to reproduce' wounds inflicted on him. Roz wasn't plagued with every cut, bruise or knock Steve suffered; the wounding or injury had to be accompanied by a severe emotional shock. It was mental trauma that was the trigger, and the basis for Roz's unexpressed fears that Steve might unknowingly endanger the life of her unborn child.

Clearwater understood this without being told, for Steve was also uppermost in her mind. Her love for him had not diminished. She continued to hope that he would find his way back to them, and the knowledge that her soul-sister shared her feelings drew them even closer together. Now, when Roz's mind reached out towards Steve, Clearwater's thoughts travelled with her and in that moment they became one ....

Steve had got the message, but so far he had been denied the means and the opportunity to escape. From New Year's Day through spring and summer, he had been working below ground, wargaming in the Simulation Room, and learning j.a.panese in the language lab.

With Fran's help, he was becoming increasingly fluent, and had even managed to impress Major Fujiwara. The Major had been a.s.signed to the Eastern Desk, but had hinted that he might soon be leading his team back into Ne-Issan to try and re-establish a network using known agents which would be run directly from the Federation.

Steve knew there was little hope of being given another field a.s.signment in the near future. With Karlstrom's tacit approval, he had been trawling through AMEXICO's private data bank and pa.s.sing on enticing morsels to John Chisum. With Fran, he was now a regular visitor to Bull Jefferson's train, and had even been awarded the privilege of stoking the fire-box and in July - as a special treat for his birthday which had come and gone - he was allowed to drive it over a fifty mile stretch of track and toot the whistle.

And these men were going to rule the world. It was insane ....

Near the middle of August, Karlstrom met the other AMEXICO operative who was working inside Bull Jefferson's camp. 'Is everything in place?"

'Yes. What about Brickman?"

'Brickman?"

'Aren't you planning to tip him off?"

'No. He's served his purpose - and he knows too much."