02 Quetzals Flock

QUETZAL'S FLOCK
"You have called me your son, but I do not call you my father. If your seed
germinated my life, then I have you in me and that I would find unclean! I tell you
now, you are not my father. Quetzal is my father! His seed gave me life, not yours.
Will you accept this as the price of your victory?"
He didn't wait for an answer. Men had come to carry away the corpse of
Obeid. Ajanta was with them, she ignored Eridos. Together with her son, she walked
behind the party of sombre faced bearers. Eridos said almost to himself.
"Does it matter? Does it matter if it was you or me? It is over, one of us gave
Hammadi life. Obeid reared him as his son, perhaps that makes Obeid his father more
than either of us."
They stood alone, Kane didn't answer. He pointed to the weeping slit in Eridos'
side.
"We should look after that."
Eridos looked at him and smiled grimly.
"We make a strange combination, the mighty Quetzal and the deposed Tepe -
and now, you want to act as my nursemaid!"
They left the field of carnage through the corpses of the fallen and walked
slowly back to the Arch. It was the only place left to them, Kane sensed that neither
would be welcome in the Encampment of Hammadi.
"What happens now?
He sounded mildly curious, detached, almost remote.
"For them, the Ship will come."
He applied a salve of the foul smelling ointment to the wound. Eridos winced
at the sting of it.
"And us?"
"We wait until the Masters move us."
"Or we wait until the planet blows apart around us!"
They were interrupted by the arrival of another visitor. Nuraghe limped into
view from the direction of Eridos' old camp. He was torn and tattered and wore a strip
of black cloth around a wound on his head. He dropped to his knees before Eridos. He
murmured abjectly.
"I have come to receive your wrath, Tepe Eridos."
Eridos looked bemused, a smile filtered across his face. He said to the world at
large.
"Ironic isn't it? I still have one who will kneel to me and wait for my
punishment."
Nuraghe looked startled and looked up into Eridos' eyes.
"Very well, I will punish you! I acknowledge you as my son! Your father is
deposed and worthless and soon, you will never see him again! You are my son! Make
the most of it whilst you can! Now, go to Hammadi and tell him. Tell him also, that I
hope he will be a good brother to you, not like Tursac and Siyulk, who fought with
each other and taught their sons to do so until this day, until I killed my cousin! Now
go, my son!"
He permitted Nuraghe to embrace him and then the young man turned shyly to
Kane.
"I have been pleased to serve you, Lord Quetzal."
"I would have liked the circumstances to be different. If it could have been
otherwise, I think we could have been friends. I hope you find the same with
Hammadi."
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