Silver May Tarnish by Andre Norton Page B

than eighteen days ago,” I said truthfully, and saw his mouth curve in a tiny smile of relief.
    â€œThen, you do not know?”
    â€œWhat should I know, Neeco?”
    â€œThe invaders. They found Honeycoombe. All are dead. They came to Merrowdale first. I was out with the dogs and escaped.”
    â€œAnd the dogs?” I thought that part of the tale could be at least half true.
    â€œI followed the invaders with them. I attacked when and as I could. One by one they killed the dogs. Now I am alone. Then these men found me.” A sweep of his hand indicated the tumbled bodies. “They were bad men. I have prayed to escape them. Now I have.” His eyes fixed on me. “They drank Ithia’s mead and died. Why was that, Meive?”
    In my mind I touched my warriors. Let them be ready. A humming in my mind assured me that they were. They would strike at my command. At last I could let my hatred show. I smiled.
    â€œWhy else, Neeco? Because while it was many days gone since first I came here, I had returned home in that time. I saw what you and your friends did in Honeycoombe. I know you led them here. I came back and poisoned the mead. I knew they would not leave it be.” His eyes were turned fearfully now to my warriors as they rose to surround him.
    â€œAnd me. I didn’t drink.”
    â€œYou should have done so,” I told him quietly. “You’d have preferred that death.”
    He acted as I expected, striking at me. My warriors did not even need my command. They swarmed about him,
plunging their stingers into him again and again as he screamed and ran. I had sworn to accomplish his death but I was sickened. It took him time to die. Yet all his pain would not bring back my kin, my friends, or Ithia, my craft-mother, and after a time I could not bear to see and hear his suffering, so in the end I took up my dagger and gave him mercy.

VI

    S o I fetched the ponies and labored for the remainder of the day. I had no need to check the bodies for anything of use. Neeco had already done that for me. I had merely to take his pack. But I hitched a pony to the bodies, one by one, and allowed the pony to drag them to a cliff. I rolled the contorted figures over the edge. Let them lie below, prey to the buzzards which would feast. Neeco’s body I sent hurtling downwards last of all. Perhaps his family would have preferred that he lie with them but I could not allow it. By his own actions he was not of us. Let him lie with those friends he had taken.
    After that, I returned a while to stay in my dale. There was no need to do anything for Ithia. Her body had crumbled to a fine pollenlike dust by the time I gained my vengeance and returned. I took up a pinch of that and added it to my amulet. The remainder I burned as I wept. Then I used the ponies to aid me as, one by one, I laid the bodies of my kin and friends to rest. It was exhausting and brutal work and I think I was a little mad. I hummed to my bees as I worked, talked to them and discussed what I should do next.

    When I was done, I shut up the cottages and the keep as best I could. If I ever returned they should not be ruined with the damp or infested with vermin. Lastly I dealt with the horses. The bandits had their own thin abused beasts. And then there was the team of great-horses. I rounded up all of them, tying them into a pack-train. Taking up the reins of the first of them I led the string down our dale and into the inner valley. The entrance to that was narrow. I left the beasts to feed and blocked their gateway. They could live out their lives in safety there, even if I never returned.
    At last I straddled a pony and returned to the hives. I would take my winged-ones back to the place where Ithia had found the new queens. They should be safe even if I died or must leave. I used the sledges and the ponies, moving the hives in two journeys. Each time I halted just short of my goal. When all were there and I could delay