The Inferior by Peadar Ó Guilín Page A

poorly indeed, unable to copy some of the sounds they were making. They’d captured him as a child and, for motives known only to themselves, had failed to eat him. In the end they’d sent him home, half mad, dressed in sweltering furs and almost incapable of speech with his own kind. Almost.
    ‘The Hoppers will also have to die,’ said Wallbreaker. ‘And the Flyers too.’
    The brothers sat in the doorway of their mother’s house. Inside, Indrani was performing kicks and punches at a hide bag she’d strung up to the roof. Strange behaviour.
    Stopmouth didn’t want to tell Wallbreaker that Indrani made him do the kicks too. ‘For to get unsick,’ she said, ‘and to be…to be…’ She flexed her arms.
    ‘Strong?’
    ‘Yes. Strong.’
    So Stopmouth kicked and punched, just not where anybody could see him. Especially not his brother.
    ‘Y-y-you were s-s-saying?’
    ‘What?’
    Wallbreaker had lost track again. He kept looking over Stopmouth’s shoulder at his new wife, seemingly fascinated by her strange exercises. Stopmouth wanted more than anything to leave the two alone together, except he knew Indrani would make him pay for it later if he did. And he didn’t see what good it would do anyway. She spoke enough Human to understand Wallbreaker’s demands and still she refused to share his blankets or even talk to him about her origins. Sometimes Stopmouth wanted to shake his brother. ‘You have Mossheart waiting for you every night! How could you possibly want another woman?’
    But he knew that Wallbreaker had great ambitions, and keeping two wives at such a young age could bring him the respect he needed to realize them. Having one of those women refuse him, however, would have the opposite effect entirely.
    Stopmouth tried to bring Wallbreaker back to the conversation they’d been having. ‘Too many Ar-Armourbacks,’ he said, ‘with Flyers and H-Hoppers. How c-can we b-beat them?’
    Wallbreaker turned his eyes back to his brother and sighed. ‘We have to learn from them,’ he said. ‘That’s the most important thing. See how well they worked together? Armourbacks, Hoppers and Flyers combining their different strengths? It’s as if they were one body. When humans go on a hunt, we don’t work together half so well, and we are only one species. I tell you, brother, if we don’t learn from the Armourbacks, we deserve to feed their young.’ He shuddered. ‘I need to become chief. I don’t think anybody else can learn from our enemies the way I can.’
    Stopmouth agreed, except he wondered how a man too terrified to approach an Armourback could possibly defeat them.
    ‘Tomorrow at the meeting I will put myself forward as a candidate.’
    ‘But, Wallbreaker…If s-somebody else w-wins, he could make you v-v-volunteer next trade!’
    ‘I will win,’ Wallbreaker told him. ‘And when I do, I won’t waste any hunter strong enough to challenge me!’
    And if you don’t win, Stopmouth thought, you’ll be too clever to keep around.
             
    Fifteen days after the death of Speareye, the weakest men, and even a few women, were sent to guard the watch towers. Every male old enough to hunt crowded into Centre Square and trampled the smoke fires to make more room for themselves. The only woman present was Speareye’s wife Housear, who, being pregnant and unaffiliated with any of the potential candidates, had convened the meeting. Other women crammed onto nearby roofs and into surrounding windows to try and watch the Choosing.
    Two hunters hoisted Housear onto their shoulders and her little boy, Bonehammer, blew on a Clawfolk trumpet to silence the crowd. The strain of recent events showed on her face, especially around the eyes. It would be hard for her to feed her children now, and the younger ones might even be refused names and volunteered if things became desperate. Nevertheless, she kept her voice steady and brave.
    ‘Speareye,’ said Housear, ‘is waiting for us with all our