She started. He thought she was going to run away, and he cried out
again, "Jill!" Then, step by step, uncertainly, she came nearer, lovely
as a fawn in spring.
She made a questioning sound, and he answered. "Burk." She stood still
for a moment, repeating the word, and then she whimpered and began to
run toward him, and he was filled with a great joy. He laughed and
mouthed her name over and over, and there were tears in his eyes. He
reached out toward her.
A spear flashed and fell quivering between them.
She gave him a cry of warning and fled, vanishing into the shrubbery.
Burk tried to follow, but his knees gave under him. He turned, snarling.
Tall Keshi guards in resplendent harness had come out of the trees,
circling behind him. They carried spears and a net of heavy ropes. In a
moment he was surrounded. The spear-points pricked him back until the
net was thrown, and he went down helpless.
As they carried him away, he heard two things. The wail of the silver
she, and from somewhere nearby, a woman's mocking laughter.
He had heard that laughter before. He could not remember where, or how,
but it filled him with such fury that he was finally knocked over the
head with a spear-butt, to keep him quiet.