indrawn breath.

So urged, Lal mumbled sullenly, "It is said that there came a message
for one to witness the Wrath of Lurgha in its descent upon the
outlanders so that Nodren and the men of Nodren would truly know that
the traders were cursed, and should be put to the spear should they
come here again----"

"This message--how was it brought? Did the voice of Lurgha sound in
Nodren's ear alone, or came it by the tongue of some man?"

"Ahee!" Lal lay flat on the ground, his hands over his ears.

"Lal is a fool and fears his own shadow as it skips before him on a
sunny day!" Out of the bushes stepped a young woman, obviously of some
importance in her own group. Walking with a proud stride, her eyes
boldly met Ashe's. A shining disk hung about her neck on a thong, and
another decorated the woven belt of her cloth tunic. Her hair was bound
in a thread net fastened with jet pins.

"I greet Cassca, who is the First Sower." There was a formal note in
Ashe's voice. "But why should Cassca hide from Assha?"

"There has been death on your hill, Assha--" she sniffed--"you smell of
it now--Lurgha's death. Those who come from that hill may well be some
who no longer walk in their bodies." Cassca placed her fingers
momentarily on Ashe's outstretched palm before she nodded. "No spirit
are you, Assha, for all know that a spirit is solid to the eye, but not
to the touch. So it would seem that you were not burned up by Lurgha,
after all."

"This matter of a message from Lurgha--" he prompted.

"It came out of the empty air in the hearing not only of Nodren, but
also of Hangor, Effar, and myself, Cassca. For we stood at that time
near the Old Place...." She made a curious gesture with the fingers of
her right hand. "It will soon be the time of sowing, and though Lurgha
brings sun and rain to feed the grain, yet it is in the Great Mother
that the seed lies. Upon her business only women may go into the Inner
Circle." She gestured again. "But as we met to make the first sacrifice
there came music out of the air such as we have never heard, voices
singing like birds in a strange tongue." Her face assumed an awesome
expression. "Afterward a voice said that Lurgha was angered with the
hill of the men-from-afar and that in the night he would send his Wrath
against them, and that Nodren must witness this thing so that he could
see what Lurgha did to those he would punish. So it was done by Nodren.
And there was a sound in the air----"