The horsemen pressed forward in a rush of speed and four men stood with their arrows poised while women and children and sheep went bolting in all directions.

‘Wait, wait! It’s him! Eyes of the Sky! Don’t shoot!’

‘I said he would come,’ Kabas said crossly.

‘That’s him, Limp Kao, the one we spoke about,’ Koerikei said.

‘He’s grown like a tree, but that’s Eyes of the Sky! Be careful, he has a gun. And be careful of that old lizard with him!’

Roeloff, too, had recognised the hunters and his spirit sank. He’d hoped it wouldn’t be them. Twa had been right in his calculation—he counted eight adults and six children. He dismounted and threw his gun up to Twa to show that he was coming in peace, standing firm and fearless in front of the man he thought was in charge.

‘You’ve stolen my father’s sheep.’

Koerikei lowered his bow.

‘Shoot over their heads, Twa, and get the sheep,’ he said in Dutch.

The shot echoed over the plain and they jumped back.

‘Well? Speak up! Don’t just stand there.’ He turned to Toma, ‘Why’d you come back and steal our sheep?’

‘Your father has many sheep.’

‘They’re his sheep, not yours. We’ve paid money for them, worked hard to keep them. You can’t just come on our land and take them.’

Limp Kao studied him. Eyes of the Sky was indeed as the others had said: white hair stained gold by the sun, eyes rich as the sky. But there was anger, and something else. For someone so young, he seemed remarkably unafraid.

He came forward quietly.

‘I am Limp Kao, Eyes of the Sky.’

‘I am Roeloff Kloot.’

Limp Kao nodded.

‘We wouldn’t have borrowed your father’s sheep, but the drought has taken our food, chased away the animals. Many of our old people and children have died.’

‘The drought affects everyone, not only the Sonqua. It’s that much harder for us, to find grazing land for our animals, to keep them alive. And you haven’t borrowed, you’ve taken. You eat it up and it’s gone and we don’t get it back. Borrowing is when you have permission to take, and later you return it. What can you return? Tell me. Would it be all right for me to come here in the middle of the night and borrow one of your children? You took twelve sheep! I took a chance with my father when I cut Toma’s bonds and let him go. I was a fool! You’ve taken advantage of me.’

‘Sit down,’ Limp Kao said gently. ‘Maybe we can come to an understanding.’

‘We will come to no understanding, you have nothing to bargain with. If my father were here, you’d all be dead.’

‘We’re sorry you’re so angry.’

‘You’re not sorry at all. Tomorrow you’ll do it again. That’s Sonqua’s nature. Sorry today, unrepentant tomorrow. You have short memories. No one else would’ve spared Toma.’

They hung their heads like naughty children. They didn’t know why he was so angry. They hadn’t done anything wrong.

‘Did you take the other farmer’s sheep, too?’

No one answered.

‘Well, no answer’s as good as one. Watch your backs with that farmer. With him there will be no second chance. He has no feeling for the Sonqua.’

‘Does Eyes of the Sky have feelings for them?’

‘Only anger and disappointment. They have proved themselves ungrateful.’ He looked around for Twa and saw that he had collected ten of the sheep. ‘Where’s the other?’

‘Behind those rocks,’ Twa said. ‘I’ll get it.’

Limp Kao coughed politely.

‘What if we promised to stay off your land, if you agreed not to interfere if we brought the other farmer’s sheep past it?’

The others stared open-mouthed at Limp Kao.

Roeloff laughed and got back on his horse.

‘You have courage, old man, but I cannot agree. I don’t see eye to eye with that farmer, but it’s not in me to betray him. And I don’t need promises. If you come near our sheep now, it’s over between us.’

There was a sudden commotion and heads turned as Zokho came running out from behind a bush.

‘Zokho!’ Toma said angrily. She’d been warned to stay hidden.

Roeloff forgot everything when he saw her. Zokho’s skin had taken on a russet tone, and she wore only the tiny ­leather flap covering her private parts. She had grown tall, with long legs as strong as an eland’s, the tips of her breasts glistening in the dying sun.

‘Zokho …’

‘Take me with you, Roff.’

‘You will not go anywhere!’ Toma came forward angrily.

Roeloff couldn’t stop looking at her. The pouty lips, the slant of her eyes, the short hair decorated with chips of white ostrich eggshell. She was dusty as the veld, but even more beautiful than before, and everything he’d felt for her came rushing back. He’d missed the sound of her voice, and hearing it again, soft and childlike, made him realise how far he’d pushed her from his mind.

‘I’ve missed you, Zokho.’

‘I want to come back to Kloot’s Nek.’

The others looked on in shock. They had never seen one of their own behave like this.

Toma glared up at him on the horse.

‘She’s mine.’

‘So she is, Toma.’ His first impulse was to snatch her up and ride off. But then what? Bring her back as a servant to Kloot’s Nek and get himself embroiled in something that would only turn things upside down and invite the wrath of his father? The Karoo would be unbending if he broke the rules.

‘It won’t work, Kudu,’ Twa’s voice sounded behind him.