‘How do you mean?’
‘His spirit changed. He went out into the veld by himself and sometimes stayed two or three days. Your grandfather would send me to go and look for him. He had no one to play with or talk to except the Koi-na children. He understood the land and its animals, even its people.’ Twa paused to look at him. ‘But he was never able to separate them. You’re his son by courage and stubbornness. Not by nature. Your father was always brave, but his heart’s not Sonqua.’
Roeloff looked at the horses over by the tree. They had drunk all the water in the hollow and seemed to have regained some of their earlier spirit.
‘We must go, or we’ll stand here and talk and the others will get away.’
From the top of the mountain the land stretched grey-brown and broken before them, the sky meeting the end of the earth. A dark line moving slowly northwards pinpointed the raiders.
‘Do you see them down there?’
‘Yes.’
The hunters had their first inkling of danger when they felt the vibrations under their feet and saw the riders materialise out of bush and rock in the distance and race towards them.
‘Koerikei, look!’ someone shouted.
The men reached for their arrows, and Koerikei issued a spate of instructions over the rising panic.
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?’
