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.’‘So they say.Some of us were born here.’‘I realize that.’All through the exchange she had continued to walk, without looking back at him.She was brushing through the thick shrubbery on either side and the droplets of rainwater that did not fly back at Sheeld attached themselves to her dress like tiny jewels.‘Then you don’t know anyone here today?’‘I’ve spoken to Mme.Mercier.And both of the sons.’‘That’s what I thought.’ She looked back quickly at him over her shoulder and for a moment Sheeld glimpsed those eyes that earlier had sent such unmistakable signals to him.This time, though, it was a spontaneous, less calculated look.She had raised her veil and laid it across her hat and her face was pale and exposed.‘Why should you think anything about me?’ he said.‘I’m trying to find out something about you.After all, you seem anxious to accompany me to a private meeting.’‘At your invitation.I shouldn’t have thought, under the circumstances, that knowing anything about me would matter at all.’‘It always matters, Graian Sheeld.’She kept saying his full name like that, with a hint of parody in her voice.Was there some meaning in it, or was it simply her accent? Perhaps his name, fortuitously, sounded like something else in their patois – whatever it was those two men had been talking about, for instance.More to the point, perhaps, what was she doing by leading him away from the main party and what had those looks implied, back there at the house? Suddenly, he wondered if he had misunderstood everything that had been happening that day.Perhaps it was not a funeral at all, he thought sarcastically, as he stumbled behind her, his foot stubbing against a half-buried root.What he had interpreted as a blatant sexual invitation, as blatant as any he had ever known in his life, was another misunderstanding, based on his ignorance of island manners.In the heat of the afternoon he began to regret having followed her into the forest, to be led along a winding path through encroaching vegetation while answering small-talk questions.In particular, he was growing tired of following her like a pet dog, unable to see her expression when she spoke to him.When they came to a wider stretch of the path he caught up with her and walked at her side.She did not even glance at him, but strode on.Ahead, the path narrowed again and Sheeld decided to stop walking.Alanya Mercier went on for a few more paces, evidently intending that he should continue to follow her, but when she realized he had no intention of going any further she turned to face him.‘You’ve never attended one of our funerals before, have you?’ she said.‘No.But I’ve been to others on the mainland.’‘You’d never been to a cremation, though,’ she said.‘I could tell.You didn’t know what was going to happen when they took the coffin to the furnace.’‘That’s true,’ he said.‘It was something of a novelty for us all.The whole family has found it an unusual experience.’‘Then why was it done?’ Sheeld said.‘The law of the island.On Trellin the manner of disposal depends on the cause of death and in this case my cousin had to be cremated.You know how he died, of course?’Sheeld shook his head.He had not known how to ask anyone what had caused the death, nor indeed, until this moment, had he been especially interested.As Mercier must have been the same age as his uncle, in his late seventies or early eighties, Sheeld had assumed he had been suffering from some degenerative disease related to age.‘He was bitten by an insect,’ Alanya said.‘A thryme.’She tossed out the information in a factual way, but the words had a profound effect on Sheeld.A faint nausea passed through him, a swimming sense of light-headedness and disgust.He felt the air around him smothering him, suddenly warmer.‘A thryme?’ he said stupidly.‘You must know what that is.’‘Yes, but I didn’t think they attacked humans,’ he said, his voice sounding ineffectual.He wanted to disbelieve what she had said.‘They don’t usually.But this one had come into the house.One of the servants discovered later that an insect screen had worked loose.We think the thryme must have got into the upholstery of the chair Corrin usually sat in.That’s where he was found, with the bite on his back.The insect had managed to penetrate his clothes.The consultant at the hospital said he’d never seen a wound like it before.Thrymes normally only attack exposed skin.’Sheeld shuddered.‘This is terrible!’ he said.‘I wish you hadn’t told me! I’m terrified of those things.’He was trying to make himself sound reasonable, practical, adult, but he could hear the tremor in his voice.The news struck at the deepest phobia in him.‘You’d better be careful while you’re here,’ Alanya Mercier said and a smile flickered across her face.‘They’re all over the place.There are more thryme colonies here than on most of the other islands.’She’s deliberately tormenting me, Sheeld thought, but he said, ‘Let’s go back to the house.’‘You won’t see any out here.They stay underground during the day and anyway a thryme will only attack if it feels cornered.’‘I wish you hadn’t mentioned this!’‘I thought you were interested in why it was a cremation.’ She was looking at him intently again, the bland, greenish light of the forest making her lips and eyes look dark and her face the more pale.‘You can go back to the house if you like, but I thought you had agreed to come with me.’‘Is that true what you said, that we won’t see any?’‘Yes.Thrymes nest underground and they stay there until after nightfall.You almost never see one during the day.Anyway, where we are now isn’t the sort of environment they like.This forest looks like untamed jungle but in fact it’s a managed timber resource.You won’t find fallen trees with exposed roots around here and the ground under those is the thryme’s natural habitat.Stay on the path and you’ll be as safe as you would be in a town
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