And the animals—keep them quiet. Unhitch the carts! ” He was once a pacesetter, the repository of knowledge, notwithstanding he had yet one arm. They have been all afraid no matter if they'd performed not anything. they'd defend Ba-ac, too, simply because they have been jointly, similar by means of blood. Now, the morning sunlight poured on them. They waited, the moms shushing their kids, the boys silently taking a look at each other. The airborne dirt and dust cloud raised by way of the horses drew closer and even though they can now not pay attention them, they can see the cloud disappear; they have been crossing farther up the river and shortly, the airborne dirt and dust cloud seemed back, a wraith at the horizon. The animals didn't make a legitimate. an extended, lengthy wait—then it got here, the crack of a gun echoing around the fields. Ba-ac went up the incline and peered on the distance. towards the east, past the skinny line of bamboo and bushes, a wisp of smoke plumed up. The smoke thickened and shortly the path of dirt back, going again towards them. within the distance, the flames shot up with spirals of grey smoke. Po-on was once burning! they didn't even depart the homes for the subsequent tenants to maneuver into. Years of sweat have been poured into that village, the roofs they formed, the posts they dragged from the forests. every little thing was once in that pillar of smoke achieving as much as the cloudless sky. the boys cursed, the ladies wept silently. “I will pass back,” Dalin stated resolutely after your time. “They should not after me, they've got not anything guilty me for or accuse me of. i'm really not from Po-on …” “What are you able to do no matter if you went again? ” An-no requested. “If they burned Po-on, without doubt, they need to have killed Istak, too, or taken him. they're going to trap you, torture you, after which they are going to be aware of the place we are … and the place we're going. ” “You don’t comprehend what i've got undergone to be alive,” the younger lady acknowledged, having a look instantly on the guy who, she knew, sought after her to stick, not only for her defense, yet for himself. She hitched her cart. “Do now not leave. i'm going to go back here,” she advised Ba-ac. they're long past. Istak became over the phrases, feeling their chew. He glanced round on the homes, empty now and shrouded via evening. How wouldn't it all glance whilst sunlight came—this ghost of a village, with out the voices of kids, the grunt of animals? Even now, he might think his mother’s voice summoning the pigs to the trough, “Riii—say, Riii—say”; Ba-ac calling for the younger calf to come back domestic. “Ooooowah-ngek … Ooooowah-ngek …” of their hurry, they have to have left in the back of many beneficial issues. now not the entire chickens have been within the coops, the firewood, the sheaves of tobacco have been nonetheless lower than the home, the previous pots, the seeds of mango, of tomato, and eggplant have been nonetheless striking within the caves to dry. Even this wood mortar on which he sat, its soft hole recessed deep via the consistent pounding of pestles. As a boy he had helped his mom pound rice in it after the stalks have been first threshed in an extended wood trough hewn from reliable wooden. The pestle had callused his hand. He had enjoyed the rhythmic sound of the pounding if there have been 3 of them on the mortar, the thuds following each other and echoing within the quiet.