Lady Aphris rides on her kailla from the harigga of Omen Valley to the rudimentary camp of the Kataii who gathered together in some wagons after the disastrous tornado which has swept away wagons and more worse people. She rides along the shallow river which flows over Plains, she is extra careful now, because the city of Turia is near. She feels that her kaiila becomes restless, mostly the animal only does that when dead animals or warriors are near. True to its nature the animal catches game but eats dead animals too, and now it smells potential food.
Aphris dismounts the kaiila for she wants to know what animal is killed here, normally no big game comes near the city, for they fear the noise and smell of the humans living in it. Aphris binds the reins of the kaiila to a willow tree at the river, out of sight of the guards on the walls of the city. With a silent pace she searches the environment of the tree, starting at the river site.
Suddenly her heart leaps, she sees a big shadow in the twilight of the early evening, fearing the worst she sneaks closer. Then she sees what she feared: a Kataii wagon laying half under water in the river. This wagon must have been taken up in the wind and landed in the shallow river. Because of the kaiila's reaction she fears that at least one dead will be near, she cuts a subtle branch from the willow, knowing it will work as a perfect whip against possible scavengers which are feeding at the dead person. She comes closer to the wagon and hears noises of little footsteps in the wagon, she suddenly jumps up and with a terrible scream she enters the wagon, she sees some urts speeding in panic in all directions, she let the willow whip swing and hits two of the round running creatures. She steps aside from the entrance to give the animals an escape route and see them disappear in the evening twilight over the Plains.
She looks in the wagon again, but can not see very much in the twilight, she seeks a candle which she lights with a fire stone. Suddenly the wagon is lighted and to her horror she sees an outrider laying against wall like a puppet. She immediate sees he must be dead, because his head makes a strange angle, and his legs, face and arms are half eaten away by the urts. She comes closer to the horrible face, the man is unrecognizable, his cheeks, lips and nose are eaten away by urts, his eyes being picked out by births, possible gulls, otherwise the holy ravens which normally eat from the sacrifice animals near the altars of the haruspices. She notices that his neck is broken, and probably his backbone and some of the limbs too.
She holds the candle higher and sees a small cage in the back of the wagon, laying under water...a slave cage, she crawls nearer and to her terror she sees a swollen face with panic stricken wide eyes encircle with blond hair. The cage had become under water and not being able to get out of it the slave had been drowned, her hands clawed around the bars, desperate in her last moments, a terrible end , even that she only was a kajira. Aphris searches more of the wagon but sees no further casualties. She takes her quiva and cuts the leather string with an amulet from the wagon mans neck. Maybe someone will recognize it a friend or a family member.
Suddenly she straightens, she has an idea, she crawls back to slave cage and looks again at the corpse of the drowned slave girl. BItting at her lips her free hand goes in the water and search between the blond hairs for the woman’s collar. Her fingers touch the steel and close around it, she tries to pull it closer. Somehow the girl is stuck and she has to put her foot in the cage to kick he body loose, after 3 tries she manages to get the collar closer so she can read what is written "property of Belgutei". She does not recognize the name, but probably some of the others in her tribe will. She lets the collar go and sees the face sink deeper in the water, into the darkness. Crawling backwards she leaves the broken wagon and after extinguishing the candle , she does not want to be seen from the walls, she goes to her kaiila and continues the journey to the Kataii camp.