Feersh the Blind, he could enjoy being there. For some reason which the Yawtl didn't know, this thin circle of woods was free of insects. Moreover, the animals, safe or dangerous, avoided it. If this was because Feersh had cast a spell on it, the magic hadn't influenced Jum and Aejip. They seemed at ease.
The hunting in the swamp and the fishing in the river beyond the forest were as good as could be asked for.
He fantasized the Earth as a place where such forests were interspersed among the jungles he knew.
After the necessary hunting, a man could retreat to such a forest and "enjoy life without the dangers" of predators and the vexatious and sometimes painful or fatal insect and snake bites.
Deyv was, however, a realist. Into his thoughts of the paradise of such forests crawled visions of humans. There would be bachelors who'd sneak in and kill, or a raid by warriors fixed on wiping out
Deyv and his tribe. And there would be bothersome and sometimes infuriating interferences by parents and other relatives, not to mention the shaman and his wife or friends. And there would be a wife who would too often want her own way. And ...
But this was normal human life and, whatever its vexations, it was overall enjoyable, rewarding, and fulfilling. This was the only way open to a man if he was to be a completely rounded human.
So, counting all the advantages and disadvantages, there would be no better place than a forest like this.
Deyv couldn't see the humans aboard the tharakorm. But at least fifty leathery-winged ratlike khratikl were out feeding the sand monsters. They flew in couples which carried between each member a large chunk of raw meat. When they came above the places where the beasts hid, they dropped the flesh and flapped off for the jungle beyond the ship-creatures. The Yawtl had said that there were corrals there where cattle were raised. These were tended by khratikl supervised by human slaves. They provided food for the sand things, the slaves, the khratikl, Feersh's family, and the captive tharakorm.
Deyv, watching the tentacles crawl out to seize the meat or giant stings readying to pierce it, thought that the feeding was a flaw in the idea of the sand traps. An observer in the forest could note the location of the shishvenomi, as Hoozisst called the sand-beasts, and then avoid the traps. But he'd have to have a good memory.
Hoozisst had also told them that the shishvenomi didn't need food very often. They went into a semihibernation until their sensors detected vibrations on the surface. Then they became fully awake, only to fall back into their sleep after eating or if their prey eluded them.
Deyv had asked why the slaves didn't try to escape.
"They have a fairly good life," Hoozisst had said. "And they're descendants of slaves. Feersh's greatgreat-
grandmother captured their ancestors. In fact, they worship Feersh as a goddess. They also sacrifice to her. When the population gets too large, they reduce it by killing the useless old people and the babies who don't have matching soul eggs."
Deyv was indifferent to the babies' fate, since his own tribe had the same custom. But he was horrified by what happened to the old people. "Those slaves are beasts! They deserve to be slaves!"
The Yawtl had smiled but had not replied.
Now, watching the khratikl, Deyv didn't feel as repulsed or as indignant. It seemed to him that perhaps
Feersh had done the right thing. After all, if the slaves got too numerous, they'd starve. And they couldn't just drive the old ones into the jungle to fend for themselves. It really was better, more humane, that they be spared that horror.
Perhaps he'd misjudged the witch. Could anyone who'd prepared a forest like this, such a delightful place, be wicked? It didn't seem likely. And if she wasn't a witch but was a good-magic person, then perhaps her motive in stealing the soul eggs was good. She may have intended, and probably did, some benefit for those who had been robbed. However, since they wouldn't have voluntarily come to her with their eggs because of her bad reputation—no doubt the result of lies by her enemies—she'd sent the
Yawtl to steal the eggs. Thus, the robbed would have to track him down and follow him to Feersh. And she would then explain just why she'd done this thing that had seemed so terrible to them only because of their ignorance of her true motive.
Hadn't the Yawtl said that he took care that those pursuing him didn't lose the trail? If he'd not left much physical evidence of his passage for Deyv's party, it was because he knew Sloosh was in it. Contrary to what the plant-man had stated, Hoozisst was well aware of Sloosh's ability to see psychic tracks. Deyv couldn't actually define what connection this had with his growing belief that Feersh meant them no harm. But he was sure that it strengthened his reasoning about her.
He didn't understand why Feersh had placed the dangerous shishvenomi in ambush. That certainly wasn't friendly. But then she could have excellent reasons for it. Maybe she had to have some test to weed out unfit candidates for whatever benefits she would bestow. Deyv's party had proved itself worthy.
Since they'd come this far, and since the goal was in sight, why not just come out of hiding and show themselves?
So thought, so done. Almost, anyway. He had to talk to his colleagues and find out if they agreed or disagreed. If they should disagree, though it. didn't seem likely, since Deyv's logic was irresistible, then he'd act on his own. But he owed it to them to discuss this with them first
He was pleasantly surprised when the Yawtl said that he'd been thinking along the same lines. Hoozisst was up and about, his broken arm almost entirely knit, his bruises and contusions gone.
"Let's see what the plant-man thinks."
"Where's Vana?" Deyv asked. "We should talk to her at the same time and so save time."
"She went hunting with Aejip."
Deyv felt a little angry.
"Why should she want to do that? We don't need meat any more. The purple fruit is more than enough to eat. It's all we need."
Hoozisst nodded. "That's what I was thinking. Why go out into that swamp with all its stinging insects and poisonous snakes and only Khrukhrukhru knows what else? She was inclined to agree, but the cat was hungry and wanted Vana to go with her. She's very fond of Vana, isn't she?"
The Yawtl had needled Deyv before about this. Deyv, however, no longer felt pangs of jealousy.
"There's no reasoning with a cat. She'd bug Vana until she got her way, and Vana knows that. Well, we can talk to her when she gets back. There's no hurry."
Sloosh was stuffing the purplish fruit into the chest-mouth when they came up to him. His eyes were closed, his brain seemingly orbiting, or perhaps entangled with, some philosophical problem.
Deyv was mistaken. Sloosh had been engaged with the same subject as the others. His logic was similar, too.
"As soon as Vana gets back, we'll tell her what we're going to do. I'm sure she'll agree with us. If she doesn't, then we'll leave her here. After a while, she'll follow us. What else can she do?"
They strapped the folded-up vessel onto the plant-man's back and then ate some more of the fruit. It didn't sate or cloy but seemed to get more delicious with each bite. The time passed pleasantly as they talked idly of many things. They noted that The Dark Beast would soon be covering this part of the sky.
They'd planned to cross the sand traps when the semi-darkness would make their passage much less visible from the tharakorm. Now they wouldn't wait.
Presently, they heard Vana calling loudly, and they walked slowly to the edge of the forest facing the swamp. Here she came, splashing through the dark stinking waters, blood upon her arm and the tip of her spear. Behind her swam a dozen or so sleek greenish creatures about two feet long. They had weasellike heads with long thick whiskers and large blue eyes.
"Anything wrong?" Deyv called out.
" 'Anything wrong?' " she screamed. "This is no time for your twisted sense of humor!"
She left the swamp and ran up the gently sloping bank and into the trees. There she sat down, panting.
The beasts followed her a minu
te later, clucking, their sharp teeth exposed in wicked grins. But they stopped when they came within a few feet of the edge of the forest. Some sat up on their hind legs and waved broad paws with webbed toes.
Having regained her breath, Vana stood up. The blood on her arm was flowing heavily. Deyv suggested that she stanch the wound with mud.
"What's the matter with you?" she cried. "You're all acting as if you didn't care that I could've been killed and that Aejip is treed by those beasts. I killed six with my darts and two with my spear. They could have caught me when I was in the water, but they were so busy eating their own dead that they let me get ahead of them. As it was—!"
"Well, you're safe now," Deyv said. "But I suppose we'll have to rescue Aejip."
" 'Suppose'!" she cried. "What's the matter with you, Deyv? What's wrong with all of you?"
"Nothing at all," he said. "We feel really fine."
He proceeded to tell her what he and the others planned to do.
Vana heard them out with increasing incredulity. She didn't, however, say anything until after she'd smeared mud on her wound.
"Do you know, I'd been feeling somewhat the way you have. Not nearly to that degree, though. Still, I was wondering this morning if perhaps we weren't mistaken about Feersh. But when I went with Aejip I got too busy to think about anything but hunting."
She paused to look at them.
"You're all eating that fruit. Standing there munching away and looking blissful. You aren't bothered by what happened and yet you should all be excited, ready to drive those beasts away and save Aejip. For all you know, she could be dead by now. Those beasts can climb trees, you know."
Deyv began to feel just a little uneasy.
"What're you thinking?"
Narrow-eyed, Vana stared closely into his eyes. Then she looked into Hoozisst's and Sloosh's.
"Yes, they seem a little glazed. I'd be in the same drugged condition if I hadn't gone hunting and gotten rid of some of its effects. That has to be it."
"What do you mean?" Deyv asked.
"It's that fruit! It's making us think this crazy way! I'll bet that Feersh planted these trees here. She did it so that if people hid here to spy on her, they'd eat the purple stuff and it would affect their minds."
The three males looked at each other. Deyv and Hoozisst burst out laughing. The plant-man buzzed his equivalent of loud scornful mirth.
Her face flushed and angry, Vana said, "You lamebrains! You can't see I'm telling the truth because you're drugged!"
Sloosh buzzed his equivalent of "Tut, tut!" Then he said, "Even if we were, why should we decide that
Feersh wasn't dangerous? You're surely not saying that the fruits contain mental suggestions implanted somehow by the witch? That'd be a scientific impossibility."
"No, but the fruit might affect you so that you'd want to take the easy way out, no matter how foolish it might be. Look at you now! You're not the least bit worried about my wound or the cat!"
Sloosh spoke even more slowly than usual. "I think you're quite mistaken. However, there is only one way to determine if you are. I'm loath to take that course, since it means giving up the eating of this superb fruit. It also entails a considerable output of energy, which, frankly, I don't feel up to just now.
But if it's to be done, we should do it now."
Deyv and Hoozisst didn't want to venture out into the swamp. The plant-man said that he sympathized with their feelings, but logic demanded that they test Vana's theory. They armed themselves and went out to meet the greenish beasts. Sloosh carried a big dead branch, the first time Deyv had seen him bear a weapon. The Yawtl and Vana shot darts with their blowguns; Deyv slashed with his sword. Within a few minutes, the predators were dead or fleeing.
They sloshed through the water and the mud, Vana leading. When they arrived at the tree up which
Aejip had fled, they found some dead or dying beasts at its foot. Aejip was also there, eating one. She was bleeding lightly where claws had raked her, but evidently she'd not been bitten.
When they returned to the forest, Vana said, "If I catch anybody eating that fruit, I'll knock his skull in."
"That would be a rather excessive measure," Sloosh said. "Or are you exaggerating again?"
"You should know by now."
Sloosh buzzed the equivalent of a sigh. "Ah, the hyperbole of humans. Why can't you be exact in your speech?"
18
TWO sleep-times passed. The Dark Beast dragged a heavy twilight behind it. The only light from _the sky was a narrowing band around the horizon. The Yawtl's and Vana's wounds were entirely healed. In the meantime, they all stayed away from the purplish fruit, and their minds became clear.
"We owe the woman an apology," Sloosh said, "even though it was an accident that she didn't succumb, too."
Reluctantly, Deyv and Hoozisst thanked her.
"You two don't have any more gratitude than you have brains," she said. "As for you, plant-man, you might compliment me just once without making some reservation."
None of them replied; they wanted to forget all about the fruit and their foolishness.
"It's time to set out," the Archkerri said.
They strapped the cube to his back and rechecked their supply of poisoned darts. Then with Sloosh leading as before, they went single file across the sandy plain. Though they knew what to expect, they felt terror when the tips of the tentacles writhed within a few inches of their ankles or the sting-poles exploded from the sand. On leaving the trap area, they sighed with relief, though greater danger might be ahead.
Presently, they came to the three ship-creatures, which Hoozisst had told them were not tied but glued together. Also, what they had at first thought was a single cable attached to the central underside was actually three thick vines wound about each other. The Yawtl cautioned them again that the vines would send an alarm up to the tharakorm if they were touched.
"During sleep-time, each vine is sensitized. But only to animal life. If a leaf or an uprooted plant should blow against the cable, it won't register the contact. It would be nice if Feersh's crew had forgotten to draw up the rope-ladder, but they didn't. However, we're very lucky in having Sloosh. He's a plant, so he won't trigger off the alarm."
"Don't be so sure," Sloosh buzzed softly. "I'm half-protein."
Hoozisst grimaced and said, "We'll know in a minute."
Sloosh walked up to the triple cable. Without touching it, he looked up into the darkness. The tharakorm was a vague whitish bulk. Hoozisst had assured him that the hole from which the cable hung was large enough to admit even his giant body. He had wanted to check this out for himself, but he couldn't see in the dim light and at this distance.
He put his hand out without hesitating and grabbed the cable. Deyv expected to hear the alarm. He didn't know what it would be, a loud scream or a roar. The silence continued. His relief was short. Sloosh commented that possibly the alarm was audible only to those sleeping above. If they were all sleeping, that is. It was true they hadn't been visible from the tharakorm when the party crossed the open area. But then a sentinel might have missed them or perhaps have been absent from his post when they passed.
The Archkerri took hold of the thick cable with both huge hands. Deyv climbed onto his back and with his rope tied his waist to Sloosh's upper torso. Sloosh began pulling himself upward, his upper trunk extending straight put from the lower, his legs wrapped around the vines. Up they went, slowly but unceasingly. Deyv hung on to the rope, making sure that no part of him touched the vines.
Halfway up, the Archkerri stopped to get his wind back. Deyv looked down. The ground was a long way off, though he could see it only dimly. The group below wasn't even visible. That assured him that a sentinel wouldn't have been able to see them on the plain.
Now, however, if the sentinel looked down the hole, he might be able to spot Sloosh and Deyv. On the other hand, why should he?
The cable did not rise straight from the surface but was at a slight ang
le because the wind was pushing the tharakorm. Now and then the wind lessened in strength, and then the cable swayed back and forth.
Deyv had been in situations where he had felt more secure.
"I wonder," the Archkerri buzzed softly, "if it's possible, as the great Sindsindbat maintains, that the oscillation of matter in this universe is caused by psychical means rather than physical ones? Or perhaps
I should say psychophysical."
"By Skreekmishgakl!" Deyv said. "What are you talking about?"
"Sindsindbat says that the matter expelled by the primal fireball explosion doesn't keep expanding outward to infinity but instead eventually falls back toward the center of the matter because of the angry, hence negative, charges radiated by the zillions of sapients on the quadrillions or perhaps quintillions of inhabited planets. These charges cause the stars and indeed all matter to stop when the influence of all this anger and hatred achieves a certain intensity. The negative energy slows the matter down, then causes a reversal in direction. A fall, as it were."
"It sounds interesting, though I don't have the faintest idea what it means," Deyv said. His voice was low but angry. "Do you think this is the place to tell me about Sindsindbat's theory, whoever he is?"
"My grandfather on my mother's side but my great-grandmother on my father's side," Sloosh said.
"Undoubtedly one of the greatest, if perhaps somewhat unstable, minds of the Archkerri. It's his—"
"Shut up!" Deyv said. "Your own mind can't be too stable if you start propounding some irrelevant nonsense about stars falling because people are mad about something. Here we are—"
" 'Irrelevant nonsense' is a redundancy," Sloosh said. "All nonsense is irrelevant."
"That shows what little you know about humans," Deyv said. "Anyway, be quiet! Sound carries upward.
What if somebody is awake up there?"
"True. But my comment was caused by my recently hearing you and Vana quarreling about whether or not women should be taboo, that is, ritually unclean, for a certain period, after childbirth or menstruation. She claimed—"
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