You and I will live out our lives and our children theirs and their children theirs. I can't imagine a hundred generations. It's too far off for me to worry about it.
"We'll have children and grandchildren, if we're lucky. And we'll eat and drink and have fun. And then we'll all die. And the fate of the world will be no concern of ours.
"Meanwhile, we have to find that thief and get our soul eggs back and then get back to our families. And some day I'll be an old woman, and then I'll die. And my tribe will eat me, and—"
"What? Your tribe will eat you?" Deyv asked.
"Of course."
That she was a cannibal shocked him much more than the impending end of the world.
10
THE Yawtl had made the mistake of trespassing into a village instead of robbing isolated individuals.
His ghostly red trail led his pursuers to the edge of the village. These people had no House but lived in wooden thatch-roofed houses inside a tall log stockade. There seemed to be many women and children in the village and a shortage of men. A dead man lay in the center of the village, and a shaman and the women danced mourning around him.
Deyv, looking down from a tree, noted that the corpse's soul egg was missing. When he descended, he and Sloosh put together what they had observed. Sloosh concluded that the Yawtl had been surprised while lifting the egg. During the struggle, the man was slain. The tribe, aroused, had chased the Yawtl, and then most of the warriors had taken off after him.
The Archkerri followed the trails to the highway. Evidently the thief had fled down this road, continuing the same course. Unless he had a big lead on the would-be avengers, he would not, however, stay on it long.
While they were traveling at a faster-than-usual pace on the road, Deyv questioned Sloosh.
"Why do you think the Yawtl went so far afield to get the eggs? Why didn't he just pick tribes near his area and then waylay individuals in the jungle? Wherever he lives, it's a long way from my land."
The huge eyes in the cabbage-head closed. After a while, they opened.
"I'd say that he was looking for eggs of a special kind. Not just anybody's would do. Don't ask me what kind. I don't know."
The wind had shifted toward them right before sleep-time. Just as they were talking about retiring into the jungle, Jum bristled and growled. They couldn't see anything ahead on the road, but Deyv knew that someone was coming.
From behind the foliage they saw the returning warriors. They were tall, long-legged wiry men with almost-black skins, very thin lips, large hooked noses, long straight black hair, and dark-brown eyes.
They were barefoot and wore fringed blue kilts, orange belts, and human skulls on top of their heads.
These were secured by straps under their chins.
Their weapons were blowguns, stone axes, spears, and swords made of wooden blades with the tips of sharp stones set along the edges.
This was of passing interest. What riveted the hidden watchers was the person in the middle of the band.
He was shorter than the others, of stocky build, and his body was covered with a fox-red fur. The face was near-human, though the jaws protruded considerably and the eyes slanted like a coyote's. His ears were like a wolfs. The pale-red face itself was hairless except for a broad black furry band across the reddish eyes. His nose was as round and black as Jum's. He wore a black breechclout, and if he had had any weapons, they'd been taken from him.
His hands were tied in front of him.
One of the warriors was carrying a leather bag. This had to contain the soul eggs.
Deyv groaned, "What do we do now?"
There was only one course. Or so Deyv and Vana thought. Sloosh was of another mind.
"I was willing to pursue the Yawtl as long as he continued in the same direction I was going. I would even have gone out of my way, if it wasn't too far, to help you. I find you very interesting, if a trifle pathetic. Also, there was the somewhat fascinating mystery of why he would want the eggs. These are useful only to their owners. Or so I'd assumed until now.
"But to try to get the eggs from this tribe, when the odds are so high against us, is to be irrational. Not to mention stupid. The two are not necessarily the same, you know.
"I don't place a high value on my life. Even so, if I lose it, I'd like it to be for something of high value.
So, I'll just continue on my way. I wish you good fortune, though I doubt very much you'll have it."
The Archkerri stopped talking until the slight temblors of the latest quake ceased.
"But your crystal?!" Deyv said.
"I'll be handicapped without it. However, I have enough confidence in my own intelligence to believe that I can make my way back to my land. I'll get another one there. And then I'll resume my interrupted quest.
"By the way, have you ever contemplated life without your soul eggs? Are they really vital?"
"You're crazy," Vana said.
There was a silence for a while. Finally, Sloosh opened his eyes. He said, "I've traced my line of thought. It's rational and analytic. No. I'm not crazy."
"What did you mean by 'quest'?" Deyv asked.
"Two, actually. My first concern was to locate a certain artifact reported to be in the area of Vana's tribe during my grandfather's youth. Since I'm a specialist in that kind of artifact, I went to that area. But shortly after I got there, a particularly big quake buried it. I couldn't get the locals interested in assisting me to dig it up. So I stayed a little while to study the natives."
A little while, Deyv thought. Long enough for Vana to grow up.
"Then I set out for the second and more important phase of my quest, during which the thief stole my crystal."
He pointed upward. Deyv looked but could see nothing except the blackness of The Beast and a few birds.
"Those mysterious figures which float over the sky from that direction," Sloosh said. "For countless generations my people have tried to interpret them."
"Why do you care about them?" It was difficult expressing anger with a whistle, but Vana managed.
"You know your people'll be dead within one hundred generations. So why bother?"
"Knowledge is a joy and a beauty. I would seek it if I knew I would perish a second after I'd gained it.
Or a second before, too. The quest for knowledge is as thrilling as the thing itself."
"Go on your own way!" Deyv said. "We don't need you! In fact, you'd be a great hindrance!"
"Why is that?" the Archkerri asked calmly.
"You're too slow. If we have to run, and we will, you couldn't keep up with us I"
"Undeniably so."
"You're a pain in my ass," Vana whistled.
"Very poetic," Sloosh said. "I must use that some time."
Deyv threw his hands up. What could you do with such a creature?
The Archkerri ambled away without another word. Deyv turned to the woman. "It's up to us. Maybe we can think of something to do on our way back to the village."
Between them, they worked out a plan. It was not one to lift up their spirits. So much depended on exact timing and on the circumstances being such that they could carry out the plan.
They proceeded cautiously down the path leading to the village. Long before they reached it, they could hear, faintly, the beating of drums and the shrilling of flutes. Some time later, they could also hear the high-pitched chanting of the tribe.
Just before the clearing outside the stockade, they stopped. Vana and Deyv went up a tree to look the place over. But a horde of stink-roaches poured out of a hole and attacked them. The two slid and jumped back down as swiftly as they could. They landed on the ground bruised, bark-torn, and covered with a vile spray. It stank so badly they could scarcely endure themselves. The dog and the cat sped away and cowered behind some bushes. The humans could do nothing else but go to the nearest stream and hope they could wash off the retch-making stink.