Vana said, "The witch has been very useful even if she is blind. For instance, though she isn't capable of hunting, she has been preparing the food we've brought her. She can cook, and she smokes the meat and fish. And she has offered to take care of the baby so that I can hunt and rest. This she has done, though she wasn't used to doing such things when she was the mistress and had many slaves to do her bidding."
"Nor has she whined and complained even though her lot has been worse than any of ours," Deyv said.
"Whereas Hoozisst, though he is strong and capable and has his sight, is always complaining about this and that."
The Yawtl, snarling, said, "I won't forget this!"
"It's nice that you have a good memory," The Shemibob said. "And it's too bad that you are so vindictive. You knew, as did Deyv and Vana, how useful she's been despite her handicap. And you must also have realized—or did you?—that she has a strong and adaptable character. Here she is, a once allpowerful lord of her immediate environment. One who didn't even have to walk through her tharakorm if she didn't want to but could be carried by her slaves. Yet, since her life has changed, being reduced to a level lower than that of her slaves, she has done her best to cope with the changes. From what I've seen of humans, many in her situation would have succumbed, simply died or become parasites. She hasn't done either. She's done her best to survive, to be useful, and her best is quite adequate."
"So what?" Hoozisst said. "She may be admirable, as far as character goes, though I won't admit that.
But it's what she can do for us that counts. I say she's a hindrance, a nuisance, a heavy liability."
Deyv said, "If you were severely wounded and couldn't be of any use for a long time and, in fact, it cost us time and labor, even danger, keeping you alive, would you wish us to abandon you or kill you?"
"But you'd know that once I got well I would be a great asset," the Yawtl said.
Sloosh must have thought that the lesser beings had spoken enough. He said, "You hate Feersh because she once controlled you and you dared not rebel against her. She also robbed you of your soul egg, which you now have, and she tried to kill you. But if you'd been in her place, you would have done the same. So why, in this respect, are you any different?
"The difference is that if you'd been blind and deprived of your high position as master, you would not have adapted so well. If you're such a complainer in your present position, so vindictive, what would you have been like in her place?"
"We're not talking about possibilities," the Yawtl said. "We're talking about facts!"
"Some things are not realities," the Archkerri said. "They appear to be facts because the individual thinks they ought to be. To him, they must be. But let me ask you this. Don't you have any feeling, any ability to put yourself in Feersh's skin, which would enable you to identify yourself with her?"
"That bitch!" Hoozisst said.
Sloosh threw his hands up and said, "O Shemibob, you speak to him."
"It would be useless," The Shemibob said. "I believe, though, that the humans have spoken up for her, though only from a utilitarian viewpoint. However, they do have some potential for empathy. Though empathy can be a dangerous thing, leading to a false attitude toward reality.
"Still, the basic question here is one of usefulness. So, ignoring the other aspects of the question, I say that Feersh has been, is, and may continue to be of service to us. I therefore say that she will go on with us."
Deyv and Vana had expected that the witch's fate would be put to a vote. Apparently, The Shemibob hadn't considered this. But she had at least asked their opinion. Moreover, she had in some unspoken manner, they felt sure, judged them. They couldn't be sure, but they believed that they had come out better than the Yawtl.
Still, they could understand quite well Hoozisst's stand.
Vana, however, stated it well, Deyv thought, when she said, "Our baby is contributing nothing, and he is a definitely heavy liability. Why didn't Hoozisst demand that Thrush be left behind?"
40
THE pall cast by The Dark Beast was not quite at its heaviest when Phemropit and its riders came around the shoulder of the mountain. Below them was a valley. Two valleys, actually, for there was a smaller one in the center of the large one. Out of the inkiness of the former rose The House of the Flying
Figures. It was a vague bulk, an intimation of vastness from which soared a dimly lit column or tower.
Its upper part was brighter, nimbused by the horizon light flowing through a notch in the mountain range opposite.
They were silent for a while, staring through the darkness, trying to put a shape to the structure below the column. The wind had died; not a sound was to be heard. Ever since they had crossed the boundary of The Dead Place, the only noise had been that which they had made or, sometimes, the wind's sobbing or shrilling through peculiar rock formations or the thunder and lightning of storms and the splash of rain. Other than themselves, they'd not seen a living creature—no plants, no insects, no birds, no beasts.
Even the stones looked lifeless compared to those outside this land. Somehow, they gave the impression that something had been drained, or sucked, from their stony essence.
Yet, a sick thing had to be still living. They often came across a small rock, or a large boulder, or a stratum in a mountainside that appeared to be infected. From irregularly shaped patches on these slowly oozed a foul-smelling liquid, cloudy, irresistibly analogous to pus. They had scraped at the dripping patches, thinking that they must be lichen of some sort and thus The Dead Place was not entirely dead.
But they got only particles of stone which were, for some reason, darker than the main body of the rock.
Now, after a long journey made circuitous because there were so many steeps up which Phemropit could not climb, so many passes to find, they were almost to their goal.
Vana shivered and broke the terrible silence. "I wish we'd stayed on the highway toward home, Deyv."
He did, too, but he only said, "This is the coldest place I've ever been."
The Shemibob flowed down off Phemropit's back and signaled that it should start the descent. After a while the going became so steep that the others also got off. They stayed behind Phemropit so that if it started sliding, they wouldn't be crushed by it. By sleep-time, however, they had reached the floor of the valley without mishap.
Just as they did, they were startled by a great noise, a booming metallic note like that which the giant bronze gong in The Shemibob's castle gave when struck by a hammer. Its echoes rang around the valley.
They shivered and clutched their hearts.
When all was silent again, except for their heavy breathing and the pulse of blood in their ears, Sloosh spoke. His buzzing seemed almost sacrilegious; there was something in the place that might resent it. Or so it seemed to Deyv at the moment. A thing, he was convinced, brooded here and did not want interruption.
Sloosh said, "I wonder if that could be an alarm of some sort? Perhaps there are detectors here, and when we entered their field, they set off this, warning signal."
"Warning whom?" Deyv whispered.
The baby began crying then. Vana tried to hush him up, but he would not quit until she had given him her breast. Deyv started to.ask if they should bed down or push on. Another vast note rang through the valley, and its echoes raced around the mountains. The baby quit feeding to scream. Why it had not been frightened when the first note sounded, no one knew. Perhaps it had been too scared to voice its fear. Or perhaps it had been only half-awakened.