The trail led to a lower ground, where there was a small swamp. The men ahead waded through it as if they knew that it wasn't dangerous. Deyv saw a gliding animal, its hundred ribs spread out to make the thin air act like thick water. It swooped over the heads of the two men, but they paid it no visible attention. The creature curved upward near Deyv and landed on a branch of a tree. Seeing Deyv, it turned its triangular head downward and made a clattering sound. Though its body was snakelike, it had sleek bluish fur and greenish eyelids. Deyv ignored it, since the men must know what was dangerous.
His animals growled very softly and sidled by, their eyes intent on it until it was well past.
Deyv, equally softly, said, "Calm down, Jum, Aejip. It doesn't mean ill to you."
Presently, the two men came to a hill and climbed up its steep slope. This was naked of trees, having been cleared long ago. It had also been planted with some tall pod-bearing vegetable which didn't require terracing. The trail led up the hill and onto a small plateau in the center of which was a stockaded village.
Deyv couldn't follow beyond the swamp, but he climbed a very tall tree whose top was level with that of the hill. Beyond the wall of thick logs he could see the roofs of some conical huts on the far side.
Unable to see more than a few of the villagers, he started to climb down. He stopped when a giant rodent emerged from the swamp, and began to eat the plants on its edge. It was furred in black except for its ears, which were red. Its body was thick with fat, and it looked as if it would be two feet higher than he if it was to stand up on its two legs.
Unnoticed for some time, it devoured plants, blue stalks and whiite heads and green pods. Then a boy on a high observation tower of wood began yelling. In a short time the men. followed bv women and children, raced down the trail. Dew didn't know if the entire population was there, but he counted two hundred and twenty. He felt an irrelevant sense of pride that he could now do this. Sloosh had taught him well.
The beast had stopped eating when the first wave of warriors poured down the hill. It regarded the yelling, spear-brandishing figures for a moment before turning to amble off through the swamp. About thirty men waded after it, some throwing their spears. Most of these missed; those that hit bounded off.
Several blow-gun darts struck and also failed to stick.
Dew looked through the now open gate. Directly in his line of sight was a man-sized idol, a thing with a fierce scowling face, two long tusks sticking upward from the lower jaw, four arms, and an enormous belly. The fare was human enough, but the upper part of the head was shaped into something birdlike, a creature with half-opened wings and a tremendous beak.
On the other side of the hill was a tree even taller than the one on which he stood. He climbed down and worked his way around through the swamp, Jum and Aejip following. They waited at its base while he climbed this, though they didn't like standing in water up to their shoulders. When he got near to the top,
Dew found that he could see the whole village. It was arranged like most such places, with a shaman's house in the center. There were, however, large wooden tanks containing water. He supposed that these were reserves to be used if an enemy besieged them. There were also many roofed bins containing the pods.
In one corner was a soul-egg tree.
This explained whv the tribe had located in such an inconvenient place. Rather than live in an advantageous site and make sure that their precious tree was well hidden, they'd chosen to erect houses and a stockade around it.
By then the hunters and plant gatherers and fruit gatherers were coming in. He made another count, getting two hundred and fifty.
The cooking began. The shaman came out of his house bearing a wooden table at each end of which were affixed small reproductions of the idol. He set the table down before the god. After a dance the villagers swarmed around it, throwing pieces of cooked meat and fruit on the table. The shaman danced again around the table, apparently blessing the food or making an offering of it to the god. A hare was brought out of a cage. The shaman cut its throat and carried it by its legs over the food, its blood dripping over it.
After this, the shaman ate a piece of the bloodied meat, and the villagers, in a single file, came around the table. The adult males ate the meat, and the women and children the fruit. After that they departed for their own huts and supper.
Deyv left. He got lost once but found his way after some searching and after a long while was back at the vessel. The others were relieved to see him; they'd been afraid that something bad had happened. He told them his story while he ate.
"I doubt they'll come around here," Sloosh said. "They must know about the gateway, but they'd be afraid of it. This place is probably taboo."
After breakfast, they set to work to build the bridge to the gateway. Deyv climbed up to the branch by the abomination and let down the rope of The Shemibob to haul up bamboo logs. As long as he kept his back to the shimmering, he could work. But when he accidentally glimpsed it, he had to stop until his fear and nausea passed.
They didn't have many flint tools with which to cut the bamboo. However, Deyv's sword and the
Yawtl's, which they'd taken from his body, and Sloosh's axe could hack wood all day without the edges becoming dulled. Eventually, they had a structure from the ground to the branch above that near the gateway. This enclosed a lift. A pulley arrangement on roughly carved wheels and spindles allowed them to haul themselves up, though only one at a time.
The Shemibob did most of the work building the bridge out to the gateway. She was better able to withstand the effects than the others.
"A good solid engineering tool," Sloosh said. "Now, if only an earthquake doesn't shake it down."
He and the snake-centaur went up with poles and probed the shimmering. They lost some poles, though they were aware that they could not withdraw them the tiniest bit without their being severed.
When they came back down, The Shemibob said, "There's a solid floor about fifteen feet below the gateway. It's probably earth or sand. We could push the poles in an inch or so after they met resistance.
We don't know, of course, how far the floor extends in any direction."
"Also, of course," Sloosh said, "we can't know how hot or cold it is there. It might be on top of a mountain from which it'll be impossible to climb down. Or it might be a very small island far away from a large land mass and without any wood with which to build a boat. Or it might be snow on top of an ice pack. If it's a very young planet, the air might be poisonous. Then-"
"Shut up!" Deyv said.
"Why are you so fearful?" the plant-man asked. "You're not going there." He paused, then said, "Or is it possible that you do have some faint desire to get out of this doomed world?"
"None at all," Deyv said. He wasn't sure that he wasn't lying, though.
During sleep-time, Deyv's grandmother came to him out of the dark mists of his dream.
Deyv said, "It is pleasant to see you again, Grandmother. You haven't visited me for a long time."
"It's not for pleasure that I come to you," she said.
"The dead have no pleasure. I have come to help you with your problem. You want to take Vana to your tribe as your wife, and she wants to take you to hers as her husband. You are both very stubborn. Neither will give in. You won't even accept the sensible suggestion of the plant-man that you throw a pointed stick up in the air and let its fall decide which path to take.
"So I have come to tell you what you must do. The dead have no pleasure, but they do have wisdom.