You must obey me."
"I will do what you say, Grandmother," Deyv said. "Only ... I hope that you remember that I am of your flesh and blood, of your tribe, and that you favor me."
"Vana has borne a child which is of my flesh, and she will soon bear another. I can't favor you over her.
Here is what you must do to satisfy yourself and her. Also, to save your people and hers."
He woke Vana after his grandmother had floated backward into the mists. He insisted they they go into another room of the vessel, where their talking would not disturb anybody. There he told her of his dream.
"So, you see that she has found the solution. We will tell our tribes that there is a way out from the death that grows closer with each circuit of The Dark Beast. We will tell them that our two tribes must become one. That way, we have no troublesome dispute, and we save our people and our children for generations to come. We will lead them here and pass through to a better world."
"You're crazy!" Vana said. "They would never listen to us!"
Sloosh, hearing about this during breakfast, had a similar reaction. After thinking about it for some time, though, he said that perhaps the idea wasn't so bad after all.
"You two alone cannot convince your peoples. But if you were to be accompanied by The Shemibob and myself, you might do it. We would give you the authority you'll need. They'll be awed by us, and whereas your testimony that the world will soon be unsafe for life would mean nothing, ours will."
"Why should you do that? It'll be a long, hard, and dangerous journey."
"I have nothing else to do except wait for my people. In fact, I don't even have to do that. They're capable of going through the gateway without my aid. However, I do plan on trying to get the locals to go through it, too."
"I still don't understand," Vana said. "Why are you so intent on saving humans? They're a danger to you here. And if they go to that other world, they will be dangerous there. They might even try to exterminate the Archkerri."
"True. I'm acting on something you don't understand because you're a tribal creature. I have a much broader and more humane attitude. Humans are sentients. Therefore, however inferior they may be to us
Archkerri, they are still our brothers. I will try to save even the Yawtl people if I get a chance.
"Also, let's say that I'm paying a debt. It was the humans who made us vegetable sentients. It was done when humans had a great civilization and were, in many ways, as wise and humane as we. If it hadn't been for them, we would never have existed. So ... I'm acting out of gratitude. Can you understand that?"
"No," Deyv said. "But I'm glad that you feel that way."
"I will teach you and your kind how to feel as I do."
43
THE first step in the journey was not the packing. Sloosh said he must find the location of their two tribes. From the information collected from his plant-people, he would make a simple map. This would be in mud, since he had no papyrus. But the Archkerri only had to look at it once to have it fixed in his mind.
The process would take at least five sleep-times and possibly extend to eight. He went to work at once.
In the meantime, Deyv, The Shemibob, and the two animals left to spy on the local tribe. The Beast was again covering the sky, making conditions more favorable for them to escape detection. They got rather close to the village during the sleep-time, halfway up the hill before a sharp-eyed sentinel saw them. His alarm brought the warriors racing from the gate. By then the two had gotten safely into the swamp.
Deyv, The Shemibob, and the animals returned much later. This time, they witnessed a raid on the podplants by seven adults and six young of the giant red-eared rodents. The awakened warriors charged the invaders, but on this occasion the beasts fought them. Two of the creatures were killed with spear thrusts through the eyes, and the others lumbered off. The price for the tribe's victory was high: four men killed, six mauled badly.
A severe quake struck as the casualties were being carried back up the hill. Deyv didn't see what happened after that. He was too busy running through the water to escape a falling tree. The mud and the water heaved up under him, throwing him headlong several times. He did escape the falling giant narrowly. The Shemibob picked him up and carried him for some distance before setting him down. The two animals, half-drowned and thoroughly frightened, found them a little later.
The party got back to camp to find things in a mess. Trees had been uprooted or tilted here, too. The bamboo lift and bridge had been shaken apart. A mud slide had buried the front part of the vessel, though it had not quite reached the door.
After Deyv had made sure that Vana and the baby were all right, he was taken aside by Sloosh. "I'm afraid I have bad news for you. I can't find either of your tribes."
Deyv had had enough shocks for the time being. He didn't understand what the plant-man was talking about.
"You mean your plants have failed you? Did the quake shake them up?"
"No," Sloosh said. He sounded angry. Deyv knew then that Sloosh didn't like what he had to report. It took much to upset him.
"What I mean is that your people and Vana's have, for some reason, left their area. Not only that. The other tribes there have also gone."
Deyv felt sick. He asked slowly, hesitatingly, "Are you sure?"
"You understand that getting data from the plants is not an easy business. It takes time, patience, and much skill in requesting and interpreting. The mindless plants can only report what they've recorded.
But I am fairly sure. I covered a large area, which is why I took even longer than I'd expected.
"As to why thev deserted, I can't say. The quakes, however, have been even stronger there than in any area we've traveled in. Perhaps that is why they left. They wanted to go to a more stable place. They won't find any. Not for long, anyway."
"Could you track them down?"
"Not unless I knew their general area. You see, the plants record visual and aural- data only. But they don't see with eves or hear with ears. Nor would any data which could 'dentify the individuals of the tribes mean anything to the plants. That data would be mixed in with everything else recorded. I'd have to have at least the general area in which the tribes were before I could start my questioning. Then I'd have to sort out the nonrelevant data. All this would take much time and work. As it is, the task is almost hopeless.
"In addition, the quakes are disturbing my informants. They're subject to a lot of what I call noise. It's analogous to static, though it's not at all the same.
Transmission of data has been getting more difficult. It's going to be worse. That's because the quakes will increase in frequency and severity. The matter in space is becoming more dense. As the density increases, the effect puts more stress on this planet. The Shemibob told me that there are twenty dead stars which are within—I told you what a light-year is?"
Deyv nodded and said, "Yes. A light-year is the time it takes light to travel in—"
"It was a rhetorical question. I know I told you. Anyway, these are within half a light-year of Earth.
They are forerunners of The Dark Beast, and behind them, only a light-year away, are ten. And behind them, only two light-years away, is a horde. And behind them is the main bulk of The Dark Beast."
The leaved face and the beak, restricted to a buzz, were not perhaps as capable of modulation of expression as the humnn face and voice. But Sloosh was certainly communicating his agitation. Deyv reverberated to it. He felt that doom was falling swiftly upon him. It was invisible, but its near presence was heavy.