They weren't cheerful as merchants usually were. The woman was middle-aged and snappish; the younger men obeyed her with little grace.
He was moving back to the stream in midafternoon, careful as ever, when he heard a familiar shout.
“Brenbrenbrendaa!”
He crawled to the edge of the falls and looked down.
The falls drowned out speech. Thonny and Curdis were talking to the guards, to the men. The woman was talking to Brenda. The merchants' manner had grown cordial.
He crawled closer, staying in the thicket of fool cages. He got down to where the water wasn't so loud. Then sage and tumbleweed were growing too close together and he feared merchant guards would see them wiggle.
He heard Thonny shout, “Curdcurdcurdis! That's the last coin we've got!” And the sound of merchant laughter, and Brenda's laugh too.
Three bicycles moved on, across the bridge and down the Road. Now all Jemmy had to do was catch them.
They would have gained from better planning. How on Earth was he going to catch bicycles?
Jemmy was seething with impatience, but he'd have to be crazy to move now, in daylight, with merchants just below him. He crawled back among the fool cages and tried to sleep.
They must know they'd have to wait.
The next stream. They were past the merchant guards; why not stop? They'd wait at the next stream, and he'd see them and know it was safe to come down. And if he didn't see them?
No way could he sleep. He crawled up to where plants thinned out to bare rock, and he kept crawling.
Where water next crossed the Road, they weren't waiting. Jemmy made sure of that, then moved on.
What stopped him next was more than a stream.
The plant interface dipped, an arrowhead shape pointing at the Road. Jemmy's gaze followed the tree line down along rock that had run like wax. Frozen lava ran up to the ridge a thousand feet above him, and down almost to the Road itself, ending in a broad patch of green Earthlife trees and water gleaming between.
Interesting.
Jemmy could picture the giant landers Cavorite and Columbiad hovering on either side of the crest, moving parallel on pillars of violet flame bright enough to blind any witness, burning off the life of Destiny. Then return to seed the slopes with Earthlife. One of the ships must have paused here... yes, and he could see why. Above him the ridgeline bent by forty degrees.
Cavorite on the broad side had waited for Columbiad on the narrow side (or vice versa) to round the curve.
Water at the point of the lava triangle, then a thick stand of Earthlife trees, then the Road. The far side of the Road was a thriving village. There were shops along the Road, and a setback wide enough and long enough for a whole caravan, and a wide stream running to the sea, spreading into a delta at the end.
Who were these people? It had never occurred to Jemmy that there was this much of civilization beyond Spiral Town. Somewhere the merchants went for their goods, and to trade what they got from the Spirals. And in between...?
And how could he cross bare and slippery rock?
He couldn't. He was going to have to go down.
5
On the Road
Twerdahl and h~5 ~d~0t crew are running away. We isolated ourselves on the island for a reason. Whatever our problems, we'll solve them here.
Where the wall of ancient lava converged to a point, there was a shine of water, then leafy Earthlife trees. From high up it appeared that the forest ran right to the Road. As Jemmy descended, it became clear that he was approaching a swamp.
He wasn't eager to wade into that.
The trees were cypress and mangrove on a wide spread of shallow water. There were no competing Destiny trees, but the trees were festooned with what he first thought were snakes. Snakes everywhere... motionless black snakes winding through webs of yellow-green lace.
Vines. One was a variety he didn't recognize, but the others wereJulia sets, the same vine the elder Hanns cultivated. The Hanns must have played the bonsai trick, stunting the plant by pruning and by keeping it half starved. These were huge. In places they were strangling the mangroves.
Something rippled along the water. A snake, a real one this time. Another moved among the vines. Something bigger shied from it: a man. Jemmy sank slowly into a crouch, then tried to ease behind a tree.
The man-boy-broke through to the open with evident relief. Looked around. Didn't see Jemmy. Jemmy stepped out of hiding, and Thonny jumped.
'You all right?”
'Fine,” Thonny said. “How was it?”
“Easy going. How did you make out?”
“There are merchants at the bridge!” Thonny was excited, enjoying himself immensely. “They asked about a merchant that got killed in Spiral Town. We changed the story a little.”
Fear rose up in Jemmy's throat. “Changed how?”
“Uh, well, we talked it over. Curdis says I'm the traders' best witness. I mean Thonny Bloocher is. I'm your oldest brother and I saw it all. Brenda wouldn't see as much because it was all men and Brenda's a girl-”
And so she wouldn't have watched men quarreling. “Right. So?”
“So they would have turned us back and how would you find us on the Road? So I didn't say I'm Thonny Bloocher. I'm Tim Hann.”
“With those eyes?”
“One of the merchants said that. I got insulted.”
“Curdis's idea?”
“Yeah. The real Tim Hann would have been Curdis's older brother, but he died a year old.”
“Tim Hann. I'm Tim Hann. Great. Anything else?”
Jemmy's fury rendered Thonny mute.
If he couldn't get Thonny talking any other way, Jemmy was ready to hold him under water. This was his lffe they were playing for! He said, “Look, if I'm Tim Hann, I have to sound like Tim Hann. Did Tim Hann see the killing?”
Thonny nodded.
“Where were you?”
“Across the room, near the fireplace.”
“Did Jemmy Bloocher do it? Fine. With the merchant's gun? What does he look like? What did you change?”
“I didn't lie. It was just a better fight.”
“Curdis was listening? I can ask him?”
“Yeah.”
“What were they like, these merchants you met?”
“We saw three men at the bridge, with a woman. They searched us. We bought some stuff from them. They lost interest when we said we were broke. You're still broke going back, okay?”
“They'll expect me to know them coming back?”
Thonny thought it over, then shrugged.
“Okay. Where are we? What are all these people doing here?”
“I don't know. Living here. I peeled off before we got close to anyone.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Four or five of them saw us together. Older people, Mom's age. They dress like, well, like Jael Harness.”
“Did they wave? Throw rocks? Do they think we're weird?”
“They pointed at us and started shouting, maybe at us, maybe at the houses. Women too. Curdis and Brenda went on toward them, but I did what Curdis told me. I peeled off. Didn't let any of them get a close look. Tied the bike to a tree. You just go through the swamp, get on the bike, and go join them.”
Jemmy began to wonder if he sounded properly grateful. He said, “Sounds like it all went like somebody planned it,” and smiled and hugged his brother.
That pleased Thonny. He asked, “How did you make out?”
Jemmy tried to tell him. “There's practically nobody on the Road. I mean at night, I only went at night. Stay with the frost line and you won't be seen. There's plenty of water, springs. If you see a bird flapping in a fool cage, that's your dinner. If it isn't moving, leave it.”