“That’s interesting,” Steve said quickly. “But what about them?” He pointed to two men of East Asian ancestry whose gowns were similar to their own, but whose hair was tightly drawn up into a knot on top of their heads. “Nobody else has that hairstyle.”
“They’re Koreans,” said Marcia. “Korea has long been a part of the Mongol empire by this year.”
“I think I see some Arabs,” said Jane. “They’re right across the street.”
“Yes, that’s right,” said Marcia. “The Arabs conquered the Turks some centuries ago and introduced them to Islam. They had some reason to regret it; some of the Turks revolted and overthrew them all the way back to Palestine.”
“I’m glad no one’s fighting here,” said Jane. “I guess Kublai Khan pacified them all, huh?”
“For the time being.” Marcia nodded. “But in only a few hundred years-”
“Hunter,” Steve said earnestly, interrupting her again. “What are we going to do after breakfast? To find MC 5, I mean? What’s our plan of action?”
“This is a good place to begin,” said Hunter. “We will start today by becoming familiar with the neighborhood and simply looking for MC 5.”
“No reason to stop with that,” said Steve. “We can also ask around-maybe offer a small reward to people for giving us a lead on him.”
“Marcia, will that be acceptable in this society?” Hunter asked.
“Yes, it will.”
“Good,” said Steve. “And I guess, based on past experience, we have to keep an eye out for Wayne Nystrom and Ishihara, too. Maybe we should offer a reward for them.”
“I agree,” said Hunter.
“They haven’t stopped you before,” said Marcia.
“They have come close,” said Hunter. “We must remain alert for them.”
The night before, Wayne and Ishihara had shared a modest dinner of white rice and steamed fish in the village. They had slept on pallets in a bedroom in one of the small houses. Though modest, the room was clearly a place of honor; Wayne noticed that the elderly man and his slight, stooped, gray-haired wife vacated it for them and went out to sleep in the main room with seven other people who seemed, by their mutual resemblance, to represent two more generations of the same family. Unable to communicate, Wayne could not protest. In any case, he wanted to maintain the pose that he and Ishihara were good spirits, and he was sure the peasants assumed good spirits would expect hospitality of this sort.
Wayne had fallen asleep quickly, and had slept soundly. When he finally awoke to the sound of roosters crowing outside and people speaking in the main room of the house, he felt well rested but hungry again.
He found Ishihara sitting against the closed door of the room, watching him.
“Morning,” Wayne said quietly. “Did you observe anything interesting during the night?”
“No. However, I can announce some minimal progress in learning the local language.”
“Really? How?”
“During the night, I have repeatedly reviewed my memory of all our contact with the villagers to this point. At the time we first met them, the First Law required that I focus my attention entirely on the potential danger to you. After I was satisfied that you were safe, I began reviewing the gestures and conversation of the villagers; also, of course, I was able to observe more of their conversation and gestures during dinner last night. When they rose early this morning, I was able to hear some of their speech through the door of our room.”
“Wait a minute. I’m no linguist. What’s the point of studying their gestures?”
“It was the only way I could begin to pick up vocabulary. For instance, every time someone passed or received a bowl of rice, the wordfan was used in conversation.”
“So you’re sure it meansrice? What if it means,hungry, ormore of the same? ”
“You have identified the problem exactly,” said Ishihara. “Right now, I am making educated guesses. However, I will begin speaking some of these words and see how our hosts respond. I gave you only one example.”
“What else?” Wayne got up and began getting dressed. “More vocabulary?”
“More than that. The basic sentence structure has some similarities to English. The simple declarative sentence goes, subject, verb, object, in that order. When they ask questions, the tone goes up at the end, the same as in English. But the vocabulary is tonal; the lilt you give to each word separates it from what in English would be homophones.”
“Okay, okay, I’ll take your word for it. But you think you can learn it?”
“Gradually, I will develop some ability to speak with them, yes.”
Wayne finished dressing. “Well, I guess it’s time for breakfast. Let’s go out and try it. And let’s see if we can get some local clothes this time.”
“Yes, I agree we should do that.”
When they opened the door and entered the main room, Wayne saw that it was crowded with people. Everyone who lived in the house turned to look at them, as did as many of their neighbors who could jam inside. Everyone fell silent.
The elderly woman spoke up, pointing to the big pot of rice gruel simmering over the fire.
“Fan,”said Ishihara, with a casual nod.
One of the younger women picked up a wooden bowl and ladled gruel into it. Another woman spoke quickly to several children, who got up and made room at the hearth. Wayne and Ishihara accepted their bowls and sat down.
Wayne ate in silence, but occasionally he met someone’s eyes and smiled slightly. Ishihara, however, attempted to make casual conversation. Wayne knew that Ishihara’s ability to learn the language far outstripped his, so he did not try to participate.
He watched with amusement, however, as Ishihara pointed to different people and objects around the room, apparently learning vocabulary. Their hosts were eager teachers, especially the children. Everyone smiled with approval at Ishihara’s successful efforts to communicate.
By the time Wayne had finished his second bowl of bland gruel, Ishihara was speaking and gesturing, frequently pointing upward. The villagers nodded with guileless wonder as they looked again at both their guests. Finally the conversation came to a pause.
“What did you say?” Wayne asked quietly.
Their hosts turned to him, fascinated by hearing him speak his strange language again.
“I have made some progress, I believe,” said Ishihara. “They are more convinced than ever that we have fallen from the sky as spirits.‘Guei’ appears to mean an evil spirit, maybe an equivalent to a demon or devil. They do seem convinced that we are notguei. By the way, all the nouns seem to be collective, without a plural. You may need to pick up a few phrases.”
“You seem to be learning the language without much trouble,” said Wayne.
“The first stage is the most difficult,” said Ishihara. “As I hear more words and more varied sentence structures, my learning curve will rise sharply. Right now I am most effective when discussing physical objects, such as requesting more rice gruel. Concepts such as spirits and demons still make uncertain communication.”
The villagers watched them without speaking.
“I want to follow up the idea we had last time-of stopping Hunter and his team first,” said Wayne.
“Do you have a specific plan in mind for our current situation?”
“Maybe. Look, if we can interfere with Hunter’s team, then we’ll have a free hand to find MC 5. When we tried that before, you and I were acting alone. If our hosts, here, will help us in the belief that we’re, uh, good spirits, maybe we can really distract Hunter this time.”
“We must handle this very carefully,” said Ishihara. “I cannot allow any actions that might harm the people of this village or the human members of Hunter’s team.”