Get it angry, and it might make them go all the way back through that tunnel again, she chided herself, and suppressed a shiver. No, it was worth bearing with a little laughter, to avoid that. At least the creature wasn't actively hostile; it was not rejecting their request to travel out of hand.
Finally the creature composed itself. "What is your mission?" it asked. "If it is to seek out lands for conquest, you have come to the wrong place. We could shut the door here, and let the Thorn-Wall grow up, and you could throw your pitiful conjurations against it for the next thousand years with no effect. Our science is beyond your meager magic; we can eliminate you without risking so much as a patch of skin. So tell me now: what is it you come here for?"
Interestingly, it made no mention whether it could tell if they were speaking the truth. It seemed to Xylina that if she were in its place, and she had that power, she would make a point of it. Still, this creature hardly seemed human, and she could not make assumptions about how it would think. She had already made clear that they were only passing through, and it refused to credit that truth. What would it accept?
"We are here for trade," Ware said. "As you know, the Mazonites are skilled in many things, but only lately have they looked beyond their borders for things other than conquest. The Queen and my people are looking out for new opportunities for trade, for my own kind are skilled at such things. Obviously, it is no use to them to expand the boundaries of Mazonia beyond the place where women's conjuration reigns supreme. It is therefore much more logical to expand by commerce rather than conflict. The Queen has heard of lands of great wealth and civilization beyond the Pacha territories, and she has sent us to find the truth of the matter. It is logical to send one of her subjects to discover this, rather than depending upon the tales of travelers and foreign traders."
The creature turned its strange blue eyes upon him with seeming approval. Xylina noted Ware's emphasis on the word "logical" and wondered if this had some meaning for the creature. "It is," it agreed. "You show a firm grasp of reality. Perhaps you are not as barbarous as you once were, you Mazonites. Well, come. You may travel through our land, and see what you will, and when you come again, perhaps you will have some trinkets we think worth trading for. We, of course, will have much that you will want. Some of it we may be willing to trade."
Such arrogance! Xylina forcefully reminded herself that it was better to deal with an arrogant person than a savvy one, because the advantage was with the realist. She quelled her ire. It was possible that the creature was trying to make her angry, so that it would have the advantage.
"Thank you," Ware said gravely.
"Before you enter our land, I must search your belongings," the creature continued. "In particular, I must see what you carry in your wagons."
That was hardly an unreasonable request. Xylina had heard that many lands required a search at the border. She nodded acquiescence, and waited patiently while the creature rummaged through their goods.
But it paid no attention to the weapons, the gold, or even the souvenirs the men had picked up from the Pacha. What it did pay close attention to was the kitchen-stuff. Finally, when it was through, Xylina asked it what on earth it had been looking for.
Its face hardened for a moment. "Plants," it said in a dire voice. As if "plants" were carriers of some deadly peril. Xylina simply blinked, and said nothing. Plants? This creature was afraid of plants? Surely this was some kind of joke!
The creature touched the door behind it, and the shaggy brown bark moved-but now Xylina saw that rather than swinging open as a door in an ordinary wall might, the wood actually receded, irising open large enough to permit the wagons to move through. She urged her mule out into the sunlight beyond, and it was eager to go.
On the other side of the Thorn-Wall, she saw that the branches on this side, besides sporting thorns and little leaves, were ablaze with palm-sized, three-lobed, flat, vermilion flowers. What she had taken for a slab of wood seemed to be a huge, flat trunk of some other kind of plant, grown athwart the entrance to the Thorn-Wall, its thornless branches mingling in apparent symbiosis with the thorny ones. The brown bark of its vining tendrils twined among the gray of the Thorn-Wall, and it, too nourished palm-sized, trumpet-shaped flowers, of a deep cerulean. It was an unexpectedly lovely sight, and it took her breath away. The air here within this place was perfumed with scents she could not name, all of them mingling to form a heady, delicious aroma. The sun shone down, but without the punishing heat of the desert on the other side of the wall. The heat felt wonderful after the dark and cold of the tunnel.
She turned to look about her, and could hardly believe her eyes. On the other side of this growth, there was arid near-desert. But here-here there was a veritable jungle of vegetation of every sort, most of which she could not put any kind of name to beyond that of "tree," "flower," or "bush."
Huge silvery trees reached for the sky, smooth barked, and branchless for hundreds of cubits, then branching out with mushroom-shaped growth at their very tops; the leaves were a golden-green, and formed a lovely dome-shape above trunks so perfectly smooth that they could have been created on a lathe. Beneath these trees grew clusters of smaller trees. Some resembled the oaks and ashes and poplars that she was familiar with. Others were strange things that dangled sausage-like brownish-green growths on long vines beneath their branches, or grew huge, red and yellow fruits the size of both her hands. There were even trees that seemed to have very little foliage at all, but consisted mostly of trunks with small twiggy growths at the top, covered with tiny emerald leaves and white flowers.
Among all these were trees that were stranger yet. Akin to the plant that barred the entrance to the Thorn-Wall, these were round rather than flat, with enormous, barrel-like trunks and slender, flower-covered, viny branches. Those trunks were so huge that they were larger than Xylina's house in girth, and reached twenty or thirty cubits tall or more. These trees were riddled with holes-
Holes which had been fitted with glass windows, and beaded curtains; holes which sported balconies of twisted, polished vines, and stairs which spiraled down the sides of the parent trunk.
Were these-houses? It seemed as if they were, yet how could they have been formed from the flesh of still living trees?
Even as she gaped at them, a smaller version of the creature guarding the entrance spilled out of one of the doors, ran laughing down the staircase, its pallid hair flying like a flag, and ran off into the undergrowth. It sported a kind of skintight singlet of brilliant scarlet and violet-pink.
The creature that had met them emerged from the door behind the last wagon, and stroked the bark. The portal irised closed again. "Simply follow the road," it said, with evident indifference. "We are educated beings. Most of us speak either your tongue, Pacha, or both; many languages are part of our learning from childhood. You cannot become lost, for if you do not take any turnings, this road will lead you to the portal in the Thorn-Wall on the other side of our land. If you wish to purchase food, ask along the way. If you wish to make a camp, you may do so at any clearing linked to the road."
It started to turn away, then turned back, as if it had suddenly thought of something. "We permit nothing to be killed," it said, sternly. "Do not presume to cut wood for your fires, nor take what you think to be game for your meals. I can see by your clothing and equipage that you are still barbarous enough to kill for the feeding of your bodies; we do not do so here."
Then it turned its back upon them, and walked away before Xylina could think of anything to say. In a moment, the foliage beside the road had closed about it, hiding it from view.