He watched patiently until darkness, then used his ability to dematerialize to pass the barrier that Xylina had created around the camp. When he emerged on the other side, he found that he was alone. Evidently the Sylvans' passion for freeing helpless creatures and confronting the murderers of animals did not outlast being confronted with an unyielding and unresponsive barrier.
Although they had been told not to leave the road, Ware decided that a look around this strange place was in order. The more information he had to bring back to Xylina, the more valuable he would be to her. And he wanted passionately to be of value to her. If she came to value him, she would be open to more intimate feelings in time. Already, she trusted him in some small things-and he had managed to make her share moments of humor with him as well. In a way, he blessed the road that had brought them all here, for in comparison to these Sylvans, he looked positively human.
There was a pathway leading from the road, lit by a succession of dimly-glowing blossoms of some night-blooming plant. It had occurred to him, as soon as he saw the sort of life these people led, why they had considered plants to be contraband. They evidently manipulated plants in a variety of sophisticated ways, until they served every purpose possible. Foreign plants might carry disease that could wipe out entire species of the plants the Sylvans had come to depend on. What would they do, for instance, if their house-trees began to die? Live in tents? He wondered what the trees were like inside, how they were grown. It was true that the only living part of a tree was just beneath the bark, and that birds often lived inside cavities in hollowed-out trees, but how could people do so?
He spotted one of the house-trees just off to the side of the path, and on impulse, took cover among the shadows. He saw two of the Sylvans leaving it, going down the twisted vines that served as a staircase. They walked hand-in-hand down the path away from him. Now it was the time to satisfy his curiosity, while the owners of this tree were away.
He waited, making certain that he would not be seen, then instead of climbing up the usual way, he simply passed through the rough bark-wall of the tree.
The notion of living inside a tree had seemed romantic: living so closely with nature, at one with the world. But once inside this peculiar dwelling, he found it was something other than romantic.
The floor was soft and pulpy, far from level, rather unpleasant to walk on. The rooms were dark, cramped and oddly shaped, with little space for furniture. In fact, there was little in the way of furniture: mostly large pillows for seating, and larger ones for sleeping. There seemed no
place to prepare food or store it; perhaps they ate communally. Clothing was hung in a small room, from a rod wedged across the middle of it. He could find no bathing room, and the room for elimination was a simple primitive jakes, no more sophisticated than a poor Mazonite's outhouse. There was a peculiar smell, both sharp and damp, and it appeared from the marks on the walls about the windows that they were not entirely weather-tight.
So much for romance.
Ware passed back out of the house, and followed in the wake of the two owners. In a moment, a smell of cooking wafted on the breeze from ahead of him, confirming at least one of his guesses, that these Sylvans ate communally.
A glow of light warned him that he was about to encounter the Sylvans again. He slowed his steps, hoping to see something of the strange creatures before they saw him. Perhaps he could pick one a little more sympathetic than the last few to pose his questions to.
The path dead-ended in a sizable clearing, with an outdoor kitchen set up in the midst of it. Large pots simmered over carefully tended fires, and Sylvans both adult and child walked or sat in groups. They were talking and eating from bowls containing what he assumed to be a soup or stew of some kind. No one noticed him, there in the shadows at the entrance, and he took his time looking the Sylvans over.
He could not tell if any of these people had been privy to the unpleasant encounters earlier, but looking closely, he finally saw something he had seen on no other face thus far-the slight signs of aging. It was on one of the Sylvans sitting and eating nearby, and the only one who seemed to be doing so alone. It had faint wrinkles around its mouth, crows-feet at the corners of its eyes, and its hair had a few streaks of coarser white amid the silken silvery blond.
Ware approached the creature cautiously; it looked in his direction as he neared. "Ah," it said. "You are one of the barbarian strangers, are you not?" It seemed unconscious of its rudeness. "Have you any questions? I am the oldest Sylvan here, and I should be able to answer anything you care to know."
As Ware approached and took a seat at its side, the creature said something to one of its fellows about "getting the barbarian proper food." He understood the creature only imperfectly, since it spoke so quickly its words blurred together. As the second Sylvan went off towards the cooking pots, the first turned his attention back to Ware. "I am Sharras," it said. "What would you like to know?"
Ware hesitated for a moment, but the creature's opening line gave him an opportunity he could not pass by. "You say you are the oldest Sylvan here," he replied, "And yet it is true that you all seem incredibly young and vital-how is it you remain that way?"
"Proper nutrition," the Sylvan said, proudly. "We consume nothing of animal nature. To consume such things is to degrade the flesh; we consume nothing that is not pure." Ware took a glance into the bowl of soup that had been brought to him: nothing but vegetables, with cubes of something white. Politely, he ate a bite; it seemed harmless, but nothing to be excited about, and the white stuff was virtually tasteless. "I am sure," he replied politely. "But how old are you?"
"Oh, a little above forty years," Sharras replied. Ware concealed his surprise. From the Sylvan's words and attitude, he had assumed that the creature was much older, well over a hundred. It appeared that this "proper nutrition" was no better at retarding the effects of aging than any other regimen.
Still, it could not be doubted that the creature was in excellent physical shape; the diet surely contributed to that.
"I find it difficult to tell your males from the females," Ware continued diffidently. "I know this may seem blind of me, but-"
"There are no males and females," Sharras interrupted. Ware gave him an incredulous look.
"There are no males and females," Sharras insisted. "This is a society of complete equality, and there can be no equality where there are two separated sexes. We are all both male and female, and life-partners take turns in bearing the children. Only in this way can there be complete equality in all things. Life-partners wishing to bear children must wait until there have been two deaths in our land; then they both become gravid, and bear their offspring at the same time. This makes all things equal."
"So you are mortal," Ware exclaimed without thinking.
Sharras made a face, but said nothing. "All of our people are changed by our science, so that all are equally beautiful," he continued. "In this way, too, we achieve complete equality. There is no ugliness, and when the signs of age become too obvious, the Sylvan will retire from the world. I am about to do just that," it concluded proudly.
"Retire?" Ware said, carefully. "Do you mean-die?"
"Die? Great Forest, no!" Sharras laughed, as if Ware were some kind of idiot for even suggesting such a thing. "Do you understand nothing I have said? We take no lives, not even in defense. No, I will simply join the rest who are aged, in a special community, surrounded by a wall of roses, where we will clothe the signs of age with pleasant masks and costumes, where we will live the remainder of our lives with nothing but leisure to fill our days. And when the final time comes, I will be taken to a place where I shall fast and be given special herbs, so that I may meet rebirth with a tranquil spirit."