Species? 4, he told his drowned Handbook, savagely. Just then, something dashed across the street at the next crossing—a low, brown creature, whether large or small he could not tell in the unreal perspective of identical housefronts.
It clearly was no part of the city. At least the angel-insects had vermin infesting their fine hive. He went on quickly and steadily through the utter silence, reached the outer wall, and turned left along it.
A little way ahead of him, close to the jointless silvery base of the wall, crouched one of the brown animals. On all fours it came no higher than his knee. Unlike most low-intelligence animals on this planet, it was wingless. It crouched there looking terrified, and he simply detoured around it, trying not to frighten it into defiance, and
Ursula K. LeGuin - The Ekumen 01 - ROCANNON'S WORLD
went on. As far as he could see ahead there was no gate in the curving wall.
"Lord," cried a faint voice from nowhere.
"Lord!"
"Kyo!" he shouted, turning, his voice clapping off the walls. Nothing moved. White walls, black shadows, straight lines,
silence.
The little brown animal came hopping toward him. "Lord," it cried thinly, "Lord, O come, come. O come, Lord!"
Rocannon stood staring. The little creature sat down on its strong haunches in front of him. It panted, and its heartbeat shook its furry chest, against which tiny black hands were folded. Black, terrified eyes looked up at him. It repeated in quavering
Ursula K. LeGuin - The Ekumen 01 - ROCANNON'S WORLD
Common Speech, "Lord..."
Rocannon knelt. His thoughts raced as he regarded the creature; at last he said very gently, "I do not know what to call you."
"O come," said the little creature, quavering. "Lords—lords. Come!"
"The other lords—my friends?"
"Friends," said the brown creature. "Friends. Castle. Lords, castle, fire, windsteed, day, night, fire. O come!"
"I'll come," said Rocannon.
It hopped off at once, and he followed. Back down the radial street it went, then one side-street to the north, and in one of the twelve gates of the dome. There in the red-paved court lay his four companions
Ursula K. LeGuin - The Ekumen 01 - ROCANNON'S WORLD
as he had left them. Later on, when he had time to think, he realized that he had come out from the dome into a different courtyard and so missed them.
Five more of the brown creatures waited there, in a rather ceremonious group near Yahan. Rocannon knelt again to minimize his height and made as good a bow as he could. "Hail, small lords," he said.
"Hail, hail," said all the furry little people. Then one, whose fur was black around the
muzzle, said, "Kiemhrir."
"You are the Kiemhrir?" They bowed in quick imitation of his bow. "I am Rokanan Olhor. We come from the north, from Angien, from Hallan Castle."
"Castle," said Blackface. His tiny piping
Ursula K. LeGuin - The Ekumen 01 - ROCANNON'S WORLD
voice trembled with earnestness. He pondered, scratched Ms head. "Days, night, years, years," he said. "Lords go. Years, years, years. Kiemhrir ungo." He looked hopefully at Rocannon.
"The Kiemhrir. stayed here?" Rocannon
asked.
"Stay!" cried Blackface with surprising volume. "Stay! Stay!" And the others all murmured as if in delight, "Stay."
"Day," Blackface said decisively, pointing up at this day's sun, "lords come. Go?"
"Yes, we would go. Can you help us?"
"Help!" said the Kiemher, latching onto the word in the same delighted, avid way.
"Help go. Lord, stay!"
So Rocannon stayed: sat and watched the Kiemhrir go to work. Blackface whistled, and soon about a dozen more came cautiously hopping in. Rocannon wondered where, in the mathematical neatness of the hive-city they found places to hide and live; but plainly they did, and had storerooms too, for one came carrying in its little black hands a white spheroid that looked very like an egg. It was an eggshell used as a vial; Blackface took it and carefully loosened its top. In it was a thick, clear fluid. He spread a little of this on the puncture-wounds in the shoulders of the unconscious men; then, while others tenderly and fearfully rifted the men's heads, he poured a little of the fluid in their mouths. Raho he did not touch. The Kiemhrir did not speak among themselves,
Ursula K. LeGuin - The Ekumen 01 - ROCANNON'S WORLD
using only whistles and gestures, very quiet and with a touching air of courtesy.
Blackface came over to Rocannon and said reassuringly, "Lord, stay."
"Wait? Surely."
"Lord," said the Kiemher with a gesture towards Raho's body, and then stopped.
"Dead," Rocannon said.
"Dead, dead," said the little creature. He touched the base of his neck, and Rocannon nodded.
The silver-walled court brimmed with hot light. Yahan, lying near Rocannon, drew a
long breath.
The Kiemhrir sat on their haunches in a half-circle behind their leader. To him
Ursula K. LeGuin - The Ekumen 01 - ROCANNON'S WORLD
Rocannon said, "Small lord, may I know
your name?"
"Name," the black-faced one whispered. The others all were very still. "Liuar," he said, the old word Mogien had used to mean both nobles and midmen, or what the Handbook called Species II. "Liuar, Fua, Gdemiar: names. Kiemhrir: unname."
Rocannon nodded, wondering what might be implied here. The word "Member; kiemhrir" was in fact, he realized, only an adjective, meaning lithe or swift.
Behind him Kyo caught his breath, stirred, sat up. Rocannon went to him. The little nameless people watched with their black eyes, attentive and quiet. Yahan roused, then finally Mogien, who must have got a heavy dose of the paralytic agent, for he
Ursula K. LeGuin - The Ekumen 01 - ROCANNON'S WORLD
could not even lift his hand at first. One of the Kiemhrir shyly showed Rocannon that he could do good by rubbing Mogien's arms and legs, which he did, meanwhile explaining what had happened and where
they were.
"The tapestry," Mogien whispered.
"What's that?" Rocannon asked him gently, thinking he was still confused, and the young man whispered.
"The tapestry, at home—the winged
giants."
Then Rocannon remembered how he had stood with Haldre beneath a woven picture of fair-haired warriors fighting winged figures, in the Long Hall of Hallan.
Kyo, who had been watching the Kiemhrir,
Ursula K. LeGuin - The Ekumen 01 - ROCANNON'S WORLD
held out his hand. Blackface hopped up to him and put his tiny, black, thumbless hand on Kyo's long, slender palm.
"Wordmasters," said the Fian softly. "Wordlovers, the eaters of words, the nameless ones, the lithe ones, long remembering. Still you remember the words of the Tall People, O Kiemhrir?"
"Still," said Blackface.
With Rocannon's help Mogien got to his feet, looking gaunt and stern. He stood a while beside Raho, whose face was terrible in the strong white sunlight. Then he greeted the Kiemhrir, and said, answering Rocannon, that he was all right
again.
"If there are no gates, we can cut footholds
Ursula K. LeGuin - The Ekumen 01 - ROCANNON'S WORLD
and climb," Rocannon said.
"Whistle for the steeds, Lord," mumbled
Yahan.
The question whether the whistle might wake the creatures hi the dome was too complex to put across to the Kiemhrir. Since the Winged Ones seemed entirely nocturnal, they opted to take the chance. Mogien drew a little pipe on a chain from under his cloak, and blew a blast on it that Rocannon could not hear, but that made the Kiemhrir flinch. Within twenty minutes a great shadow shot over the dome, wheeled, darted off north, and before long returned with a companion. Both dropped with a mighty fanning of wings into the courtyard: the striped windsteed and Mogien's gray. The white one they never
Ursula K. LeGuin - The Ekumen 01 - ROCANNON'S WORLD