Jones nodded in solemn agreement. "A fine situation, don't you think?"
Before Kiv could reply, the Earthman had walked through the door and was gone.
Classes continued as usual in Bel-rogas, but over everything hung an invisible cloud of fear and uncertainty. Kiv found himself far too preoccupied with the crisis to be able to devote much time to his studies, and he couldn't even bear the thought of working in his laboratory. The sight of hugl had become completely abhorrent to him.
And then the reports began to trickle down from the north.
The Edris powder, when used in large enough amounts, killed even the black hugl quite nicely. Unfortunately, it was also killing the crops. The peych plants, staple crop of Nidor, withered and shrivelled under the poison.
Stalemate. Either let the hugl eat the peych crops, or kill the peych before harvest time with an excess of Edris powder.
"In either case, people are going to go hungry,'' Kiv told Narla.
"I suppose they'll begin rationing soon."
Kiv didn't even bother to reply.
"Kiv?"
He turned to look up at Narla. Her face seemed thin already, he thought. Perhaps it's only my imagination. There isn't any famine yet. Not yet.
"What is it?" he asked wearily.
"Kiv, didn't the Grandfather want to listen at all when you went to him?"
"I told you. He listened very carefully. He just wasn't open to suggestions, that's all. The Way of the Ancestors was going to provide the answer, he said. It was all very simple. He—" He broke off.
Kiv studied the golden-fuzzed backs of his hands and said no more. The implications now were terrifying to him. The Grandfathers were following the Scripture, and starvation was the consequence.
But yet the Great Light still streamed through the window.
"I'll go to Jones," Kiv said in a troubled voice. "Jones will help me."
Jones looked up quizzically when Kiv entered the tiny office.
"I hope I didn't disturb your work—" Kiv began apologetically.
Jones put him at ease immediately with a quick grin. "Of course not. What's on your mind, Kiv?"
Kiv sat down in the deep chair that faced the Earthman. Nervously he fumbled for an opening.
"The hugl?" Jones prompted.
"If they'd only accepted my plan!" Kiv broke out, almost bitterly. "Now what will they do?"
Jones leaned forward, and Kiv felt a sudden glow of confidence radiating from the Earthman. The thought struck him that there could be no doubt that the Earthmen must really be from the Great Light; in their quiet, inconspicuous way, they had become the props on which the Nidorians could lean in time of trouble.
When the Earthmen arrived, Kiv thought, they said they were here to guide us toward the Light. So my father Ganz told me. And it must be true.
"What will they do now?'' Kiv repeated, wondering if Jones knew the answer.
And Jones did. "Kiv," the Earthman said softly, "You just didn't approach the Grandfather the right way. You didn't show him how the situation was according to the Law.''
"How could I?" Kiv burst out. "There's nothing in the Law about this!"
Jones held up a hand. "You're still too impatient, Kiv. Listen to me. For one thing, you didn't tell him that you had watched the life cycle of the hugl with your own eyes. The Elder Grandfather probably thought you were just speculating. But if you could offer some scriptural passage that would—"
Suddenly Kiv smiled. "I've got it! It was a passage that Narla quoted, from the Fourteenth Section: 'To destroy a thing, one must cut at the root, and not at the branch.'
"Jones! I'm going back to Gelusar!"
The dark-hued little acolyte attempted to block Kiv as he burst into the vestibule of Elder Grandfather Bor peDrogh Brajjyd's office.
"You can't go in there like that!" the acolyte said.
"This is important," Kiv snapped.
"I say you can't go in there. The Elder Grandfather's not there, anyway."
"Where is he?"
"He's at a meeting of the Council,'' the acolyte said. "Not that that could possibly concern you. "
Kiv didn't stay to argue the point. He dashed down the corridor and sped across the crowded street to the dome of the Great Temple.
Then, almost unthinkingly, he plunged inside and found himself heading toward the High Councilroom. The enormity of what he was doing did not strike him until he was inside the ornate room, facing the sixteen Elder Grandfathers as they sat in a majestic semi-circle.
They didn't even notice him for a while, so intent were they on their deliberations. Kiv glanced from one to another. There was the Elder of the Clan Sesom— Narla's Clan. He recognized several of the other Clan Elders among the venerable assemblage. The very tall, gaunt man was Yorgen peYorgen Yorgen, a lineal descendant of the great Bel-rogas. Everyone knew him. And the somewhat plump Elder in crimson robes was Ganz peDrang Kovnish. Next to him, Kiv recognized the familiar face of the Elder Brajjyd whom he had seen earlier. The others Kiv did not know.
Finally one of the Elders noticed him.
"What are you doing here? Who are you?"
Kiv felt a desire to turn and run. He held his ground, however, when he saw the Elder Brajjyd smiling at him.
"This man is of my Clan,'' Elder Grandfather said in his prodigious bass rumble. "He spoke to me before; he has studied the hugl at Bel-rogas."
At the mention of the School's name Kiv perceived a visible change in the manner of the Council.
"He had some interesting information for me. But what is it you want now?" The Elder Grandfather leaned forward as if to hear Kiv's reply more clearly.
Slowly, as if there were no one in the room but some other students at the School, Kiv began to explain the life-cycle of the hugl to the Council as he had to the Elder Brajjyd. They watched with apparent interest as he spoke.
When he finished, it was the Elder Kovnish who broke the silence first.
"The Scripture says on this matter that—"
Had it been the fierce-looking Elder Yorgen who was speaking, Kiv would have never dared interrupt. But the chubby Elder Kovnish did not seem so terrifying to Kiv. He cut the Elder off in mid-sentence.
"Yes—the Scripture." Kiv cited Narla's quotation: "To destroy a thing, cut at the root, not at the branch.''
"Fourteenth Section," the Elder Yorgen said in a sepulchral voice.
And then it seemed to Kiv that he was talking to the Elders as if they might be pupils of his. Heatedly he threw out his arms.
"Don't you see? The branch means the adult hugl; the root means the larva! It's right there in the Scripture: cut at the root of the menace! Pour Edris powder into the lakes; kill the larvae!"
The sixteen members of the Council stared coldly at Kiv for what seemed to him an infinitely long time. Then, as the meaning of his demonstration broke through to them, their stony silence became an excited hubbub.
"That's the last of it," said Nibro peGanz Kovnish. The burly farmer crumpled the empty packet of Edris powder and let it fall to the ground. He turned to face Kiv, who stood watching him.
"Craziest thing I ever heard," Nibro peGanz said. "Dumping Edris into my lake. Might as well lie down and let the hugl eat me too."
"Patience, friend. The Council has decided."
"And therefore I accept," the farmer responded reluctantly.
"Right. I'll be back to check on your farm in six days."
Kiv mounted his deest and trotted on down to the next farm. He had much ground to cover.
The six days passed slowly, and then Kiv revisited the farms in the test areas.