Ang rubbed at his beard. "Who the hell knows?
Maybe she just thinks it's been years. Or maybe these aren't the same natives. They all look alike to me. They wander all over World's End. Funny thing, there aren't supposed to be that many, but I see them all the time."
"Are these any better off than the rest?"
He raised his eyebrows. "Better off?" He shook his head. "No."
I grimaced. The cloud ears were fading into the mist, as abruptly as they'd appeared. The woman got to her feet, putting a last bright flake of glass into the pouch hanging from her neck. She looked at us intently, and said, "What you seek does not exist; it is all an illusion."
For a moment I felt a chill, thinking that somehow she knew our very thoughts. "Only the soul can perceive the true nature of time. Ask the Aurant to guide you to knowledge."
My neck muscles loosened as I realized she was only preaching nonsense again.
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But Spadrin followed her as she began to shuffle away.
He said, unexpectedly, "I want to hear more about the Aurant."
I watched them go, uneasily, knowing that Spadrin was capable of anything but finding religion. I started after them--and stumbled over Ang, who had crouched down to collect his offerings, completely oblivious to everything else.
He swore, straightening up, with his fists full of the natives' leavings. "Watch where you're going, for the love of the Aurant!" The oath hung self-consciously between us.
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"Sorry." I bobbed my head. He was sorting and dis 93
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carding bits of stone even while he swore. I realized that
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the natives must pick up things of value as well as rubbish in their wanderings, and that they were just as likely to leave him those things in return for his bright trash as they were to leave something worthless. "Did you get your money's worth?"
He frowned at the sarcasm. "Not yet." He kept on sorting; held something up with an exclamation, and put it into the pocket of his coveralls. He glanced at me again, defensive. "They get what they want, and so do--"
Someone screamed.
"What--?" Ang said.
"Spadrin!" I left him and ran along the lake shore in the direction Spadrin and the woman had taken. I broke through the wall of mist into a clear space; found the woman lying on the ground with blood bright on her face and her rags of clothing half torn away. Spadrin was on top of her.
Without thinking I grabbed the collar of his jacket. I dragged him off of her and shoved him away, hit him with my fist. He landed in a thicket of fireshrub.
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I turned back to help the woman, but suddenly there was another scream, behind me. This time it was Spadrin.
I saw him struggling in the thicket. And then I saw what had made him scream--the undulating bag of flesh that clung to his leg with barbed tentacles. Blood streamed down his boot.
"Gedda!" he shouted frantically. "Shoot it! Stun it, kill it, get it off me!"
I lifted my stun rifle. But then I looked over my shoulder at the woman struggling up onto her knees, mumbling incoherencies, while two of the cloud ears buzzed solicitously around her.
"Gedda!" Spadrin shrieked. I looked back at him again, at the white terror on his face. I aimed the gun,
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had the bloodwart clearly in its sights. But still I didn't fire.
Suddenly Ang was beside me. He lifted his weapon and fired without hesitation. The creature squealed and went limp, but it didn't drop from Spadrin's spastically kicking leg. Ang went forward to kneel at Spadrin's side, pinning down his leg. "Give me your knife."
Spadrin gave it to him, and Ang began to pry at the creature's pincer mouth still embedded in Spadrin's flesh.
"What--what is that?" Spadrin gasped.
"Bloodwart," Ang said expressionlessly. "Big one."
The mouth came free, and blood gushed from the wound.
I looked away, and saw the silent ring of natives standing just far enough back to be almost lost in the fog. Watching. I had the feeling they'd been watching all along. I turned and went to where the woman stood plucking absently at her rags, chirruping to the natives beside her. "Are you all right?" I asked.
She looked at me, jerking like a puppet, stark fear on her face. It faded into wariness as she saw that I was not
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Spadrin.
"I'm sorry," I said, suddenly ashamed for my entire sex. "Spadrin is an animal, not a man. He won't harm you again. I'm a police inspector--" saying it just to reassure her.
She bent her head, looking at me sideways. "A police inspector?"
I nodded. I slung my rifle over my shoulder and approached her slowly, hands open. "Did he hurt you badly?" The blood on her face seemed to be nothing more serious than a cut lip.
"No, no, I'm all right," she said, too briskly, shaking her head and wiping at her mouth. "I'm quite all right, Inspector. The Aurant protects me, I can come to no harm."
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I hesitated, not certain whether her glazed expression was fanaticism or simply shock; not Page 77
wanting to push her over the edge of control, either way.
"You must arrest that poor unfortunate, Inspector.
You must put him in a small white room with no day or night and instruct him in the teachings of the Aurant until he has seen the true nature of time. You must do that with all your prisoners, and when they understand, there will be no more need for prisons, for the Millennium will have come."
I cleared my throat, glancing away at the watching cloud ears. More of them had gathered around us; their shuffling dance whispered through my nerves. "Where did the bloodwart come from?" I asked it more of them than of her.
"From the Aurant," she said, a little impatiently. "All things may be found in all places, if only you know how to see. These creatures of the spirit know it far better than you ever will."
I shook my head, resigned. "The three of us will be
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gone from this place by tomorrow, at least," I said. I wondered how much of anything I said she really understood.
"Until then--"
"Tomorrow?" She scattered time with a wave of her hands. "Who knows where any of us will be tomorrow?"
"Are you ... do you need any more help? Is there anything that I can do for you, anything at all?"
Guilt made me ask, and ask again.
She merely laughed. She said, as if she were sharing a secret, "I have the true understanding. I need nothing more." She whistled to the natives and began to shuffle away. It was clear that what had happened five minutes past had already left her mind.
I shrugged and started back to the rover. A part of me argued that she should be returned to civilization and helped somehow. But she seemed happy where she was, 96
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thinking she understood some hidden truth. Who am I