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Yawtl to steal the eggs. Thus, the robbed would have to track him down and follow him to Feersh. And she would then explain just why she'd done this thing that had seemed so terrible to them only because of their ignorance of her true motive.
Hadn't the Yawtl said that he took care that those pursuing him didn't lose the trail? If he'd not left much physical evidence of his passage for Deyv's party, it was because he knew Sloosh was in it. Contrary to what the plant-man had stated, Hoozisst was well aware of Sloosh's ability to see psychic tracks. Deyv couldn't actually define what co
He didn't understand why Feersh had placed the dangerous shishvenomi in ambush. That certainly wasn't friendly. But then she could have excellent reasons for it. Maybe she had to have some test to weed out unfit candidates for whatever benefits she would bestow. Deyv's party had proved itself worthy.
Since they'd come this far, and since the goal was in sight, why not just come out of hiding and show themselves?
So thought, so done. Almost, anyway. He had to talk to his colleagues and find out if they agreed or disagreed. If they should disagree, though it. didn't seem likely, since Deyv's logic was irresistible, then he'd act on his own. But he owed it to them to discuss this with them first
He was pleasantly surprised when the Yawtl said that he'd been thinking along the same lines. Hoozisst was up and about, his broken arm almost entirely knit, his bruises and contusions gone.
"Let's see what the plant-man thinks."
"Where's Vana?" Deyv asked. "We should talk to her at the same time and so save time."
"She went hunting with Aejip."
Deyv felt a little angry.
"Why should she want to do that? We don't need meat any more. The purple fruit is more than enough to eat. It's all we need."
Hoozisst nodded. "That's what I was thinking. Why go out into that swamp with all its stinging insects and poisonous snakes and only Khrukhrukhru knows what else? She was inclined to agree, but the cat was hungry and wanted Vana to go with her. She's very fond of Vana, isn't she?"
The Yawtl had needled Deyv before about this. Deyv, however, no longer felt pangs of jealousy.
"There's no reasoning with a cat. She'd bug Vana until she got her way, and Vana knows that. Well, we can talk to her when she gets back. There's no hurry."
Sloosh was stuffing the purplish fruit into the chest-mouth when they came up to him. His eyes were closed, his brain seemingly orbiting, or perhaps entangled with, some philosophical problem.
Deyv was mistaken. Sloosh had been engaged with the same subject as the others. His logic was similar, too.
"As soon as Vana gets back, we'll tell her what we're going to do. I'm sure she'll agree with us. If she doesn't, then we'll leave her here. After a while, she'll follow us. What else can she do?"
They strapped the folded-up vessel onto the plant-man's back and then ate some more of the fruit. It didn't sate or cloy but seemed to get more delicious with each bite. The time passed pleasantly as they talked idly of many things. They noted that The Dark Beast would soon be covering this part of the sky.
They'd pla
Presently, they heard Vana calling loudly, and they walked slowly to the edge of the forest facing the swamp. Here she came, splashing through the dark stinking waters, blood upon her arm and the tip of her spear. Behind her swam a dozen or so sleek greenish creatures about two feet long. They had weasellike heads with long thick whiskers and large blue eyes.
"Anything wrong?" Deyv called out.
" 'Anything wrong?' " she screamed. "This is no time for your twisted sense of humor!"
She left the swamp and ran up the gently sloping bank and into the trees. There she sat down, panting.
The beasts followed her a minute later, clucking, their sharp teeth exposed in wicked grins. But they stopped when they came within a few feet of the edge of the forest. Some sat up on their hind legs and waved broad paws with webbed toes.
Having regained her breath, Vana stood up. The blood on her arm was flowing heavily. Deyv suggested that she stanch the wound with mud.
"What's the matter with you?" she cried. "You're all acting as if you didn't care that I could've been killed and that Aejip is treed by those beasts. I killed six with my darts and two with my spear. They could have caught me when I was in the water, but they were so busy eating their own dead that they let me get ahead of them. As it was—!"
"Well, you're safe now," Deyv said. "But I suppose we'll have to rescue Aejip."
" 'Suppose'!" she cried. "What's the matter with you, Deyv? What's wrong with all of you?"
"Nothing at all," he said. "We feel really fine."
He proceeded to tell her what he and the others pla
Vana heard them out with increasing incredulity. She didn't, however, say anything until after she'd smeared mud on her wound.
"Do you know, I'd been feeling somewhat the way you have. Not nearly to that degree, though. Still, I was wondering this morning if perhaps we weren't mistaken about Feersh. But when I went with Aejip I got too busy to think about anything but hunting."
She paused to look at them.
"You're all eating that fruit. Standing there munching away and looking blissful. You aren't bothered by what happened and yet you should all be excited, ready to drive those beasts away and save Aejip. For all you know, she could be dead by now. Those beasts can climb trees, you know."
Deyv began to feel just a little uneasy.
"What're you thinking?"
Narrow-eyed, Vana stared closely into his eyes. Then she looked into Hoozisst's and Sloosh's.
"Yes, they seem a little glazed. I'd be in the same drugged condition if I hadn't gone hunting and gotten rid of some of its effects. That has to be it."
"What do you mean?" Deyv asked.
"It's that fruit! It's making us think this crazy way! I'll bet that Feersh planted these trees here. She did it so that if people hid here to spy on her, they'd eat the purple stuff and it would affect their minds."
The three males looked at each other. Deyv and Hoozisst burst out laughing. The plant-man buzzed his equivalent of loud scornful mirth.
Her face flushed and angry, Vana said, "You lamebrains! You can't see I'm telling the truth because you're drugged!"
Sloosh buzzed his equivalent of "Tut, tut!" Then he said, "Even if we were, why should we decide that
Feersh wasn't dangerous? You're surely not saying that the fruits contain mental suggestions implanted somehow by the witch? That'd be a scientific impossibility."
"No, but the fruit might affect you so that you'd want to take the easy way out, no matter how foolish it might be. Look at you now! You're not the least bit worried about my wound or the cat!"
Sloosh spoke even more slowly than usual. "I think you're quite mistaken. However, there is only one way to determine if you are. I'm loath to take that course, since it means giving up the eating of this superb fruit. It also entails a considerable output of energy, which, frankly, I don't feel up to just now.
But if it's to be done, we should do it now."
Deyv and Hoozisst didn't want to venture out into the swamp. The plant-man said that he sympathized with their feelings, but logic demanded that they test Vana's theory. They armed themselves and went out to meet the greenish beasts. Sloosh carried a big dead branch, the first time Deyv had seen him bear a weapon. The Yawtl and Vana shot darts with their blowguns; Deyv slashed with his sword. Within a few minutes, the predators were dead or fleeing.