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"Besides," Sloosh buzzed, "the witches are no more evil than anyone else. The tribes say they are because they fear them and they can't understand them or anyone who would live without the eggs. But the witches are no more greedy for power than the tribes-people. It's just that they have the means with which to attain more power."
"Has everyone been listening to us?" Deyv asked angrily.
"It helps pass the time," Feersh said. "What Hoozisst and the plant-man say is true, though. And you two have been very stupid. You could have been enjoying each other all during your journey. Now it's too late." She laughed loudly.
"Shut up!" Deyv said. "You are evil!"
At that moment the guards began a screaming piping. A beast snarled, and a guard fell with his back against the log gate. Deyv leaped up and saw the rosetted body of Aejip, her fangs buried in the
Tsimmanbul's throat. From beside the doorway came more screaming and a deep ferocious growling.
Deyv pushed through the slaves and almost knocked the blind woman down getting to the door. He began untying the rope, one arm thrust through a lower space and the other in the space above the heavy log. Hoozisst came to aid him. Meanwhile, the cat had left the dead guard to help Jum with the other. By then the sleepers had been roused by the uproar. They stumbled out of their little huts, looked around, and saw the bodies and the animals by the torchlight. Seizing their weapons, they ran toward the cabin.
The cat and the dog bounded off into the darkness. Deyv had to withdraw his arms to keep them from being speared.
The Yawtl had reached under the lowest log of the door and pulled in the dead guard's stone tomahawk.
A little while later, he had to surrender it. The shaman had checked on the weapons, found one missing, and guessed at once where it was.
He raged around for a while, uttering threats at the prisoners. They were unimpressed. He wasn't going to torture them because they were the messengers to the god and had to have clear minds to deliver the messages. Nor would he slay them on the spot. His god wouldn't like that.
After a while, the shaman quieted down. Before he went back to his hut, he stationed two guards on each side of the cabin. That quenched Deyv's hope that the animals might try again. They would know that they had no chance against eight alert warriors.
31
WHILE breakfasting, they wondered who would be eaten for supper. Fat Bull answered that sometime later by pointing out Tishdom. She screamed and struggled but was carried off and tied to the post.
Presently, she was limp and silent, having failed also. Her body was taken back over the hill to be prepared for lunch, not supper. It was Shig, last of the slaves, who provided this item.
The shaman then indicated that Deyv was next. He stood pale, in shock, while Vana embraced him and wept.
"You won't have to question the god right now," Fat Bull said. "You have until some time before the next supper to figure out how to please Phemropit."
"This is ridiculous!" Sloosh buzzed. "You stupid Naraka
"What you lamebrains must do is what you did with us. That is, teach him your language."
His colleagues didn't think it was discreet to insult the person who held their lives in his hands. But then, what difference did it make?
"He is our god," Fat Bull said. "Are you telling me that our god wouldn't be able to speak with our tongue?"
"Yes," Sloosh said. "It would be obvious to any but the lowest intelligence that he doesn't. Or perhaps I should say that it's not so much a lack of intelligence that has made you err as your pattern of thinking.
To you a god can do anything, so this one must be able to speak your language. At the same time, you have refused to see that Phemropit is, for some reason, immobile. He's not moving because he doesn't want to move but because he can't."
"I'll overlook your insults, cabbage-head," the shaman said. "I can understand why you're not so friendly. But what you say about Phemropit isn't true. He's a god, and so—"
"And so he can do anything he wishes to do. Nonsense! I can prove to you that he can't move."
The shaman looked interested. He strode away and
Eicked up his sticks and threw them seven times. Then e came back.
"Deyv must still be tied to the post. The gods so decree it."
"Very well," the Archkerri said. "Tie him to it. But first move the post a few feet to one side."
"But then the god can't see him!"
"You just said your god could do anything. Why couldn't he see Deyv? I'll guarantee that the god will be able to see him."
"And if the guarantee is no good? What then?"
"Then I'll let you tie me to the post."
The shaman burst out into shrill piping laughter.
"You'll let me? You have a fine sense of humor, walking cauliflower. Very well. I'll do as you suggest. I do want to tell the god what to do, for his best interests and ours. Look!"
He pointed down the slope to the right of the god. A warrior was just putting the cube on the ground.
"While I slept, my ancestor, White Flippers, came to me and said that I should tell the god that if he doesn't talk to us we'll destroy him with that."
Sloosh buzzed in his own speech so that the shaman couldn't understand him. "I've heard of bribing gods but never of threatening them. Well, theology is a strange business, but it has its own logic, I suppose."
To Fat Bull he said, "How do you propose to blow up Phemropit without also destroying yourselves?"
"Easy. We'll tie a rope to the rod and another rope to that one and as many ropes as are needed. Then we'll hide behind this hill so we'll be protected when we pull on the end of the rope."
Sloosh closed his eyes. Deyv cried out in Vana's speech that Sloosh mustn't tell Fat Bull the truth. As long as the shaman believed that the cube was what Deyv said it was, he might be tricked.
The plant-man opened his eyes. "I wasn't contemplating telling him the truth. I was just wondering why he was ignoring your statement that the cube would slay everything between here and the ocean."
The shaman said, "What are you talking about? I don't like to have you jabber away in your gibberish.
Are you telling each other ways to fool me? Believe me, you won't get away with it"
"No," Sloosh said, "that's not it. We were talking about what would happen if you did trigger off the cube's devastating powers. You have forgotten that it will sear the jungle for miles around. The back of the hill wouldn't shield you."
"I think you're lying," Fat Bull said. "No magical device could be that powerful. You just want to scare us so much we'll be afraid to use it."
Deyv could see, by the light of the torch whose end was stuck in the ground, that the rope was not only being tied to the rod, it was being glued.
"You're right," he said to Fat Bull. "We were lying. You'll be quite safe if you hide behind the hill, though you might be knocked down by the blast. However, you can't threaten the god unless you can speak his tongue."
The shaman went away to do some thinking about that. After a while, he returned. He ordered that the post be moved a few feet to one side.
Deyv said, "Sloosh, I hope you know what you're talking about."
"If I'm wrong, I'll apologize."
"That's very comforting."
The digging up of the post was interrupted by an earthquake so severe that it rippled the earth and cracked open the beach. Other temblors, not so strong, followed. When it seemed that there might not be more, everybody got up off the ground, and business was resumed.