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"Which means," Sloosh said, "that she gave them their freedom and allowed them to take the treasures.
Or she was in no position to stop them from fleeing and also robbing her before they left. I favor the latter speculation."
"I do, too," Feersh said. "She really needed slaves for only one thing. Companionship. People to talk to.
She has machines to do any work which the slaves did. But she kept them in a room from which she seldom let them out."
"Then," Sloosh said, "what happened to The Shemibob?"
They found an immense kitchen on the first floor and by it a larder containing enough food to feed
Deyv's village for an uncountable number of feasts. There was also enough liquor to make his whole tribe drunk forever, it seemed. And there were enough drugs to keep it stoned for a little longer. The food was as fresh as when it was first brought in. According to the witch, it stayed fresh, no matter how long the passage of time, until it was brought out from the larder. Then it became subject to decay.
"Except for our mortality," Deyv said, "this place seems much like that which the shaman says we will go to after we die. If The Shemibob is gone, why shouldn't we just stay here and enjoy life? Of course, we'd have to get our tribes and bring them here. And, who knows? We might find The Shemibob's secret of immortality."
"But eventually the supplies would run out," Sloosh said. "In the meantime, vou'd be having children, and this place would become overcrowded. Though, given your tendency to quarreling and thus to violence, overpopulation might not be a problem. In any event, you'd find the storehouse empty. So what would you do then? You'd have lost the ability to hunt and to grow crops by then. You'd all perish."
Deyv said, angrily, "I know that. I was only dreaming."
"That is because you are not the fear-trembling youth who set out to find a wife in an enemy tribe. You have been through many experiences, have traveled widely, have seen much that you would not have seen if the Yawtl had not stolen your soul egg. You have matured, and that far past what you would have matured if you'd remained a simple tribesman. Still, you have much to learn."
"You do, too," Deyv said.
"Happily, yes. If I knew everything, what would I have to live for?"
While at the rear part of the second floor, Deyv had a frightening experience. He entered a huge room in which the illumination was almost as dark as the light when The Beast was fully overhead. Many vague forms swam in the air. They glowed faintly, providing most of the light. They were of many colors and hues, and were shaped like tadpoles. They writhed and rotated on their horizontal axes or sometimes reared up, darting here and there.
He thought about going back to get a torch or, better, staying out of the room entirely. Vana came along then, and, emboldened by companionship, he decided to investigate. He had no sooner passed the doorway than one of the scarlet figures dashed at him, turned just before it touched him, and flicked its tail out Deyv screamed with pain and clutched his face.
Vana ran into the room then, crying, "What's the matter?" Another figure, turquoise-colored, swam writhing to her and its head touched hers briefly. She sank down onto the floor, moaning. Deyv's agony had passed as swiftly as it had come. He leaned down to bring her up to her feet, but she said, "No. I'm fine."
"I thought you we're hurt"
"Far from it," she said. "I was in ecstasy. Only, if s over now."
She rose. "Where's the turquoise thing that touched me? I'd like it to touch me again. I've never felt such exquisite sensations."
Deyv took her arm and pulled her out.
"I don't know what those things are, but they're dangerous."
After getting her reluctant promise that she wouldn't go back into the room, he went to get the others.
Feersh at once told them what they'd encountered.
"The Shemibob has many art forms of the ancients. This room contains one type of them. They were made by the same people who made the soul-egg trees, the people who were destroyed when the planetoid fell."
"What's their purpose?"
The witch shrugged. "What is art all about? These seem to give intense pain or intense ecstasy, depending upon which one touches you. It is also a pleasure just to stand away from them and watch the interplay among them. If you do this for some time, you begin to detect certain patterns made by the relative positions of all the things.
"The Shemibob thought that they must have a therapeutic effect, too. But to get this you have to be of strong stuff. She would sometimes enter the room and station herself so that she could be touched at the same time by one form giving pain and another giving ecstasy. She said that she couldn't endure the opposing sensations for long. But when she left the room she felt that she had gained a little wisdom.
Not intellectual wisdom. Emotional.
"I didn't understand what she meant by that. And I refused her invitation to enter the room. I was afraid to do anything but stand outside and watch the designs."
Sloosh made a suggestion. From then on, if they came to a chamber which held anything outside their experience, they should refrain from entering.
"Art can be both rewarding and dangerous. The ancients have refined both of these features in their art to a degree unknown before them. And after them."
Deyv and Vana went out with the animals to eat their lunch on the drawbridge. Afterward, they decided to go for a walk. But when they were almost halfway across the bridge, they were stopped. Something invisible and impalpable kept them from advancing a step beyond it.
Alarmed, they went to get the others. Sloosh tested the barrier and got no farther than Deyv and Vana.
He then sent Deyv down into the moat. Halfway across, he came against the unbending resistance. He swam back and was pulled up the steep wall of the moat by a rope. They went to the back end of the castle, and this time the Yawtl swam in the moat. He reported that the barrier was there also, though much closer to the outer ditch of the moat than in front.
Vana tried another side; Deyv, the opposite. The results were the same.
Feersh said, "The Shemibob has allowed us in but won't let us out! If she's dead or has left this place, we're doomed! We'll never find out how to dissolve the barrier!" ,
"We're far from hopeless," Sloosh said. "We haven't investigated more than an eighth of the rooms. I suggest we get to work."
The fourth floor had a tremendously large laboratory. The Archkerri said that he thought that soul eggs could be made in it. Unfortunately, he hadn't the slightest idea of how to do it. Only The Shemibob could show them.
"But is it really necessary that you have the eggs?"
Deyv and Vana looked at each other. They read in each other's face the same thought. Somehow, they had managed to get along without the stones. And for a long time they hadn't even missed them. Yes, strange though it was, they didn't need them any more.
"What you say is true, Sloosh," Deyv said. "It's a very strange feeling to know that. Both uneasy and exhilarating. But we can't return to our tribes until we have our eggs. There is no getting out of that."
The Archkerri's huge hand, partly sheathed in leaves, made a circular gesture.
"We are your tribe!"
The Yawtl laughed, and he danced a jig while gri
"Well, what I mean," the plant-man said, "is that you have a temporary tribe. However unhomogeneous this group, its members do get along with each other. And we've been most efficient. When we get out of here, you can look for a human tribe that doesn't require eggs. If you can't find any, then you can become witches and raise your own tribe. You'll have plenty of ancient devices to give you great power."