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Deyv and Vana felt too happy to reproach the plant-man. They put the cords around their necks and closed a hand around the stones. Deyv's began to pulse with a red light which shone brightly. Vana's glowed greenly.
"Now," Sloosh said, "you two can see if they match in phase and if you're true mates or not."
Deyv's happiness boiled away, and a small panic rushed into its place.
"We don't need to find that out!" he said. "We already know we're well matched!"
"Yes," Vana said, her voice shaking, "We know that. So why bother?"
The Shemibob was smiling, but whether it was with delight at the unexpectedness of the gift or amusement at their reaction, Deyv couldn't tell.
"You two sound very much as if you're afraid to take the test. What would happen if your stones showed that you were mismatched? Would you then refuse to obey what your mind and heart tell you is true?"
Sloosh said, "I very much fear that they would. Despite their wide travel and many experiences, they haven't learned much."
"Why couldn't you have waited?" Deyv cried.
"What do you mean?" Sloosh asked. "I expected you to be angry because we'd not given you the eggs as soon as they were made. But I certainly didn't expect this."
"They're afraid of being separated," The Shemibob said. "The eggs might tell them that they aren't to be lifelong mates. But there's another, perhaps deeper fear. That is, that perhaps the eggs aren't infallible.
Perhaps they don't tell the truth, perhaps they and their ancestors have been believing a lie. In which case, they know that they, and their ancestors, and their tribespeople have been fools. On the other hand, a part of them would like that.
"Of course, they could settle the question at once by trying to phase the eggs. But they're afraid to know the truth. Which is understandable. They don't want to lose each other. Or doesn't your vegetable-heart grasp this?"
"If s half-protein," Sloosh said. "But I comprehend you. What I would like to suggest—"
Vana said, "Deyv, I don't like to stand here and be talked about as if I'm a character in a tale or someone on the other side of the mountain. Let's do it and get it over with."
Deyv swallowed and said, "Very well. But not here. I want privacy."
They walked into the jungle, Vana's hand in his. It was filmed with sweat. Or was that his? It was both.
Her skin felt cold, too.
He looked back through a break in the foliage. The Shemibob was dipping into the bag again. She was handing something to the plant-man. His prism! Of course, if she'd made eggs for them, she would have made a crystal for Sloosh. But that couldn't be given until after the eggs had gone to the humans.
Jum and Aejip came through the brush after them. Deyv told them to go back. It was necessary to be as little distracted as possible during the phasing.
They came to a great tree on the other side of which was a big flat-topped rock. They straddled it, facing each other. They slowly extended the stones until they touched. Each was held by a finger on top and bottom so that they could clearly see the reactions. With the other hand each touched the other's lips.
Deyv felt a tingling in his lips and the finger, and he saw tiny green threads begin to form in the center of his egg. These were duplicated by threads of the same diameter and configuration in Vana's, except that they were red in hers.
The threads, still extending, began to twist in on themselves. They curved around and met other threads and slid alongside them, then twined around them. Deyv felt great joy. It was evident that they would be in complete phase or at least as much as any stones ever were.
Still, they had to finish the test. Sometimes, though rarely, the threads did not go further than a certain stage. Then it was up to the shamans and the grandmothers to determine if the match was good enough to permit marriage.
Now the threads formed a design called, in Deyv's tongue, shvashavetl. This was the name of a fourwinged insect related to the butterfly. Seen from above, the insect looked much like the matching design, a long slim straight body with two oval wings on each side and, at the head, two out-curving ante
But the stones were not yet done.
Deyv and Vana waited, their fingers trembling but not losing contact with each other or making the eggs separate.
Suddenly, and startlingly, though it was expected, the tingling became a burning. And the designs in the stones seemed to explode, to become red and green tadpole shapes darting in a frenzy in many different directions.
Both snatched the eggs back and withdrew their fingers. Tiny lightning leaped between the fingers and lips, crackling. The figures shooting around inside the eggs flashed brightly and were gone. The eggs resumed their normal green and red colors.
Weeping but smiling, the two leaned over and embraced.
On the way back to camp, Vana said, dreamily, "Deyv, what would you have done if we'd been mismatched?"
He hugged her.
"I might've thrown my egg away. No, I suppose I wouldn't have. I need mine to be accepted by my tribe.
I don't know, to tell the truth. I'm glad I don't know. But what would you have done?"
"The same, I suppose. Whatever that might have been."
They walked a few paces more. She stopped abruptly, looking alarmed.
"I just had a terrible thought! What if The Shemibob made the eggs so that they would phase regardless of our characters? That'd be a fine trick to play on us!"
"You're as bad as Sloosh," he said. "Why would she do that?"
"Because she didn't want us to be outcasts forever. Still, why should she go to all that trouble? She seems to like us, as we like Jum and Aejip, though not as deeply, of course. So maybe she did it out of affection. Or maybe out of a perverse sense ef humor."
"We don't know that she did it."
They summoned up the courage to ask her.
She smiled for a while, then broke into a loud flapping laughter. When she'd recovered, she said, "You two are more suspicious than the Yawrl! Let me ask you, what difference would it make if I had given you two eggs guaranteed to phase even if your souls were not entirely congenial? Your tribes would be fooled, and so would you, and what harm could that be? It might even be that the eggs themselves would be the means of making you well matched just because you think they couldn't be wrong."
Vana spoke with some anger, more than she wanted to reveal but far less than what she would have liked to let loose.
" Well, what is the truth?"
"You'll never know!"
The Shemibob exploded into laughter again. Sloosh, who'd been standing nearby, buzzed his equivalent of great amusement. Deyv and Vana, furious, feeling like fools, walked off. After they'd cooled off, however, they agreed that the eggs, whether false or genuine, served their purpose. So why should they continue to be angry at The Shemibob? After all, she'd done them an invaluable service. If she enjoyed the joke or enjoyed their reaction to what might not be a joke, it was slight repayment. Nevertheless, they couldn't keep from wondering about it from time to time.
They asked Sloosh if he knew the truth. He replied that he knew no more than The Shemibob and could give only the same answers.
"But I must warn you that the eggs have more than one disadvantage. You have to pay for anything good.
Or for anything bad, for that matter. Aside from their initial charge, the eggs derive their energy from you. They tap the electricity, the bio-power, of your cells. This is very slight to begin with, and it takes time for the eggs to accumulate it. You know that you can't use the eggs too much. Otherwise, they won't operate. Even so, what energy they do use is gotten only by hastening your metabolism. Which means that you have to eat more. Which also means that you age somewhat faster. An egg-bearer's natural lifespan is shortened by an eleventh or a tenth. If you'd kept on being eggless, you might've been the longest-lived of your tribe.