DARK IS THE SUN

"I suggest that you quit wearing them until you're getting close to your homeland. And after that, whenever you're out of sight of your people, put it in a bag."

"What about your prism?" Vana asked.

"Im wearing it all the time now because I'm charging it. When it's ready to be used, I'll put it aside.

Unless I have a need at that time to use it."

"We should tell our people about this," Deyv said.

"They won't believe it. They're too fixed in their ways."

38

THE Dark Beast had gone over four times when they came to a highway of the ancients. After traveling on it for two sleep-times, they came to a junction. This time, the eyes on top of the poles did not flash.

They looked dead, and after Feersh and her daughter had tested them, the witch said they had indeed died.

"So," Sloosh said, "the co

"The end of our days is approaching," Hoozisst said.

As if to emphasize that, the ground began shaking. They fell to the road and hung on while it rose and fell, swayed and twisted. Trees along the wayside leaned or toppled. Finally, the temblors ceased. They got up and resumed their walk without a word. Phemropit rumbled along behind them. Even it had quit commenting about the quakes.

The Beast cast its shadow many, many times. Vana's belly began to grow big. Phemropit inquired about this phenomenon and was staggered by the explanation.

"We know nothing of such fantastic things," it said. "From the begi

That we had to invent, and there was quite a lot of disagreement on which system of signals to use.

"Of course, we couldn't argue much, since we were using different systems—about ten were prevalent then, I believe—and so we often didn't know what the other was saying. This worked out eventually, however. We are a rational people.

"One of us said that we had to have had a maker. We just couldn't have formed out of the matter of our world. Others said they couldn't see why not. But by the time our world fell on this one, the school that favored the maker theory had triumphed."

By then, Phemropit said, accidents and some disputes had cut their numbers down a little. It didn't matter. If their world hadn't been destroyed by the fall, it would have become too small to feed everybody.

"Eventually, our world would have been a pile of excrement and a nucleus of the rock which makes our food. We'd have been stacked on top of each other, trying to fight through those below while the bottom layer ate up what was left."

"Maybe not," The Shemibob said. "You may have eaten so much of your world that it wouldn't have had enough mass to attract you. You'd have floated away from your world, floated forever through space. Or until you were drawn to a large mass, another planetoid or planet or star. Or, finally, by the rush of all matter toward a common center."

Sloosh took his prism and held it up against the trunk of a giant tree. Deyv watched from under his shoulder. It was fascinating for a while to watch the many strange designs forming within the crystal. He got tired of that eventually and wandered off. But when the plant-man came back to camp, Deyv asked him what he'd heard from the vegetable kingdom.

"My people have moved now," he said. "They, too, are seeking a gateway. In fact, the very one we're looking for. But they're taking their time. We'll get there long before they do."

"Why have they suddenly gotten off their leafy butts?" Deyv asked.

"Because they've realized that they don't have much time left. By that, I mean their time. It would seem a long time to you. Anyway, I told them that I'd be pleased to join them. I mentioned I might be bringing along some rather interesting sentients."

Deyv was surprised. "You mean you were talking to them? I didn't see you doing anything but viewing the designs."

"I was sending electrical analogs of my thoughts, the upper layer of them, that is, through controlled pulses from my skin."

Deyv thought that this was wonderful until Sloosh told him that he, too, could do it. It would take him a long time to learn how, though.

The Yawti, hearing of this, asked Sloosh if he'd teach him. The plant-man said he'd be glad to. Hoozisst had also gotten the witch to show him how to operate his Emerald of Anticipation. He had been refused when he'd asked The Shemibob to instruct him in the mysteries of the quartz sphere. Later, however, she had relented.

Sloosh said to Deyv, "I would think you'd want to know all these things."

"I would if I thought it'd do me any good," Deyv said. "But Vana and I'll be leaving you, and we' won't be taking the devices with us. So why bother?"

"Maybe The Shemibob and I will give you gifts."

"Why should you do that?" Deyv asked, his eagerness showing.

"Why indeed?"

Deyv meant to take up the subject again soon. After the next sleep-time, he became so interested in another matter that he forgot about it. He mentioned to Sloosh that The Shemibob had never said anything about the giant figures that floated over the equator. Had the Archkerri asked her about them?

"Of course," Sloosh said. "Do you still believe that I'm lacking in that curiosity which distinguishes the sentients from the nonsentients?"

By which he implied that if Deyv was actually sentient he was on the borderline between the have-minds and the have-not-minds. Deyv ignored that, and he asked, "What does she know about them?"

"Nothing. She knows of their existence, but she knows no more of their origin or what they mean—if anything—than I do."

The plant-man continued, "However, we may have some answers to our questions soon. We're approaching the area from which they emanate."

The Archkerri was always surprising Deyv.

"How can that be? They're coming from behind us."

"No. They're coming from a place ahead of us. The figures you have been seeing originated there. But they've traveled around the planet and are now coming home."

"They're not birds?"

"I wouldn't care to say what they are or are not until I have examined them."

The Shemibob produced from her bag a plate on which she could write with a slender rod. When she wanted to erase the writing, she merely pressed a little button on the side of the plate. She and Sloosh, while riding on Phemropit's back or in camp, were often discussing the characters she drew on the plate.

From what Deyv overheard, they were trying to make sense out of the flying figures. They didn't seem to be having any success.

Bright sky and Dark Beast chased each other around and around. Vana swelled. The snake-centaur applied a crystal to Vana's belly and a

In the meantime, the two marred their otherwise cordial intercourse by a long-lasting dispute. Who would go with whom to whose tribe?

"Vana wants me to be adopted by her people, and I, naturally, prefer that she come to mine," Deyv told

Sloosh. "Don't you think that it's better for everybody concerned if the husband brings his wife to his

House?"

"Don't involve me in these intricate and irrational human matters," Sloosh said. "However, I can't resist a problem. It seems to me that there are three ways to solve this.