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"One, you two can go into the jungle and see who catches the other. The loser goes off willy-nilly to the tribe of the other. That's the way you usually settle these matters, isn't it?
"Two, you get your two tribes to become one people, merge. Though I suppose that'd cause other problems, as the solving of one problem usually does. There'd be the question of which language would be used. But if they agreed to use a Trade Language, then that'd be solved.
"Three, you could throw a stick up in the air, and if the end you pick strikes first, then she goes with you.
Or vice versa. Personally, I think number two's the best."
Deyv told Vana of his conversation. She thought that number three was the best and by far the quickest.
"You're not a good loser," Deyv said. Hastily, seeing her anger, he added, "Neither am I. Forget it."
The Shemibob applied her crystal to Vana's belly again. After reading the designs in it, she said, "The baby will come in exactly the time it will take for three more circuits of The Dark Beast and one sleeptime."
Deyv forgot his resentment toward Vana and started toward her to embrace her. At that moment, a severe quake struck. He waited until it and succeeding, though lesser, temblors had passed. He took her in his arms and said that it would be the happiest moment of his life when the baby was born.
"That makes me happy, knowing that," Vana said. "Now, if only-"
"If only what?"
She didn't reply, but both knew.
The Dark Beast completed two more circuits. It was in the sky a third time, almost upon the travelers, when Sloosh said that they were about a hundred miles from the source of the flying figures. All they had to do was journey fifty more miles on the highway and then turn right for fifty more. Hopefully, they'd come to a junction where a highway would go in the desired direction. If not, then they'd have to cross the heavily forested mountainous area.
They were near a steep mountain on their left when Sloosh a
"If you're returning to this highway, we might as well go with you," Deyv said. "It won't hurt to waste more time, we've been gone so long now. Besides, I'd feel safer with Phemropit and the rest of you with us. It won't be easy for just the two of us to take care of a baby without protection."
"I agree with you," Vana said. "But you might have asked what I thought before you spoke."
"Woman," Deyv said, "we're in trouble. The ways of your tribe are just too different from my tribe's.
Among my people, certain things are women's and others are men's. But in cases like these, it is up to the man to make the decision."
Vana opened her mouth to reply. She may even have uttered a word. If she did, it was lost in the sudden rumble, followed by a great noise as if the world had cracked. In fact, that was what had happened, though locally. One of the bellowing rifts opened up directly below the road on which they had paused for a moment The highway dropped for a foot, then the hanging section began to stretch. At the same time, it swayed from side to side. They felt as if they were on a suspension bridge over an abyss, a bridge pushed by a high wind. It rocked back and forth and sagged as they scrambled, screaming, for the edges of the sudden cliffs.
Phemropit, which had been on the outer lane, did not move for a moment It probably was not immediately aware of the situation. But its sensors told it that it was in danger of falling off, and its tracks began turning. Too late. Its enormous weight bent the rubbery material to one side, and it slid off.
Its tracks still turning, it disappeared into the gap.
Deyv was vaguely aware of this but only because he happened to look behind him for a second. He was busy trying to keep Vana and himself from sliding off. They were, fortunately, in the middle of the highway when the quake struck. They had been hurled onto their faces when the rift opened, but they struggled up onto their hands and knees and crawled toward the ground. It was not solid; it was bouncing like the breast of a ru
To their right was a roar that drowned put the ground-rumble. The side of the mountain was sliding toward them, the soil, the trees, the huge boulders.
He shouted at Vana to hurry, but she couldn't have heard him. It would have made no difference. She was going as fast as she could.
Jum leaped past them, his mouth open as if he were howling. Something touched Deyv's ankle. Sloosh, he supposed. The Shemibob was almost to the edge of the abyss. He didn't know where Aejip, the
Yawtl, the witch, and her daughter were. At the moment, he wasn't the least concerned about them. All he wanted was to get himself and his mate to safety. If they went down, three lives would be lost. The baby's might be destroyed anyway, since Vana had been propelled forward hard upon her belly.
They were ten feet away from the edge when The Shemibob ran back onto the hanging part to help them. Her forty legs moved swiftly; her front part was stretched out so far that she used her arms as legs.
When she got to them, she cried something, it didn't matter what, and she grabbed Vana. Then, rising with her in her arms, she turned, almost fell over to one side, righted herself, and sped away with her burden.
Deyv crawled sobbing after her. She put the woman down on the ground, and she came back for him.
Instead of trying to pick him up, she held out a hand. He seized it, felt a grip as mighty as the plantman's, and was lifted up and over her head, her back arcing backward. He thought his arm had been jerked out of its socket. He fell screaming with pain, almost striking Vana. The impact knocked him halfsenseless, and for a while he didn't know who he was or what was happening around him.
He was aware, though, when The Shemibob hoisted him up under one arm and Vana under the other and began ru
boulder. Then it stopped, and he was being carried past it.
By then, so he was told later, the temblors had ceased. But the avalanche pouring down the mountainside was shivering the ground. Despite this, the snake-centaur managed to stay on her feet—a good thing she had so many of them—and to get them to the edge of the jungle. Trees lay across each other or leaned at different angles. Here and there were some small boulders that had rolled or leaped across the highway and crashed into the bushes or the trees. The Shemibob deposited them behind a rock and then turned to see what had happened to the others.
Deyv had gotten most of his wits back, but he wished he hadn't His right shoulder and his left leg hurt very much. He groaned, then asked, "Why did she have to throw me?"
Vana said in a dull voice, "Because she had to. You would've been hit by a flying boulder. As it was, the impact almost bounced her off into the hole."
"Aejip and Sloosh?"
"The Archkerri was almost hurled off when that boulder shot away like a stone from a sling," The
Shemibob said. "But he wasn't, and he's somewhere near us. The others are safe, too. Except, I regret to say, Phemropit. Jowanarr is also down in the chasm. She almost made it, but the side of the highway dipped too far. And she fell."
She peered through the dust that was begi
The Shemibob said, "Feersh. She's wandering around stumbling over rocks and tree branches, and if she doesn't stop, she'll fall into the chasm, too."
Vana asked, "How could she have survived?"