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But the twelfth folk they came to spoke a tongue related to Vana's. Though it was only half-intelligible to her, she could still get enough of a message across. These directed them to a-tribe which had once lived near the gateway. The tribe had come to the Place of the Trading Season, where, through the Trade
Language, its members told of the shining horror. To this tribe went the five travelers, where they learned enough of the trade tongue to ask their questions and be answered.
Their informants were not aware of the exact location of the gateway. They could give a general direction and a vague estimate of the distance to it. Having learned this, Sloosh used his prism to communicate with the plants. After a long, long time, from breakfast almost till supper, the Archkerri got the location. This was not exact, but as they traveled Sloosh kept using the prism. The closer they got, the better their information became. Two sleep-times before they got there, he had pinpointed it.
Vana, after one glance upward, had kept her eyes on the ground. Her belly was huge now. The baby would come in a little over twelve and a half circuits of The Dark Beast.
"Now that we've found it," she said, "what do you two intend to do?"
Sloosh said, "When my people get here, I'll go through the gateway with them. Of course, some won't want to stop their particular researches and so won't come now. Or perhaps not at all."
"I will stay here to help him build a bridge to the gateway," The Shemibob said.
"Then we'll stav awhile and rest up," Deyv said.
The Shemibnb smiled knowingly. "You might as well delay the inevitable. It couldn't hurt."
Devv didn't reply. He helped Vana untie the cube and take it down from Sloosh's back. The Archkerri picked it up and went down to the foot of the hill. A swamp surrounded the hill, a foul place stinking from many sources, choked with plants of many kinds, buzzing with bugs, croaking with froggish monsters, dangerous with poisonous things, insectile, reptilian, and mammalian. Sloosh would have preferred to expand the cube at a higher place, but the only flat ground was by the water.
The three humans went with him. Vana wanted to put the babv in the vessel for a nap, where it would be undisturbed by the insects. Sloosh pulled the rod. The craft unfolded slowly. Too slowly, according to
Sloosh.
"It's a good thing the journey's ended. The power supply is about exhausted."
He looked at the vessel. "Too bad, though. The Shemibob and I have been tracing its circuits. We think we know what controls start its propelling power. We're afraid, however, to activate it. There's no telling what might happen. Still—"
"I want to be a long way off if you decide to experiment," Deyv said.
After making sure the baby was comfortable, Deyv called Aejip and Jum. He told Vana that he was going hunting, and he waded through the green-coated water and black mud toward higher ground.
Much later he was far from the home base, still unsuccessful in getting game. He was stalking a large bird with bronze-colored feathers, a white-edged fantail, and a red bag hanging from its neck when he heard voices. He froze, along with the two animals.
The speakers came nearer, talking softly, but they were near enough so that he could determine that their language was unfamiliar. Or was it? Didn't it sound somewhat like Vana's?
Unable to suppress his curiosity, he snaked through the foliage. Aejip and Jum followed him. He stopped when he saw a trail before him. Going away from him were two men, tall, skins a little darker than his wife's but with kinky hair like hers, though brown instead of yellow. They wore bark-cloth kilts and carried the standard weapons of jungle dwellers everywhere: blow-guns, flint or chert tomahawks, knives, and spears. Their legs were painted black to just above the knees, and their spines were colored with red.
They stopped to talk about something before they came to a bend. They turned toward him a moment.
Their eyes were slanted. No. Not really slanted. That impression was caused by a fold of flesh in the i
One carried over his shoulder the same kind of bird Deyv had been hoping to kill.
He decided that they were returning home from the hunt. He waited until they had gone around the bend before following them. It was necessary to know where the enemy lived and how many there were.
Also, how well defended they were and the degree of their aggressiveness. He didn't have to show himself to find out the latter two features. His long experience had given him some ability to discern these just by watching people in their daily routine.
The trail led to a lower ground, where there was a small swamp. The men ahead waded through it as if they knew that it wasn't dangerous. Deyv saw a gliding animal, its hundred ribs spread out to make the thin air act like thick water. It swooped over the heads of the two men, but they paid it no visible attention. The creature curved upward near Deyv and landed on a branch of a tree. Seeing Deyv, it turned its triangular head downward and made a clattering sound. Though its body was snakelike, it had sleek bluish fur and greenish eyelids. Deyv ignored it, since the men must know what was dangerous.
His animals growled very softly and sidled by, their eyes intent on it until it was well past.
Deyv, equally softly, said, "Calm down, Jum, Aejip. It doesn't mean ill to you."
Presently, the two men came to a hill and climbed up its steep slope. This was naked of trees, having been cleared long ago. It had also been planted with some tall pod-bearing vegetable which didn't require terracing. The trail led up the hill and onto a small plateau in the center of which was a stockaded village.
Deyv couldn't follow beyond the swamp, but he climbed a very tall tree whose top was level with that of the hill. Beyond the wall of thick logs he could see the roofs of some conical huts on the far side.
Unable to see more than a few of the villagers, he started to climb down. He stopped when a giant rodent emerged from the swamp, and began to eat the plants on its edge. It was furred in black except for its ears, which were red. Its body was thick with fat, and it looked as if it would be two feet higher than he if it was to stand up on its two legs.
U
The beast had stopped eating when the first wave of warriors poured down the hill. It regarded the yelling, spear-brandishing figures for a moment before turning to amble off through the swamp. About thirty men waded after it, some throwing their spears. Most of these missed; those that hit bounded off.
Several blow-gun darts struck and also failed to stick.
Dew looked through the now open gate. Directly in his line of sight was a man-sized idol, a thing with a fierce scowling face, two long tusks sticking upward from the lower jaw, four arms, and an enormous belly. The fare was human enough, but the upper part of the head was shaped into something birdlike, a creature with half-opened wings and a tremendous beak.
On the other side of the hill was a tree even taller than the one on which he stood. He climbed down and worked his way around through the swamp, Jum and Aejip following. They waited at its base while he climbed this, though they didn't like standing in water up to their shoulders. When he got near to the top,