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"Don't overdo it," The Shemibob said softly.
"But we come as friends, not to kill! We come to lead you to a place where earthquakes will not tear your land apart and destroy youl We have come to save youl"
Vana urged the captive forward.
"Here is the woman Be'nyar!" Deyv said. "We took her from you so that we could learn your language and your customs! In fact, all your secrets! As you can see, she is unharmed! Come out and get her!"
The shaman of the Chaufi'ng, Diknirdik, was standing on a platform inside the wall near the gate. With him were the shamans of the other tribes. He was a tall broad-shouldered fellow of middle age, wearing a double-coned hat fringed with feathers. Small red feathers were glued to his upper lip; the rest of his face was painted with thin vertical stripes of white, black, and green. He lacked four upper teeth.
He turned and said something to his colleagues. They talked fiercely for a moment before he gave his attention to the invaders again.
"Go away!" he bellowed. "We appreciate your gift of the red-ear heads! We thank you for them, and we will honor you by sacrifices to our ancestors! We'll tell them that you are our friends, and thus they won't harm you!
"But we have no need of your further presence! We are afraid that the demons with you will scare the children!"
Deyv laughed and said,""Not to mention scaring your brave warriors!"
The Shemibob said, "Don't insult them without a good purpose! They need to be soothed, not angered.
But you must still keep them awed of us."
"I know that," Deyv muttered. "I have some intelligence."
"Then use it!"
"Very well," he bellowed. "We will go back down to the bottom of the hill. There we'll set up camp until you decide to come out and be friendly. Believe me, so far you haven't acted as friends! Watch us! When we get there we'll demonstrate a little bit of our magic!"
When Sloosh pulled the rod of the cube and it Unfolded, a loud cry of amazement and fear came from the village. The plant-man said, "I hope we don't have to collapse it again. I wouldn't guarantee that if d do it completely."
"It's too bad I don't have my bag," The Shemibob said. "However, if I can't handle them with my wits alone, I deserve to be killed."
"They are ignorant and superstitious," Sloosh said. "But they have the same intelligence as their civilized ancestors. Don't underrate them."
"My apologies. I've been so used to dominating the lesser beings that I forget they're really not so inferior if I don't have my devices."
"They certainly outnumber us," Deyv said.
"But we've got them buffaloed," Vana said. She looked up the hill. Be'nyar was still standing outside the closed gate, and she was crying to be let in. The shamans were in another huddle.
"So far," Sloosh said, "we have them buffaloed. Well, let's partake of the delicious-smelling food which they so kindly left for us."
They ate and then relieved themselves in the swamp water nearby. This was used by the tribe for this purpose, which did not keep them from taking their drinking and boiling water from the same place.
Vana and Deyv went farther out to fill their fired-clay vessels for their own drinking. Long ago, Sloosh had explained the co
Vana nursed the baby. The others walked around for a while, talking, and then all went into the vessel to sleep. Before retiring, though, they watched the village for a while. Be'nyar was still at the gate, but she had stopped beseeching entrance. Now she was huddled on her knees, her head bowed.
They'd decided against setting a watch. If they pretended to be indifferent to the tribes' actions, they would impress them. Such nonchalance would make them think that the strangers were so powerful that they didn't care at all what measures the villagers took.
After they were inside the vessel and the door was closed, Sloosh said, "We may be taking the wrong approach. All we know of the temper of these people is what Be'nyar has told us. She may have been lying. Or she may have given us insufficient information because we failed to ask the right questions."
"What difference would it make?" The Shemibob said. "They can do nothing while we're locked in the vessel. Setting up a guard won't alter the situation. I'm going to sleep while they stew about this." '
She retired to another room. Sleeping with them would make them her peers, according to her way of thinking. Deyv didn't understand why. He'd questioned her about it, though with some trepidation, and she had said that the fact he didn't understand it made clear the difference between them.
Sloosh also bedded down in another chamber. He didn't mind sharing the same quarters, but they did.
Though it was impossible for him to snore, he "talked" in his sleep, and the resultant buzzing often woke them up.
Deyv dreamed that his grandmother came to him.
"This is the last time we'll meet, beloved grandson. Spirits can't cross from one world to another."
Behind her, vague in the shadow of a dark woods, were two figures. Jum and Aejip.
"Don't leave me!" Deyv cried out.
"I must. Farewell, baby. You go to become a man. You don't need me any more."
She backed into the dark grayness and disappeared. For a time, the eyes of the beasts glowed brightly, though there was little light to be reflected. Then, like dying candles, they guttered out, and he awoke sobbing.
Once more he dreamed. A great gong, like that hidden in The House of the Flying Figures, was beating somewhere over the horizon. He woke up sweating and trembling, and it was a long time before he could sink back into sleep.
In the third dream he was squatting before a hut and fingering his soul egg. Suddenly, someone tapped him on the shoulder. He looked up. The man in the red suit on the chair in the House of Flying Figures was standing by him. His broad fat face was jollied with a smile, but the eyes were a fierce hard blue. He held in one hand a hammer of metal and a bunch of metal nails. His other hand was behind his back.
"Here. Take these. Go and build a square house. And do not squander your time."
They all awoke about the same time. Deyv opened the door cautiously. He looked around it. No one was waiting to spear him. To make sure, he crept around to the other side. No lurkers there. The woman
Be'nyar had been let into the stockade. A few men were watching from the walls. Returning to the door, he called in that it was safe to come out. They breakfasted on fruits and nuts, since the meat left by the campers had turned rotten and was covered by flies, ants, and beetles.
Sloosh said, "If nothing else, hunger will drive them out from the village. Besides, they must be very crowded in there."
"We don't want them to get so desperate that they attack us," The Shemibob said.
Vana picked up the baby, and they walked up to the gate. Deyv cried out, "Tell your shamans to come out to talk to us!"
One of the watchmen disappeared. After a long wait, during which Deyv could hear a high-pitched squabble, which meant that the shamans were not conversing in the sign language, the sentinel came back.
"Diknirdik will come out if you will promise by your ancestors, not to harm him."
"We're not here to do evil!" Deyv shouted. "We have come to save you from itl"
Sloosh said, "Telling them that might make them even more suspicious. Beware the man who promises salvation."
Presently, Diknirdik's head and shoulders rose above the wall. He spoke loudly enough, but his voice trembled.
"Greetings, strangers! Why do you wish to speak to me?"
"Come out, and we'll tell you why!''
The shaman's eyes rolled; his hands gripped the pointed ends of the logs tightly. He was in a bad situation. If he left the village, he might be torn apart by the monsters or borne off to some unimaginable but doubtless horrible fate. If he didn't come out, he would be showing cowardice and would lose face.