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Sloosh came down first.
"We got about a mile. Get rid of all the eggs now and all the statues later. Except Tsi'kzheep. I'll carry it."
The vessel was floating in water about two feet deep. They threw out the eggs, which sank into the mud.
The vessel was pushed toward a bed of tall reeds, and the statues were removed and hidden within these.
Sloosh pulled the rod, hoping that there was enough energy to collapse the vessel for the final time. This was half-realized.
"Well, at least it'll be easier to conceal," Sloosh said. He picked it up and waded to the muddy shore and disappeared in the jungle. When he came back he said, "Help me wipe out my tracks."
After this was done they headed for the hill of the gateway. Now and then they could hear voices of their pursuers faintly.
"I hope they don't get faint hearts when they get near the gateway," he said. "But they must be very angry because we took their ancestors and their eggs."
The Shemibob said that they could always make more statues and wait until new eggs had grown.
"Let's hope they're so furious and drugged they won't think of that," the plant-man said. "Anyway,
Be'nyar said that her tribe believed that it would be safe and prosperous only as long as Tsi'kzheep was in existence. That suggests that they wouldn't think of replacing it."
Once they were some distance away from the place where they'd dropped the eggs and the statues, they did their best to leave tracks, torn leaves, and broken branches behind them. The baby began crying again. Vana started to hush her up. The Shemibob said that she should be allowed to bawl. The pursuers might hear her and so know that they were on the right trail.
By the time they reached their goal, they were all, except for the baby, very tired. They rested awhile at the bottom. Before they'd gotten their wind back, they heard voices among the trees in the swamp.
"They didn't follow us," Deyv said. "They must've taken a shortcut. They figured that we'd be coming here."
The Archkerri said that that was good. If the tribes had taken the same path, they might have stumbled over the statues. They rose and toiled up the slope to the tree above and by which the swelling dwindling abomination shone. One by one they pulled themselves up on the lift, Keem excepted. Vana held her.
After throwing their weapons through the shimmering, they sat down on the great branch, keeping their faces away from the gateway.
"I hope all this was worth it," Deyv said. "If we go through, and then we find that we're back on Earth again—"
Sloosh said, "I have a theory about that. Not that it will make you feel any easier about our ending up on this world. I think that it's possible that most of the gateways admit to a younger world. Just as heat won't radiate from one body tp a hotter body, so the gateways won't let objects through from one world to an, older world or one just as old. Admittedly, the analogy could be false, I have no evidence to support it. But—"
"How then do you provide for those gateways that only admit objects from one place on this planet to another?" The Shemibob asked.
"Those are local aberrations. By 'aberrations,' I mean that they are anomalies only from our viewpoints.
They're just as natural as anything else. But the sentient tends to think in terms of anything as either malignant or beneficial, that is, how it affects him. The malignant is, therefore, u
Philosophically, I don't admit such terms. But as a living being who's concerned about survival, though not to the extent of these humans, I sometimes lapse into egoism."
"You still haven't given an explanation of the local routes."
"I'll think of something. Just now I'm too busy with them."
He pointed at the first of the pursuers to emerge from the cover of the trees.
Others followed. When the stragglers caught up, there were an estimated five hundred and twenty gathered at the foot of the hill. These included the young children.
"The mothers wanted to be in at the death so fiercely they even brought along their infants," Sloosh said.
''They are very angry about the sacrilege. Good, I didn't like to think that the babies would be abandoned to starve to death."
"You forget that they would have gone back after them if they decided to go through the gateway," Deyv said.
"I doubt it. By then they would have recovered from the effects of the drug."
While the rest stayed knee-deep in the greenish water, the six shamans slowly advanced up the hill. They were singing a ritual chant designed to placate The Shimmering Demon. They begged its pardon for treading upon the forbidden ground, but they had to save their ancestors from the terrible blasphemy which the monstrous strangers had caused. They would atone for it by casting the offenders into the demon's mouth. Deyv had to smile at that.
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HE waited until they were within easy speaking distance. He rose and called, "Holdl"
The shamans stopped, holding their left hands to shade their eyes so they could see him but not the brightness. They were crouching as if they expected some demonic whip to lash down upon their backs.
Deyv lifted the statue of Tsi'kzheep, found it too heavy, and gave it to Sloosh.
"See your ancestor!" he called. "The founding father of the Chaufi'ng! I have cast the ancestors of the other tribes into the gateway to the other world! They are waiting for you to join them so that your people may live forever and worship them forever! If they had stayed here, they would have perished along with their descendants! But we have talked to them and they have seen our wisdom! They agreed to go through the entrance to a better place, and they are getting impatient because you are not there to solace them with sacrifices and prayers! They are becoming angry because you would leave them there while you stay here because of cowardice and let them fade away, u
The Shemibob said softly, "That is fine rhetoric, Deyv, but don't get carried away. A few strong words are better than many weak ones."
"I think I'm doing fine," he said with some sharpness.
He gestured at the statue of Tsi'kzheep.
"All but one of your ancestors have gone to that other world and with them the soul eggs of the
Chaufi'ng! Chaufi'ng, if you will have the eggs for the babies to be bom, you will have to go after them!"
"Don't dwell on that point too long," The Shemibob said. "The soul-egg trees of the other tribes are untouched. Stress the ancestors."
"You told me I was to talk to them. Don't interrupt —please!"
It was a frightening yet heady experience to tell The Shemibob to keep quiet. But, though she wasn't in a situation where she could reprimand him, she would probably do so later. If there was a later.
He indicated the statue again.
"Now Tsi'kzheep goes to join the others! And he has told us that he wants you to follow him!"
Sloosh walked out onto the bridge, his eyes closed but his ears open to Deyv's soft instructions. When he heard Deyv tell him to stop, he halted a few feet from the shimmering.
"Now," Deyv said, "lift it up, slowly. Stop! You've got it centered. Now, pitch it straight forward!"
The shamans and the people at the bottom of the hill cried out in horror as the figure disappeared.
Vana said, "If they do go through, they're going to be very angry. There won't be any eggs, which will infuriate the Chaufi'ng, and the other tribes won't have their ancestors. Moreover, if Sloosh is right, there won't be any soul-egg trees either."