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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] at least one in every wagon. We call it the slinker. Hoy, broke from Ivar, how would you know-? Ythrians have found the three-eyed beasts on a number of planets. Erannath did not keep the wish to kill out of his voice; and his feathers began to stand erect. Not on our home. God did not lay that particular snare for us. But on several worlds like it, which naturally we investigated more thoroughly than your race normally does-the lesser terrestroid globes. Always slinkers are associated with fragments of an earlier civilization, such as Aeneas has. We suspect they were spread by that civilization, whether deliberately, accidentally, or through their own design. Some of us theorize that they caused its downfall. Wait a minute, Ivar protested. Why have we humans never heard of them? You have, on this world, Erannath replied. Probably elsewhere too, but quite incidentally, notes buried in your data banks, because you are more interested in larger and moister planets. And for our part, we have had no special reason to tell you. We learned what slinkers are early in our starfaring, when first we had scant contact with Terrans, afterward hostile contact. We developed means to eradicate them. They long ago ceased to be a problem in the Domain, and no doubt few Ythrians, even, have heard of them nowadays. Too much information, too big a universe, passed through Ivar. Besides, Erannath went on, it seems humans are more susceptible than Ythrians. Our two brain-types are rather differently organized, and the slinkers resonate better with yours. Resonate? Captain Riho scowled. a a T T n n s s F F f f o o D D r r P P m m Y Y e e Y Y r r B B 2 2 . . B B A A Click here to buy Click here to buy w w m m w w o o w w c c . . . . A A Y Y B B Y Y B B r r The slinker nervous system is an extraordinarily well-developed telepathic transceiver, Erannath said. Not of thoughts. We really don t know what level of reasoning ability the little abominations possess. Nor do we care, in the way that human scientists might. When we had established what they do, our overwhelming desire was merely to slay them. What do they do, then? Ivar asked around a lump of nausea. They violate the innermost self. In effect, they receive emotions and feed these back; they act as amplifiers. It was terrifying to see Erannath where he crouched. His dry phrases ripped forth. Perhaps those intelligences you call the Builders developed them as pets, pleasure sources. The Builders may have had cooler spirits than you or we do. Or perhaps they degenerated from the effects, and died. I said that the resonance with us Ythrians is weak. Nonetheless we found explorers and colonists showing ugly behavior. It would start as bad dreams, go on to murderously short temper, to year-around ovulation, to- Enough. We tracked down the cause and destroyed it. You humans are more vulnerable, it appears. You are lucky that slinkers prefer the deserts. Otherwise all Aeneans might be addicted. Yes, addiction. They don t realize it themselves, they think they keep these pets merely because of custom, but the Tinerians are a nation of addicts. Every emotion they begin to feel is fed back into them, amplified, radiated, re-amplified, to the limit of what the organism can generate. Do you marvel that they act like constitutional psychopaths? That they touch no drugs in their caravans, but require drugs when away, and cannot survive being away very long? At that, they must have adapted; there must have been natural selection. Many can think craftily, like the female who reaved your holdings, Rolf Mariner. I wonder if her kind are not born dependent on the poison. You should thank her, though, that she got you cast out as early as she did! Ivar covered his face. O God, no. I need clean sky and a beast to hunt, Erannath grated. I will be back tomorrow. He left. Ivar wept on Riho Mea s breast. She held him close, stroked his hair and murmured. You ll get well, poor dear, we ll make you well. The river flows, flows, flows.... Here is peace. Finally she left him on her husband s bunk, exhausted of tears and ready to sleep. The light through the windows was gold-red. She changed into her robe and went onto the foredeck, to join chaplain and crew in wishing the sun goodnight. a a T T n n s s F F f f o o D D r r P P m m Y Y e e Y Y r r B B 2 2 . . B B A A Click here to buy Click here to buy w w m m w w o o w w c c . . . . A A Y Y B B Y Y B B r r XII South of Cold Landing the country began to grow steep and stony, and the peaks of the Cimmerian range hung ghostlike on its horizon. There the river would flow too swiftly for the herds. But first it broadened to fill a valley with what was practically a lake: the Green Bowl, where ships bound farther south left their animals in care of a few crewfolk, to fatten on water plants and molluscoids. Approaching that place, Ivar paddled his kayak with an awkwardness which drew amiable laughter from his young companions. They darted spearfly-fast over the surface; or, leaping into the stream, they raced the long-bodied webfooted brown osels which served them for herd dogs, while he wallowed more clumsily than the fat, flippered, snouted chuho-water pigs-which were being herded. He didn t mind. Nobody is good at everything, and he was improving at a respectable pace. Wavelets blinked beneath violet heaven, chuckled, swirled, joined livingly with his muscles to drive the kayak onward. This was the reality which held him, not stiff crags and dusty- green brush on yonder hills. A coolness rose from it, to temper windless warmth of air. It smelled damp, rich. Ahead, Jade Gate was a gaudily painted castle; farther on moved a sister vessel; trawlers and barges already waited at Cold Landing. Closer at hand, the chuho browsed on wetcress. Now and then an osel heeded the command of a boy or girl and sped to turn back a straggler. Herding on the Flone was an ideal task, he thought. Exertion and alertness kept a person fully alive, while nevertheless letting him enter into that peace, beauty, majesty which was the river. To be sure, he was a mere spectator, invited along because these youngers liked him. That was all right. Jao maneuvered her kayak near his. Goes it well? she asked. You do fine, Rolf. She flushed, dropped her glance, and added timidly: I think not I could do that fine in your wilderness. But sometime I would wish to try. Sometime ... I d like to take you, he answered. On this duty in summer, one customarily went nude, so as to be ready at any time for a swim. Ivar was too fair-skinned for that, and wore a light blouse and trousers Erannath had had made for him. He turned his own eyes elsewhere. The girl was far too young for the thoughts she was old enough to arouse-besides being foreign to him-no, never mind that, what mattered was that she was sweet and trusting and- Oh, damnation, I will not be ashamed of thinkin she s female. Thinkin is all it ll ever amount to. And that I do, that I can, measures how far I ve gone toward gainin back my sanity. The gaiety and the ceremoniousnesses aboard ship; the little towns where they stopped to load and unload, and the long green reaches between; the harsh wisdom of Erannath, serene wisdom of Iang Weii the chaplain, pragmatic wisdom of Riho Mea the captain, counseling him; the friendliness of her husband and other people his age; the, yes, the way this particular daughter of hers followed him everywhere around; always the river, mighty as time, days and [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |