uneasily on his big bony feet.
After a long silence broken only by the stomach rumblings of the three Neshgai, Shegnif removed his great round spectacles and polished them with a cloth the size of a large throw rug. He put them back on and bent over his desk to look at the human standing before him.
'Either you are a liar,' he said, 'or an agent of The Tree. Or, just possibly, you are telling the truth.'
He spoke to Ghlikh. 'Tell me, Batwings. Is he telling the truth?'
Ghlikh seemed to shrink within himself. He looked at Ulysses and then back to Shegnif. It was obvious that he could not make up his mind whether to denounce Ulysses as a liar or to admit that his story was true. He would want to discredit the human, but if he tried and failed, then he would be discredited. Perhaps being discredited among the Neshgai meant death, which would account for the sweat over his body in this cool morning.
'Well?' Shegnif said.
The advantage lay with Ghlikh, since he was known to Shegnif. On the other hand, Shegnif may have had his suspicions about Ghlikh and his kind.
His remark about 'an agent of The Tree' must mean that he considered The Tree to be an entity, a hostile one. If this were so, then he must have his ideas about Ghlikh's motives, since he must also know that the bat- people lived in The Tree. Or did he know that? The Dhulhulikh could have told him they came from the other side of The Tree, and he would have had no way of checking up on them. At least not until Ulysses showed up.
'I do not know if he lies or not,' Ghlikh said. 'He told me that he was the stone god come to life, but I did not see him come to life.'
'Have you seen the stone god of the Wufea?'
'Yes.'
'And did you see the stone god after this man appeared?'
'No,' Ghlikh said hesitantly. 'But then I did not look in the temple to see if he was still there. I took his word for it, though I should not have done so.'
'I can question the cat-people about him. They will know whether or not he is the stone god,' Shegnif said. 'Since they acknowledge him as the god come to life, I do not believe that they will call him a liar. Let us assume that his story is true.'
'That he is, indeed, a god?' Ghlikh said, unable to suppress all the scorn he felt.
'There is but one god,' Shegnif said, eyeing Ghlikh closely. 'Only one. Or would you deny that? Those who live on The Tree say that The Tree is the only god. What do you say?'
'Oh, I agree with you that there is only one god,' Ghlikh said quickly.
'And that is Nesh,' Shegnif said. 'Right?'
'Nesh is truly the only god of the Neshgai,' Ghlikh said.
'That is not the same thing as saying that there is only one god, the god of the Neshgai,' Shegnif said. He smiled, exposing a white-walled mouth, white gums and the four molars. He lifted a big glass of water in which was a glass tube and sucked water through the tube. Ulysses was surprised; he had seen the Neshgai suck water up their prehensile trunks and blow it into their mouths. But this was the first time he had seen one use a straw tube. Later, he saw them drink directly from glasses which had narrow mouths designed to go between their tusks.
Shegnif put the glass down and said, 'Never mind. We do not require that non-Neshgai worship Nesh, since his concern is only with the worship of his sons and he would refuse to be worshiped by any but them. I find you to be rather shifty, Ghlikh. Be more direct in the future. Leave it to us slow-moving, slow-thinking Neshgai to be circuitous!'
He smiled again. Ulysses began to think that he could like the Grand Vizier.
Shegnif asked Ulysses more detailed questions. Finally, he told them that they could sit down, and the officers let themselves down gently into the chairs. Ulysses sat on the edge of one, his feet dangling. He did not look as small and pitiful as Ghlikh, however, who resembled a small bird squatting at the entrance to a large cave.
Shegnif put the tips of his banana-sized fingers together and frowned as much as an eyebrowless person could frown.
'I am amazed,' he said. 'You must be the living source of a myth which originated unguessable millennia ago. Although I should not say myth, since your story seems to be true.
'The Wufea found you at the bottom of a lake which had been in existence for many thousands of years. There is not much doubt that they found a stone statue which looked like you. Even the evasive bat-man here confirms that. But did you know that you have been above ground many times before the Wufea found you? And lost or stolen many times?'
Ulysses shook his head.
The Grand Vizier said, 'You have been the god, or the central focus, of more than one religion. You have been the god of a little primitive village of one species or another, and have sat on your chair, petrified, while the little village became the great metropolis, the capital, of a highly civilised empire. And still sat there while the empire was shattered, and the civilisation crumbled, and the people died, and there were only ruins inhabited by lizards and owls around you.'
'My name is Ozymandias,' Ulysses murmured in English. For the first time, his English sounded foreign to him.
'What?' Shegnif said, looking over his spectacles and down his proboscis at him.
'I was only talking to myself in a language that has been dead for millions of years, Your Viziership,' Ulysses said.
'Ah, yes?' Shegnif said, his small greenish eyes lighting up. 'We'll see that it's recorded by our scholars. In fact, we plan on keeping you very busy for some time. Our scientists have been informed about you, and they cannot restrain their eagerness.'
'That is interesting,' Ulysses said. Was he going to be nothing but a laboratory specimen to these people? 'But I have much more to contribute than recordings of the past. I have a very definite present and future use. I may be the key to the survival of the Neshgai.'
Ghlikh looked strangely at him. Shegnif, lifting his trunk, said, 'Our survival? Indeed? Tell me more!'
'I would prefer to speak when the Dhulhulikh is not present.'
Ghlikh shrilled, 'Your Viziership, I protest! I have remained silent, as you wished, while this human told his lying story of his purported adventures in The Tree! But I can keep silent no longer! This is very serious! He is imputing sinister motives to us Dhulhulikh, who only want to live in peace with everybody and to engage in a business profitable for everybody!'
'No judgement has been delivered,' Shegnif said. 'We will hear the statements of everybody, including your colleague, Khyuks. In fact, the others are being interviewed even now, and I will read summaries of the interviews later today. By the way, and this will interest you, too, bat-man, we have records which indicate the stone god was once here. He certainly looks like the stone god. And he is just as certainly not one of our humans. You have noticed the full head of straight hair and the five toes, I presume?'
'I did not say he was a slave or a Vroomaw, Your Viziership,' Ghlikh said.
'Well for you that you did not,' Shegnif said.
He spoke into an orange wooden box before him, and the big doors swung open. Ulysses wondered if they had a form of radio. He had not noticed any antennas when he was in the city, but then it had been night.
Shegnif stood up and said, 'We will continue this tomorrow. I have more urgent business to attend to. However, if you can prove what you said about your being the key to our survival, I will listen to every word. I can arrange a special interview with you late this evening. But you had better not be wasting my time, which is very valuable.'
'I will speak with you this evening,' Ulysses said.
'Am I to have no chance to defend myself?'
Ghlikh wailed.
'Every chance, as you well know,' Shegnif said. 'Don't ask questions which do not need asking. You know I am busy.'
Ulysses was led back to the barracks room but Ghlikh was taken to another room where, apparently, Khyuks was also kept. The last of the interviewers, teams of humans and Neshgai, were leaving just as Ulysses returned.
