He might find a way to benefit from it himself-or pass it on to others with whom he had more in common.
They plodded on. Then Harsan said, “I do not suppose that you are willing to tell me more of your own part in this, Lord Taluvaz?”
The other stopped and turned about to face him. “I cannot, priest Harsan-I cannot. But I swear-by all my Shadow Gods and by my Arrio ancestors and by anything else you name-that my arrows are not aimed at you, nor at any target dear to you! This I say to you as a friend.”
“I accept your word. And Prince Eselne? He will help? He must have someone in his service who knows this maze well enough to lead me to the area in which the Man of Gold is likely hidden? Some priest of Karakan? Some scholar of my own temple?”
“I do not doubt it. The high Prince’s priests and soldiers will be ours to command.” Lord Taluvaz waved his pomander again under his black-tattooed nostrils. He seemed almost buoyant. “More, I have other contacts if we need them-among the Heheganu. Their leaders can be made to aid us further…” Harsan pulled at his chin skeptically. He said only, “You say that I shall not regret this decision. I hope indeed that you speak the truth.”
Lord Taluvaz gave him a courteous smile.
The passage in which they walked was now intersected by another: a narrow tunnel that entered almost at right angles on their left and departed at a steeper bend from the right. The walls here were once more of masonry; they had left the depths. Harsan looked back to Morkudz for guidance but got only a dubious shrug in return.
They stopped to test the air. Simanuya again felt a breeze from in front of them; Tlayesha said that it came from the right-hand corridor. Itk t’Sa took the glassblower’s side, and Harsan was disposed to agree. The Pe Choi possessed a canny wisdom when it came to matters of location and direction.
They hesitated, debated, and stood irresolute while Taluvaz once more inspected the crumbling blocks of the wall. These were small, neatly laid, well mortared, and undamaged by water or time.
“Engsvanyali? Was not this city a provincial capital during the time of the Priestkings?’ ’ He dug a fingernail into the mortar. “If so, we are well above the Llyani regions.”
Morkudz whispered, “Something approaches from the left!” There was no place to hide except in the farther reaches of the darkness, no time to make a plan. Harsan, Tlayesha, Itk t’Sa, and Morkudz fled back down the corridor by which they had just come. Taluvaz, Mirure, and the glassblower scattered into the right-hand tunnel.
The Heheganu extinguished his light. They waited.
The darkness did not last long. Orange and amber lamplight sent shadows rocking out of the left-hand passage toward them. Voices sounded, the clatter of sandals, the sibilance of fabric, the squeak of leather.
Harsan tensed himself for one last confrontation with the minions of Lord Sarku. He would prefer to fight here. Should the foe win, they could only race blindly back down into the long tunnel to Vimuhla’s flaming crevasse. If he could not cross that, he would let it claim him as a sacrifice!
Somebody sang, “Ohe, maid of Jakalla, the garnet ring-stone cries envy of your lips, the onyx its jealousy of your eyes…!” The melody was a popular air, the voice deep and. rich but terribly off-key.
A small being raced out of the left-hand passage in a whirl of arms and legs. As Lord Thumis loved the Tetel — flower! It was a child!
Four people followed. They were labourers, lower-class, nondescript, ordinary human beings. Three wore cloaks, the fourth a mantle cut in distinctly feminine style.
Tlayesha gasped and would have rushed forward. She ran full tilt into Morkudz, who blocked her way. The Heheganu was a good handspan shorter than she, and both went down. For one wonderstruck second Harsan stood, too bemused to intervene. Itk t’Sa made as if to go around the two on the floor, but Morkudz shot out a hand to seize her plated tail. His expression warned Harsan that something was terribly amiss. Instead of helping Tlayesha up, Harsan crouched and put one hand over her mouth. He used the other to motion her to silence and then to clutch the Heheganu’s oddly doughy shoulder.
“What is it?”
“Look you,” Morkudz gasped. “Look at their legs-so thick, like columns. Look at their bodies: heavy and round. See how they all move in unison.”
Tlayesha struggled in his arms, but he kept his palm over her lips until she quieted.
“They are not what they seem. We call them Sramuthu — in my tongue it means ‘those who dwell together.’ They-they put on the seeming of those they meet, pretend to be friends or harmless persons, seduce them, lure them-”
“Why?”
“So that they may consume them. The beings of the underworlds require sustenance as you do. Their ways are not yours.”
“They have intelligence?” Itk t’Sa gently freed her tail from the Heheganu’s grasp.
“Yes. They are symbiotes, creatures who dwell amongst you, imitate you, use your habitations so that they themselves do not have to build. They live from your larder-and take some of you as food. My elders say that they dwelt in the cities of humankind since before your ancestors came to Tekumel, and they accompanied you all undetected when you came. They prefer the dark places of your great cities, where their disguises will not be questioned, where no one will ask…”
The four who might have been human were were moving away from them. The child pranced on before; they could hear its high, happy prattle. The singer broke off to whistle the song’s refrain.
Itk t’Sa stood up. “If they have wisdom enough to speak, then they are part of my seeking, my mission. Stay here. I will go and talk with them.” Her eyes glittered opalescent green.
“No!” Tlayesha pulled Harsan’s hand away.
“What else? We are already seen. Even now one has turned to look. I shall take care. But I must try; such is my undertaking as Speaker for my people. You know it, Harsan. If they are of the ‘Underpeople,’ if they have the intelligence to think, to converse, then they are not insensate monsters.”
“I-we-cannot let you-you must not!” Tlayesha pleaded. Itk t’Sa tou ched Harsan’s hand with one of her upper, smaller ones. He stood back.
To her this was noble action; to stop her would be ignoble. He presse d her hard chitinous fingers in return.
One of the labourers raised his lamp high, the child clutching his stumpy legs. “Ohe, there,” the full, deep voice called, “who are you?”
The Pe Choi glided forward, four hands empty and open at her sides. “We offer no harm. We seek an exit from this place.” “La, it’s a Pe Choi!” the female cried with all of the pleasure of a woman just intro duced to a new baby granddaughter.
There was a babble of genial voices. The child, a girl, came running back to stare up at Itk t’Sa’s bone-white features.
Harsan pulled Tlayesha up, stole forward with her until they reached the cross-tunnel on the right. Morkudz skulked behind.
Itk t’Sa drew abreast of the eldest male. The others surrounded her, their lamp held high. Someone said, “Exit? Ai, we can take you there-we go now to work in the distilleries. Easy to go out of the Splendid Paradise from there.”
“Your comrades, then,” one of the younger males questioned. “They would come too?”
“Yes, when they are satisfied that no harm will befall them.” Itk t’Sa paused. “Who are you people? How is it that you are here, below even the warrens of the Heheganu?”
The three males eyed one another uneasily. Their movements were stiff, like the actions of puppets, Harsan thought. He never would have noticed if it had not been for Morkudz’ warning. The female grinned vacuously at Itk t’Sa. The little girl went around behind the Pe Choi to gaze raptly at her segmented tail.
“I am told-I have heard-” Itk t’Sa obviously did not know where to begin. How does one accuse a party of simple tenement dwellers of being nonhumans?
“Yes? How can we help you?” The speaker addressed her as Tusmikru, “the You of Courteous Alienness,” as was polite and proper. This was difficult.
“Oh, look at her dear companions, Korush,” the female cried. “All bruised and dirty-lost down here, no doubt of it! Come, girl, and let me see,” she made a motherly gesture toward Tlayesha. “I have a spare shawl in my bag
