?Do you still want to come with us??
?Of course.?
I smiled, liking him. It seemed I couldn?t help liking the people I seduced. Even Santos. ?You?ll go to Mars, won?t you??
?Yes.? He paused. ?Yes, I think so. I might not if you were looking for mates. I wish you were.?
?Thank you,? I said. ?If you change your mind, I can help you find Oankali or construct mates.?
?Like you??
?Your ooloi would be Oankali.?
He shook his head. ?Mars, then. With my fertility restored.?
?Absolutely.?
?Where shall I meet you once you?ve gotten TomAs and Jesusa out??
?Follow the trail downriver. Come as quickly as you can, but come carefully. If you can?t get away, remember that my people will be coming here soon anyway. They won?t hurt you, and they will send you to Mars if you still want to go.?
?I?d rather leave with you.?
?You?re welcome to come with us. Just don?t get killed trying to do it. You?re much older than I am. You?re supposed to have learned patience.?
He laughed without humor. ?I haven?t learned it, little ooloi. I probably never will. Watch for me on the river trail.?
He left us, and I sat repairing Santos until it was time for me to go. I left him with a fairly good sense of smell.
?Don?t make trouble,? I told him. ?Use that good mind of yours to help these people get away.?
?Francisco wouldn?t have minded what you?re doing to us,? he said. ?I figured it out, and I don?t mind.?
?I?ll do experiments when my mates? lives are not at stake. Until we?re away from this place, Santos, try to be quiet unless you have something useful to say.?
I went into the cabin and told Aaor I was leaving.
It left its mates and the meal it had been eating. It had used more energy than I had in healing the Humans. It probably needed food.
Now it settled all four of its arms around me and linked. ?I will come back if you don?t follow us,? it said silently.
?I?ll follow. Francisco is going to help me?if necessary.?
?I know. I heard. And I still inherit Santos.?
?Use his mind and push his body hard. This trip should do that. You should start down now, too.?
?All right.?
I left it and headed down the mountain, using the path when it was convenient, and ignoring it otherwise. The Humans with Aaor would find it dark and would have to be careful. For me it was well lit with the heat of all the growing plants. I had to climb down past the flattened ridge on which the village had been built. I had to travel along the broad, flat part of the ridge below the level of sight of any guard watching from the village. I had to come up where terraces filled with growing things would conceal me for as long as possible.
9
We meant to leave late that night?Aaor with the Humans down their back-and-forth pathway, then down terraces and a neglected, steep, overgrown path to the canyon floor. I meant to go down the other side of the mountain and work my way around as close as possible to the place where Jesusa and TomAs were being held.
It would have worked. The mountain village would be free of us and able to continue in isolation until Nikanj sent a shuttle to gas it and collect the people.
But that afternoon a party of armed males came up the trail to the stone cabin.
We heard them, smelled their sweat and their gunpowder long before we saw them. There was no time for Aaor to change Javier and Paz, give them back the deformities it had taken from them.
?Were their faces distorted?? I asked Aaor.
It nodded. ?Small tumors. Very visible.?
And nowhere to hide. We could climb up to Santos?s cave, but what good would that do? If villagers found no one in the cabin, they would be bound to check the cave. If we began to climb down the other side of the mountain, we could be picked off. There was nothing to do but wait.
?Four of them?? I asked Aaor.
?I smell four.?
?We let them in and we sting them.?
?I?ve never stung anyone.?
I glanced toward its mates. ?Didn?t you make at least one of them unconscious last night??
