anything that looked like farms, but I knew what I had to do. I had to try my best to avert that horrible prospect of a subjugated Earth, and the place to do it was not here.
I turned to Pirraghiz. “You said Beert’s village was out there?”
“The nest of the formerly captive Horch is, yes.”
“All right. I’m as well as I need to be, and I want to see Beert. I’m going there now.”
She did not seem surprised, only thoughtful. “I do not know if he will be at the nest. He may have called from the base.”
“I’ll wait for him.”
“You do not know the way, Dannerman. You have never been there.”
“I’ll find it.”
“It is a long walk. I am not sure you are yet strong enough for that-“
I didn’t let her finish. “That’s my problem,” I said, but she finished anyway.
“-so I will carry you there myself.” And she did. Hoisted me up into the crook of one of her great arms, and trotted away.
PART FOUR
The Nest
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Dopey had always preferred being carried by a Doc to walking. I could see why. Pirraghiz held me comfortable and secure, and the ride, despite those elephant legs of hers, was rapid and just about jolt-free.
As we left the beaten path to cross over into Horch territory, she had to push her way through wet brush. Considerately she pushed the soggy branches away from me with one or another of her spare arms. Then, as we passed that invisible dividing line where weedy trees gave way to shrubs, we were in Horchland.
The difference between the two compounds was the difference between wilderness and civilization. Behind us was jungle. Ahead, neatly cultivated cropland. We came out onto a dirt road that bordered a couple of hectares of green stalks of grain, shoulder-high-I don’t mean Pirraghiz’s shoulder, of course. Between the rows two snaky heads popped up to stare at us in astonishment. Pirraghiz paid them no attention, but turned left on the road and loped along.
Although the road was dirt, it was smooth and almost rutless, even after the rain. Obviously the Horch were careful about keeping their place tidy. A kilometer or two ahead I could see something that looked like a huge, six- sided barn, but before we got there I heard a whirring noise from behind us. Pirraghiz didn’t bother to look behind. She just moved courteously over to one side, allowing a vehicle to shoot past us. It was a three-wheeled cart, a little like the one Beert had used when he rescued me from the interrogation chambers. That one had had a motor, though; this one was pedal-driven by its occupant-one of the Horch who had gawked at us from the cropland, I supposed. He lay flat on his back, feet pumping at the pedals as fast as he could, while his neck swayed back and forth between staring at us and watching the road ahead.
As we got closer to the barnlike structure I could see that it was a kind of wickerwork tenement, four or five stories tall, with porches jutting out at every level. Some of the porches were enclosed in coarse screens, others open to the sky. I could see figures on some of them, perhaps taking the air. The whole thing looked like something some tribe of aborigines might have built for themselves out of willow withes and bamboo, in the days before the European colonizers came along with their whiskey, guns, row houses and syphilis.
It was the biggest structure in sight, but it wasn’t the only one. I began to see sheds nearby, and a couple of peculiar trees, all circled by little clusters of flowering bushes for decoration. The trees were branchless until near the top, where they spread out in a crown like royal palms. The most peculiar thing about the trees was that they were all bent at a sharp angle from the ground up, and all at the same angle. There was something that looked like a wicker band shell-people were moving around it-and, as we moved toward one side, behind the main building a smaller structure appeared of a wholly other kind. This one wasn’t wicker. It was made of the same glossy ceramic stuff as my former cell, though this was pinkish in color. A pair of the Horch Christmas trees were industriously unloading some sort of equipment to take inside it.
I wasn’t pleased to see them there, but Pirraghiz paid them no attention. She set me down carefully. “Wait, Dannerman. I will see if Djabeertapritch is here.”
She left me standing in a plot of damp, spiky grass; I suppose the Horch equivalent of a front lawn. There were low wicker benches scattered around-unoccupied- and a few smaller trees with buttercup-yellow blossoms. Although the robots weren’t paying any attention to me, I was uncomfortable in their presence. I walked a little way around the great house to get out of their sight. When I looked up the woven-sapling side of the building, I discovered that someone was looking back at me. Three or four of those snaky heads were peering over the side of one of the porches. I waved, but the only response I got from them was to pull hastily back, some completely out of sight, one still staring at me with just the nose and eyes showing.
As long as I was here, I told myself, I should be keeping my eyes open for the kind of information the Bureau would want to hear when (I didn’t let myself say “if”) I got back. The trouble was, there didn’t seem to be very much sensitive information lying around.
So I made do with what was available. To start, I heard shrill soprano singing coming from nearby. It was that band-shell thing, and it seemed to be functioning as a kind of Horch kindergarten. Eight or ten tiny Horch infants danced around as they sang, waving their sinuous arms and necks more or less gracefully. The two littlest ones weren’t dancing. They lay on their backs in tiny wicker baskets, looking like some kind of musical calamari as they waved their limbs and piped along with the others. There was one adult with them to conduct the performance. By the swellings under her jumpsuit I judged she was female.
She moved quickly to interpose herself between me and her charges, thrusting her head toward me suspiciously. “What are you?” she demanded.
That wasn’t an easy question to answer. Before I had figured out how to describe myself, she gave the neck- twist that was like a human nod. “Yes, now I remember. You are Djabeertapritch’s new pet.”
