I glared at him. “They’ve been saying I stink for the better part of fifteen years!”
“They say it because we say it. If the hay is moldy, we say it stinks. The Frossians think it means rotten, evil, malign. They can see in the infrared, but they have no sense of smell. Ghoss do, however. Umoxen do, and the Gibbekot don’t want to hurt Ghoss or umoxen.”
I thought about this. “Is this tree natural? Or was it genetically created by the Gibbekot?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Because poisons and thorns and other defenses usually evolve against a particular life-form. The Frossians aren’t native here, so it wasn’t against them. What kind of thing threatened these trees to make them develop this defense?”
Rei said over his shoulder, “The Gibbekot got them from the world where the Frossian queens live. It’s the only world that’s truly Frossian, the great hatchery from which they all come, and there are deep valleys there full of trees that had already evolved defenses. The Gibbekot just sent for them.”
“The Gibbekot are spacefaring?” I asked in amazement. “You never said they were spacefaring.”
“I still haven’t. I said sent, not went. Now hush. You’re making too much noise. That aircar may be carrying listening devices, and we need to keep our eyes and ears open.”
To me, whatever path we followed was indistinguishable from any other way among the trees. The forest floor was covered with a thick blanket of leaves, needles, mosses, all held together by the wiry stems of ubiquitous creeper that grew only a finger’s width high but unendingly wide. When I turned to look back, the way we had come, I couldn’t see a footprint anywhere. The creeper simply flattened beneath our feet and sprang back once we had passed.
I whispered, “How are you finding your way?”
“Ghossways,” came the reply. “Now hush.”
I hushed. We heard the aircar behind us, in the direction of the lake, I thought. It came a little closer, then turned back the way it had come. We walked for an hour or more, then began to climb as the floor of the valley climbed. By this time, evening had come, all aircar sounds had ceased, and the darkness beneath the trees had increased enough that I was eager to emerge from the gloom. Within a few hundred yards, we came from the shadow into the red light of sunset, the sky scattered with clouds ranging from gold to crimson to violet-gray. Before emerging, we scanned the sky carefully to be sure it was empty. When we were sure, we climbed a slanting ledge to an outcropping of stone that jutted from the hilltop, a narrow slot in it leading to another small, sheltered cave.
“How many of these places are there?” I asked.
“Enough to hide us, whatever direction we go. Tonight we stop here,” said Rei, gesturing to include sandy floor, smooth walls, a store of firewood stacked high against one wall, a water jar, sacks of food. “They know we’re here. When they’re ready, they’ll send for us.”
“And until then?” I asked.
“We can build a fire, heat some food, talk about the weather, read a book—I brought one for you…”
“A book,” I breathed. “I haven’t read anything for…”
“I know,” he said. “I brought you a book written by a Gibbekot. We’ll read it together, and that will give you a taste of their language.”
I warmed myself at the fire, ate the food Rei provided, drank the tea he gave me, something new, something with an oddly attractive taste. I started to look at the book, a simple collection of words, one to a page, but was too sleepy to go on. Yawning, I curled up beside the fire.
I was not asleep. It felt like a dream while asleep, but I knew it wasn’t a dream. Rei watched me. When I was totally relaxed, he reached out to shake me. I tried to speak, couldn’t speak, tried to move, couldn’t move. I should have been afraid, but I wasn’t. It was peaceful where I was, a firelit bubble of complete tranquillity.
“She’s sleeping,” he called.
The two beings who materialized at the entrance to the cave spoke to Rei with soft voices as they carefully unwrapped something they had brought with them. Rei turned me onto my stomach and applied whatever it was gently to the base of my skull. I felt something there, a kind of creepiness, as of something settling into place.
“How long will she be like that?” asked Rei.
One of the beings said, “Until it’s completely absorbed. It grows up under the skull in back, very thin, very flat. Then it has to connect to the rest of the brain, and that takes a while.”
The other said, “It takes a good while, actually. It could take as long as a season…”
“She’ll go on sleeping all that time?” asked Rei, with a furtive look at the stack of supplies.
“Yes. She’s profoundly asleep, though a dream state sometimes occurs, and she may be aware this is happening. Don’t worry about the process, it’s always successful. All her body functions are slowed down, as though she were hibernating. She won’t need to eat or drink. Just send an emanation if you need more supplies, and someone will bring them. Keep her warm.”
“We’ll be safe here?”
“Completely,” said the larger one, with a lick at his fangs and a twist of his furry ears. “You may depend upon it. When she wakes, there will be a period of confusion. Just ease her through it, and don’t forget to read her the book.”
“But she already knows her language.”
“She doesn’t know ours,” said a visitor, departing.
Rei took the book from my hand and put it safely with our packs before covering me with a blanket. I remember thinking how thoughtful they had been, but then, they had known we would be coming.
I Am Wilvia/on Hell
On Shore, which is what the water people call their world, little towns have been built all up
