to examine the work. Ornate golden leaves spiraled down her arms from her shoulders to terminate in patterns of fruit upon the backs of her hands. Perhaps overly ornate, but suitable for this important meeting. She signed satisfaction and approval: the crewmember returned extreme gratitude.
“This is excellent, gentle of touch, fine in design,” Vainte said.
“It is my pleasure to do anything to assist the Salvationer.”
Vainte was hearing the term more and more these days. At first it had been expressed as she-who-aids-us, but had been gradually changed into she-who-saves-us. This is what the Yilane of Ikhalmenets thought and what they said. They had no doubts, cared nothing for the fargi who had died that they might live. They could see the snow ever lower on the mountain peak, could feel the cold breath of endless winter drawing even closer. The eistaa must certainly share these feelings to some degree.
Vainte was beside the uruketo’s commander, on the summit of the fin, when they swam into the harbor of Ikhalmenets . With ponderous grace the great creature passed the row of other uruketo to reach its own place beside the docks. The enteesenat tore ahead in a torrent of foam seeking their reward. A small wave slapped off the wooden dockside, washing across the uruketo’s back, then it was close and secured. Vainte looked down into the fin and signed to a crewmember in the uruketo below.
“High-ranked Akotolp, presence desired.”
Vainte glared out at the barren dockside and hid her displeasure in immobility while she waited for the scientist. The Eistaa was aware that Vainte was returning. She had sent for Vainte and knew that she was aboard this uruketo. Yet none awaited her on the dock, no one of rank to receive her. If not an insult it was surely a warning. One that Vainte did not need. Lanefenuu had made no secret of her feelings about the way the conflict with the ustuzou was going. There was much wheezing and panting from below, heard well before Akotolp appeared.
“Such a climb,” the fat scientist complained. “Travel by uruketo discomfort making.”
“You will go with me to the eistaa?”
“With pleasure, strong Vainte. To give what aid and support that I can.” She rolled one eye to the commander, saw her back turned as she supervised the docking, before she spoke again. “Take strength from the knowledge that you have only done as you were ordered. Never did fargi or Yilane ever err by following orders.”
Vainte expressed gratitude-for-understanding, then added, “I wish it were that easy, good Akotolp. But I command the forces so must take responsibility for any failures. Come.”
That they were expected was obvious when they reached the ambesed. The Eistaa was there, sitting in her place of honor with her advisers grouped behind her. But the great open space was empty, the sandy floor smoothed and patterned. When they walked across it toward Lanefenuu they left a double row of footprints. Lanefenuu sat upright and immobile as they approached. Only when they had stopped before her and signed loyalty and attention did she turn and fix Vainte with a cold gaze.
“There has been failure and death, Vainte, failure and death.”
Vainte shaped her limbs into respect to superiority as she spoke. “Death, agreed, Eistaa. Good Yilane have died. But there has been no failure. The attack continues.”
Lanefenuu angered at once. “You do not call the destruction of an entire force a failure?”
“I do not. In this world it is eat or be eaten, Eistaa, you of all Yilane know that. We have been bitten by the ustuzou — but we live on to consume them alive. I told you that they were a dangerous enemy and I never said that there would not be losses.”
“You indeed told me that. But you neglected then to put a number to the Yilane corpses, to give me a count of the tarakast and uruktop dead. I am very displeased, Vainte.”
“I bow before your wrath, strong Lanefenuu. Everything that you say is correct. I neglected to give you a number for those who will die. I give it to you now, Eistaa.”
Vainte threw her arms wide in the gesture of totality, speaking the name of this great city.
“Ikhalmenets will die, all will die, this will be a city of death. You are doomed.”
Lanefenuu’s advisers wailed in agony at the terror of her speech, followed her pointing finger to the great mountain, the extinct volcano that soared above the island, seeing but not wanting to see the snow that glistened there.
“Winter is coming, Eistaa, winter without end. Each winter the snow is lower on the mountain. One day soon it will reach this city and never melt again. All who remain here will die.”
“You speak above yourself,” Lanefenuu cried out, jumping to her feet with a gesture of great anger.
“I speak only the truth, great Lanefenuu, Eistaa of Ikhalmenets, leader of her Yilane. Death comes. Ikhalmenets must go to the land of Gendasi before that disaster happens. I labor only to save this city. Like you I sorrow at the death of our sisters and our beasts. But some must fall so that all may live.”
“Why? We have Alpeasak. Your reports tell me that it grows well and soon Ikhalmenets will be able to go to Alpeasak. If that is so — what need for all these deaths?”
“The need is to destroy the ustuzou. There must be a final solution to their threat. As long as they live they are a danger. You will remember that once they destroyed and occupied Alpeasak. That must never happen again.”
Anger still shaped Lanefenuu’s body. Yet she carefully considered what Vainte had said before she spoke. Akotolp took advantage of the momentary silence to step forward.
“Great Lanefenuu, Eistaa of sea-girt Ikhalmenets, may I speak to you of what has been accomplished, what still remains to be done to bring Ikhalmenets to Entoban*?”
Lanefenuu grew angry at the interruption, then stilled her feelings as she realized that anger would accomplish nothing this day. Vainte did not tremble with fear before her as the others did — nor did this fat Yilane of science. She sat back and signed Akotolp to speak.
“There are only so many ways for an animal to attack, for a disease to kill. After each infection a good scientist determines the cause and finds the remedy. Once used, any particular attack on us will never succeed again. The ustuzou burnt our city — so now we grow cities that cannot be burned. The ustuzou attacked us at night in the concealment of darkness. Strong lights now reveal them, our darts and vines kill them.”
Lanefenuu rejected past successes with a gesture of disdain. “It is not a history lesson that I need but a victory.”
“You will have that, Eistaa, for it is inevitable. Attack and flee, bite and run is the bestial ustuzou way. Slow growth, inevitable success is the Yilane.”
“Too slow!”
“Fast enough with victory inevitable.”
“I see no victories in the deaths of my Yilane.”
“We learn. It will not happen again.”
“What have you learned? I know only that surrounded by impassable defenses they died, all of them.”
Akotolp signed agreement — but added strength-of-intelligence as well. “Stupid fargi may panic and run and talk of ustuzou of invisibility. That is the talk of ignorance. Science holds no secrets that cannot be unearthed through diligence and application. What an ustuzou can do, I can fathom. I made an examination, then used trained beasts with keen noses to track the ustuzou. I found where they had approached the laager, discovered the route they had used when they left.”
The Eistaa was intrigued and paying close attention, her anger forgotten for the moment. Vainte knew just what Akotolp was doing and was grateful.
“You found how they came, how they left,” Lanefenuu said. “But how did they attack and kill — did you discover that?”
“Of course, Eistaa, for bestial ustuzou must always fall before Yilane science. The ustuzou observed that our forces always made laager in the same places. So, before the attacking force arrived, they burrowed like the animals they are into the ground and lay in wait. How simple. They did not come to us — we went to them. During the darkness of night they burst out and killed.”
Lanefenuu was astonished. “They did that? They have that intelligence? So simple — yet so deadly.”
“They have a bestial intelligence that we must never underestimate. Nor will this manner of attack ever succeed again. Our forces will stop at night in different locations. They will have creatures with them to smell out and discover hidden enemy, hidden entrances and burrows.”
