meaning, approximately, “folk,” and “Ruadrath” had originally referred
to a class of nocturnal supernatural beings in a Merseian
mythology–“elves.”
The forested plain gave way to ever steeper foothills. The shadowless
gray light made contours hard to judge, but Flandry could see how the
Golden ran here through a series of deep canyons. “Those are full to the
brim when the glaciers melt,” Cnif said. “But we’ve since had so much
evaporation that the level is well down; and we’ll soon stop getting
rain, it’ll become first fog, later snow and hail. We are at the end of
the summer.”
Flandry reviewed what he had read and heard at the base. Talwin went
about Siekh in an eccentric ellipse which, of course, had the sun at one
focus. You could define summer arbitrarily as follows: Draw a line
through that focus, normal to the major axis, intersecting the curve at
two points. Then summer was the six-month period during which Talwin
passed from one of those points, through periastron, to the other end of
the line segment. Fall was the six weeks or so which it took to get from
the latter point to the nearest intersection of the minor axis with the
ellipse. Winter occupied the fifteen months wherein Talwin swung out to
its remotest distance and back again to the opposite minor-axis
intersection. Thereafter spring took another six weeks, until the point
was reached again which defined the beginning of summer.
In practice, things were nowhere near that simple. There were three
degrees of axial tilt; there were climatic zones; there were
topographical vibrations; above all, there was the thermal inertia of
soil, rock, air, and water. Seasons lagged planetary positions by an
amount depending on where you were and on any number of other factors,
not every one of which the Merseians had unraveled. Nonetheless, once
weather started to change, it changed with astonishing speed. Cnif had
spoken in practical rather than theoretical terms.
Vague through haze, the awesome peaks of the Hell-kettle Mountains came
to view beyond their foothills. Several plumes of smoke drifted into
gloomy heaven. An isolated titan stood closer, lifting scarred black
flanks in cliffs and talus slopes and grotesquely congealed lava beds,
up to a cone that was quiet now but only for now. “Mt. Thunderbelow.”
The bus banked left and descended on a long slant, above a tributary of
the Golden. Vapors roiled white on those waters. “The Neverfreeze River.
Almost all streams, even the biggest, go stiff in winter; but this is
fed by hot springs, that draw their energy from the volcanic depths.
That’s why the Ruadrath–of Wirrda’s, I mean–have prospered so well in
these parts. Aquatic life remains active and furnishes a large part of
their food.”
Fuming rapids dashed off a plateau. In the distance, forest gave way to
sulfur beds, geysers, and steaming pools. The bus halted near the
plateau edge. Flandry spied a clearing and what appeared to be a
village, though seeing was poor through the tall trees. While the bus
hovered, the expedition chief spoke through its outercom. “We’ve
distributed miniature transceivers,” Cnif explained to Flandry. “It’s
best to ask leave before landing. Not that we have anything to fear from
them, but we don’t want to make them shy. We lean backwards. Why … do
you know, a few years past, a newcomer to our group blundered into a
hibernation den before the males were awake. He thought they would be,
but they weren’t; that was an especially cold spring. Two of them were
aroused. They tore him to shreds. And we refrained from punishment. They
weren’t really conscious; instinct was ruling them.”
His tone–insofar as a human could interpret–was not unkindly but did
imply: Poor animals, they aren’t capable of behaving better. You
gatortails get a lot of dynamism out of taking for granted you’re the
natural future lords of the galaxy, the man thought, but your attitude
has its disadvantages. Not that you deliberately antagonize any other
races, provided they give you no trouble. But you don’t use their
talents as fully as you might. Ydwyr seems to understand this. He
mentioned that I could be valuable as a non-Merseian–which suggests
he’d like to have team members from among the Eoidhunate’s client