“you can see their eyespots.”
The irruption of the rotifers decided the girl. The motion-
less wooden monster was of course strange to her, but it had
not yet menaced herand she must have known what it
would be like to have three Dicrans over her, each trying to
grab from the others the largest share. She threw herself to-
wards the bull’seye port. The three Eaters screamed with fury
and greed and bored in after her.
She probably would not have made it, had not the dull vi-
sion of the lead Dicran made out the wooden shape of the
ship at the last instant. The Dicran backed off, buzzing, and
the other two sheered away to avoid colliding with her. After
that they had another argument, though they could hardly
have formulated what it was that they were fighting .about;
they were incapable of exchanging any thought much more
complicated than the equivalent of “Yaah,” “Drop dead,”
and “You’re another.”
While they were still snarling at each other, Lavon pierced
the nearest one aU the way through with an arablast bolt.
The surviving two were at once involved in a lethal battle
over the remains.
“Than, take a party out and spear me those two Eaters
while they’re still fighting,” Lavon ordered. “Don’t forget to
destroy their eggs, too. I can see that this world needs a little
taming.”
The girl shot through the port and brought up against the
far wall of the cabin, flailing in terror. Lavon tried to approach
her, but from somewhere she produced a flake of stonewort
chipped to a nasty point. Since she was naked, it was hard to