quite enough; but couple it with brains, andecce homo!”
Honath’s head was swimming. “But what does all this
mean?” he said. “Are wenot condemned to Hell any more?”
“No, you’re still condemned, if you still want to call it
that,” Jari Eleven said soberly. “You’ve learned how to live
down there, and you’ve found out something even more val-
uable: How to stay alive while cutting down your enemies.
Do you know that you killed three demons with your bare
hands, you and Mathild and Alaskon?”
“Killed”
“Certainly,” Jari Eleven said. “You ate three eggs. That
is the classical way, and indeed the only way, to wipe out
monsters like the dinosaurs. You can’t kill the adults with
~iitpthing short of an anti-tank gun, but they’re helpless in
embryoand the adults haven’t the sense to guard their
nests. ‘”~’
Honath heard, but only distantly. Even his awareness of
Mathild’s warmth next to him did not seem to help much.
“Then we have to go back down there,” he said dully. “And
this time forever.”
“Yes,” Jari Eleven said, his voice gentle. “But you won’t be
alone, Honath. Beginning tomorrow, you’ll have all your
people with you.”
“All our people? Butyou’re going to drive them out?”
“All of them. Oh, we won’t prohibit the use of the vine-
webs, too, but from now on your race will have to fight it out
on the surface as well. You and Mathild have proven that it
can be done. It’s high time the rest of you learned, too.”
“Jari, you think too little of these young people themselves,”
Adier said. “Tell them what is in store for them. They are