tl-iin features.
“It’s delicious!” be called to his companions. “Try some.’
“No, thanks,” said Trevelyan. “Leave unanalyzed stuff
alone. Even if it doesn’t bit you right away, it might have
slow-working eff ects.”
They came out in an open meadow. Trevelyan shot an animal, a small quadruped. Its green color proved to
be due to algae living in its fur.
“Hey!” yelled Sean. “Hey, look over here!”
Trevelyan followed him to the tree on the pasture’s edao. It was a graceful thing, not unlike a poplar, swaying and whispering in the wind. But the leaves had prominent veins and-
And they would glow in the dark, Trevelyan knew. This was one of the species reported by Survey, the same lifefon-ns impossibly scattered over half a dozen worlds. And the pieces of the puzzle fell together.
“It’s a torch tree!” exclaimed Sean. “A torch tree just
like on Rendezvous-”
“X,” whspered Nicki. “X has been on our planet, too.
Her hand stole to her giin.
Their wrist radios shattered stillness with a jagged urgency: “Attention, all parties! Attentionl This is Kogama at
the boat. Natives approaching!”
Trevelyan lifted his eyes to Ilaloa. He did not see victory on her face. It was more like a sudden grief. “Yes,” she said.
“They’re humanoid all the way down the line.” Kogama I s voice rattled above the talking forest. “White skins, bluishwhite hair, males, beardless-au naked and weaponless,
coming slowly out of the woods-Nof’ It was almost a scream. “They can’t be! Attention, all parties, attentionl These are-”
Kogama’s voice faded in a gasp, and then there was silence.
Trevelyan’s hand rested on the butt of Ms gun, but he didn’t draw. “What was done, llaloa?” be asked, very q@etly,
“A sleep gas blown down the wind.” Her voice was small and toneless. “They are not hurt, only sleepiny.”
“Ilaloa-” Sean started forward, his gun half out. “Ilaloa-”
The natives stood before them, a few meters away on the edge of the meadow. They must have trailed us without our knowin,-, thought Trevelyan. He looked them up and down, the superb naked forms of half a dozen men, white as marble statues come to life. Their silver hair streamed in the wind, past the cleanly chiseled faces of Hellenic gods, tossing over broad shoulders. One of them carried a thing like a big gray egg, a few metallic insect forms hovering about it.
“Stand back!” Sean bad his gun free now, pointed shakingly at the strangers. His cry was animal. “Back or I’ll shoot!”
A slow smile curved the lips of the men. The one with the egg spoke in human Basic, accented but fluent, like music from his throat: “If I tell the dwellers in this nest to sting you to death, they will do so. Or if I drop the nest, they will. Put down your weapon and listen.”
Nicki raised an arrogant head. “We’ll fill you with holes
first.”
“You do not understands Ilaloa stepped in front of the bumans. “Your kind is sundered from life, and bears within it the fear of death and the longing for death. We have neither. Throw down your guns.”
Trevelyan sighed. At this moment, he felt only a colossal weariness. “Go ahead, do it,” be ordered. “Our getting killed wouldn’t help matters any, nor do we know how many
more of-these-there, are watching us. Put donvn your weapons, Sean, Nick-i.” He dropped his own into the grass.
The stranger who bore the egg of death nodded. “That is well.”
CHAPTER XVI
Captives of the Great Cros s
ODDLY, IT WAS on Ilaloa that Trevelyan’s gaze rested. The pride bad fallen from her like a dropped cloak, and she took a step toward Sean with her hands held out to him .
The Nomad turned, malting a sound like a strangled sob. He went to Nicki as if she were b,-s mother, and she, held him close. Ilaloa stood for a small moment watching them, Then she slipped into the forest and was lost.
She still has that intuition of the rigl-tt thiitg to do, thought Trevelyan. Now i@, ‘t the time for her.
Slowly, he faced around to the tall being who had spoken. That one was carefully setting the gray nest into a tree crotch. His hands free, the captor s-niled again. It m@ ade his face a warm dazzle. “Welcome.”