He could not search the lairs— Why had he not thought straight? Furtig hunkered down on the ground, began to use his own talent.
Liliha! It was like looking into her face and she—she felt his questioning—understood! Foskatt— Furtig began again—but perhaps they were too far separated. He hoped that was the answer when he could not raise the other.
Morning came and they stood on the edge of the site where the sky-ship pointed up and out. Foskatt and the other scout were still missing. They were all there but one—and without that one—
“He was very old.” Ayana’s eyes held a tiredness in them as if she needed to rest a long, long time. “And he was weaker than he let you know. He must have been. When the explosion came”—she raised her hand and let it fall with a small fluttering gesture as if she tried their sign language—“then he went.”
Gammage, the Ancestor, the one who had always been—a living legend. A world without Gammage? But now Ayana spoke again.
“In a way he was wrong. He wanted you to be stronger, more intelligent with every generation. He wanted you to, as he thought, be like us. So he sought out our knowledge for you. He did it, wanting the best for his people. But in a way he gave them the worst. He wanted you to have all we once had but that was not the answer. You know what happened here to us. Our knowledge killed, or drove us out. You have your ways, learn through them. It will be slower, longer, harder, but do it. Do not try to change what lies about you; learn to live within its pattern, be a true part of it. I do not know if you understand me. But do not follow us into the same errors.
“One thing Gammage did for you which is right and which you must save more than you save any-thing you have taken from the lairs: He taught you that against a common enemy you can speak with Barkers under a truce flag, gather and unite tribes and clans. Remember that above all else, for if he had only done that much, Gammage would be the greatest of your race.
“But do not try to live as we. Learn by your own mistakes, not ours. This world is now yours.”
“And the Demons?” Dolor growled into the interpreter. He moved very slowly, as if with Gammage’s death some of the other’s great age had also settled upon him.
“We shall not come again. This is no longer our world. We have found in the lairs the knowledge which will perhaps save us on our new home. And our people will accept that, after hearing what we have to say. Or if they do not accept—“ She looked over their heads to the lairs. “Be sure in my promise—we shall not come again!”
Even, she thought, if we have to—to make sure that the ship does not return to Elhorn. This promise must be kept. She did not look back to the People as she drew herself wearily up the ramp. If matters had been different, if the old madness had not gripped them—(Tan—resolutely she closed her mind to that. But if the madness had not struck in the beginning perhaps the People would not have existed either. Did ill balance good somehow? Now she was too tired, too drained to think.
Those on the field scattered back to the lairs. There were warriors questing about the ruins, hunting signs of Rattona, but so far none had been sighted. They had, though, brought back a dazed Foskatt, who had been struck on the head and was now closely tended by Eu-La. The other scout was still being sought.
Furtig and Liliha stood together, watching fire sprout around the sky-ship. They hid their eyes then against the glare as it rose, pointing out. The Demon had promised—no return.
But the other things she had said—that Gammage had been wrong, that they must find their own kind of knowledge— How much of that was truth? They would have time now to discover.
“They have gone,” Liliha said. “To the stars—where someday, warrior, we shall follow. But before then, there is much to be done—even if we are no longer Gammage’s people.”
He would follow her willingly, even back into the lairs. Furtig had a feeling that henceforth wherever Liliha light-footedly trod he would follow. No—not follow—for she was waiting for him to walk beside her. He purred softly, and his tail tip curved up in warm content.