I will give my word,she said.
To be where I am?
Yes.
Even if that is not here?
Not here? Where would He be, if not here? She waited for explanation and got none. Something told her she would receive none. If she could only see His face. See His expression …We see one another,He told her. We foxen.
She flushed. Of course they saw one another, in their intimacy. As she could have seen them if she had let go of herself and joined them. As humans stripped away their day-to-day habiliments to come to their lovers naked, so foxen stripped away concealing illusion to perceive the reality…
But she could not see Him now. If she accepted this condition, it would have to be blindly, like a ritual, like a marriage ceremony, swearing to forsake all others for this one, this enigma, with no more certainty than there had been before. Swearing to give up her central self for something else. She shivered. Oh, perilous. Take it or leave it.
How could she? This is what Rigo had wanted, too, and she had tried, over and over, but could not. Because she had not known him, had not trusted him … Did she trust this one?
He had known where to find her. He had committed Himself and His people to saving her and her people. What else could He have done to be trustworthy? What else would she have him do?
She sighed, choking on the words, committing herself forever. “Yes. I promise.”
He showed her then why and how the Arbai had died. Why men were dying.
When she understood, she leaned against Him, her mind whirling in a disorderly ferment of ideas, things she had heard, connections she had made. He did not interrupt her. At last things began to fall into place. She only partially understood, and yet the answer was there, close, like a treasure sparkling in a flowing stream, disclosing itself.
There is something you must get for me,she said. Then I must go through these tunnels into town….
Marjorie came into the cavern where Lees Bergrem was huddled over a desk. For a time she stood in the corner, unseen, putting her thoughts together. Lees looked up, aware of being observed.
“Marjorie?” she asked. “I thought you were at the Port Hotel! I thought the Hippae had you trapped!”
“There’s at least one tunnel under the wall. I came back through it,” she said. “I had to talk to you “
“No time,” the other said, turning back to her work. “No time to talk about anything.”
“A cure,” she said. “I think I know.”
The doctor turned burning eyes. “Know? Just like that, you know?”
“Know something important,” she said. “Two important things, really. Yes. Just like that.”
“Tell me.”
“First important thing: The Hippae killed the Arbai by kicking dead bats through their transporters. We don’t have transporters, so the Hippae have been killing us by putting dead bats on our ships.”
“Dead bats!” She pursed her lips, concentrating. “The bon Damfels man said that was symbolic behavior!”
“Oh, yes. It is symbolic. The problem is that we thought of it as purely symbolic. We should have remembered that symbols are often distillations of reality—that flags were once banners flown during battle. That a crucifix was once a real device for execution. Both are symbols of something that is or was once real.”
“Real what?” Lees sat down, glaring at Marjorie. “Bats are real what?”
Marjorie rubbed her head, ruefully. “Real pains in the neck, originally. Real vermin. The Hippae kick dead ones at one another. I’ve seen them do it.”
“We know that! Sylvan bon Damfels said it meant ‘You’re nothing but vermin.’”
“Yes. Originally, it would have meant ‘You’re nothing but vermin.’ That’s what it meant when the Hippae kicked dead bats at the Arbai, too. On Terra there were once animals that threw feces at strangers. The Hippae despise strangers. They think of all other creatures either as useful tools, like the migerers or the Huntsmen, or as things to be despised and, if possible, killed. The Arbai fell into that category, so the Hippae kicked dead bats at them, and at their houses, and at their transporter. It was pure chance that a bat happened to go through the transporter to somewhere else. At this end, it was only symbolic. At the other end, it meant plague. Death.”