Sundown neared. Ellin gaped with weariness; Mouche slumped; Madame, impossibly erect and Eiger eyed, continued her slow accumulation of data, as did Simon. Calvy and Bao gave up for a time to take a nap in a cave. D’Jevier and Onsofruct worked methodically, occasionally rising to take a few steps, roll their heads about and wave their arms, restoring circulation. Bao returned from his nap and bantered with Ornery and with the last few Timmys who were translating for the Joggiwagga and the Eigers.
“Is your IDIOT SAVANT coming up with anything?” Calvy asked.
“Not so far,” Questioner admitted. Actually, a three-dimensional moving construct of the supposed dance had emerged, but it meant nothing to her at all.
During all of this, the ground shivered and subsided, shivered and subsided. They were all overcome with weariness, cold, and hunger by the time the last few interviews were concluded.
Evening brought dark and a chilly wind accompanied by stronger tremors, wave after wave, like a rising surf that brought falling rocks and a hail of gravel. Corojum told them to take refuge in a nearby cave, where the Timmys brought firewood and cooked up roots and greens, producing the same savory smells that had delighted Mouche at House Genevois.
D’Jevier and Onsofruct sat a little apart from the others. D’Jevier murmured, “Where’s the green-haired one? The one that enchanted Mouche.”
“I haven’t seen it. And why do you care. What is it with you and this Mouche?”
D’Jevier flushed and did not answer.
“You’ve been going to House Genevois!” said Onsofruct, in whispered outrage. “You’ve been … “
D’Jevier shrugged. “Someone has to play the part of patroness during their training. It’s our system. We’re responsible for it.”
“At your age!”
“I’m not dead yet, Onsy. And I like Mouche. Sometimes, talking with him—and mostly we just talked—you’d swear there was a sage inside that young head. Something’s affected him strangely and wonderfully, and I don’t think it was Madame, or not entirely, at any rate. What that other boy did to his face was inexcusable.”
“Spoiled it for you?” sniped Onsofruct.
“No,” snapped D’Jevier. “Nothing could.”
Onsofruct merely shook her head, more annoyed than amused. D’Jevier was younger than she, but not that much younger. If anyone was entitled to a little fun, it should be she! She said as much.
D’Jevier responded, “Well, cousin, the pleasures are there. Do not blame me if you would rather feel hard-used than enjoy them.”
When they had eaten, Questioner summoned them all together, including the Corojum.
“Corojum,” she said in a measured, respectful voice, “during our questioning of the Timmys, they have spoken of fitting together. Please tell us how the Timmys can join together.”
“Not so well, now that they are shaped like mankinds,” he said, as though puzzled. “All Kaorugi’s parts have seams that open and join together, seam to seam. Some are like tunnelers, end to end, or like Joggiwagga, making a circle around a middle piece. Timmys used to be shaped to make big things.”
“So a lot of them all together, they could become a rather massive shape.”
Corojum nodded. “They must keep airways open, but yes, they can make big assemblies with legs to move them and arms on the sides.”
Questioner turned to Ellin. “That would explain the lack of grace, would it not?”
She turned back to Corojum. “And Joggiwagga. Do they get very large?”
“Some Joggiwagga are very large, you would say huge, to do heavy things, like raising up very large stones to mark the rising of the moons.”
“Have we learned anything?” asked Madame in a weary voice.
Questioner replied. “One of our basic problems was how such small creatures, relatively speaking, as the Timmys could be observed in the dance. We have learned they used to be shaped differently and could mass together. We have also learned that the dance, as described by the Timmys, moved repetitively, in a quickening tempo. And, we have learned that the dance was done in the chasm, yonder, where the Quaggima is. All of this is more than we knew before.”
“We have also learned there were no costumes or sets,” said Ellin dispiritedly, “which makes it unlike any dance I was ever involved with. Even minimalist ballet had something by way of setting or lighting.”