“You didn’t haul their ends to the surface and—?” The scholar broke off. “No, I don’t imagine you’d have seen the need if they were still pumping normally. Were they?”
“Oh, they’ve been functioning fine. Though, now that I’ve seen the state they’re in, I’m surprised they haven’t burst at a score of places.”
“So am I … Well, before we disturb anything else we’d better fix some images. Thilling!”
“Just a moment,” the picturist called back. “Awb, can I take a look at that winget?”
He surrendered it gladly. “Do you know if it’s a regular local species?” he demanded. “I don’t recognize it, but then I’ve never been so far north before.”
“I have, and it’s not,” Thilling answered grimly. “It’s deformed. Its body has tried to—well—double, hasn’t it? Byra, I think you should see this right away!”
As she hastened toward the biologist, Phrallet drew close to Awb.
“Do anything to get yourself well in with the folk from Chisp, won’t you? Eat any sort of dirt they throw at you! I did my best to be friendly, but I’m leaked if I’m going to bother anymore. I never met such a rude, bossy bunch.”
Surprised at his own audacity, Awb said, “Maybe they just reflect your own attitude back at you.”
“Why, you—!” Phrallet swelled with renewed anger.
“Awb!” The shout was from Thilling. “Bring those leaves we developed last night, will you?”
“Coming!” Awb responded, mightily flattered.
And Phrallet, luckily, did not dare to follow, but remained seething by herself.
Taking the image-pack, Thilling said, “I was just explaining that I don’t expect any images I fix here to be of the usual quality. You haven’t seen these yet, nor has anyone else, but … Well, look at this one, for example, which was taken right next to the cutinates where there was a leak most probably caused when the top fell off Fangsharp Peak. Notice all those blurs and streaks?”
“It’s as though the poison can attack your image-fixer too!” Awb exclaimed.
Passing the picture around, Thilling said dryly, “I shan’t argue. I reached the same conclusion. I shall of course try fixing more images here, but like I said I don’t expect them to be much good.”
“But how—?” Drotninch began, and interrupted herself. “Now I’m going against my own orders, aren’t I? We’ll wait until we have something to discuss. Lesh, if you’d…”
Briskly she issued orders to each of the party, pointedly ignoring Phrallet until, conquering her annoyance, the latter advanced to ask if she could help too. She was sent to fetch samples of the dead plants from the top of the dam, while Byra set up a microscope to examine them with, and Awb followed Thilling to the best points of vantage for general images, before descending to the lake for close-ups of the bare mud and ruined cutinates.
Very shortly after there was a cry from Phrallet, in her usual bad-tempered tone.
“That was a foul trick to play on me! You did it deliberately, didn’t you?”
The others stared in astonishment as she fled back from the dam without the samples she had been asked to collect.
“What in the world is wrong?” Drotninch demanded.
“It’s hot! The top of the dam is hot! Oh, my poor pads! And the water isn’t just warm, it’s steaming! Look!”
“Why, so it is! But I promise I hadn’t noticed. By dark I would have, but—Well, you didn’t notice either, did you?”
The pressure taken out of her by that awkward fact, Phrallet subsided, grumbling. Regretting his earlier rudeness, for she was bound to seek revenge for it eventually, Awb muttered a word of apology to Thilling and himself hurried to the side of the dam. Cautiously he lowered to minimum height and began to probe the area, reporting in a loud voice.
“There must be water seeping around the end of the dam here—the subsoil is marshy. But it’s definitely warm, and I don’t understand why. All the roots are dead but they’re still meshed together. And the top of the dam…”
He moved on, half a padlong at a time. “Yes, it’s very warm, and very hard, too. Completely dried out, almost as hard as rock.” He rapped it with one claw. “And there’s this funny yellow mud; it’s building up in layers. And—Ow! That is hot!” He recoiled in surprise.