"No, I promise I didn't!" Awb cried, recoiling in alarm. "And if I had, surely the damage would show on one edge or one corner?"
"Ah ... Yes, of course it would. I'm sorry." Thilling clattered her mandibles in confusion. "This makes no sense at all, you know. It's as though some trace of light—very bright light—got through the pack-wrap, and..."
"A fault in the making," Awb offered.
"I suppose so." All of a sudden she sounded weary. "But I never had trouble with my supplier before. I've been trying not to arrive at that conclusion, because if all the leaf-packs I have with me are faulty, I might as well not have come."
Startled to find himself in the unprecedented situation of having to reassure an adult, Awb said, "Please, you're making too much of this. As far as I could tell, those images were fine until you pointed out the flaws. Nobody is likely to notice what worries you so much, except maybe another picturist."
"I suppose you're right," Thilling sighed. "Let's go and eat something. I've had enough for one bright, or even two."
Because the scientists were still arguing, Axwep had suggested that Lesh and her senior colleagues, along with Eupril and some of her companions, should eat this evening on Voosla, where the food was better than on shore. However, although she made it clear that she could not repeat the invitation regularly, because any floating city was in a delicate balance with its inhabitants and the best efforts of the giqs could never gather as much nourishment as she collected for herself in open water, there were some who instantly accused the mayor of wasting public resources. Wasn't it bad enough to have brought these scores of passengers all this way?—that was their cry, and they took no account of the fact that Voosla had been specially replanted with new high-yielding secondary growths developed at the University of Chisp, which would continue paying her back long after the return voyage.
Prominent among those who complained, of course, was Phrallet. Axwep had finally lost patience with her, and ordered that she be forbidden access to the prime food zone. Tagging along behind Thilling, Awb managed to steal in and join the company, hoping desperately as he nibbled a bit here and a bit there that his budder would not get to hear.
Finding herself next to one of Eupril's fellow quarry-workers, whom she had seen earlier but not spoken with, Thilling said, "What's all this about a poison, then? Why can't it be a disease? Name of Thilling, by the way."
"Name of Hy," said the other. "Well, it's because of the way it acts in living tissue, of course. Ever hear of a disease organism that simply killed the cells around it, without spreading, or reseeding itself at a distant site? Oh, we've carried out all the tests we're equipped for, and we even managed to get our claws on the corpses of some of the natives. They don't seem to care about their dead, just leave 'em to rot. And in every single case we've found necrotic tissue, either in the digestive tract or quite often in the nerve-pith, and if you take the dead center—excuse me!—and triturate it and apply microscopic drops to a suitable test medium, like the partly flayed rind of a cutinate ... Well, what would you expect to see?"
Thilling frowned with her entire mantle "A whole series of infection-sites, obviously."
"That's exactly what we thought. Wrong. One and only ever one new patch of necrosis. The rest is unaffected."
Chomping solemnly, Thilling pondered that awhile. At last she heaved a sigh.
"It doesn't sound any more like a poison than a disease, in that case, does it? Still, it's not my specialty, so I have to take your word. But I always thought poisons worked by spreading throughout the system."
Awb was glad to hear her say that; it meant his own main question was likely to be answered.
"So they do, for the most part. I've been dealing with poisons much of my life, because you never know, when you feed new ore to a concentration-culture, whether it's going to survive on it. But I never saw the like before: a poison so lethal that a particle too small to see with a microscope can kill cells over and over. It doesn't dissolve, it doesn't disperse, it just sits there and kills cells!"
"Thilling!"
They all turned, to find Drotninch approaching.
"You are coming with us to check out this hot stream tomorrow, aren't you? Yes? Good! We're going to leave at first bright. Lesh is working out how many mounts can be spared. Will you need a whole one for your equipment?"
With a wry twist of her mantle Thilling answered, "Not a whole one. I have a volunteer helper now."
V
Slowly the expedition wound its way up the narrow trail cut to facilitate laying of the cutinate pipeline. It had remained alarmingly clear of overgrowth, though Lesh said it had not been recut this spring. It was as though the surrounding plants, both Gveestian and natural, had bowed away from it.
The air was comfortably calm, and since the morning of the city's arrival there had been scarcely a cloud in the sky, let alone the threat of a storm. Nonetheless Thilling's weather-sense was reacting queasily. She did her best to convince herself it was because of her unpremeditated decision to accept Awb as an apprentice. Taking on someone from so utterly different a background, and with such an awful budder to hint at how he might turn out in the long term ... Had it been wise?
Just to complicate matters, Phrallet was a member of the party. Whether out of misplaced ambition, because she fancied she might make a better impression on this trip than usually at home on Voosla, or out of jealousy of Awb, or simply out of bad temper because of what Axwep had said to her last dark, she had insisted on coming along. Drotninch, who had gotten to know her slightly during the voyage, was no more in favor than was Thilling; however, Axwep was glad of the chance to be rid of her for a while, and she possessed sufficient charm as regarded strangers for Lesh to say with a shrug, "Why not? We can always do with an extra set of claws, and a volunteer is better than a draftee."
Thilling's view was that she was apt to be more of a nuisance than a help. And she was equally dubious about Awb. She still could not quite rid herself of the suspicion that her images might have been spoiled by his carelessness. Moreover she was moderately certain that his ambition to spend his future in light-tight bowers reeking of chemicals was due less to a genuine interest in the work than to the fact that if he became Voosla's first official picturist he would always have an excuse to shut himself away from his budder.
Still, there was little point in speculating. Determinedly she forced her attention back to the country they were traversing, only to find that the view made her more worried than ever.
From the canal which carried waste and usable rock to the new harbor, irrigation ditches had been ichored off for the crops that fed the workforce. So much was normal; so much was sensible economy.
Yet the point in time at which the crops began to fail coincided with the failure of the nervograp links to the outside world, and in turn followed the first use of water from beyond the watershed. How was it that supposedly rational people could have overlooked the connection? They definitely had! Even in the light of what Eupril and Hy reported, Lesh was still obstinately hoping to find that the water-supply had nothing to do with the—the blight, the poison, whatever it might ultimately prove to be.
Now, fixing images of the true extent of the devastation in the morning shadow of Fangsharp Peak, Thilling started to wonder whether those who had been living here for two or three years might not already be affected, already be on the way to matching the miserable mindless natives.
Then she noticed something else even more alarming as the mounts wound in single file up and over the ridge. During the first part of the bright, the beasts had too much sense to browse off the nearby foliage, sere and discolored as it was. About noon, however, when presumably they were starting to thirst, the one carrying among other loads her own equipment did begin to help itself now and again from the nearest branches. But the leaves were wilting, and the rind of the cutinates whose line they were following was patched with suppurating black.
She glanced at Awb, laboring alo
ng behind her under the burden of her spare image-fixer and a spare lens-plant, and realized that he too appeared uneasy. But neither Lesh nor Drotninch seemed concerned. Why not?
Well, perhaps she was worrying overmuch. She strove to make herself believe so.
Night fell late in these latitudes, and was short. They crossed the watershed before they lacked enough light to wait for tomorrow's dawn. The chance to rest was welcome; they all needed to accumulate pressure for the next stage of the journey. But Thilling was dismayed anew when she realized that Lesh, who had been responsible for organizing the expedition, expected everybody, and the mounts too, to subsist off the local plants because, as she said, "it would only be for a day or two." This was enough to startle even Drotninch and Byra, and a furious argument broke out in which—predictably—Phrallet was prominent.
True, there were plenty of edible secondary growths of the kind which that far-sighted genius Gveest had modified to provide for the folk during their traumatic population explosion. Possibly, as Lesh was now claiming, the planners of the observatory project had seeded them deliberately to furnish an emergency resource for the workers. More likely they had arrived of their own accord; their spawn was designed to drift on the wind and displace natural rivals when it settled. But those which grew close to the path were so unwholesome both in appearance and in odor...
Even though she had no luminants, and as yet only a shred of moon was visible, very close to the horizon, Thilling slipped away to a spot where a few cautious bites convinced her the food was safe, or at least safer. Glancing up on hearing a noise nearby, she was amazed to discover that Awb was here already. Good for him!
But he was tensing as though afraid of being reprimanded, and small wonder, for that was certainly how Phrallet would have reacted. Suddenly full of sympathy for this young'un, Thilling said sharply, "All right, keep your pith from boiling! What made you come this way?"
"I just didn't like the smell of what the mounts were eating," he muttered.
"Nor do I. I think that worn-out old nag they assigned to us is going to rot in her pad-marks before we get where we're going ... By the way!"
"Yes?"
"I'm sorry I accused you of dropping my leaf-packs. I've been watching you all this bright, and I'm satisfied that you've been taking great care of my gear. I'm also convinced that there's something in what Eupril says about poison. When you're through eating, come and set up my dark-bower. I expect all today's images to be faulty."
"Do you want them, then?" Awb countered in confusion.
"What I mostly want is to do Drotninch and Byra in the eye because I have an eye that they don't. If I'd been here with the original expedition that chose the observatory site—! But never mind that. I sense something's bothering you. Out with it!"
"Are you really going to spend all dark developing your—uh— leaves?"
"And why not?"
"Well, I'd have thought..." Awb shifted uncomfortably from pad to pad. "You know—review today into memory, build up pressure for tomorrow..." He subsided, more at a loss than ever.
"Oh, there's plenty of time for that while you're waiting for images to develop—"
It was her turn to break off, gazing at him with astonishment in the faint starshine. "Are you trying to tell me you've never been educated in dark-use?"
"I don't know what you mean!"
"Oh, dear!" Seizing a clump of funqi, she settled beside him. "It's no news to me that cities like Voosla are behind the times, but this is incredible."
"Sorry to appear so ignorant," Awb muttered resentfully.
"Oh, I don't mean to be matronizing, I promise. But ... Look, young'un, I just took it for granted that you must have your own version of dark-use training. I mean, I know the People of the Sea are contemptuous of landlivers who can't move to avoid bad weather or follow the best seasons, and the rest of it, and what's more I know they can turn to in mid-dark and cope with gales and storms, so ... Well, surely we have to exploit all the time at our disposal if we're to meet the challenge of the future, right? You know what I mean by that, at least?"
"Of course!"
"That's a mercy ... Oh, I'm starting to sound like Phrallet, and I'm ashamed. She's anti-male, by the rude way she treats you, and I'm not. I admit I'm sterile, and the fertility treatment won't take in me, but that's neither here nor there. Just makes me wonder about those it took in much too well! But I sense you have a whole branchful of questions, so I'll see if I can answer them without being told what they are."
She filled her mantle for a long speech; he heard the hiss.
"Why shan't I mind if my images are faulty? Because I think the faults may teach us something we never knew before. Why am I appalled that you haven't been trained in proper dark-use? Because I don't hail from where you think I do. You believe I'm from Chisp, don't you?"
"I—ah—I did assume..."
"Eat your assumptions, then. I was budded in the Lugomannic Archipelago."
"Where Gveest discovered the cure for infertility?" Awb burst out, and was instantly horrified at himself, because she had just mentioned her own sterility. But her only reaction was mild amusement.
"More to the point: where someone you never heard of, called Pletrow, realized after she'd finally had the bud of her own which she longed for that in order to cope with the consequences of Gveest's success there had to be a means of exploiting dark-time, instead of squandering it."
Exuding fascination, Awb hunched forward. "I've always resented that myself! I mean, one never really stops thinking, does one? It's just that by dark it always seems so much harder to make action match intention!"
He added self-excusingly, "I envy you the fact that you're going to spend this dark doing something constructive, you see. I don't know how."
For a long while Thilling remained indecisive. Should she broach her most precious secret to this chance-met stranger? Yet the magnitude of the catastrophe that was set fair to overwhelm the great observatory was daunting, and the need for the information it could supply was so urgent. Could she confront the insights she was burdened with entirely alone?
No: she could not. She needed to confide in someone, and none of the scientists from Chisp was right to share her private anxiety. At least Awb had fought back against the handicap of being Phrallet's bud...
She said after a small eternity, "Then I must teach you how to liberate consciousness from concern with digestion. That's the first of the mental exercises Pletrow developed for the Jingfired."
"You mean you…?" Awb's pressure failed him.
"Yes, I do mean!" Already she was half regretting her admission. "But if you so much as hint that you're aware of the fact, I'm bound by oath to leak you. Understood?"
Fervently he echoed, "Understood!"
"Very well, then. Now there's one other thing I ought to ask you. But I'm not going to. If you're the person I think and hope you are, you'll work it out yourself."
"Does it have to do with why Lesh doesn't want to consider any other site for the observatory?"
"Very indirectly I suppose it does. We all hope to bequeath some achievement to the future ... No, that's not what I want you to say. Think it over. In the meantime, what about setting up my dark-bower for me?"
VI
Was Thilling truly one of the legendary Jingfired?
That question haunted Awb as the party wended its way down from the crest of the ridge, still following the line chosen for the cutinates, either side of which the trees were stunted and their secondary growths pale and sickly. The stink of decay in the air was worse than where they had started from because it was older, as though even storms could not disperse it. Its impact was unnerving; one heard fewer voices raised to normal pitch, more murmurs of apprehension and more cries from unseen creatures in the overgrowth.
Along the bottom of the valley, where they were bound, ran a watercourse formed by the confluence of three streams half a day's journey to the east. It was the middle one which remained so warm
during the worst of winter that it could keep the whole river free of ice. Nobody had explored it to the source, but presumably it must rise where there was hot rock of the sort well known on other continents, that created geysers or pools of bubbling-hot mud.
An earth dam had been built to make an artificial lake for the cutinates to draw from. Now and then they could glimpse the sunlight gleaming on its surface, wherever the vegetation had died back sufficiently.
That was disturbingly often.
Byra announced loudly, "This is far worse than what I recall from my first visit! If things had been this bad then I'd have argued strongly against choosing this site."
"I thought the Jingfired didn't make mistakes like that," was Lesh's snappish response. Close enough behind to overhear the exchange, Awb whispered to Thilling:
"Is she one of—?"
"Of course not!"—with contempt. "She's enjoyed giving herself the sort of airs she thinks might suit one of us ever since the first time she was assigned to a foreign survey team. She carries it off well enough to mislead the ignorant, but she's never dared to make the claim outright.
One of the reasons I was sent here was to make sure about that. It's all right, though: it's a bit of harmless vanity, no more."
"What do you think about Eupril's attitude towards the Jingflred?" Awb risked.
Thilling gave a soft chuckle. "The more people who feel that way about us, the better we can achieve our aim."
Confused, Awb said, "But I always thought—"
She cut short his words. "The real Jingfired, young'un, are never who you think they are. You have to know."