Return to Eden

suggested lack of knowledge. This was the ninth day and the uruketo would be back in the morning and she would be gone. But it had been a very pleasant stay.
    This pleasure was not to last. As the three scientists sat at their ease they became aware of shouts and a great disturbance from the ambesed. Before they could inquire a messenger arrived. Not a fargi, but Muruspe herself, Lanefenuu's efensele, gasping for breath.
    "Presence required… urgency of motion… strongest desire."
    The fargi were pushed back to make way for them, until they reached the center of the ambesed and the group around the Eistaa. There was a tall Yilanè there clutching the arms of a smaller one. A thin figure that looked horribly familiar to Ambalasei.
    "See this!" Lanefenuu called out. "Look what has been discovered on our beach."
    Ambalasei was paralyzed with shock, speechless for the first time in her life.
    It was Far<.
    CHAPTER SIXTEEN
    "Lack of understanding," Akotolp signed. "Confusion as to meaning of this presence."
    "Speak, esekasak," the Eistaa ordered. "Tell all assembled what you have found."
    The tall Yilanè who was esekasak, the birth-beach guardian, shook Far<'s thin body, then pushed her forward so all could see.
    "It is my duty to guard the beaches, to guard the males who rest there. I guard and assure the safety of the beaches when the males are in the hanalè. I assure the safety of the elininyil when they emerge from the sea. They are weak and need protection. It is my duty also to look at each elininyil as it emerges from the sea because in the efenburu in the sea it is not as it is in the city…" Her speech stopped and she turned to the Eistaa for aid.
    "I shall talk of this matter," Lanefenuu said, "for the esekasak is not permitted to do this. Her duty, in addition to protecting all, is to separate the males from the females when they leave the ocean, to take them at once to the hanalè. It was in the performance of her duty that she found this one she holds leaving the beach.
    Lanefenuu paused because her fury was so great that her body writhed and she could not speak clearly.
    She fought for control and raised her thumbs and pointed to Far<, then spoke again with great difficulty.
    "Found this one… leaving the beach… with an elininyil. A MALE!"
    It was an unheard-of crime, an inconceivable crime. The order and organization of the city did not, could not permit this to happen. Males were confined to the hanalè and rarely seen; were never seen unguarded.
    What had happened? What could possibly have happened? Most of the spectators were so rigid with shock that Ambalasei's stunned silence drew no attention. It was Akotolp, ever the scientist, who stepped forward with signed queries.
    "Where is the male?"
    "Now, in the hanalè."
    "Did it say anything?"
    "It is yiliebe."
    "Has this one spoken?"
    "No."
    Akotolp pushed her face close to Far<'s, shouted her command.
    "I do not know you—tell me your name!"
    Far< signed negative, then gasped with pain as the big guardian closed hard thumbs on her thin arms.
    Akotolp looked to the circle of Yilanè. "Does anyone recognize her? Who here knows her name?"
    There was only silence, and it was Lanefenuu who spoke next.
    "Her name—unknown. Then she is not of this city and is a stranger. Where are you from, stranger?
    Someone must know you if you came with us from Ikhalmenets."
    Far<'s limbs moved as she listened and, with no intention of speaking, she still signed not Ikhalmenets.
    There was no way for her to avoid the truth for, like all Yilanè, she lacked the ability to lie. What she thought, she said, and it was clear for all to understand. Lanefenuu was relentless.
    "You attempt to hide who you are and where you are from. But you cannot. You cannot hide from me. I will name a city and you will answer. I will ask you until you tell me. I will find out."
    Far< looked about, writhing now with panic, not wanting to speak but knowing that she would be forced to. Her glance fell on Ambalasei's rigid body for a moment, hesitated, moved on. Understood.
    For an instant, unnoticed by any of the others who had eyes only for the questioning Akotolp and the prisoner, Ambalasei had spoken. A single, simple nonverbal expression. Far< understood. She writhed in understanding and hatred, so strong that the Eistaa recoiled.
    Death, Ambalasei had said. Death.
    Far< knew that she would eventually have to convey information. And in doing so she would reveal the existence of the city