Return to Eden

would."
    "You must try to think as those you hunt would think. I have talked many times with the scientist whose name is Ambalasei. I understand the parts of her that think as I do, for she wishes to know of all living things. I have brought her specimens, answered her questions. What I cannot understand is why she should have freed the prisoners, aided their escape."
    "That question I cannot answer. It is inconceivable to me that any Yilanè of wisdom would voluntarily aid the Daughters of Death. But I can tell you of Enge, who is their leader. She has impressive intelligence, although greatly misdirected now."
    "If she leads—then where would she lead them?"
    "That is the very important question that must be answered. Answer that and we have found our prey."
    "Would she go to the large island you mentioned now, that we passed yesterday?"
    "Maninlè? I know nothing of it, other than its name, she would know even less…"
    Vaintè broke off in sudden silence, turned and looked back at the froth of wake behind the uruketo, looked beyond it into the distance. Turned back to Fafnepto and signed respect and gratitude.
    "You are indeed a hunter, and you have spoken what is indeed an important thought. We must send for the commander. Because none that I know of have ever visited that island, that does not mean that no one ever will. We must search its coastline. If the uruketo is there it will be found."
    Gunugul agreed at once. The enteesenat that accompanied and fed the uruketo came swimming back at great speed when it made a long, slow turn in the sea. They leapt clear of the water, splashed back down, swam ahead of it until darkness. During the night they drifted with the current, as did their immense charge, and in the morning they followed as it approached the island's sandy shore.
    "Mountains and forest," Vaintè said. "Fresh water and good hunting. This could be a refuge. We must look at all of the shoreline."
    "How long will it take you to circle the island?" Fafnepto asked.
    Gunugul signed lack of knowledge/dependent upon size. "Some days at least."
    "Then I will go ashore, there by that promontory," Fafnepto said. "I have been too long in the ocean, too long from the forest. It is my greatest wish to see the animals of this new side of the earth. I will be at this place when you come back."
    "You will take food?" Gunugul asked.
    "Only my hèsotsan. I will have fresh meat ready for your return."
    The hunter, her weapon held high, slipped into the water and swam easily ashore. The uruketo continued along the coast, Vaintè and the commander on the fin looking closely at the beaches and cliffs as they moved by. It was too much to expect that they would find their prey this easily, this quickly. Nevertheless the hunt had begun. Vaintè no longer felt only a passenger, was now a participant.
    There were bays and natural harbors; they probed each one. When they rounded the island's tip two days later the uruketo had to be forced out of the current that it had been following.
    "It is the warm water," Gunugul said, "flowing up from the south. The creature likes the warmth. Look there, you can see the edge of the stream, the different color. It is like a river in the ocean. That is how we find our way, by following the currents."
    Vaintè was watching the shore, half heard the commander's comments.
    "Are there other islands to the south of this one?" Gunugul asked. "There are none marked on my chart.
    Has that area been explored?"
    "I have no knowledge of any more islands. Certainly I saw none the other times I came this way."
    "Perhaps we should search further to the south as well," Gunugul said, looking out at the empty ocean.
    Vaintè joined her, gazing out at the blue water, the bank of white clouds on the horizon. Further south?
    There might very well be more islands there. For a moment she hesitated, then signed firmness of decision.
    "There is nothing there. Enge, the one who leads them, knows the shores to the north and it is in that direction that they will have fled. But we must circle this island first. If they are not here we will then continue to the north. It is there that we will find those we seek."
    And those whom I seek. Her body was rigid, the thought came unbidden. She was here at Saagakel's behest, to search for Enge and the scientist, Ambalasei, and the uruketo. She and the Eistaa were as one in this search. But Kerrick was out there too, and she would find him. As she hated the Daughters she hated