West of Eden

in the abrupt, breathless fashion that all the males used. "There we could sit high up among the leaves and watch everything that happened in the crowded walkways below.
    We were not forever trapped in boredom as we are here, with little to do other than to think of the fate of the beaches. Tell me…"
    "I will. But first send for Alipol. I want to tell him too."
    "I cannot."
    "Why?"
    Esetta* took a perverse pleasure in his answer. "Why can't I? You want to know why I can't? I will tell you why I can't." He hesitated over the answer, flicking his tongue between his teeth to dampen his lips before he spoke.
    "You cannot speak to him because Alipol is dead."
    Kerrick was shocked by this news. Sturdy Alipol, as solid as a treetrunk. It did not seem possible.
    "He was taken ill—an accident?"
    West of Eden - Harry Harrison
    "Worse. He was taken, taken by force. He who has been to the beaches twice before. And they knew, those crude beasts, they knew, he told them, pleaded with them, showed them the lovely things he makes but they just laughed at that. Some of them turned away, but the hideous one with the scars and that rough voice, the one who leads the hunters, she found the protests exciting and seized Alipol and stifled his cries with her ugly body. All day they were there, she made sure, all day, I saw it. Sure of the eggs."
    Kerrick understood that something terrible had happened to his friend, but did not know what. Esetta*
    had forgotten him for the moment, was swaying with his eyes closed. He hummed a dirge-like tone, then began to sing a hoarse song that brimmed with dread.
    Young I go, once to the beach,
    and I return.
    Twice I go, no longer young,
    will I return?
    But not a third, please not a third,
    for few return.
    Not I, not I. For if I go, I know,
    I'll not return.
    Esetta* grew silent then. He had forgotten that Kerrick was to tell him about Inegban*, or perhaps no longer cared to hear about that distant city. He turned, ignoring Kerrick's questions, and shuffled back down the hall. Even though Kerrick called out loudly after that no one else appeared. In the end he let himself out, pulling the door shut so it sealed behind him. What had Esetta* meant? What had killed Alipol on the beach? He could not understand at all. Inlènu* was asleep in the sun, leaning against the wall, and he jerked cruelly on the leash until she blinked vacantly up at him, yawned, and climbed slowly to her feet.
    CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
    The fargi was eager to deliver her message—a message to the Eistaa herself!—but in her eagerness she had moved too fast in the heat of the day. When she reached the ambesed her mouth gaped so wide and she breathed so fast that talking now was impossible. In an agony of indecision she lurched forward into the sun, then fell back into the cool shadows. Was there a waterpool nearby? In her confused state she could not remember. None of the fargi nearby paid any heed to her moving fingers and the play of colors across the palms of her hands. They were selfish, thinking only of themselves, never helping another fargi. She grew angry, ignoring the fact that she would have done exactly the same thing herself in a similar situation. In desperation she looked into nearby corridors and finally found a drinking fruit. She West of Eden - Harry Harrison
    sucked the cool water from it, then squeezed the rest of its contents over her arms and body. Her breathing finally slowed and she hazarded an attempt at speaking.
    "Eistaa… I bring you a message…"
    Rough but understandable. Walking slowly now, keeping to the shadows, she circled the ambesed, pushing her way through the clustered fargi to the empty space before the Eistaa. Once there she stiffened her body into the position of expectant-attention, lowest to the highest.
    It was Vanalpè who noticed her after some time and drew Vaintè's attention to the silent figure.
    "Speak," Vaintè ordered.
    The fargi shivered with apprehension and had to force herself to speak the carefully memorized words.
    "Eistaa, I bring message. Message is from she who feeds the raptor. The bird is returned."
    "Returned!" Vaintè was delighted and the fargi writhed with joy, believing in her simplicity that the pleasure was directed at her. Vaintè summoned another fargi with a quick motion. "Find Stallan. She is to attend me at once." She turned back to the fargi who had brought the message.
    "You. Return to the ones with the bird. Stay with them until the pictures are ready