Winter in Eden

some advantage from his capture. He must find out what these Yilanè were doing this far to the north.
    "From one of great stupidity to one of highest intelligence; respectful request for knowledge. What do Yilanè need in this cold place?"
    "Information," Esspelei said, answering without thinking, amazed at the presence of the Yilanè ustuzou.
    "This a place of science where we study the winds, the ocean, the weather. All of this is beyond you of course; I don't know why I bother to explain."
    "Generosity of spirit, from highest to lowest. Do you measure the coldness of the winters, the cold winds that blow ever stronger from the north?"
    Esspelei signed surprise and a shade of respect. "You are no fargi, ustuzou, but can speak with the smallest amount of intelligence. We do study the winters for knowledge is science and science is life.
    This is what we study."
    She gestured toward the grouped instruments, the charts upon the wall, movements of unhappiness behind her speech. Talking more to herself now than to him. "Each year the winters are colder, each winter the ice is further south. Here is dead Soromset and dead Inegban<. Dead cities. And still the cold comes.
    Here Ikhalmenets which will be the next to die when the cold comes its way."
    Ikhalmenets! Kerrick trembled with the force of his emotions, took time to speak so his trembling voice did not betray his eagerness. Ikhalmenets, the city that Erafnais had told him about on that beach, before she died, the city that aided Vaintè, the city that had launched the attack that had retaken Deifoben.
    Ikhalmenets, the enemy.
    "Ikhalmenets? In my stupidity I have never heard of the city of Ikhalmenets."
    "Your stupidity is indeed monumental. Sea-girt Ikhalmenets, a shining island in the ocean. You are not Yilanè if you do not know of the existence of Ikhalmenets."
    As she said this she reached out to make her point, tapping one thumb lightly on the hanging chart.
    Winter in Eden - Harry Harrison
    "So stupid I wonder that I can live," Kerrick agreed. He leaned forward and noted exactly where the thumb had touched. "What generosity of highest to lowest that you even bother to speak with me, much less waste your incredibly valuable time in increasing my knowledge."
    "You speak the truth, Yilanè-ustuzou." The door opened and a fargi entered with a bladder of meat. "We will eat. Then you will respond to my queries."
    Kerrick ate in silence, filled with a fierce and sudden happiness. He had no other questions, there was nothing more that he needed to know. He knew where the enemy Ikhalmenets was located in the vastness of the oceans, in all the width of the world.
    CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
    Kerrick had just finished eating the preserved meat and was wiping the grease from his fingers onto his furs when the door opened again. But this was no wide-eyed fargi; a Yilanè of age and substance entered and looked at him with signs of doubt and suspicion. Esspelei stood in a position of subservience and he copied her at once. The newcomer was heavy of jowl, her thick arms painted with a pattern of whorls even here in this crude place so far from the cities. She was very much in control of the situation.
    Fafnege, still armed with her hèsotsan entered behind her, also signing respect for her rank. Kerrick knew that this one would not be as easy to fool as the others. She examined his face closely with one eye, while at the same time looked him carefully up and down with the other.
    "What is this piece of ustuzou filth? What is it doing here?"
    "Lowest Esspelei to highest Aragunukto," Esspelei writhed humbly, "the hunter found it in the forest. It is yilanè."
    "Is it? Are you?" An imperious order that Kerrick answered with all signs of deference.
    "It is my pleasure to speak and not be dumb like other ustuzou."
    "Tear off those repellent coverings—the beast is difficult to understand."
    Esspelei hurried forward and Kerrick made no protest, stood with humble submission as she cut away his furs with her string knife. He was bleeding from a number of cuts before his clothing lay tumbled on the floor.
    "Pink-ugly, disgusting," Aragunukto said. "And obviously a male. Admit no fargi lest the sight of this one generate unacceptable thoughts. Turn! I knew it, no tail either. I have seen pictures of your kind, safely dead, in far-away sea-girt Ikhalmenets. How did it get here?"
    Winter in Eden - Harry Harrison
    "It fell from an uruketo during a storm, swam ashore," Esspelei said. She said