Winter in Eden

commander, saw her back turned as she supervised the docking, before she spoke again. "Take strength from the knowledge that you have only done as you were ordered. Never did fargi or Yilanè ever err by following orders."
    Vaintè expressed gratitude-for-understanding, then added, "I wish it were that easy, good Akotolp. But I command the forces so must take responsibility for any failures. Come."
    That they were expected was obvious when they reached the ambesed. The Eistaa was there, sitting in her place of honor with her advisers grouped behind her. But the great open space was empty, the sandy floor smoothed and patterned. When they walked across it toward Lanefenuu they left a double row of footprints. Lanefenuu sat upright and immobile as they approached. Only when they had stopped before her and signed loyalty and attention did she turn and fix Vaintè with a cold gaze.
    "There has been failure and death, Vaintè, failure and death."
    Vaintè shaped her limbs into respect to superiority as she spoke. "Death, agreed, Eistaa. Good Yilanè have died. But there has been no failure. The attack continues."
    Lanefenuu angered at once. "You do not call the destruction of an entire force a failure?"
    "I do not. In this world it is eat or be eaten, Eistaa, you of all Yilanè know that. We have been bitten by the ustuzou—but we live on to consume them alive. I told you that they were a dangerous enemy and I never said that there would not be losses."
    "You indeed told me that. But you neglected then to put a number to the Yilanè corpses, to give me a count of the tarakast and uruktop dead. I am very displeased, Vaintè."
    "I bow before your wrath, strong Lanefenuu. Everything that you say is correct. I neglected to give you a number for those who will die. I give it to you now, Eistaa."
    Vaintè threw her arms wide in the gesture of totality, speaking the name of this great city.
    Winter in Eden - Harry Harrison
    "Ikhalmenets will die, all will die, this will be a city of death. You are doomed."
    Lanefenuu's advisers wailed in agony at the terror of her speech, followed her pointing finger to the great mountain, the extinct volcano that soared above the island, seeing but not wanting to see the snow that glistened there.
    "Winter is coming, Eistaa, winter without end. Each winter the snow is lower on the mountain. One day soon it will reach this city and never melt again. All who remain here will die."
    "You speak above yourself," Lanefenuu cried out, jumping to her feet with a gesture of great anger.
    "I speak only the truth, great Lanefenuu, Eistaa of Ikhalmenets, leader of her Yilanè. Death comes.
    Ikhalmenets must go to the land of Gendasi before that disaster happens. I labor only to save this city.
    Like you I sorrow at the death of our sisters and our beasts. But some must fall so that all may live."
    "Why? We have Alpèasak. Your reports tell me that it grows well and soon Ikhalmenets will be able to go to Alpèasak. If that is so—what need for all these deaths?"
    "The need is to destroy the ustuzou. There must be a final solution to their threat. As long as they live they are a danger. You will remember that once they destroyed and occupied Alpèasak. That must never happen again."
    Anger still shaped Lanefenuu's body. Yet she carefully considered what Vaintè had said before she spoke.
    Akotolp took advantage of the momentary silence to step forward.
    "Great Lanefenuu, Eistaa of sea-girt Ikhalmenets, may I speak to you of what has been accomplished, what still remains to be done to bring Ikhalmenets to Entoban*?"
    Lanefenuu grew angry at the interruption, then stilled her feelings as she realized that anger would accomplish nothing this day. Vaintè did not tremble with fear before her as the others did—nor did this fat Yilanè of science. She sat back and signed Akotolp to speak.
    "There are only so many ways for an animal to attack, for a disease to kill. After each infection a good scientist determines the cause and finds the remedy. Once used, any particular attack on us will never succeed again. The ustuzou burnt our city—so now we grow cities that cannot be burned. The ustuzou attacked us at night in the concealment of darkness. Strong lights now reveal them, our darts and vines kill them."
    Lanefenuu rejected past successes with a gesture of disdain. "It is not a history lesson that I need but a victory."
    Winter in Eden - Harry Harrison
    "You will have that, Eistaa, for it is inevitable.