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masses that chokedBarrierBay . Supplies could not be left closer to the shelf or the pack, witless on
emergence, might ruin everything.
After three days hard travel, a shimmer in the air ahead identified those piled bergs. Rrinn consulted
Cuwarra. Females were supposed to be inferior, but he had learned to rely on her sense of direction. She
pointed him with such accuracy that next morning, when he topped ahill, he looked straight across to his
goal.
The building stood on another height, constructed of stone, a low shape whose sod roof bore a cap of
white. Beyond it, in jagged shapes and fantastic rainbows, reached the bay. Northward wound
theGoldenRiver , frozen and snowed on and frozen again until it was no more than a blue-shadowed
valley among the bluffs. The air was diamond-clear beneath azure heaven.
 Go! shouted Rrinn exuberantly. Not just equipment, but smoked meat lay ahead. He cast himself on
his belly and tobogganed downslope. The pack whooped after. At the bottom they picked themselves up
and ran. The snow crunched, without giving, under their feet.
But when they neared the building, its door opened. Rrinn stopped. Hissing dismay, he waved his
followers back. The fur stood straight on him. An animal
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No, a Merseian.What was a Merseian doing in the cache house? They d been shown around, it had
been explained to them that the stuff kept there must never be disturbed, they d agreed and
Not a Merseian! Too erect. No tail. Face yellowish-brown where it was not covered with hair
Snarling in the rage of territory violation, Rrinn gathered himself and plunged forward at the head of his
warriors.
After dark the sky grew majestic with stars. But it was as if their light froze on the way down and
shattered on the dimly seen ice of Talwin. A vast silence overlay the world; sound itself appeared to have
died of cold. To Flandry, the breath in his nostrils felt liquid.
And this was the threshold of winter!
The Ruadrath were gathered before him in a semicircle ten or twelve deep. He saw them as a shadowy
mass, occasionally a glitter when eyes caught stray luminance from the doorway where he stood. Rrinn,
who confronted him directly, was clearer in his view.
Flandry was not too uncomfortable. The dryness of the air made its chill actually less hard to take than
the higher temperatures of foggy autumn. From the bus he had lifted ample clothing, among divers other
items, and bundled it around himself. Given a glower, the structure where he had taken refuge was cozy.
Warmth radiated over his back.
(However, the glower s energy cells had gotten low in the three weeks that he waited.Likewise had his
food. Not daring to tamper with the natives stockpile, he had gone hunting lots of guns and ammo in
the bus but, ignorant of local game, hadn t bagged much. And what he did get required
supplementation from a dwindling stock of capsules. Nor could he find firewood. If you don t convince
this gentlebeing, he told himself, you re dead.
Rrinn said into a vocalizer from the cache house:  How foresaw you, new skyswimmer, that any among
us would know Eriau? The transponder turned his purring, trilling vocables into Merseian noises; but
since he had never quite mastered a grammar and syntax based on a worldview unlike his own, the
sentences emerged peculiar.
Flandry was used to that kind of situation.  Before leaving the Merseian base, he answered,  I studied
what they had learned about these parts. They had plenty of material on you Ruadrath, among them you
of Wirrda s. Mention was made of your depot and a map showed it. I knew you would arrive in due
course. I knew besides that it was unlikely the gatortails would check here for me, this close to their
camp.  Now you have been in contact with them since first they came more than the Domrath, both
because you are awake more and because they think more highly of you. Your interest in their works
wasoften depicted . (He had recalled that the winter folk used no alphabet, just mnemonic drawings and
carvings.)  It was reasonable that a few would have learned Eriau, in order to discourse of matters which
cannot be treated in any language of the Ruadrath. And in fact it was mentioned that this was true.
 S-s-s-s. Rrinn stroked his jaw. Fangs gleamed under stars and Milky Way. His breath did not smoke
like a human s or Merseian s; to conserve interior heat, his respiratory system was protected by oils, not
moisture, and water left him by excretion only. He shifted the harpoon he had taken from the weapon
racks inside. Sheathed on the belt he had reacquired was a Merseian war knife.  Remains for you to tell
us why you are here alone and in defiance of the word we made with the skyswimmers, he said.
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Flandry considered him. Rrinn was a handsome creature. He wasn t tall, about 150 centimeters, say 65
kilos, but otter-supple. Otterlike too were the shape of body, the mahogany fur,the short arms. The head
was more suggestive of a sea lion s, muzzle pointed, whiskered, and sharp-toothed, ears small and
closeable, brain case bulging backward from a low forehead. The eyes were big and golden, with
nicitating membranes, and there was no nose; breath went under the same opercula that protected the
gills.
No Terran analogy ever holds very true. Those arms terminated in four-digited hands whose nails
resembled claws. The stance was akin to Merseian, forward-leaning, counterbalanced by the long strong
tail. The legs were similarly long andmuscular, their wide-webbed feet serving as fins for swimming,
snowshoes for walking. Speech was melodious but nothing that a man could reproduce without a
vocalizer.
And the consciousness behind those eyes Flandry picked his response with care.
 I knew you would be angered at my invading your cache house, he said.
 I counted on your common sense to spare me when I made no resistance. Well, I did have a blaster
for backup.  And you have seen that I harmed or took nothing. On the contrary, I make you gifts.
Generously supplied by the airbus.  You understand I belong to a different race from the Merseians,
even as you and the Domrath differ. Therefore, should I be bound by their word? No, let us instead seek
a new word between Wirrda s and mine. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]