by Grass(Lit)
Brother Mainoa sighed and rubbed his head. "I think you're right, Marjorie. Let's see, what have I picked up in the last few hours? There's been another message from Semling." He took out the tell-me and put it at the center of their space, tapping it with one hand.
"On the theory that things written immediately before the tragedy might be of most use to us, Semling put a high priority on translating a handwritten book I found in one of the houses some time ago. They've translated about eighty percent of it. It seems to be a diary. It gives an account of the author trying to teach a Hippae to write. The Hippae became frustrated and furious and killed two Arbai who were nearby. When the Hippae calmed down, the author remonstrated with it. He or she explained that killing intelligent beings was wrong, that the dead Arbai were mourned by their friends, and that the Hippae must never do it again."
Marjorie breathed. "Poor, naive, well-meaning fool."
"Do you mean that this Arbai person, this diarist, simply told the Hippae not to do it again?" Father James was incredulous. "Did he think the Hippae would care?"
Mainoa nodded sadly, rubbing at his shoulder and arm as though they hurt him.
Marjorie said, "When He... when the foxen think of the Arbai, they always put light around them, as we might picture angels."
Brother Mainoa wondered how the golden angels high on Sanctity's towers would look with Arbai fangs and scales. "Not as though they were holy, though, do you think, Marjorie? More as though they were untouchable."
Marjorie nodded. Yes. The vision had that feeling to it. Untouchable Arbai. Set upon pedestals. Unreachable.
"The Arbai could believe no evil of the Hippae?" Father James could not believe what he was hearing.
Mainoa nodded. "It wasn't that they couldn't believe evil of the Hippae. They couldn't believe in it, period. They seem to have had no concept of evil. There is no word for evil in the material I've received from Semling. There are words for mistakes, or things done inadvertently. There are words for accidents and pain and death, but no word for evil. The Arbai word for intelligent creatures has a root curve which means, according to the computers, 'avoiding error.' Since the Arbai considered the Hippae to be intelligent-after all, they'd taught them to write-they thought all they had to do was point out the error and the Hippae would avoid it."
"Of course it wasn't an error," Marjorie said. "The Hippae enjoyed the killing."
Father James demurred. "I have a hard time believing in that kind of mind...."
Brother Mainoa sighed. "She's right, Father. They've translated the word the Hippae trampled into the cavern. It's an Arbai word, or rather a combination of three or more Arbai words. One of them means death, and one means outsiders or strangers, and one means joy. Semling gives a high probability to translating it as joy-to-kill-strangers."
"They think they have a right to kill everything but themselves?"
Father James shook his head.
Marjorie laughed bitterly. "Oh, Father, is that so unusual? Look at our own poor homeworld. Didn't man think he had a right to kill everything but himself? Didn't he have fun doing it? Where are the great whales? Where are the elephants? Where are the bright birds who once lived in our own swamp-forests?"
Brother Mainoa said, "Well, they couldn't kill the ones who lived here in the tree city. The Hippae can't swim, they can't climb, so they couldn't kill the Arbai who were here."
"It must have been too late for the ones who lived here, nonetheless," Marjorie said, looking at the shadow lovers who had just returned to the bridge and leaned there in the sun, whispering to one another. Shadow lovers, perilously intent upon one another. Not seeing what was to come. "Perhaps they died when winter came. It was too late for all the others, out there on other worlds."
"The ones here in the city must have been immune to the disease," Father James said. "They could have gone underground. Why didn't they? We must be immune, too. All the people on Grass must be immune."
"Oh, yes," Marjorie said. "I'm sure we're immune, so long as we stay on Grass. It stands to reason the Arbai on Grass were immune, also. That's why the Hippae killed them as they did. But it doesn't help to know that! Nothing we've found out helps! Nothing tells us how it started. Nothing tells us how to cure it once it's started. I keep thinking of home. I have a sister back home. Rigo has a mother, a brother, we have nieces and nephews. I have friends!"
"Shhh," he said. "We know one way to cure it, Marjorie. Anyone who comes here-"
"We don't even know that," she contradicted. "Even if we could bring every living human from every populated world to Grass, we don't know whether they'd catch it again after they left. We don't know whether we will get it if we leave. We don't know how it is spread. The foxen know something that will help us, but they won't tell us! It's almost as though they're waiting for something. But what?" She looked up to confront a shadowed mass across the railing. There were eyes, for a moment. Something brushing through her mind. She shook her head angrily. "I have this dreadful feeling of hopelessness. As though it's already too late for all this. As though things have gone past the point of no return." Something had changed irrevocably. Some point had been passed. She was sure of that.
A foxen touched her mind with incorporeal hands. She heard a comforting voice saying, "Hush, dear, hush." She leaned her forehead on a vast shoulder which was nowhere near. The foxen danced in her mind, and she with them.
Abruptly the shoulder was withdrawn. She looked up. The foxen had gone.
In a moment she understood why. She heard human voices ringing over the susurrus of Arbai speech. It was too soon for Tony to be back. They were not voices she recognized.
"Listen," she said, turning to locate the sound. Not far off in the trees someone saw her and young voices yodeled a paean of anticipation.
There was something threatening in that shout. Marjorie and the two old men retreated across the plaza, watching apprehensively as the three forms flung themselves through the trees, dropping upon the platform like apes.
"Brother Flumzee," said Brother Mainoa in a calm, weary voice. "I hadn't expected to see you here."
Brother Flumzee posed on the railing, one knee up, his arms folded loosely about it. "Call me Highbones," he chirruped. "Meet my friends. Steeplehands. Long Bridge. There were two more of us, but Little Bridge and Ropeknots got eaten by Hippae out there." He waved, indicating somewhere else. "Along with Elder Brother Fuasoi and his little friend Shoethai. Not that we're sure of that. We heard a lot of howling, but maybe they escaped."
"Why were you out there at all?" Brother Mainoa asked.
"They sent me for you, Brother." Highbones smiled. "They said you are no longer one of us. You are to be dispensed with."
"But you said Fuasoi was with you! And Shoethai!"
"We didn't expect them to come along. They were kind of, what would you say, last-minute additions. They were going to drop us off and then go somewhere else."
A shadow figure moved among the three climbers. Highbones beat at it, as though it were a swarm of gnats. "What the hell are these things?"
"Only pictures," said Marjorie. "Pictures of the people who once lived here."
Highbones turned his head, surveying the city. "Nice," he said. "A climber's place. Is there enough to eat so somebody could live here?"
"In summer," said Brother Mainoa. "Probably. Fruit. And nuts. There may be edible animals, too."
"Not in winter, hmm? Well, in winter we could go into town, couldn't we. Probably want to go there anyhow. Pick up some women. Bring them back here."
"You mean stay here?" Long Bridge asked. "After we do the thing, you mean stay here?"
"Why not?" Highbones asked. "You think of any better place for climbers than this?"
"I don't like these things." Long Bridge batted at the shadow forms moving before him. "I don't like these monsters all over me."
The two men had been listening and watching, noticing the tense muscles in the climbers' arms and legs, the strained lines of their ne
cks and jaws. Brother Mainoa thought that all this talk meant nothing. The talk was only to make a space of time, to allow them to size up their opposition. And what was their opposition? An old man, a soft man, and a woman.
Brother Mainoa reached out toward the foxen. Nothing. No pictures. No words.
"Are you hungry?" Marjorie asked. "We have some food we can share with you."
"Oh, yes, we're hungry," leered Highbones. "Not for food, though. We brought enough food of our own." He ran his tongue along his lips, staring at her, letting his eyes dwell lasciviously on her. She shivered. "You look young and healthy," Highbones went on. "There was talk back there at the Friary about plague. You don't have plague, do you, pretty thing?"
"I could have," she said, struggling to keep her voice calm. "I suppose. There was plague on Terra when we left."
The two followers turned to Highbones, questions on their lips, but he silenced them with a gesture. "It's naughty to tell lies. If you got it there, you'd be dead by now. That's what everybody says."
"Sometimes it takes years to manifest itself," said Father James, "but the person still has it."
"What're you?" Highbones said with a laugh. "Dressed up like that? Some kind of servant? Mind your manners, servant. Nobody was talking to you."
"If Fuasoi sent you after me," Mainoa said thoughtfully, "he could have had only one reason. If he didn't want knowledge about the cause of the plague disseminated, then he must have been a Moldy."
Marjorie caught her breath. A Moldy here? Already? Had they been too late!
Highbones ignored the interchange. He put both feet onto the deck, stood up easily, stretching. "You boys ready?" he asked. "Each of you take one of the geezers. I get the woman first-"
"Highbones." The voice called from above them, from the sun spangle among the high branches. "Highbones the coward. High-bones the liar. Will he climb?"
Marjorie felt the breath go out of her. Rillibee. But only Rillibee. No other voices.
Highbones had turned, neck craning as he searched the high dazzle. "Lourai!" he shouted. "Where are you, you peeper!"
"Here," the voice called from above. "Where Highbones can't climb. Where Highbones can't reach."
"Keep them quiet," Highbones snarled, gesturing toward Marjorie and the old men. "Until I get back." He leapt upon the railing and outward, into the trees "Wait for me, peeper. I'm coming to get you."
Marjorie's pack was just inside the door There was a knife in it. She turned, moving toward it. Steeplehands dashed forward, intercepted her, and knocked her away from the door. She stumbled, reaching out a hand to catch herself. The low railing caught her at the back of her knees, and she went over, falling, seeing the sun-spangled foliage spin around her and hearing her own voice soaring until she suddenly didn't hear anything anymore.
"A very small being to see you, O God," the angelic servitor announced. The servitor looked very much like Father Sandoval except that he had wings. Marjorie paused in the vaulted and gauzy doorway to inspect them. They were not swans wings, which she had expected, but translucent insect wings, like those of a giant dragonfly. Anatomically, they made more sense than bird wings, since they were in addition to, rather than in place of, the upper appendages. The angel glared at her.
"Yes, yes," said God patiently. "Come in."
God stood before a tall window draped in cloud. Outside were the gardens of Opal Hill, stretching away in vista upon vista. After a moment, Marjorie realized the garden was made of stars.
"How do you do," Marjorie heard herself saying. He looked like someone she knew. Smaller than she had thought He would be. Very bony about the face, with huge eyes, though the person she knew, whoever he was, had never worn his hair as long as God wore His, a dark curling about his shoulders, a white mane at his temples. "Welcome, very small being," He said, smiling. Light filled the universe. "Was something bothering you?"
"I can learn to accept that you do not know my name," Marjorie said. "Though it came as a shock-"
"Wait," He said. "I know the true names of everything. What do you mean I do not know your name?"
"I mean you don't know I'm Mariorie."
"Marjorie," he mouthed, as though He found the sound unfamiliar. "True, I did not know you were called Marjorie."
"It seems very harsh. Very cruel. To be a virus."
"I would not have said virus, but you believe it's cruel to be something that will spread?" he asked. "Even if that's what's needed?" She nodded, ashamed.
"You must be having a difficult time. Very small beings do have difficult times. That's what I create them for. If there weren't difficult concepts to pull out of nothing and build into creation. One wouldn't need very small beings. The large parts almost make themselves." He gestured at the universe spinning beneath them. "Elementary chemistry, a little exceptional mathematics, and there it is, working away like a furnace. It's the details that take time to grow, to evolve, to become. The oil in the bearings, so to speak. What are you working on now?"
"I'm not sure," she said.
The angel in the doorway spoke impatiently. "The very small being is working on mercy, Sir. And justice. And guilt."
"Mercy? And justice? Interesting concepts. Almost worthy of direct creation rather than letting them evolve. I wouldn't waste my time on guilt. Still, I have confidence you'll all work your way through the permutations to the proper ends...."
"I don't have much confidence," she said. "A lot of what I've been taught isn't making sense."
"That's the nature of teaching. Something happens, and intelligence first apprehends it, then makes up a rule about it, then tries to pass the rule along. Very small beings invariably operate in that way. However, by the time the information is passed on, new things are happening that the old rule doesn't fit. Eventually intelligence learns to stop making rules and understand the flow."
"I was told that the eternal verities-"
"Like what?" God laughed. "If there were any, I should know! I have created a universe based on change, and a very small being speaks to me of eternal verities!"
"I didn't mean to offend. It's just, if there are no verities, how do we know what's true?"
"You don't offend. I don't create things that are offensive to me. As for truth, what's true is what's written. Every created thing bears my intention written in it. Rocks. Stars. Very small beings. Everything only runs one way naturally, the way I meant it to. The trouble is that very small beings write books that contradict the rocks, then say I wrote the books and the rocks are lies." He laughed. The universe trembled. "They invent rules of behavior that even angels can't obey, and they say I thought them up. Pride of authorship." He chuckled.
"They say, 'Oh, these words are eternal, so God must have written them.'"
"Your Awesomeness," said the angel from the door. "Your meeting to review the Arbai failure-"
"Ah, tsk," said God. "Now there's an example. I failed completely with that one. Tried something new, but they were too good to do any good, you know?"
"I've been told that's what you want," she said. "For us to be good!"
He patted her on the shoulder. "Too good is good for nothing. A chisel has to have an edge, my dear. Otherwise it simply stirs things around without ever cutting through to causes and realities...."
"Your Awesomeness," the angel said again, testily. "Very small being, you're keeping God from his work."
"Remember," said God, "While it is true I did not know that you believe your name is Marjorie, I do know who you really are...."
"Marjorie," the angel said.
"My God, Marjorie!" The hand on her shoulder shook her even more impatiently.
"Father James," she moaned, unsurprised. She was lying on her back, staring up at the sun-smeared foliage above her.
"I thought he'd killed you."
"He talked to me. He told me-"
"I thought that damned climber had killed you!"
She sat up. Her head hurt. She felt a sense of wrongness, of removal.<
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"You must have hit your head."
She remembered the confrontation on the platform, the railing. "Did that young man hit me?"
"He knocked you over the railing. You fell."
"Where is he? Where are they?"
"One of the foxen has them backed into an Arbai house. He came down out of the trees just as you fell, snarling like a thunderstorm. He's right out there in the open, but I still can't see him. Two of the others came with him. They carried me down to you."
She struggled to her feet, using a bulky root to pull herself up, staring in disbelief at the platform high above. "Falling all that way should have killed me."
