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Updated: May 5, 2025
You win, Krafft." He turned off the radio. "Do you mean what you said, about giving up?" Lea asked. Brion realized that she had stopped talking to Ulv some time ago, and had been listening to his conversation with Krafft. He shrugged, trying to put his feeling into words. "We've tried and almost succeeded. But if they won't listen, what can we do?
The Disan followed him with burning eyes, and dropped the hammer as soon as it was obvious the attack had failed. "Why did you bring him here?" he growled at Ulv. "Why didn't you kill him?" "He is here so we can listen to what he says, Gebk. He is the one I told you of, that I found in the desert." "We listen to what he says and then we kill him," Gebk said with a mirthless grin.
Ulv was still crouched against the wall in the outer room. He looked up angrily when Brion came over, but said nothing. "Will you help me again?" Brion asked. "Stay and watch the girl while I go out. I'll be back at noon." Ulv didn't answer. "I am still looking for the way to save Dis," Brion added. "Go I'll watch the girl!" Ulv spat words in impotent fury. "I do not know what to do.
There was no one in sight. Once inside, they crept down towards the lower rooms where the radiation had been detected. Only gradually did they realize that the magter tower was completely empty. "Everyone gone," Ulv grunted, sniffing the air in every room that they passed. "Many magter were here earlier, but they are gone now." "Do they often desert their towers?" Brion asked. "Never.
"There is a light ahead," Ulv whispered, and Brion almost gasped with relief. They moved slowly and silently until they stood, concealed by the darkness, looking out into a domed chamber brightly lit by glowing tubes. "What is it?" Ulv asked, blinking in the painful wash of illumination after the long darkness. Brion had to fight to control his voice, to stop from shouting.
The man had backed in, firing behind him as he came. Ulv had no compunctions about killing, only his darts couldn't penetrate the magter's thick clothing. As the magter turned, Ulv's breath pulsed once and death stung the back of the other man's hand. He collapsed into a crumpled heap.
A tiny dart quivered in the already dead flesh of the creature in the magter's skull. The action had all the symbolism of a broken lance, the declaration of war. "Ulv understands it a lot better than you might think," Lea said. "He knows things about symbiosis and mutualism that would get him a job as a lecturer in any university on Earth. He knows just what the brain-symbiote is and what it does.
The thin roots had been carefully twisted and plaited together until they formed a single swollen root in the center, as thick as a man's arm. From this hung four of the vaedes: Ulv had placed his there before he sat down. The teeth must have instantly sunk in, for it hung unsupported another link in the Disan life cycle.
Ulv was still angry, but he lowered the blowgun a little. "I wish there were no offworlders," he said. "I wish that none of you had ever come. Nothing was wrong until you started coming. The magter were the strongest, and they killed; but they also helped. Now they want to fight a war with your weapons, and for this you are going to kill my world. And you want me to help you!" "Not me yourself!"
Brion stared back at the two Disans and their obvious hatred. "Then why didn't you kill me, Ulv?" he asked. "That first time in the desert, or tonight when you stopped Gebk?" "I could have. But there was something more important. What is the truth? Can we believe as we have always done? Or should we listen to this?" He threw a small sheet of plastic to Brion, no bigger than the palm of his hand.
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