Paul said, "No more travel tonight. Wait here for daylight. This is
not the river we wanted, but we know it reaches the sea somehow. Let's
think about that in the morning. And--if you will, Doc--I'd like to
make that my last order. Let Elis be our commander till we reach the
island."
"I!" Elis was shocked. "But Paul.... I am a big baby, I wonder and
wonder and never find the answer to anything."
Wright laughed; it sounded like laughter. At any rate when his voice
found words it was warm, relieved, more like his own than it had been
at any time since the drums sounded on Lake Argo. "That doesn't
matter, Elis. Paul has done all anyone could, done it well, and
leadership's a wearing thing. But you can carry it."
Paul wished he could see the black face in the dark; he might learn
from it, he thought, so far as a Charin was capable of learning. Elis
said dazedly, "If you all wish it--"
"I wish it," said Abro Brodaa.
"Yes," Mijok said. "Let's not trouble to vote. We know you, Elis."
"I'll do my best...."
Most of the pygmies collapsed in sleep. The bites the giants had
received were not numerous enough to be a danger, but both were in
some pain, and wakeful; Abara also said he would prefer to watch out
the night and not sleep. Paul stretched on the damp grass, aware of
Nisana, sitting near him. He tried to make a mental refuge of Dorothy
and the island; for a time it was possible, but twice, as he thought
he was drifting into true healing sleep, the present pulled at him and
the thought was not of Dorothy, but of Pakriaa, throwing up her arm
across her eyes as if Wright's words had been a deeper wound than any
she had received in these days of calamity and defeat.
He woke while it was still night. The red moon had risen, changing the
river to deep purple; the stampede was all ended, and stillness was
everywhere, underlying the low voices of Wright and Elis. He saw the
small silhouette of Nisana beside him; he could make out none of the
others, but he heard the soft breathing of the olifants, and at least
some of them must have gone to the jungle and returned, for there was
a steady munching of coarse leaves. He thought: _Sears' pets--one of
his ten thousand gifts we can never live long enough to assess. His
laughter was another...._
Wright was talking placidly: "We suppose it must have been a similar
story on this planet, Elis. The major patterns are the same. The small
and simple forms must have grown to greater complexity through their
millions of years, undoubtedly in the seas, the good saline medium for
our kind. Then other millions of years, while the first creatures to
try the land were clumsy amphibians, still needing the sea but
developing ways to carry it with them, venture a little further.
There's no hurry in history."
"And before the beginning of life?"
"Difficult, Elis. We think (there are other theories) that each star
with planets was once two--a binary, our astronomers called it--"
Someone thin and small came near to Paul, speaking delicately, in an
extremity of pain, and not to him. "Nisana," Pakriaa said. "Nisana--"