"Hm. You seem to be rich girls. You wouldn't be the Paboss's daughters,
would you?"
Janee wouldn't answer, but the other girl did, rather cordially. "Yes,
and my name's Marisujaksin. Are you going to steal us and make smits of
us?"
"They'll never get off this eyestalk," Janee said scornfully.
Alyar motioned Bru higher. The figures around the base grew tiny and
the stalk tapered to only half the girth of a man. It swayed a little,
and they moved around to what would be the upper side if it bent.
Shouts could be heard now from farther forward; undoubtedly the
fighters would arrive soon. Bru looked nervously in that direction.
"What are we going to do--bargain with them?"
"No. Listen carefully. You know about people riding a pincer. We're
going to get one up here, and when it's close enough, jump onto it
and ride it to the ground." Alyar grinned at the protests, put his
spear-point between two scales, and jabbed.
In a minute the eyestalk began to bend ponderously downward. Far below
they could see the pincer-tentacle starting up to meet it.
"Be lively, now!" Alyar warned.
It took a while for the pincer to arrive. They jumped from two
man-lengths, landed on the slanting horny surface, and slid. Alyar,
hanging onto Janee with one arm, managed to get the other around a
small prong. He threw a glance toward Bru and saw that he'd made out
all right too. They waited.
Even though the irritation had stopped, the beast was going through
with the scratching after hauling all that weight to such a height. The
tip of the pincer sawed deliberately at the place Alyar had jabbed, and
then they started down.
The movement was faster than it looked from a distance; still, it was a
long way to the ground. Partway down, the beast saw them and the claw
halted. They crouched while the stalk bent to bring the immense eye
directly over them, but evidently the creature was only wondering what
they were up to now, for after a while the tentacle started down again.
Three man-lengths from the ground they jumped, landed, and bounded away
out of reach.
* * * * *
Men, shouting, were clinging to long hairs, but nobody was climbing the
eyestalk. Perhaps no one wanted to imitate the novel descent. Closer
shouts indicated a group coming down through the fur.
"What now?" Bru asked.
It was a reasonable question. Even if they dared go home, they'd have
to parallel the whole length of this beast and could hardly avoid
interception. Alyar and Bru had discarded their extra clothing, while
the girls were almost bare, so warmth would be an absolute necessity
when night came.
Alyar looked northward toward the volcano. The Warm Ground was supposed
to surround it for some distance; maybe they could reach that before
night. There wasn't much time to ponder. Men were already dropping to
the ground. He picked up Janee and ran for the nearest cover, which was
the Forest. "Come on, we can't stay here!"
Bru didn't have to carry Marisu--she was evidently coming along
regardless, even though she wailed a little--so he was able to keep up.
"We're not going into the Forest, are we?" he panted.
"Just into the edge to get out of sight. Then we'll decide."
They were still a medium shout ahead when they came to the first
colossal uprights; trunks so thick it would take a man many breaths to
run around one; towering so high one tended to forget there were any
tops. In between were smaller plants, some with flowers, that formed a
thicket as dense as fur.
Alyar paused, thinking of the stories he'd heard about the Forest. But
there was no doubt about how real the danger was behind them, so he
held his spear at the ready and plunged into the growth.
Janee opened her mouth to scream, and he hastily muffled it with his
hand. "Do you want to attract every Demon in the Forest?"
Her eyes widened and she quit struggling.