"No," he said. "We're staying here."
"But why?"
"We came to seek a home here. If we walk we will die. I would rather
die here. How much time have we?"
Together they measured the sun. "A few minutes," she said, her voice
flat and dull. She held close to him.
He looked at her. Lyte, he thought. Tomorrow I would have been a man.
My body would have been strong and full and there would have been time
with you, a kissing and a touching. Damn, but what kind of life is this
where every last instant is drenched with fear and alert with death? Am
I to be denied even some bit of real life?
The black rocks of the cliff were paling into deep purples and browns
as the sun began to flood the world.
What a fool he was! He should have stayed and worked with Dienc, and
thought and dreamed, and at least one time cupped Lyte's mouth with his
own.
With the sinews of his neck standing out defiantly he bellowed upward
at the cliff holes.
"Send me down one man to do battle!"
Silence. His voice echoed from the cliff. The air was warm.
"It's no use," said Lyte, "They'll pay no attention."
He shouted again. "Hear me!" He stood with his weight on his good foot,
his injured left leg throbbing and pulsating with pain. He shook a
fist. "Send down a warrior who is no coward! I will not turn and run
home! I have come to fight a fair fight! Send a man who will fight for
the right to his cave! Him I will surely kill!"
More silence. A wave of heat passed over the land, receded.
"Oh, surely," mocked Sim, hands on naked hips, head back, mouth wide,
"surely there's one among you not afraid to fight a cripple!" Silence.
"No?" Silence.
"Then I have miscalculated you. I'm wrong. I'll stand here, then, until
the sun shucks the flesh off my bone in black scraps, and call you the
filthy names you deserve."
He got an answer.
"I do not like being called names," replied a man's voice.
Sim leaned forward, forgetting his crippled foot.
A huge man appeared in a cave mouth on the third level.
"Come down," urged Sim. "Come down, fat one, and kill me."
The man scowled seriously at his opponent a moment, then lumbered
slowly down the path, his hands empty of any weapons. Immediately every
cave above clustered with heads. An audience for this drama.