Part 6 (1/2)

Nillaine interrupted. Wh.e.l.lan never finished what he was about to say. And Kettrick wondered.

After that, the I-C what?9 Next morning, Kettrick thought that perhaps he had heen imagining things. In the soft warm sunlight the village seemed as peaceful as it ever had. The child-sized houses steamed as last night's rain dried out of them. Children as tiny as dolls ran about the green, their little voices piping, sweetly shrill. The grownups woke late after the feast and began without haste to make ready for the trading. It would go on for several days, until all the people from the out-lying villages had had time to come in. There was no hurry.

There was never any hurry here.

The peoples on the other side of Gurra were of different stocks, physically larger and temperamentally more aggres-sive. They were developing a more complex and technologi-cally advanced society, readily a.s.similating ideas brought in by the traders and adapting them to their own uses. Quite a few of them had begun to migrate, anxious to see what wonders lay beyond their own sky.

Wh.e.l.lan's people, on the other hand, were indolent, in-curious, completely self-satisfied. They already had the best of everything and they were happy with it. Mountains and jungle protected them.

They had no enemies. The soil, with a minimum of labor, provided them with ample food, cloth-ing, and building materials. Comfort came to them naturally in the gentle air.

Some articles, such as synthetic fabrics in brilliant colors, jewelry, cosmetics, metal knives and pots, and simple medi-cines, they were glad to get from the traders. Other things like electric generators and farm machinery they looked at with amused disinterest and total incomprehension, so that basically their culture had not been altered by the establish-ment of interstellar trade.

Whether it ever would be depended entirely on them. The League of Cl.u.s.ter Worlds forbade missions of any sort to sell people on anything, and the I-C enforced the ban. The appurtenances of many cultures were displayed for all to see. If people wanted them and were willing to work for them, they were welcome to have them. If they did not, the things were useless to them anyway. All over the Cl.u.s.ter could be seen the rusting remains of water works, power stations, and what have you designed to improve the lot of local populations who could not possibly have cared less and who never bothered with the contraptions, Since those early days, tech-nological advances had been put on a strictly do-it-yourself basis.

Wh.e.l.lan's people had chosen not to do it. Some day, Kettrick supposed, their more energetic neighbors would swamp them under. But that was their lookout, and in the meantime they were blithe as babies playing in the sun.

He decided that what he had thought he had seen last night at the feast was only a sort of fever dream brought on by excitement and too much wine in that hot and busy room.

Then Chai, who had slept beside him on the floor and who had come with him now to stand outside the door of the Tall House, blew a long breath out through her nose and said, ”Not like this place, John-nee.”

Surprised, he asked her why.

She shook her head, peering slit-eyed at the sunny green. ”Smell wrong,” she said, and grunted, indicating that it was not possible to explain to a human why she felt that way.

Then Kettrick remembered again the sly glances and the hushed triumphant laughter, and he remembered Wh.e.l.lan saying, ”Stay here with us, a little while...”

He went back inside and shook Glevan and the two Hlakrans awake.

After that for four days they were busy. Kettrick took care of the trading. The others took care of Grellah, getting her ready for the next jump. All that time a singular ner-vousness stayed with Kettrick.Until she was ready for s.p.a.ce, the planet-bound s.h.i.+p was a trap.

He did not know why he felt this way. Everything went smoothly. The trading was good. The people were as friendly as ever, and Nillaine hung at his elbow like a cheerful sprite, just as she had used to.

Wh.e.l.lan entertained them all royally each night. But he did not repeat to Kettrick his invitation to stay a while. And Kettrick did not refer to it.

One thing became increasingly clear. Seri had not traded with the people. They came out to Grellah with their little carts and baskets stacked high with goods; fine-woven native cloth, carved things of rare wood and great delicacy, the much-prized purple-bronze skins of the big river snakes. They were rich.

Boker said shrewdly, ”Maybe he didn't take his pay in goods.”

”Drugs?” said Kettrick. He knew the little people still made and used their particular narcotic, in some religious rites. They were permitted to, as long as they didn't sell it. ”I wouldn't put it past him. The stuff would be worth a lot now, being so scarce. Only they certainly wouldn't have given it to him for nothing, and there isn't a sign of anything new in the village. You can tell that anyhow by the way they're trading.”

Boker shrugged. ”Wh.e.l.lan did say Seri's prices were too high. Maybe he did just have his trip for nothing.” He scratched his silver mane with a grease-blackened hand and added, ”But I'm d.a.m.ned if I see why he bothered to come at all. Seri, I mean, himself, in person. Not once, but several times. The market's hardly worth it.”

That was on the morning of the fourth day. At noon Boker came to tell him that the refitting job was done.

”Take over the trading,” Kettrick said.

”Where are you going?”

”To ask a couple of questions.” He frowned, feeling a little foolish as he went on. ”I want you to stick close, all of you. We might just want to take off in a hurry.”

”Huh,” said Boker. ”You get it too, eh?”

”Get what?”

”I don't know,” said Boker, ”and that's a fact. But don't trust your little friends too far, Johnny.

They've got some kind of a bee in their bonnets.” He leaned closer. ”Glevan says it's a sign.” He grinned, but his eyes were serious. ”You watch, huh?”

”I'll watch.” Kettrick walked away through the fair-ground cl.u.s.ter of carts and little matting shelters and holiday people under Grellah's rusty bulk. Her cargo hatch was open, the lift mechanism clanking and groaning as loads went in and out. It was such a normal, peaceful scene, and the idea of being afraid of these people was so ridiculous, that he almost laughed.

”Ask a couple of questions, that's all,” he thought. ”And then we'll go.”

Chai roused up from the trade booth's shadow and fol-lowed him.

The avenue of trees glowed in the sunlight like huge fan-tastic torches, white flowers ma.s.sed against the red leaves. The trodden way underfoot was dusty-warm, fragrant with crushed gra.s.ses. It seemed perfectly natural that he should meet Nillaine coming toward him from the village.

”Johnny!” she cried. ”I was just on my way to see you.” She wore a length of peac.o.c.k blue silky stuff, a present from him, draped around her, and there were flowers in her strange bright hair. ”Is the trading finished?”

”Not yet,” he said. ”I wanted time to roam a little. It's a long while since I've been here.”Her amber eyes smiled at him. ”I'll roam with you.” Then she saw Chai, gray and huge in the tree shadows. ”Oh John-ny, send it back, please. It frightens me.”

Kettrick shrugged and spoke to Chai briefly in her own tongue. She turned obediently and went back toward the s.h.i.+p. Nillaine's shoulders lifted in a little shudder of relief.

”Such a great, fierce, sad creature. I cannot laugh when it's around.” She took his hand. ”Where shall we go?”

”Where it pleases you. After I speak with your father.”

”Oh, I'm sorry, Johnny. My father has gone to the Third-Bend Village.” She was referring to one on the third bend of the river, north. ”He will be back before sunset. Speak to him then.”

”Well,” said Kettrick, ”in that case, I have no choice.” But he was irritated, as though Wh.e.l.lan had done this deliber-ately to avoid him. Which was foolish, of course. Wh.e.l.lan could not possibly have known that he would come.

They walked down the avenue of trees and Nillaine held to his hand just as she had used to, and he matched his stride to her little sandaled feet.

The village was quiet in the warm noon. There were smells of cooking. A few children played. The door of the Tall House stood open and there was nothing inside but shad-ow. Kettrick and Nillaine crossed the green. There was a wide dusty lane beyond. It went between meandering rows of the small thatched houses, leading eventually and without haste to a tract of semijungle and then, much farther on, to another village.

The houses seemed to Kettrick to be unusually still this day, as though many of the people were gone, or were sit-ting inside waiting for something. He tried to explain it by saying to himself that they were all out by the s.h.i.+p. Only he knew this was not so. The villagers had already done their trading, and the people around Grellah now were almost all from the more distant places.

Nillaine chattered happily. About Kettrick. About Earth, about Tananaru, about what he did there and what he was going to do.

”What will you do, Johnny?”

”What I've always done. Trade.”

”But suppose they find out. The I-C. Surely you can't trust everyone as you do us, surely someone will tell them you've come back.”

He laughed and did not answer.