The days flew by swiftly after this. Fine food for the body, fine nourishment for the mind. Lanefenuu pressed her to stay, as did Ukhereb and Akotolp, but Ambalasei was firm. “Pleasures here greatly enjoyed. But my work is not complete. Each day that I grow older is one day less to finish my labors. They must go on. The uruketo is charting water temperatures and will return soon. I must leave on it when it arrives.” She was becoming quite adept at vagueness that suggested lack of knowledge. This was the ninth day and the uruketo would be back in the morning and she would be gone. But it had been a very pleasant stay.

This pleasure was not to last. As the three scientists sat at their ease they became aware of shouts and a great disturbance from the ambesed. Before they could inquire a messenger arrived. Not a fargi, but Muruspe herself, Lanefenuu’s efenselè, gasping for breath.

“Presence required . . . urgency of motion . . . strongest desire.”

The fargi were pushed back to make way for them, until they reached the center of the ambesed and the group around the Eistaa. There was a tall Yilanè there clutching the arms of a smaller one. A thin figure that looked horribly familiar to Ambalasei.

“See this!” Lanefenuu called out. “Look what has been discovered on our beach.”

Ambalasei was paralyzed with shock, speechless for the first time in her life.

It was Far<.

SIXTEEN

“Lack of understanding,” Akotolp signed. “Confusion as to meaning of this presence.”

“Speak, esekasak,” the Eistaa ordered. “Tell all assembled what you have found.”

The tall Yilanè who was esekasak, the birth-beach guardian, shook Far<’s thin body, then pushed her forward so all could see.

“It is my duty to guard the beaches, to guard the males who rest there. I guard and assure the safety of the beaches when the males are in the hanalè. I assure the safety of the elininyil when they emerge from the sea. They are weak and need protection. It is my duty also to look at each elininyil as it emerges from the sea because in the efenburu in the sea it is not as it is in the city . . .” Her speech stopped and she turned to the Eistaa for aid.

“I shall talk of this matter,” Lanefenuu said, “for the esekasak is not permitted to do this. Her duty, in addition to protecting all, is to separate the males from the females when they leave the ocean, to take them at once to the hanalè. It was in the performance of her duty that she found this one she holds leaving the beach.”

Lanefenuu paused because her fury was so great that her body writhed and she could not speak clearly. She fought for control and raised her thumbs and pointed to Far<, then spoke again with great difficulty.

“Found this one . . . leaving the beach . . . with an elininyil. A MALE!”