Kendy said, "I can be in range to advise you every ten hours and eight minutes, once every two of your days. I want to know more of the people of the Smoke Ring. In particular, I want to know about you and about the Clump civilization. I think you should link with them, perhaps rule them."

Jeffer's one previous experience indicated that Kendy was harmless. For good or ill, he could only talk. Jeffer gathered his courage and said, "Kendy, the tales say that you abandoned us here, long ago. Now I expect you're bored and-"

"I am."

"And you want to talk to someone. You also claim authority 1 won't grant you. Why should I listen?"

"Are you aware that you are being invaded?"

"What?"

The face ofKendy was suddenly replaced by a dizzying view. Jeffer looked into a river of storm, streaming faster as the eye moved inward toward a tiny, brilliant violet pinpoint. Jeffer had seen this once before: the Smoke Ring seen from outside.

Before he could remember to breathe, the view jumped. He was looking at what had been the center of the picture, vastly enlarged.

"Look." Scarlet arrowheads appeared, pointing- "Here, your tree."

"Citizens Tree, from the out tuft? Yeah, and that must be the pond." Both were tiny. Opposite the pond was. . . another tree? And dark cloud clinging to the trunk?

The view jumped again. Through the blur and flicker in the illusion of a window, Jeffer watched a tree on fire. Moving between the two trees were creatures he had never seen before.

"Treefodder! Everybody's on the other side of the trunk. Those bird-things will be on the tree before anyone knows it."

"Look in infrared." The picture changed again, to red blobs on black. Jeffer couldn't tell what he was looking at. The scarlet arrowhead pointed again. "You are seeing heat. This is fire in the intruder tree. Here, these five points are just the temperature of a man."

Jeffer shook his head. "It doesn't mean anything."

The enlarged picture returned . . . and suddenly those tiny "creatures" jumped into perspective. "Winged men!"

"I would have called those enlarged swimming fins rather than wings. Never mind. Have you ever heard tales of winged men?"

"No. There's nothing in the cassettes either. I've got to do something about this. Prikazyvat Voice off." Jeffer made for the airlock without waiting to see the face fade. His citizens wouldn't have a chance against winged warriors!

The sun was at three o'clock: dead east, just above where the Smoke Ring began to take definite shape. Kendy can only talk, sure, but he talks with pictures, and he tells things nobody can know. He'll be in range every other day at this time. Do I want to know that? But Jeffer had other concerns, and the rest of that thought lay curled unfinished in the bottom of his mind.