“The illness has passed, Eistaa. Just the weakness remains. Akotolp, she of endless knowledge, tells me to eat much meat so that flesh will return to my body, and with it my strength.”

“Do as she orders, that is my command as well. Victory marched with us to the north and all of the ustuzou we met we destroyed. Other than the few we made prisoner. It was my wish that you speak with them, seek out information.”

“As the Eistaa commands,” Kerrick said. Though he spoke with humble courtesy he was possessed of sudden excitement: his skin flushed and he trembled. He knew that he loathed the disgusting creatures. Yet he still longed to communicate with them.

“You will speak, but not with those we brought back. They are dead. Build your strength. When the warm sun returns to the north we go there again for an even greater killing.”

Kerrick signed supplication, wondering at his sudden disappointment.

It was enough now to lie in the sun, to put the illness behind him as his strength returned. Many days passed before Akotolp sent for him. The fargi led the way to a part of the city he had never visited before, to a sealed and strangely familiar panel. It opened to reveal a still damp chamber.

“It is a water entrance—just like the one in Inegban*!”

Inlènu* wriggled her thick body in agreement. “Hurts the eyes.”

“Then keep them shut, one of great stupidity.” Then he closed his own eyes quickly as the warm liquid washed over them.

Akotolp turned from her work when they entered, reached out and pinched Kerrick’s flesh between her thumbs.

“Good. You cover your ribs. You must exercise as well. That is the order I pass on to you from the Eistaa. She is most concerned that you will able to go north with the others.”

“I hear and I obey.” Kerrick’s eyes were moving about the strange room as he talked, trying—and failing—to understand what he saw. “Once, in distant Inegban* I was in a place like this.”

“You are wise in your stupidity. One laboratory is the same as another.”

“Tell me what you do here, great one.”

Akotolp smacked her lips and her fat flesh trembled with the strength of her feelings. “You wish me to tell you, creature of endless stupidity! Were you to live ten lifetimes you could not begin to understand. Since Yilanè first came from the sea we have had our science, and since that time it has been growing and maturing. Science is the knowledge of life itself, of seeing inside life, seeing the cells that form all life, seeing inside the cells to the genes, seeing the spiral there that can be cut and moved and changed until we are masters of all life. Have you understood a word that I have said, groveling and crawling one?”