Ahead was the river, a slow-moving and deep stream. The boats were drawn up there and were just being fed by the attendant fargi. Blood trickled from their tiny mouths as the fargi pushed in gobbets of red meat.

“Alligator,” Stallan said. “It is better than wasting it. The boats are so well fed I think they are ready to breed.”

“Then starve them a bit. We need all of them in operating condition now.”

A multitude of trees grew along the riverbanks, rising up in thick profusion. There were gray ones with massive trunks, while close beside them grew high green trees covered with fine needles, as well as even higher red ones with roots arching out in all directions. Between the trees the ground was blanketed with purple and pink flowers, while even more plants grew above them along the branches. Great blooms of many colors. The jungle was bursting with life. Birds cried in its darkness and red-striped snails oozed along the tree trunks.

“It is a rich land,” Vaintè said.

“Entoban* must have been this way at one time,” Stallan said, nostril flaps opened wide as she sniffed the air. “Before the cities spread and covered the land from one ocean to the other.”

“Do you think it was really like that?” Vaintè struggled to understand this new idea. “It is a difficult concept to contain. One always thinks of the cities as having been there since the egg of time.”

“I have talked with Vanalpè about this on more than one occasion. She has explained it to me. What we see here in this new land of Gendasi might very well be what you could have seen in Entoban* at one time very long ago. Before the Yilanè grew the cities.”

“You are right, of course. If we grow our cities there must have been a time when there was but a single city. Which leads to the disconcerting thought that there may have been a time when there were no cities at all. Is such a thing possible?”

“I do not know. You must talk of this to Vanalpè who has mastered such head-disturbing concepts.”

“You are right. I will ask her.” She realized then that the fargi were pressing too close about them, their mouths gaping open as they labored to understand the conversation. Vaintè moved them back with a quick gesture.