“There are only so many ways for an animal to attack, for a disease to kill. After each infection a good scientist determines the cause and finds the remedy. Once used, any particular attack on us will never succeed again. The ustuzou burnt our city—so now we grow cities that cannot be burned. The ustuzou attacked us at night in the concealment of darkness. Strong lights now reveal them, our darts and vines kill them.”

Lanefenuu rejected past successes with a gesture of disdain. “It is not a history lesson that I need but a victory.”

“You will have that, Eistaa, for it is inevitable. Attack and flee, bite and run is the bestial ustuzou way. Slow growth, inevitable success is the Yilanè.”

“Too slow!”

“Fast enough with victory inevitable.”

“I see no victories in the deaths of my Yilanè.”

“We learn. It will not happen again.”

“What have you learned? I know only that surrounded by impassable defenses they died, all of them.”

Akotolp signed agreement—but added strength-of-intelligence as well. “Stupid fargi may panic and run and talk of ustuzou of invisibility. That is the talk of ignorance. Science holds no secrets that cannot be unearthed through diligence and application. What an ustuzou can do, I can fathom. I made an examination, then used trained beasts with keen noses to track the ustuzou. I found where they had approached the laager, discovered the route they had used when they left.”

The Eistaa was intrigued and paying close attention, her anger forgotten for the moment. Vaintè knew just what Akotolp was doing and was grateful.

“You found how they came, how they left,” Lanefenuu said. “But how did they attack and kill—did you discover that?”

“Of course, Eistaa, for bestial ustuzou must always fall before Yilanè science. The ustuzou observed that our forces always made laager in the same places. So, before the attacking force arrived, they burrowed like the animals they are into the ground and lay in wait. How simple. They did not come to us—we went to them. During the darkness of night they burst out and killed.”

Lanefenuu was astonished. “They did that? They have that intelligence? So simple—yet so deadly.”

“They have a bestial intelligence that we must never underestimate. Nor will this manner of attack ever succeed again. Our forces will stop at night in different locations. They will have creatures with them to smell out and discover hidden enemy, hidden entrances and burrows.”

Lanefenuu had forgotten her anger as she listened, and Vaintè took advantage of her mood.